The recent emergence of Pinterest onto the online scene may profoundly change the way brands engage with consumers. The website, which, according to Forbes, is now the third most popular social network behind Twitter, is a user-curated service that allows users to “pin” images they like to create their own boards. Easy-to-use and with a visually pleasing interface that features high-quality photos, Pinterest is becoming more popular each day.

At first glance, Tumblr’s recently announced hiring of Chris Mohney for their newly created position of editor-in-chief doesn’t sound like a stroke of genius. After all, Tumblr is a blogging platform, not a content creator itself. But Tumblr’s reasoning may just bring their community closer together while giving marketers valuable insights into what makes Tumblr users tick.

This year BBDO and Proximity Worldwide have submitted some sizzling ideas that will bring some of the best thought leaders in the digital and content spaces together to cover critical topics designed to make next year’s gathering the best yet. We encourage you to vote as many times as possible for our South by Southwest panel ideas.

In this age of Twitter, we are now hungry for real-time information, an appetite which traditional news media is no longer able to satiate in times of trouble. Social media has stepped into fill that void, providing information and even assistance often before journalists can arrive on the scene.