How Zap2it uses social TV to create more ad opportunities

In a social TV world where check-ins can be made by anyone, there are still a few handful of publishers that provide TV journalists and experts that review, report and editorialize what’s worth watching and what’s not. Zap2it.com is one of these sites, published by Tribune Media Services, and it describes itself as “what to watch,” and “where to watch it.” Zap2it recently announced that according to comScore their traffic passed rival TVGuide.com, a claim that’s disputed by TVGuide. Through partnerships and integrations with SocialGuide, check-in functionality, Facebook commenting and creating branded opportunities like “Most Social TV Show Now,” Zap2it is paving the way for how online publishers covering entertainment need to embrace social TV to keep up with and curate the right content from the social web.

NY Knicks top the social TV charts for #Linning [Linfographic]

There are multiple levels of hilarity to think that a basketball sensation turned internet meme is the cause of (my favorite team) the New York Knicks triumph back into the positive media spotlight. If you’ve been hibernating and don’t know who Jeremy Lin is, check out The New York Times’ topic page on him and just read through the headlines to understand what an unbelievable journey it has been for both him and the Knicks.

How The Weather Channel is mastering mobile social advertising

When The Weather Channel launched a new version of their iPad app in October, we wrote about how they’re the “largest location-based services company in the world.” The Weather Channel was just honored by “Advertiser Perceptions” for the work they’re doing in the mobile space. Their monthly audience is a whopping 163 million monthly unique visitors…

How social media helped make ‘Downton Abbey’ a hit PBS show

If you haven’t watched Downton Abbey yet, go to Netflix to catch up on season one followed by PBS.com to catch season two. The season finale will air this Sunday. The award-winning British drama created by Julian Fellowes begins the morning the world found out the Titanic sank and centers on the Crawley family and their servants and workers that make up the Downton Abbey estate. The ensemble cast is superb — each actor is so uniquely different and complex that you can’t help love everything about the show…

Zeebox creates click-to-buy feature in social TV app

Zeebox still hasn’t launched in the US, but shortly after the London-based social TV company scored a large round of funding they’re launching clickable TV ads across their platform. Their press release reads, “in a world first, UK users will be able to purchase products advertised on TV through their tablet or smartphone in real time.” Zeebox seems to be one of the only major players in the UK giving them the opportunity to really build a great product in their market and then come to the US with a fine-tuned model and case studies. On the other hand, Shazam, Viggle and the other US social TV startups are working with brands to finally figure out how to make ads useful.

Lost Remote readers get 30% off Hill Holliday’s TVnext event

We recently shared five reasons why it’s worth checking out Hill Holliday’s TVnext event in Boston in two weeks, and now we’re excited to offer Lost Remote readers 30% admission. When purchasing your tickets just use code LostRemote and the discount should kick in. The event is shaping up to have an impressive lineup. The guy behind the PBS documentary that we said you shouldn’t miss will be keynoting the event.

Watch Westminister Kennel Dog Show on USA Network’s Ustream

If for some reason you decided to watch the football game on Superbowl Sunday instead of the the Puppy Bowl, you’re in luck. USA Networks is partnering with Ustream to broadcast the Westminister Kennel Club Dog Show online. “Each day starting at 8:30amET, fans can view up to four different channels showing the live judging of all 185 individual breeds directly from the floor,” according to their release.

The First Lady participates in CNN iReport interview

We recently wrote about CNN iReport’s major upgrade. The social news platform also recently announced that they’ve reached 1,00,000 iReporters around the globe. As the election seasons continues to heat up, we saw President Obama participate in a Google+ Hangout. Now, First Lady Michelle Obama made herself available to answer questions from iReporters.

Grammys producers still refuse to end West Coast time delay

Update: Here’s a Storify of just a few tweets we collected during the Grammys.

The Grammys are back tonight (Sunday), and it may attract one of it’s largest audiences in years: last night’s tragic death of Whitney Houston will play a central part in the event. But just like last year, the event will air live for the East Coast at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern, but still won’t air on the West Coast until three hours later.

Inside story of Puppy Bowl’s big social media splash

Super Bowl Sunday can be enjoyed without ever watching a second of football. Even if you’re not excited to see the New York Giants destroy the New England Patriots for the second time, you can tune into one of America’s favorite events of the year, Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl, who’s recent press release is the funniest I’ve ever read. Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl VIII has reported some extremely impressive numbers on how they leveraged social on a day when everyone assumed all eyeballs were on a football game….