Trend reports are normally based on what’s been shown on the runway. But the prevalence of a certain color or pattern doesn’t necessarily mean people are interested in it. Fashion will always be an industry for visionaries – creative people who push design ideas the mass market didn’t know they wanted until seeing them. That said, fashion shows and presentations are no longer industry only events. They’re part of the marketing mix to reach customers, and through social media the fan, editor, buyer and shopper can all contribute to the data that exposes where interest is highest.

That’s the idea behind our latest special feature on Fashion Week Trends. We crawled photos associated with nearly 200 shows, more than 5400 individual looks, and let the social media data tell the story. View the Top 25 shows from New York Fashion Week, as well as the Top 50 looks. Individual show rankings are available, with look metrics. The NYFW Runway Intel report combines all of the activity for a complete look at the colors, shapes and designers with the most interest.

Besides being of questionable legality, there are a number of common sense problems here.

For one, while BlackBerry may have been the preferred communication device among protesters, news of and plans for riots largely spread to Twitter and more public channels. Public channels that police could easily monitor to determine where outbreaks of violence might occur next, to better coordinate their efforts. Even on BlackBerry’s network, there’s nothing to suggest that police who may have had BlackBery devices themselves were banned or restricted from accessing more open forum posts, or submitting their own numbers to organizers looking to rally as many people as they could.

The most secure BlackBerry messages – ones with end-to-end encryption are typically not even available to users not on the type of enterprise plan normally used by large companies and government. {Deutsch Welle} So if everyone else is sending messages that can be unencrypted by any other BlackBerry device, would it not make more sense to simply buy the police department a few BlackBerry handsets so that they could monitor chatter on the network?

That’s to say nothing of more open networks like Twitter or Facebook, who are also coming under fire.

So instead of oh, say, putting a few tech savvy officers on the networks to create profiles, and monitor and potentially engage people suspected of plotting criminal activity, you instead shut down their profiles, forcing them to move to secondary accounts which are further under the radar, or onto methods that are more difficult to monitor, like in person conversations.

Then you not only have plots that are more difficult to trace, but less evidence to actually prosecute people with as well.

Brilliant.

Say what you will about their ethics, but maybe we should get News Corp. on this – they seem to be the one London organization who can figure out how to monitor a person and gather information. A group of anonymous UK residents (ex-News of the World?) created Zavilia.com, a site that uses Facebook to get photos of rioters, and has crowd sourced identification of people in the pictures. Once multiple IDs come in on the same person, the name is forwarded to police. Some particularly bold rioters are posting photos of themselves with their loot on social networks, sites where they can sell the merchandise and doing other things online that are easily traceable and identifiable. All this to say that if a random developer with a few spare hours can figure out how to use social media to identify and potentially stop looters, fame seeking criminals with more braggadocio than criminal genius are openly posting photos, surely the entire UK government can figure out how to prevent and prosecute crimes with the help of social media, not in spite of it.

While there is a real need to review the plans for dealing with sudden and unexpected outbursts of criminal activity, Mr. Cameron’s anti-social media strategy is unlikely to have any real effectiveness within it. BBMs don’t cause criminal activity, for all the credit they’ve received, neither Twitter or Facebook caused revolutions. They may facilitate the planning, but for both good and bad, killing a communication method doesn’t kill the spirit behind the messages.

Tweet for tweet, Kevin Rose (right) dominates Ashton Kutcher (left)

Fab.com, which encountered a few bumps when it launched as a gay social network, recently adopted a completely new business model and is now a daily sample sale site for home furnishings. They’ve picked up a few celebrity investors along the way, and recently turned to them to help spread the word about the site by offering a discount to their Twitter followers.

We’ve reported before on the rise of the contractually obligated tweet, and its increasing inclusion in celebrity endorsement deals, but how much are those tweets actually worth? Fab.com asked Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher and tech star (and Digg founder) Kevin Rose to offer their followers a $10 discount, and then they did something really strange: they released the financial results.

While we know that celebrities like Kim Kardashian can command thousands of dollars per tweet, we rarely hear about how much those expensive tweets actually bring in for the companies who buy them. In the case of Fab.com, it turns out that the most famous Twitter users aren’t necessarily providing the best value.

Ashton Kutcher has more than 7 million followers, while Kevin Rose has over 1 million. According to Klout, Kutcher is more influential than Rose with a score of 86 to Rose’s 78; and they put Kutcher’s “true reach” at 3 million to Rose’s 478,000. So, it might not be too surprising to learn that Kutcher’s links generated more signups (5,888) than Rose’s (4,356). {TechCrunch}

Here’s what is surprising: the people who signed up as a result of Rose’s links brought in more than 3x the revenue of those who signed up through Kutcher’s links.

Rose’s followers accounted for $7,121 in sales, while Kutcher’s only brought in $2,183. To make that more stark, each of Rose’s followers who signed up spent approximately $1.63 versus roughly $0.37 from each of the people who signed up as a result of Kutcher’s link. And, it seems Kevin Rose’s followers were more likely to share the link with other people.

Before we write off Kutcher’s followers, it’s worth pointing out that for a different promotion there may have been different results. If the goal were to get people visiting a movie trailer or buying a DVD, it’s quite possible that this is something that would appeal more to Kutcher’s followers than Rose’s.

Since advertisers rarely release this kind of information though, for now we’ll have to say that Hollywood star power can’t top Silicon Valley celebrity online.

After days of denying reports that he tweeted a crotch shot, Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) admitted that he did tweet the photo, though it was intended for a private direct message. Apparently, this wasn’t the first time he’d sent suggestive photos to women – who he often met through social networks like Twitter or Facebook.

We covered Anthony Weiner’s wedding to Huma Abedin, which took place during a particularly celebrity wedding heavy week last July, and in a tearful statement today he apologized to Abedin for his suggestive tweets but maintained that they would weather the current storm and “have no intention” of splitting up over the matter.

Huma Abedin in an issue of Vogue

Abedin is an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who has been profiled in Vogue for her style, and Bill Clinton officiated at her wedding. We’ll let you draw the parallels if you’d like, but it is worth noting that there’s nothing that indicates Weiner’s messages were illegal or that they violated any Congressional rules. Weiner says his Blackberry is not government issued, and all sexting took place on his own time. Nonetheless, an ethics investigation will be conducted, which Weiner says he welcomes.

Regardless of which side of the aisle you’re on, can we suggest some unofficial guidelines for social media usage by those in the public eye? Actually, we’ve only got one: if you wouldn’t want everyone to see it, don’t send it. To anyone. In case the numerous shouts about online privacy haven’t tipped you off, the internet isn’t actually all that secure, and files transmitted through it aren’t either. You never know who’s really on the receiving end or viewing at some point in between.

Lady Gaga at Twitter headquarters

For a girl whose father was worried about her getting a real job, Lady Gaga’s showing dear old dad there’s no cause for concern. Since reportedly going broke for the early portion of her pop star career, Lady Gaga’s taken on the title of Polaroid creative director, unofficial (and unwanted) ice cream muse, and Farmville promoter among other things. Now you can add tech angel investor to the list. Someone’s going to need a bigger business card.

Skipping the trend of celebrity as online startup entrepreneur, Gaga’s will go straight to online startup investor with a stake in a $1 million investment in online startup Backplane. {Dealbook/New York Times} Lady Gaga (née Stefani Germanotta) won’t be investing alone: the $1 million funding round is being led by Google’s Eric Schmidt, though Gaga will reportedly be a 20% shareholder in the company.

Before you decide to stop working on ways to get your demo tape to Lady Gaga, and start getting your business plan in front of her, you should know that Troy Carter, the entrepreneur behind Backplane, is also Lady Gaga’s business manager. In other words, the man with a large amount of responsibility for Lady Gaga’s overwhelming social media success.

Backplane isn’t publicly available yet, but already has a team of seven and has been cooking since last fall. Carter sees it as a platform for musicians and sports teams to build communities that include Twitter, Facebook and other existing networks. Though the intent is for entertainment, we could easily see brands buying into the platform if it’s effective. Tide may not be as sexy as Lady Gaga, but if Backplane can help make campaigns across social websites and different campaigns easier to manage that’s something that will be as attractive to someone selling soap as someone selling singles.

Not to mention, Carter has one pretty great case study on his hands: Lady Gaga beat out Ashton Kutcher and Justin Bieber to become the first person to reach 10 million Twitter followers; the first person to gain 10 million Facebook fans (now 37 million); and her videos continue to set and blow through all kinds of YouTube records. Her recent promotion with Amazon cost the e-tailer millions, but it also brought enough attention to Amazon’s new music service to crash their servers.

At this point, people online like Lady Gaga more than Coca-Cola, long touted as one of the world’s most valuable brands. While Silicon Valley still isn’t sold on Hollywood players (entertainers) bringing significant value to startups, we wouldn’t bet against the guy behind one of the most valuable online brands in modern pop culture, or the possibility that other brands will want in on the action.

An IT consultant in Pakistan (inadvertently) shared the first piece of information about the raid that led to Osama bin Laden’s death on Twitter, and the first person to announce the event did it through a tweet as well. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism though, Twitter “barely registers” as a referral source to top news sites, while Facebook can often be “the second or third most important driver of traffic.”

This is completely anecdotal, but it seems that Twitter gets a lot more mentions in broadcast journalism, so we have to wonder if some part of this is just down to how news organizations use each site. Keith Urbahn, who tweeted “So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama bin Laden. Hot damn.” an hour before President Obama made the announcement, says he got the tip from a news producer. Most mainstream media outlets didn’t announce their speculations on the content of the President’s announcements for a while longer, but at the time Urbahn tweeted, there was nothing to link to.

In fact, a cursory glance at the Twitter accounts for quite a few journalists show brief updates and replies to followers without links to previous coverage.

Given the size of Facebook, it’s not difficult to believe that they’d be able to send a site more traffic than Twitter (all things being equal), but is Twitter really that much of a non-entity? We’d imagine that some portion of people who see headline grabbing tweets head to news websites or a search engine to confirm the information. It might not show up as a direct referral, but there is some impact. If you’ve ever wondered why “(insert living celebrity name here)  is dead” trends on Twitter first, then on Google’s Hot Searches list, there’s your explanation. When it comes to someone dying for real – bin Laden, for example, it’s difficult to believe there isn’t a similar effect that ultimately leads to more traffic for news sites, even though it’s traffic that’s not directly attributable.

Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Foursquare Oh My!

Our technology-infused culture has become over-saturated and overwhelming, don’t you think? It’s not easy sifting through the messages, texts, check ins, emails and tweets that bombard us every minute of every day.

A panel of in-the-know celebrities and industry insiders gathered at the Hearst Art & Culture Hub for Social Media Week in New York City yesterday to discuss the techniques to utilizing today’s social technology in the most productive and beneficial ways possible.

The panel was moderated by Laura Brown, Hearst’s Features/Special Projects Director, who explores the role and growing popularity of social styling and social media in today’s digital world. The panel consisted of celebrity Denise Richards, Popeater.com Entertainment Columnist and Blogger Rob Shuter, indie fashion blogger BryanBoy, Lancome CEO Kerry Diamond and Leandra Medine of Man Repeller.

Almost as soon as it began, the discussion turned to the social media queen herself, Kim Kardashian. Celebrities like Kardashian use social media tools to connect with the public, gain exposure and drive their personal business initiatives. When launching her new fragrance Kardashian used her twitter followers as a focus group when she posted the pictures of two possible bottle choices, asking her thousands of followers, “What do you think?”  Whether or not the one voted best is the one chosen, twitter was a crucial tool for Kardashian in maximizing her influence and allowing her to hear what her fans want first-hand.

Denise Richards noted that it’s important to “have a goal and stay true to yourself” when connecting. Although she maintains everything she types is legitimate and sincere, misleading tweets seeming more contrived than genuine are streaming from the twitter feeds of many celebrities. We recently covered the topic of endorsement deals and contracts regularly stipulating stars to use social networking sites for brand and product-related advertisement. Kim Kardashian denies ever being compensated, but how likely is it that her deal for Reebok Easy Tone sneakers had nothing to do with her tweeting pics of her wearing the shoes at the gym saying “I love my Reebok Easy Tones” and including a link to buy them?

You may not know this, but the FCC does require tweets that are being monetarily compensated to include “AD” at the end of the message to clarify intent, as to not mislead the public. We rarely see this appearing on celeb messages even though law requires it.

Independent fashion blogger BryanBoy had a more grassroots approach to broaden exposure and engage an audience. He says that being himself, documenting his day-to-day life and sharing his love for fashion and style is what first made him famous. However sharing his personal dreams and encouraging others to do the same is what has skyrocketed him into the limelight. So much so that Marc Jacobs designed a handbag after him in his 2008/2009 Fall Collection. His success-achieving advice is to put  forth your true self and it will attract desired results. A big topic of the day was the emergence and acceptance of original bloggers like BryanBoy and Tavi, who are essentially “playing fashion editor” through social sites, offering styling tips, fashion advice and even trend forecasting. Social media sites have served as an unmatched platform for amateurs to build a trusted brand for themselves in the industry.

In essence many of the panel members shared personal experiences that hit on many of the same points. Lancome CEO Kerry Diamond shared her work with Pee-Wee Herman and his new “comeback.” What we already know and love about Pee-Wee is his unpredictability and crazy energy right? They launched a Twitter campaign in New York where the 80’s star would hop around popular locales in Manhattan and tweet his whereabouts to fans on twitter, encouraging all to come see him. It was a hit. People showed up all over the city to see Pee-Wee, even the New York Times stopped by to see what it was all about. Introducing Pee-Wee to Twitter was a cautious, well-orchestrated event that engaged his fans and made his return fun and spontaneous. Knowing Pee-Wee Herman as a brand and using the internet to broadcast is what made the launch so successful.

Whether it be from a business or personal perspective, a strong content strategy or product development strategy are key building a real-time measurement of branding success through social media. Joining such networks requires transparency, accessibility, and a strong self-identity.

We have a few thoughts on this situation. First, the Vogue reps looking to get the pictures taken off the Internet are wasting their time. Gaga has 8 million followers on Twitter who have already seen the cover by now, and no doubt millions of other people around the world got wind of the leak and have searched and found the photos as well. As a reference, in 2010 Lady Gaga made Googleâ€s list of top 10 most searched people in entertainment. {Google Zeitgeist} Thereâ€s just no fighting the power of the Internet to spread news like wild fire – particularly news that involves as huge a pop star as Lady Gaga.

Our second observation is that it was quite unethical for Lady Gaga to leak a cover of such a prestigious magazine, but more importantly, it was genius. Leaks are a fantastic way for celebrities to use social media to their advantage, and what is Vogue honestly going to do about it? Shun Lady Gaga forever? That wonâ€t be much help in keeping Vogue relevant into the future, since a significant challenge for the magazine has been being relatable to the average consumer which is something Gaga, even in all her fashion extravagance and craziness, does very well.

Not to mention that Lady Gaga probably did Vogue a favor. She also leaked via Twitter this week that her new single will be out Friday, February 11^th, a few days earlier than originally planned. Now that fans anxiously waiting the release of Born This Way are aware of Gagaâ€s Vogue cover appearance, many of them may go purchase the magazine as well as the song.

As for the cover itself, Lady Gaga’s bleached out eyebrows, Louise Brooks bob in Gwyneth Paltrow pink and berry-colored lipstick actually remind us (in a good way) of something you might find in a 1910-era magazine, when covers were expressions of illustrators’ creativity. It’s nostalgic, but modern at the same time. We do, however, find it a close second to her 2010 grayed-out Vanity Fair cover in terms of mystique. Which do you prefer?

According to Mashable, a few years apart has only increased the fondness. Just in time for Valentine’s Day – and Ken’s 50th birthday – Mattel has kicked off a large marketing campaign designed to reunite the two.

Visitors to Barbie and Ken can cast a vote on whether the two should get back together, and Ken and Barbie are all over Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook inviting you to get in on the action.

Mattel’s gone all out, creating a special web series on Hulu called “The Search for Genuine Ken,” taking out billboards in New York and LA and doing everything they can to get you involved in Ken’s efforts to woo the world’s most famous doll back to his side. The only thing missing is a (G-rated) Nikki Minaj tie-in.

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that the efforts will be successful.

A reader at Mashable shared this photo of a coupled up Barbie and Ken at Target. Whoops.

Unless there’s a second shelf with Ken hanging out with new buddies Don Draper and Roger Sterling – stiff drink, cigarettes and sad apartment accessories included, for the “She Said No” package, it looks like a few stores may not have gotten the memo on timing.

It’s doubtful that it will cause too much damage though – the campaign is pretty cute, and more original than just releasing a heart covered Barbie. Meaning it’s exactly the kind of thing that will stick with people even if they’re in on the happy ending in advance.

As you may have heard, there’s a bit of an uprising going on in Egypt, where citizens are organizing mass protests and gatherings to express their displeasure with the current government.

In an effort to quell the fire fueled by websites like Twitter and Facebook, the Egyptian government flipped the off switch on the internet for the entire country, as well as disabling SMS. This takes things even further than normal tactics of blocking access to specific sites.

While the internet and mobile services are hobbled, phone lines may still be operational, and various companies have stepped up to offer dial-up internet access so that citizens can continue to use internet services to send news out and communicate with each other to further organize.

Lest you start to wonder why this matters to you, someone reading in the US, consider a bill set to be vote on later this year. Senators Lieberman and Collins introduced the ‘Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act’ (PCNAA) bill, which would allow the US government to shut off access to the internet, and keep it offline indefinitely, without judicial oversight. {BoingBoing}

While it’s difficult for most people to imagine not being able to access the internet, or for businesses to imagine a total shutdown of US online commerce, not too long ago the same things may have been difficult for people in Egypt to imagine.

Keep that 56k modem handy.