Twenty years after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, another historic moment took place today when South Africa became the first African nation to host the Football World Cup. While people from around the world flock to the country for a month of scintillating football, those at home will be able to get closer to the action and the players than ever before.

With an unprecedented volume of social media outlets and initiatives from Twitter feeds to Facebook fan pages, viral videos to mobile apps and more, this year’s World Cup is fast becoming a social media showcase.

Almost any site that even mentions football has embraced social media efforts from blogs to live streams to mobile apps. Even still, new initiatives are launched daily, such as Foursquare’s partnership with CNN to create two new World Cup badges and more than 100 viewing parties taking place across the globe. Even the Brazilian striker Kaka is connecting with fans via his Twitter account!

With this many tools on offer, there’s no excuse for anyone not to enjoy the greatest sporting tournament on earth.

We’re delighted to announce that we’re now looking after all things ’social media’ for Ohio born Skip ‘Little Axe’ McDonald. He is without doubt one of the most innovative performers of his generation.

Skip made his name as an integral part of the Sugar Hill house band playing on the most influential early rap classics and as part of Adrian Sherwood’s On-U Sound crew he has made some of the most adventurous and praised UK music of the last twenty years.

Skip’s latest project is Call my Name, a cooperation with Daby Touré fromn Mauritania, West Africa. Call my Name is a 6-track mini-album that captures the magic of this unique creative union, that sees songs – some by Toure, others by McDonald – transformed via imaginative, instinctive collaboration.

Crafted in Real World Studio’s state-of-the-art Big Room, Call My Name is a spellbinding record, the superlative result of focused energy, creative license and a famously pressure-free environment.

Social media was once all about developing closer interactions between humans in the virtual space, but a new initiative by the Uganda Wildlife Authority means that now animal-lovers will be able to “befriend” endangered mountain gorillas on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook as part of a fundraising drive.
Each person who links to an individual gorilla must pay a minimum of one dollar to be able to track it and receive updates on its progress. The Uganda Wildlife Authority hopes that money raised from the campaign will help pay for more rangers to protect the gorillas and help fund the purchase of land to secure the animals’ habitat.
Spokeswoman Lilian Nsubuga said Uganda has the largest population of mountain gorillas in the world. There are thought to be only 740 mountain gorillas left and 340 of them live in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park.