Imagine what it would be like if you could play a video game with your friend and the winner got free beer? That's the idea behind The Last Barfighter, a marketing tool from the Big Boss Brewing Company in Raleigh, NC.

Now imagine what it would be like if this was your sampling experience.

Whiskey drinking—bourbon especially—has been steadily increasing in popularity over the last several years. If you're a whiskey distiller, this is a very good thing—or so you would think. But at least one distiller is choosing to water down its product in response to increased difficulty with meeting demand.

In an email sent last weekend to its enthusiasts, Maker's Mar​k explained that it will be reducing the alcohol content of its whisky by 3%.

Dear Maker’s Mark® Ambassador,

Lately we’ve been hearing from many of you that you’ve been having difficulty finding Maker’s Mark in your local stores.  Fact is, demand for our bourbon is exceeding our ability to make it, which means we’re running very low on supply. We never imagined that the entire bourbon category would explode as it has over the past few years, nor that demand for Maker’s Mark would grow even faster.

We wanted you to be the first to know that, after looking at all possible solutions, we’ve worked carefully to reduce the alcohol by volume (ABV) by just 3%. This will enable us to maintain the same taste profile and increase our limited supply so there is enough Maker’s Mark to go around, while we continue to expand the distillery and increase our production capacity.

We have both tasted it extensively, and it’s completely consistent with the taste profile our founder/dad/grandfather, Bill Samuels, Sr., created nearly 60 years ago.  We’ve...

Facebook Studio, the Facebook-authored resource for marketers and page managers, doesn't seem to understand the difference between the most engaging and the most relevant media type. In the example above, Facebook Studio first asks you to copy edit a lengthy status update down to something more snack size. The copy shown is that which Facebook considers to be optimized.

"When Northtown's contemporary art museum was facing an image problem [sic] we challenged the complainers: Do you think you can [sic] a better job yourself? Facebook fan Keri Tsu could and did. Check out the amazing results."

The next task you're given is to pick the best visual element to accompany the post. Your choices are:

• Photograph of people waiting in line outside of the museum
• Photograph of Keri Tsu
• Video interview with Keri Tsu

According to Facebook, the correct answer is the photograph of Keri Tsu because "[p]hotos tend to get 120% more engagement vs. text only; video tends to get 100% more." Facebook would have you believe the correct answer is as simple as picking the visual element with best engagement rate. However, this answer is erroneous if the example is taken at face value; the photograph of Keri Tsu would not, as the status update suggests, communicate "the amazing results."

So Facebook Studio and I are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. In this case, a picture is not worth a thousand words. The goal of the post...

Cover letters suck. They all pretty much sound the same because unfortunately we're all taught to write them the same way. Most cover letters are utterly useless, yet we still cling to them as a matter of formality.

Now imagine doing away with cover letters and replacing them with a couple of screening questions that might actually help you learn something useful or interesting about a potentional candidate. Enter Ziggeo, our topic of discussion today for Tech Tuesday on WSAV.

Ziggeo isn't another online job board; it's your own private virtual screening room. Simply input some basic information and tell Ziggeo what kind of job you'd like to screen. Are you looking for job applicants, a roommate, a caretaker, volunteers?

Decide what questions you want applicants to answer but keep it to 1–3 questions; applicants only have two minutes to record their video responses. You can even request a resume from applicants at the time they record their videos. And since every Ziggeo screening room gets its own individual link, you can use it to enhance your job listings no matter where you host them—your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Craigslist, wherever.

One of the toughest parts of interviewing people is finding a time that is convenient for all the parties involved. If you're an applicant, you can record your video responses at your convenience, even if that's on a weeknight or on...

Last Tuesday, Facebook made a big announcement about a new feature that will be rolling out to all users later this year. The new feature is called Graph Search, and it's our topic of discussion this week for Tech Tuesday on WSAV.

Graph Search will be a way for you to search for information from within your network of Facebook friends. If you are looking for a new restaurant to try or you want ideas for things to see on your next vacation, Graph Search promises to help mine those trusted opinions from the bedrock of your social graph.

You'll be able to ask Graph Search to show you people who like WSAV Coastal Sunrise. You'll be able to ask Graph Search to show you doctors or restaurants that your friends have liked. You'll be able to ask Graph Search to show you all of your friends who have visited Charleston. Then you could look to see if they have photos taken in Charleston to give you ideas for places to see and things to do.

The key to understanding privacy issues related to Graph Search is understanding where the information comes from. Graph Search results come from the things that you and your friends have liked on Facebook and places that you've checked in to or tagged in photos or video. Graph Search can only access things that you have made public or things that you are choosing...