Mashable does it’s annual list of upcoming Social Media & Tech Events. They include over 25 events in their Events section but for the B2B set, consider attending:

• Online Marketing Summit (OMS) – July 12, 2010, Washington, D.C.
• Social Convergence & The Enterprise: Case Studies & Roundtables – July 21, 2010, New York, NY
• SocialTech 2010 – October 26, 2010, San Jose, CA

Perhaps we’ll see you there, be sure to check the Mashable’s post as some events offer up to 20% off on admission if you have their promo code.

Without getting entrenched in the politics of what is undoubtedly one of the worst environmental disasters in US history, the fact that millions of gallons of crude oil is still spewing into the Gulf of Mexico more than a month after the oil rig explosion seems obscenely absurd. People tune in to their news source expecting to hear that the oil leak is at least contained but even now it appears the latest attempt by British Petroleum has failed to have an impact.

It is this absurdity that has given rise to a fake BP Public Relations Twitter account @BPGlobalPR that tweets satirical sentiments like: “Sadly we can no longer certify our oil as Dolphin Safe.”

The account’s owner remains anonymous (for now) though “he” recently had an interview with Brenna Ehrlich of Mashable. At the time of this writing @BPGlobalPR has collected over 84,000 followers since the first tweet on 5/19/10. That’s more than 10 times the followers of BP’s official Twitter account @BP_America which has about 8,100 followers and twice the tweets. It is really no surprise that more people would rather laugh than cry (so to speak). And as every good marketer knows, humor is a powerful memory hook.

Some people may feel that a parody of this kind is in bad taste but apparently BP doesn’t think so given they have not asked Twitter to take down the account (see this AdAge article); a smart move on BP’s part as they have enough to worry about without adding Twitter to the list.

The reason I write this post at all is that both BP and the fake BP make good use of the social network to address their respective audiences. For one it is about damage control and for the other it is about cause awareness (albeit in a droll sort of way not unlike John Stewart).

For the record, sales of the $25 BP Cares T-shirts being promoted on the fake BP Twitter feed actually goes toward the Gulf Restoration Network.

What?
Dell Outlet sold over $3 million worth of computers through Twitter!
Really?
How?
I would love to see the case study on that one.

Okay, here it is.

In fact, Twitter has just launched Twitter 101 for Business showcasing its own case studies for brands like Dell, JetBlue, Levi, Pepsi, and Naked Pizza. These companies have had (and continue to have) huge success leveraging their brands through the SMS-based channel; using social contests, exclusive coupons, or just plain old-fashion PR.

As Twitter evolves so do the ways to use it as an effective marketing channel. Thankfully, Twitter keeps an update of Best Practices. If you are new to Twitter then you might want to check out Mashable’s The Twitter Guide Book.

Last month, Twitter introduced a powerful new feature called Lists which allow users to “curate tweets into meaningful real-time experiences” (as Twitter puts it). For both B2B and B2C the operative word here is meaningful. With Lists (along with other features like Geotagging) Twitter becomes not only a great social media tool but now a great marketing research tool, bringing them another step closer to a business model that can actually be monetize (maybe).

Lists enable the “architects of information” like The New York Times and Huffington Post to better organize the most useful tweets from industry thought leaders. Anyone can create and publish Lists (just by clicking “New List” in the sidebar of your Twitter account) and any List can be followed.

No time to manage your own Lists or scour media sites? Then you might want to try Listorious.

Listorious was created by Sawhorse Media and hosts the best Lists of Twitter users on any given topic… and for list creators to publicize their lists. Check out The Listorious 140 Lists. Not surprising topping this list are Pete Cashmore (Mashable) and Robert Scoble (Scobleizer).