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USC’s Robert Hernandez has emerged as a social media guru, advising journalists and media companies on how to mine and manage this increasingly important audience engagement tool. Companies that ignore Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and other social media outlets face a dim future, he says.

Television advertising, at more than $65 billion annually, may seem impervious to erosion by interactive digital forces, but it’s just a matter of time before widespread consumer adoption translates into sizable shifts in marketer spending. That time is near at hand, according to the experts and the major catalysts are Google and Facebook.

Three TV stations in Milwaukee are not only battling it out in the November ratings, but also for Facebook likes. At last check, WISN has 28,605 likes, WTMJ has 43,660, but WITI comes out on top with a whopping 85,153, ranked No.6 in Lost Remote’s leaderboard of the most popular Facebook pages in local TV. Impressive for the nation’s 34th largest market.

Daytime is Facebook time, not TV time, for most media consumers. Facebook is closing in on being a mass medium — just like TV, according to a study by Frank N. Magid Associates Generational Strategies. More consumers use Facebook during work-day hours, 9 p.m. to 5 p.m,. than watch TV.

TV has been struggling for a way to cash in on the popularity of the social network Facebook for a couple of years now. Warner Bros. may have finally figured out a way. The studio announced yesterday that it is debuting a new series next month about Facebook that will allow users to put their own photos and friends into the show.

Warner claims the new show, Aim High, will be the first “social series” from a Hollywood studio. It will integrate elements of Facebook user pages into the background.

Facebook can track the Web surfing habits of its users even if they’re logged out of the service. And Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) take exception to that. They’ve sent a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission and asked it to determine if Facebook is engaged in an unfair or deceptive trade practice.

Facebook unveiled new features that center on the way users listen to music and watch TV, offering tie-ups with the likes of Spotify and Hulu, as it attempts to make media an integral part of its service.

On a typical day, KSAX Alexandria, Minn., attracts about 10,000 page views. Recently, the station set a record, 250,000 page views in a single day and a million views in four days. The secret weapon: a photograph of a strange hairless roadkill carcass sent to the station via Facebook.

Here’s a look at the findings of a study conducted by Facebook that focuses on post dynamics, engagement and activity, and that includes some best practices and insights on how journalists can better use the social network giant to better reach their audiences.

As predicted by just about everyone, Facebook’s “awesome” new product is video calling, powered by Skype. Facebook rolled it out Wednesday — it’s a quick plugin download — and you simple click a “call” button next to a user’s profile and it rings them on the other end. If the user doesn’t answer, you can leave a video message. So what does it all mean for TV, the original video communication system? Here are a few ideas and applications, some of which are already happening.

Kicking off what he promised would be the start of “launching season 2011” as well as the start of a new era of social networking, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced an integration deal between Facebook and Skype.

Facebook has a message for the television world: social TV is coming. Andy Mitchell, SVP of strategic partner development at Facebook, pitched a crowd of media and branding honchos at the PromaxBDA conference on the various ways in which he thinks his company can help the broadcast media embrace the social world.

Don’t just complain about sad news – do something about it! That’s what viewers of and staffers from WXYZ Detroit did, using the power of social media in the community. Using the Twitter hashtag #backchannel and Facebook, a group of more than 100 people gathered to help clean up Detroit.

A TVGuide.com study found that more viewers chatted and tweeted while watching live TV during the past season and the top 10 most popular “social shows” are all aired on broadcast networks. Such social viewing is giving rise to a new metric, social impressions, that bolsters the gross ratings points. Stations are also discovering the value of tying local programming in with the Facebook and Twitter.

If you’re a TV station in a town of 40,000 people, you’d expect to have a few thousand Facebook fans, at best. But KXMC Minot, N.D., has more than 27,000 Facebook fans. And the station has turned its Facebook page into a one-stop resource for the record flooding that’s inundating the town.

Comcast will announce at the Cable Show later this week a “next generation TV experience” that it’s currently testing in Augusta, Ga. The system will include interactive apps that are easy to access and enhanced for TV, such as traffic and weather, and social apps such as Facebook that let users share and discover what to watch with their friends.

Belo’s KTVK and AZFamily.com in Phoenix have launched a Facebook initiative to donate bottles of water to the Salvation Army as the summer months heat up. It’s a different twist on increasingly-popular Facebook contests designed to drum up more fans.

Speaking at the EG8 technology forum in Paris, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that TV, music and books are the next “media experiences” that will be revolutionized by social media. “I hope we can play a part in enabling those new companies to get built, and companies that are out there producing this great content to become more social,” he said.

The location-based Meporter service is aimed at both professional and citizen journalists, and creates a community within its own environment as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

Even though the NBC affiliate is nearly 250 miles away from Joplin in Columbia, Mo., many people in Columbia and mid-Missouri are either Joplin natives or have family there. The newsroom’s normally local-focused Facebook page quickly became a clearinghouse for updates about how mid-Missouri could help the tornado-ravaged community.

Job description for Facebook sales exec reveals direct competition with commercial broadcasters over television advertising.

Bacardi USA’s Grey Goose super-premium vodka is turning up the heat for summer, with a Facebook-driven engagement campaign supported by a new TV spot featuring a Rolling Stones classic.

Facebook and Twitter are now power brokers for the global television industry. Their ability to create new business opportunities and engage viewers, boosting advertising and pay-TV revenue, gives them a significant and increasing influence over all aspects of television.

While Dateline NBC‘s correspondents have interacted with viewers on Facebook while the news magazine is on the air, Sunday night the subject of a segment answered viewers’ questions. David Goldman, who regained custody of his son after a highly-publicized legal battle in 2009, was interviewed by NBC’s Meredith Vieira for the broadcast (7 p.m. ET/PT). On Dateline‘s Facebook page, he answered viewer questions during the show.

Last night, technical difficulties prevented Gray’s Tallahassee, Fla., CBS affiliate from airing its 11 p.m. newscast. The newsroom kept the updates flowing on WCTV.tv, Facebook and Twitter, and it also posted a few videos of anchor Lee Gordon reading stories from the newscast. The videos — which appeared to be shot from a phone — appeared on the stations’ site and its Facebook page.

Local TV-owned WJW Cleveland is just a handful away from 200,000 combined fans. And its “Fox 8 News” is the largest single Facebook page for a TV station in the country with 165,000 fans — and WJW is in the 18th largest TV market.

The news page for Cordillera-owned NBC affiliate in Lexington, Ky. (DMA 63), is third in the U.S. in number of Facebook fans — almost 57,000 with more coming daily to check out the news department’s weather alerts, story teasers, polls and interactive features. Bruce Carter, the station’s news director, expects to have 100,000 by year’s end: “That’s bigger than our audience for our noon newscast.”

Most local TV stations average around 15,000 to 30,000 Facebook fans, but a local TV station in the nation’s 32nd largest market has more Facebook fans than some network TV shows. KUTV in Salt Lake recently surpassed 200,00 fans. And if that doesn’t impress you, the station’s news director says Facebook has helped KUTV 2News win big in the ratings.