Starting this week, you can say goodbye to coupons and promotional blitzes at J.C.Penney.

As of Wednesday, Feb. 1, the department store chain has announced it's doing away with its endless barrage of sales and gimmicks in favor of lower prices across the board.

Interestingly, the chain is using social media and text messaging to promote the revamped strategy, even going so far as to poke fun at its former self:

"ON 2.1.12 THE MADNESS ENDS," its Facebook page declares.

The new strategy, which the company is calling "Fair and Square" pricing, comes after an apparently lackluster holiday season.

What does all this mean for you, the consumer, the next time you wander into a J.C. Penney during a shopping trip to the mall?

Starting Wednesday, shoppers will see:

Google's plan to integrate its Google+ social network into its search results has Twitter on the defensive.

Called "Search Plus Your World," Google's new search culls through Google+ data to deliver more personal search results.

In a statement Twitter said, "We're concerned that as a result of Google's changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that's bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users."

A post from Google volleys that Twitter can't be too surprised. This is appears to be the fallout of Twitter choosing not to renew their agreement with Google. Remember Google's Realtime Search that churned up tweets?
 

YouTube link

From a sample of 100,000 iPhone users worldwide over 90 days, software company Onava has a compiled a list of apps used most on the iPhone, and analyzed how much monthly data each consumes on average.

A Cary-based social media shop has nabbed a huge client: The Chrysler Group.

The Chrysler contract will essentially double the operations of 4-year-old Ignite Social Media. The 35-employee company plans to hire 40-plus people at its offices in Detroit and in Raleigh in the coming weeks.

The Chrysler contract is effective Sept. 1 and will involve designing and executing a social media marketing strategy for the auto maker, said Ignite president Jim Tobin.

The positions being filled will work on Chrysler projects and for other recently signed clients, Tobin said. Openings in Raleigh include strategist, designer, copywriter, web developer and office manager.

Good news for Facebook fans.

The Centsible Saver blog now has a Facebook page.

Just click on the "Like" button on the page and join the conversation about  coupons, deals and frugal living in the Triangle. Click here to go to the Centsible Saver Facebook page.

Everything I post on the Centsible Saver blog will appear on the Facebook page, giving you one more way to get your frugal fix.

And don't forget, you can also keep up with me on Twitter by following @amygdunn. Or, subscribe to my RSS feed here.

Hope to hear from you soon on Facebook and in the Twitterverse.

Well, Twitter has been busy lately.

On the heels of last week's announcement that the remaining people using "old Twitter" will be switched to "new Twitter," the social network has released some updates for all of its users.

The new features include a photo service baked into Twitter and some tweaks to the tabbed navigation for browser-based users.

"RIP Tom Kenny" is among the highest trending topics on Twitter demonstrating the platform's greatest strength is its greatest weakness.

SpongeBob star Tom Kenney, actor, voice actor, and producer, is not dead. The rumor apparently recurs every year or so. 

Unfortunately, bad information spreads just as quickly as good information. Maybe faster.

There is a lot of bad on the Internet, but today the hashtag #alicebucketlist is revealing there is a lot of good on it too. Users across the world are helping a 15-year-old British girl gravely ill with Hodgkin's Lymphoma fulfill her bucket list.

Ed Asner and Mario Andretti are among the hordes of users who tweeted references to Alice Pyne and her blog that lists a few of her bucket list items.

Her blog opens, "I'm 15 and I have terminal cancer. I've created a bucket list because there are so many things I still want to do in my life ... some are possible, some will remain a dream."

On Twitter Thursday, #alicebucketlist has been at the top of tending topics. While the most of the tweets said she wished to be a trending topic, the top of her list urges everyone become a bone marrow donor.

The outreach on Twitter has caught Alice by surprise it seems, but she reminds us there are many like her to whom we can reach out.

She writes, "There are lots of other kids like me and I thought that the best thing I could do is link to my favourite site for making poorly kids smile."
 

If you want analytics you'll want to stick with bit.ly or some other shortener, otherwise checkout Twitter's post on how to shorten your URLs.