I’m at McDonalds on Main Avenue.

I’m at the Rental Car Center at LAX.

These are examples of Tweets and Facebook posts from dedicated users who like to share their every second of being with their friends and fans.

I used to be one of them. That was until a colleague said ... Continue reading “I Was Watching Dancing with the Stars.” Or, “The Private Life of Jack and Diane.”]]> I’m at Starbucks on 45th Street.

I’m at McDonalds on Main Avenue.

I’m at the Rental Car Center at LAX.

These are examples of Tweets and Facebook posts from dedicated users who like to share their every second of being with their friends and fans.

I used to be one of them. That was until a colleague said to me one day, “you’re crazy for letting everyone know where you are, what if someone…” that’s when I stopped her. I didn’t want to hear how the sentence finished, but I got the point.

I used BrightKite on my iPhone to “check-in” at different locations and my “check-in” would then be plastered on my Twitter and Facebook pages. The purpose was to alert others in my circle of friends where I was in an attempt to meet up or meet new friends. After all, this is what the “social” in social media is all about, right?

Jeff Stolarcyk, a member of the Solid Cactus Internet Marketing team did a blog post about a relative newcomer on the social media scene, foursquare.com. Foursquare is one of these “check-in” type sites which bills itself as “a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things.” Quite a concept if you understand it, right?

In a nut-shell, you load foursquare on your phone, you check-in at these various locations, meet friends and fellow foursquare-ers, and climb the social media ladder in foursquare as you visit new places or return to ones previously visited. An interesting and fun concept. If you’re a business owner, you can offer incentives for foursquare users to visit your location and capitalize on this new and emerging market segment.

While those of us who are into this kind of stuff become more and more connected, privacy becomes an issue. If you don’t mind letting people know that you’re at Mel’s Diner five nights a week for dinner, go for it. If you’re somewhat hesitant about sharing your location with your friends, you can always either not “check-in” or do so in “stealth mode.” Then if you’re completely freaked out by the openness of social media, this stuff just isn’t for you.

It’s interesting to see just how transparent people are willing to let their lives become. I can see some things happening that could prove to be interesting:

Diane: Hey Jack, what did you do last night?

Jack: Oh, nothing. I sat at home and watched “Dancing with the Stars”.

Diane: Really? Then why did your Facebook page say you were at the night club?

Jack: Um, yeah, well. Gotta go!

Social media is changing the way we go about our lives, we’re becoming more interactive. Whether that’s good or bad is yet to be determined, but one thing is for sure, as we open our every move to more and more eyes, we have to be more and more cautious about our surroundings.

While Black Friday may be the big one for brick-and-mortars, Cyber Monday has gained a reputation as the holy grail for eCommerce store owners and it ... Continue reading “Cyber Monday Bargains.” Or, “Smile for the Camera!”]]> Jeff Chirico from WBRE TV called me early Monday morning. He was doing a story on the biggest shopping day of the year for online merchants – Cyber Monday.

While Black Friday may be the big one for brick-and-mortars, Cyber Monday has gained a reputation as the holy grail for eCommerce store owners and it gains in popularity each year. Jeff turned to Donna Talarico and myself to get the skinny on how social media is being used by both consumers and businesses alike.

Granted not everyone has embraced social media to the extent that you and I have (right!!!), but those who did got to take advantage of some great Twitter, Facebook and MySpace only deals! I hope you were one of them.

Thanks to Jeff and the WBRE crew for thinking of us!

Jeff Chirico from WBRE

SHAVERTOWN, LUZERNE COUNTY –The internet was also very busy with shoppers. Today is Cyber Monday. Tonight, consumer reporter Jeff Chirico tells us how bargain hunters can score by using social media.

If you’re shopping online this Cyber Monday, you’ll find deals on almost every retailers website. But to find some of the best sales this year –you may have to go social. Scott Sanfilippo, co-founder of Solid Cactus says “social media has taken on a whole new dimension in marketing. Years ago it was print ads, radio, email marketing. Now it’s all changed.”

Solid Cactus is an ecommerce developer. Sanfilippo says retailers are jumping on the social media bandwagon because it reaches hundreds of millions of potential customers for relatively little money. A lot of retailers are taking advantage of Facebook, they’re using twitter to promote deals and offers.” Donna Talarico, Solid Cactus interactive media specialist, says “they’ll put links to Cyber Monday deals, coupon codes that are exclusive to Twitter. Toshiba for instance is giving away three free laptops on Cyber Monday only on Twitter. It’s a way to boost its base of followers. Even small retailers like Blair’s Candy from Altoona, is tweeting its holiday discounts.

So if you’ve never used social media, where do you start? Sanfilippo says the quickest and easiest site is Twitter. It takes just a minute to create a username and password and another few seconds to follow your favorite retailers.” Talarico says one of the biggest things on twitter is people using hash tag, the number sign and Cyber Monday, so if you do that search on Twitter you can find real time Cyber Monday deals.”

And experts agree –this new form of marketing to holiday shoppers won’t disappear once Santa returns to the North Pole.