I think it’s important to follow people on twitter that are:

1. Adding value – If you’re tweeting your friends and/or boyfriend on twitter non-stop (and nothing else) then you’re probably not that interesting in my twitter feed – and I might unfollow you!

*With that said, my entire family, sister-in-law’s family, boyfriend, co-workers and friends are on twitter and do I talk to them through tweets from time to time? Absolutely. But do I also attempt to also contribute to twitter in the ways listed below? Of course!

2. Teaching you – Tips, great blogs, new ideas and perspectives. I learn from those I chose to follow on twitter.  If you want to know who is teaching me, take a look at those I follow on twitter.com.

3. Sharing relevant information – I’m aware of current events, interesting articles and funny advertisement bloopers because of some of my twitter friends! I follow @Mashable so I’m sure I won’t miss their many interesting and educational blog posts throughout the day.

4. Making you laugh – I follow many people simply because…they are funny, they make me laugh and that’s valuable! @WeirdNews is always interesting, and @DesignerG tweets about his love of coffee nearly every morning, but never says the same thing… always entertaining.

Slimming your twitter following is a good reminder to make sure you add value on Twitter, be creative and interesting! What would your Twitter followers say about you?

Foursquare??

What’s the deal with Foursquare? Why you no longer need a bouncy ball and a court to play…..

When our slew of Miller Brooks employees head out to lunch on any given day of the week, I’m usually on my phone within the first few minutes after we sit down at the table. My co-workers, who know me well, don’t need to ask what I’m doing. They roll their eyes because they know I’m “checking in” to our to our favorite lunch spots on Foursquare.

The growing location-based social media application trend is led by Foursquare, a service that provides real-time user location updates specific to a venue. Location-based services (LBS) like Foursquare are expected to really take flight in 2010 — providing they aren’t beat out by location-based features being added to Twitter and Facebook.

Much like the case with Twitter before it mainstreamed, many have heard of Foursquare, but very few actually use it or understand how it works. So if you’re among those who still think Foursquare is a playground ballgame played on a court divided into quadrants, I’ll help you out.

Let’s start with a quick breakdown of the application, and then I’ll give you my two cents.

What is Foursquare?

Foursquare is a location-based social networking application for mobile devices.

How does it work?
Users go to a venue (whether it be a restaurant, bar, park, retail store, office, etc.) and check in using their mobile application. When you’ve checked in, you are awarded points. Foursquare adds up the number of times you’ve been to that location. You receive more points at certain places, and when you are the person who has checked in to that venue the most, you become the mayor.

What is a badge?
When you become a regular user, and start checking in at multiple venues, you will receive badges for your check-in. From the start, there are a slew of beginner badges you receive for becoming an active Foursquare user. First, you’ll receive the newbie badge, then the adventurer badge, then the local badge, and so on. Badges and points aren’t really connected; badges are more of a reward system for interesting check-ins.

My two cents

Now that you know how it works, let me tell you what I think about Foursquare: it’s awesome!

I see two main arguments for the use of Foursquare, whether it’s for fun, for work… or simply because you’re starting to feel left out!

• Competitive gaming quality: I’m convinced that the competitive nature of the application makes it quickly addicting.  (It was for me!) I’ve only been on Foursquare for 5 months, but as a person who’s new to Indianapolis, I’m always sure to check into my new favorite hangouts.  I don’t want to miss out on the points or badges I might receive that will document the discovery of my new city. To help keep the application competitive, most mobile Foursquare applications feature a “LeaderBoard,” which shows you the amount of points you’ve earned on Foursquare each week – resetting every Sunday evening.
• Networking: The “check-in” aspect of Foursquare creates a stream of content that contains all your daily travels. Other users can then follow your stream and engage you in conversation about your favorite places. It’s another way for you to connect with someone and get to know him or her better. You can also follow other people’s check-ins to see where they have been. If your friends are using Foursquare, you can locate them in the city without ever making a single phone call. Also, as you watch your friends check in, you may discover some great restaurants and shops that you never knew existed!

Foursquare’s Challenge

The application clearly has the “cool factor.” As of early 2010, it claimed about 725,000 members — and it has only been around since early 2009. But the question is, can it be proved useful? Besides being fun, Foursquare was launched for business — and participating businesses say yes. Here’s why:

• Foursquare allows venues to provide deals and discounts to the Foursquare users who check in. Some even offer special deals to mayors. It’s another way for businesses to engage their patrons.
• As a business owner, you can learn a lot of valuable insights about your customers by monitoring their activities on Foursquare. You can find out where else your customers go, as well, to learn who your competitors are.
• Businesses can monitor their brand presence across social media mediums. You can identify both your biggest supporters and people who might be unhappy with your company. You can then engage these people and make sure they continue to be supporters of your brand, or right the wrong and gain back a customer.

As Foursquare becomes more mainstream, the application is rapidly gaining users (adding almost 100,000 in a 10-day period during SXSW in Austin, TX). But as the fan base builds, questions arise as well. One in particular: with people checking into (and out of) their homes via Foursquare updates (which can push out to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn), is personal privacy at risk? This, no doubt, will be a hot social media topic throughout 2010.

Can you really weigh what you think about Foursquare if you don’t give it a try? Sign up at Foursquare.com and tell me what you think!

Social Media Today made some fabulous points as well about why Twitter is PERFECT for listening, not just talking…

1. Twitter has real-time results. We’ve all heard examples of how breaking news spreads immediately on Twitter. Because of Twitter’s real-time search engine, you can get a quick pulse of public opinion. Even when you tweet, if someones not looking at their feed, it’s there for a second and gone – and the trends and conversation are constantly changing.

2. Wide reach. Twitter is useful to many different types and sizes of businesses. The amount of different types of companies and professionals on twitter are endless…

3. Direct feedback. You hear what people are saying as they say it.

There are many powerful social media tracking and analytic tools available which help you monitor your Twitter feed. Why do you think there are so many applications to help you follow and track Twitter? Because it’s important to listen! If you are having trouble with following on twitter. Keep in mind it might be because you’re only talking. If you just ramping up your company’s twitter account. I can’t stress it enough… Keep talking, but make sure you listen.

Set a goal:

1. Tweet 3 times a day
2. Reply 3 times a day

The key is to make sure you are replying just as much as you are pushing out useful information, this well help you to first, join the conversation and second, prove you are listening, not just gabbing!

And while we’re talking tweets, here’s some twitter humor for you….

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. – John Ruski

Those of you who think you are happy by the ocean, and never need to see another portion of the US or winter climate in your life… I urge you, think again. If seeing my “snowfall in Indy post” a couple months ago wasn’t enough – let me walk you down the time-line of my life over the past month and attempt to share with you the ecstatic-ness that I feel over my recent move to the city of Indianapolis, Indiana.

As I sit in my gorgeous (but small) studio in downtown Indy looking over the Murat building while my home-made dinner is cooking and Pandora magically guesses at and plays my favorite music — I’m sipping a glass of Monogamy – Cabernet Sauvignon (my wine counter-purchase to @danmonaco’s favorite, Ménage a tois), and thinking about how lucky I am that this move has gone swimmingly well for me. I can’t think of a time in my life in the past – that I have felt more adventurous or independent. As my friend Ben always says, your better days are ahead of you. I never knew how true that was until now – because I bet it only goes up from here!

I miss my family and the salty smell of Sunset Cliffs, but I wouldn’t choose to be anywhere other than where I am right now. I think a large part of my ability to appreciate this city is that I have lived sea-side for so much of my life. I had my time to appreciate the countless grains of sand and the white wash.  But I’m finding this city also has so much to offer, and the best part is – I haven’t even seen the tip of the iceberg yet. There is still so much left to discover and experience.

I learned this week from my doorman (who I am slightly obsessed with – have you seen ABC’s Samantha Who?) that Indianapolis has the highest number of Monuments than any other city in the US (outside of Washington DC of course). This city is the second biggest city in the Midwest (next to Chicago) and I think it’s a hidden treasure because it’s #2 on both those lists. I’m so lucky to have found myself in this mini city – and the fact that it goes unnoticed to many California’s and New Yorkers makes me like it that much more.

Another find of mine – Downtown Zionsville, where I work, might as well be a movie set for how quaint and adorable it is. Unique places to lunch, a Bentley dealership, art galleries, friendly faces everywhere, little boutiques and cobblestones streets…

By the time this post is winding down, I’m still nursing my wine, eating my pasta – and sitting on my kitchen counter w/ my laptop (because I don’t exactly have all my furniture purchased yet). I can’t wait until the summer when I can roam downtown without getting in my car, and Saturdays can be spent poolside or at the Rathskeller with friends.

Indy has welcomed me with open arms, and I would gladly get on my knees and beg you to make a change like this in your life. Those of you who have remained in the same city for most of your adult lives, move! Do it. It’s hard, it’s an adjustment, expensive, and scary – and also could be the most rewarding experience you may ever have.

indy

A friend of mine  (@ntimpani) who just made the move from our home town of San Diego to New York City for grad school at NYU (holler) suggested to me today that we write a book on survival methods for women who move across country.

Just 5 months into her move and 2 weeks into mine in – We’re thrilled to be in our brand new cities, with brand new weather, a brand new job/school, a brand new social circle and network and essentially – a brand new life.

Now – could I write a book on how to help others cope with culture shock? Not sure I would want to attack that task just yet – but could I contribute a few words of advice that might get someone through a rough afternoon? Absolutely… (or at least I’ll be able to in a few weeks/months when these growing pains are over!)

A truth we have book been faced with is that no matter how happy you are to be where you are – you’re always going to miss where you came from. No matter how confident you are in the choices you’ve made to uproot your life – it’s still terrifying. There’s just no way around it.  There will be hard days. But I’m not writing this post to tell you about hard days. I’m not writing to tell you about what I miss. You all know San Diego’s gorgeous skyline, countless activities and constant t-shirt weather. You’ve all seen Ron Burgandy’s backdrop and I don’t need to tell you about what I’ve left behind.

I want to tell you what I’ve gained.

Tonight, when I left work I had an extremely friendly co-worker (people are ridiculously nice in the Midwest…) telling me to drive safely (and with my CA license plates – it’s fair that they are worried.) Fact – I have yet to figure out what exactly “whiteout conditions” means. I’ll Google it when I’m finished writing this post… deal? That 30 minute drive home into downtown Indianapolis was exciting. Call me crazy – but it snowed today and the homesick feeling just up and leaves. Yes, mom and dad – I’m driving carefully, and yes my little car is holding up just fine. At least when the weather is bad here – you know the drivers around you know what to do (can’t say that much for San Diego in the rain!) And in the words of my best friend, “I feel sorry for people who never get to experience snow fall in a city.”

Now, I’m sitting at Starbucks, downtown on Mass Ave (yes I checked in on foursquare) watching these two college kids in beanies write their names in the powder that’s fallen on the sidewalk. I have a 3 block walk home in the freeeezing cold, but it’s snowing – and I have gloves. It’s gorgeous. It’s my city to learn – and it’s hard, when everything that means home to me absent from this Midwest city, it’s very hard. But everyday this transition will get easier, everyday this city will feel more and more like home and everyday it snows I will love this city a little bit more.

December 18 – Last day w/ my current company.
December 19/20 – Trip to Vegas w/ friends for a last hooray in California.
December 31 – Leave San Diego to start the road trip
January 1 – 7 – Snowboarding in Pagosa Springs, CO
January 10 – Arive in Indianapolis!
Januaray 11 – Start date for my new job…

Will have much much more to share with you soon!

1. Manage Disruptions:  Have daily priorities. Figure out what your task list is for being online.  Assuming you’re actually using your social media tools to accomplish things for work or personal success…Do you want to have a blog post done by a certain time today? Do you want to have commented on all you favorite industry blogs by the time you get up and need to be out the door for dinner? Do you want to blast out a few links to the company blog and photo reel from your latest press event..? Do these things first. Then you can go see what photos your buddy uploaded from Monday Night Football last week….

2.  Don’t overload on information: Pick a few sites that work best for you, NOT all of them. Stick with what you know… and when new strategies and applications are added learn them. Pick a few and know them well, rather than dabling with many. Better to be an expert in a few social media sites than hardly understand them all, am I right? Google Reader offers an easy way to monitor many blogs, but unles you can read them all, don’t subscribe. The truth is, you do’nt have time for it all – and you will make your head spin trying to monitor it all so pick what’s important and do away with the rest.

3. Learn task management:  There are plenty of wasy to do this and many different programs that can help. I am an amatuer and I use my outlook task list, and my gmail task list.  Don’t use your e-mail as a task list. Delete e-mails that you wont reply to, and move on. If something needs to get done.. put it on a to-do list!

4 .Get a Routines: If there are things you need to take care of once a day, or once a week. Make sure you set reminders and create a rountine for those items. (Whether it be blogging, e-mail, reporting results & updates to clients, and checking in on social networks)

5.  Disconnect: Remember to unplug occasionally. Some things just won’t get done if you don’t get off facebook and twitter for a little bit, even if they do have to do w/ social media.  Spend some time each day, or each week un-connected. Stay away from the computer (iphone, blackberry etc) while you prioritize your to-do list and get organized for the week.

What things do you do to stay organized and manage your to do list???  What don’t you do – that you could be doing?

CNN Money ran an article this week, Less Pay. More hours. Unhappy workers saying that the majority of workers that are still employed are dealing with longer hours and less pay and this make for unhappy and unmotivated workers. Which means the unemployed aren’t the only group that is feeling the recessions. And what about those that were laid off, and have picked up a new position simply for the paycheck, and not becaue they love the job? This group seems to have felt the recession from both angels.

The article gives this quote by Domnick Eger, an information technology specialist in Phoenix, Ariz. “You can’t help but just do the bare essentials to keep you from being fired.” He goes on to talk about how he feels stretched to a breaking point in his current position, but is unable to find a new job.

Feeling unhappy at work should not be taken lightly. In a book by Chad Foster, it claims that the average person works 86,000 hours in their lifetime, and most of us eight-to-fivers work anywhere from 40-50 hours a week. This is the majority of your time (the majority of your week) spend at a place where you may not feel challenged, may not enjoy, and according to this CNN article, you might just be miserable.

According to a recent survey by the Workforce Institute at Kronos, 40% of employees at organizations affected by layoffs say productivity has been negatively impacted, and two-thirds of them say that morale is suffering and that employees are less motivated than before.

My question is. When will this change?? When can we expect this to turn around? When will people to start be happy and fulfilled in their jobs again?  When will the economy improve enough so that people feel secure enough to leave their jobs to find new ones that motivate and stimulate them again?

When are we going to get some good news? And once we do, how long will it take things to really turn around??