The Crab vs. BP

By now we have all been exposed to pictures and maps giving us a macro level view of the horrific extent of this disaster which, unfortunately, has not reached its full potential. I force myself to look and read in order to respect the people that are there, working hard to stop the leak, protect our coastlines, rescue animals and clear out the carcasses of dead animals, which are just a few of the ways in which people are showing up to help out in this situation. I saw something today that really had an impact on me and put this in true scale for me. It was this picture of Greenpeace Senior Campaigner Lindsey Allen trying to save a crab no larger than a quarter from death by oil, however that would happen to a crab. One picture of the tiniest creature, made me realize, more than any satellite map, just how massive this catastrophe is, and equally, just how large the hearts of humans can be. I hope has the same affect on you.

You can see more photos here

Starbucks is now offering discounts to their foursquare Mayors. http://ow.ly/1MaSD http://ow.ly/1MaTM

Check out the funny reference 12seconds made about the male dominated random chat site, Chatroulette. http://ow.ly/i/1yr7

Foursquare, A New Tool for Growing Your Business

I've been using foursquare religiously for the past few months and trying to internally and externally validate my reasons for doing so. I think I have found some answers. For those of you that don't know about foursquare, it is a location based social app that provides many fun and useful features that start with letting your friends know where you are and being able to see where they are in real time by "checking in" to the app on your mobile device while you are at a venue. There are additional features, such as earning mayorship of a venue by checking in a certain number of times and more than anyone else as well as the ability to unlock badges. <-- you can read more about this here: http://foursquare.com/help/badges

Here is my favorite personal foursquare anecdote:
I was recently sitting at a venue and 5 minutes after checking in on foursquare a girlfriend of mine walks in and says, "I've been trying to catch up with you by following your check ins but you kept moving venues." Well she found me in the end thanks to foursquare. This was on a day when I was trying to unlock the Crunked badge.

That is the most basic use of the service but it can also be used for business by tracking some of the information related to your business and customers. I used this to promote my last company Bento 415. I rewarded our mayor with free and discounted products and he became a daily visitor, thanks Brett B. Now it seems foursquare has created some self-service tools for businesses to benefit from their service. If you own a business and have been wondering how to harness the power of social media to increase awareness and revenue here is a good place to start and get instant, traceable results. Take a look at the following link for examples of ways to use foursquare to market your business and build rapport with your customers: http://foursquare.com/businesses/

And if you are not a business owner, start checking in and reaping the rewards.