Visually Impaired 2011 from Indo Jax Surf Charities on Vimeo.

This summer, I started taking photos for Indo Jax Surf Charities on a volunteer basis. Jack Viorel & his surf school have been a client for several years and, in the abstract, I always thought his business model was cool; hold surf camps in the summer and use the money to support free camps for medically fragile & otherwise disadvantaged kids.

However, as I was out there on the beach watching the ear to ear grins of these kids doing something most people never get a chance at, cool took on a whole new meaning. At least, for a bit, the hurdles that they have to overcome vanish. When they leave they take with them a sense of accomplishment & confidence that, if they can surf, they can take on anything.

This year, I’m participating in Pennies4Pins to help raise money to continue these free camps. I can’t take all of you out there to see these kids being awesome, but the video above will give you a pretty good taste of what it is like for them. So, check out the video and if you can help out, click on the link below to make a donation.

It’s awesome. Trust me.

Pennies4Pins – Make a Donation

I follow Jim Cantore on Twitter just so I can know when it’s time to panic.

YouTube – Scared of Jim Cantore.

Social Media, SEO, Location Based Marketing, TV, Radio, Newspaper, Billboards; no one piece is really going to make your marketing successful no matter what the experts say, and all of it mashed together will make you broke and insane.

The real secret is to be awesome.

Don’t bribe your customers to brag about you online. Be so amazing that they can’t help but do it.

140 Characters is just too short a space to recommend people to follow on Twitter. So, Here are my #FollowFriday recommendations. This isn’t a comprehensive list & I’ll try to do this on a regular basis.

• @JimWare – “Night editor and crime team leader at StarNewsOnline.com and the StarNews newspaper”
  I try to follow a lot of news folks (both print & Broadcast). Jim is a genuinely nice guy and always a pleasure to talk with.
• @WilliamLang – “25 year old entrepreneur. // SEO/Social Media Enthusiast. // Larry David Imitator.”
  William is a sharp young man and someone to keep an eye on (but in a good way).
• @CosmicKitchen – “Casual Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Restaurant headed by a Culinary Institute of America Graduate (910) 792-6720″
  Kristin runs the Twitter account for Chris’ Cosmic Kitchen. If you’re a business wanting to use Twitter, look at her tweets and take notes.
• @gwensutton – “Jazz Loving, Hard Working, Woman!”
  If you’re interested in real people that are worth getting to know, this wonderful lady is a must to follow. (She’s a pretty good shutter bug too)
• @DeniseMerritt – “QuickBooks expert, bookkeeper, wife, mom to 2 daughters, scrapbooker, quilter, lover of Jesus, Third Day and Eagles music fan, love 24 and Kay Arthur Precepts.”
  QuickBooks expert, but also another good real person to follow.
• @scottpiner – “Photographer”
  Excellent, Excellent photographer – and a new dad.
• @NatashaNDavis – “Nonprofit updates, gardening, gluten free lifestyle, and Cape Fear area events and news”
  Community minded Tweets (plus, anyone that works with non-profits is more than ok in my book.)
• @CoachReggie – “ActionCOACH Business Coach, OU Sooner Fan, Husband, Daddy, Christian, Business Educator, Mentor, Speaker, Butt Kicker of Small Biz Owners, Social Media Junkie”
  Man, what more can I add to that bio?
• @carolynmejia – “Wife, mom, geek, and all round lover of all things good and/or funny. Media Director at The ROCK. http://rockwilmington.com”
  ‘Followed her on Twitter, met her in person and discovered that we knew each other from more than 20 years ago at a church in Raleigh. (ain’t life funny that way?)

Congrats to all the guys at StarNewsOnline.com! The MyReporter.com website recently won the Citizen Media Award in the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism.

And what can you take away from this? A little quote from their announcement says it all…

“Executive Editor Robyn Tomlin had noticed editors and reporters were connecting with readers on Twitter and other social networking sites, and she saw that readers appreciated the personal connection to people who reported the news.”**

Using social media isn’t about just blatantly promoting yourself. Tootin’ your own horn a bit is ok, but if you’re not making personal connections then you’re probably not going to get a whole lot out of it. In fact, if all you do is toot away, you’re probably going to come off doing a good bit of damage.

link: MyReporter.com wins national media award

** BTW, local TV stations should take note. Simply tweeting teases like you’re tossing to break isn’t going to cut it.

Yes, I know – increased traffic, too many people, the town has to raise revenue somehow… but, for the love of Pete, it’s March and the meters are going back up!

link: Lumina News – Paid parking returns to Wrightsville Beach

My wife and son discovered the Arboretum here in Wilmington this week. So, we spent parts of Saturday & Sunday afternoon there taking pictures and trying to keep the offspring from falling into the water features.

Ah, good times.

The Arboretum is free, open to the public and a beautiful place to relax for a little. We especially like the Japanese Garden area, but we are biased that way.

Link: The Arboretum @ New Hanover County
More Photos: My Puny Flickr Set

File this under I-totally-didn’t-see-this-coming.

Craig Thomas & Sheila Brothers have made the jump from WGNI to mornings on the yet to be launched Sunny 104.5. They’ll be broadcasting on WILM-TV as well from 6-7.

Like, wow!

link: StarNewsOnline.com

You might have noticed the new header photo at the top of all the pages. I’m trying to remain seasonal with the look of things, but I’m fairly sure that’s going to backfire when I get caught up with projects and I’m still wishing you all a Happy Easter during the dog days of August.

Ah, well. It’s Christmas now and even tho Enchanted Airlie is over, there’s a Flickr group with some nice photos. Just try to pretend that most of them weren’t taken in 70 degree weather.

link: Enchanted Airlie Flickr Group

I got the below item from Chris Andrews at City Buddha today (disclosure: City Buddha is a client) :

I would like to take this last oppourtunity to remind all of you about the fundraiser we’ve been having here at City Buddha.

We’ve joined forces with some of our fellow downtown business’ to help provide a little support to two very important organizations here in the Wilmington area. We’re accepting womens and childrens clothing, as well as personal type items for the Domestic Violence Shelter and Services. In addition to them, we’re also accepting pet items for the Pender County Humane Society(a no-kill shelter), pet food, collars, used blankets(can be used as bedding), as well as monitary donations for either group.

We know it’s tuff times for all of us, but please consider those who are less fortunate then us, and let’s try to pitch in. In return for helping out, we here at City Buddha are willing to give you 5% off your entire purchase for every item you donate, up to 8 items(or 40% off). Also for every purchase you make with donations, we’ll give you an entry for a chance to win a free nite stay at the Wilmingtonian B & B, a gift certificate at Caffe’ Phoenix, and a gift basket fillied with goodies for you to enjoy! Other partcipating business’ include,

Dog Gone Crazy

Edge Of Urge

Finkelsteins

So you can also go into any of these business and take advantage of various discounts with them as well. The drawing for the above mentioned prizes will be held this Sunday, Dec.21st, at 3:00pm at Slice of Life, 122 Market St. and Mayor Bill Saffo will be there to draw the lucky winner!

So again, you have thru this Sunday,to take advantage of this discount reward, and a chance to enter the contest. But more importantly, let’s try to help these people and animals out.

Chris Andrews / City Buddha