I saw a Re-Tweet of this tweet (profanity warning) Sunday night and it got me to thinking that with all the new location based services like FourSquare, Gowalla & TriOut, we really face the possibility of check-in overload. It’s not a new thing. When Brightkite came out and one could push their updates to Twitter, there was a similar outcry of, “Hey, go easy on the updates!”.

I mean, really, who cares if I’m checking in to the KFC for the 5th time this week?

But, on the flip side, if someone might see something out of the ordinary and post a picture of it (like the monster pancakes from @CosmicKitchen) then I’m more likely to look at it and go, “hey, that’s pretty cool.” and file it away mentally for future reference.

So, maybe the strategy shouldn’t be to get all your customers to broadcast every single time they check in, but offer something different & unique that’ll be tweet-worthy. Good marketing tells a story so give them something that they *must* tell their friends about.

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.

We take clean drinking water for granted. We go to the sink, fill up a cup and off we go, but 1.1 billion people in the world don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water.

This Thursday night, the social media types in Wilmington will be gathering for the Wilmington Twestival to raise money for charity:water. Charity:Water is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing clean water to developing nations where unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease.

One of my favorite clients, Indo Jax Surf School, has generously donated a week long group surf lesson to be raffled off. There will be other prizes, drinks, food and the chance to meet a lot of local people that you may only know by their screen names & avatars. Plus, you’ll literally be saving lives.

Tickets are $15 online & you can get them at http://www.amiando.com/twestivalwilmington.html.

Credit goes to Ty Downing of Perspective Internet Marketing for kicking this event off locally at well as the Star News and a whole slew of volunteers & local businesses that are donating their time and resources.

What: Wilmington Twestival
Where: Port City Pub – Wilmington, NC
When: February 12, 2009 – 6:00 PM
Why: Charity:Water

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

Congratulations to client Abba First Mortgage for breaking the top 10 in number of mortgage applications submitted by a XSites customer.

Abba First is also now on Twitter where they can be followed for mortgage related news.

Now, I’ve just got to get that twitter feed on their blog…

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

That’s me looking like I just broke into my own truck on Google Street View. Man, how did I shut the door on my seat belt?

Wilmington (as well as a heck of a lot of other places) has been added to Google Street View. Real Estate Agents, rejoice.

Clicky Here

I got a email from Ty Downing last month asking me if I was willing to participate on a website review panel at this month’s SEO meeting. Without hesitation, I said “yes”… not realizing at the time that it meant I would have to get up in front of people and actually try to sound intelligent.

I think I might have pulled it off at least half way. I was ok until near the end when someone asked a question about all Flash websites. Suddenly, I became a raving lunatic.

I don’t consider SEO to be my strong area. There are some things I do as a designer to make my sites more search engine friendly like avoiding table based layouts and using the proper tags in the proper places. However, I really consider that as a base for guys like Ty to come in and work their magic.

A big high five to Ty and the other panel members (Jason Conway &  Megan Criss) for organizing this and passing along some very good information to those who attended.

If you’re interested in attending future events, check out the Wilmington Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Marketing Group on meetup.com.