Tonight I had to run out to my car in the dark and I decided the homescreen image on my iPhone just wasn’t putting off enough light to find my way, so I fired up my flashlight app and it more than sufficiently did the job.
Once I’d reached my car I noticed there were several options available in the flashlight app, including ‘strobe’. I turned it on and noticed my dog didn’t seem to care for it while it ran for about 15 seconds while I adjusted the flash frequency.
I dug the SD card out of my camera and closed my car door and noticed 4-5 fire flies blinking at almost the same rate as the strobe had been flashing. This was the first time I’d seen any fire flies since last summer, and I seem to remember them staying lit for a few seconds then off for a while longer, never blinking this fast.
Does anyone know if this is possible for the fire flies to respond to the flashes, or is this completely a coincidence?

I needed to get a new tire due to an alignment issue so I opened up the Vlingo app on my iPhone and said “search local tire store”. The first local tire store in the results was Duckworth Tire (@duckworthtire), and since I’ve been following them on Twitter and Facebook I tapped the button to call to see if they had a tire in the size I needed.

Jennifer answered, and looked up what I needed and let me know they had one. When I gave her my name, she immediately said “oh, you’re one of our friends on Facebook!” I was impressed with her ability to recognize a Facebook fan by name alone.

The service I received was top notch and quick. You can bet I’m headed over to their fan page now to thank them for their help and give them the public recognition they deserve. In my opinion, this is how social media can help local businesses stand apart from their competitors.

It’s time to communicate and build strong relationships. Let’s GO!
Follow Duckworth Tire at:

Facebook Group – http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=139096399424

Twitter – http://twitter.com/duckworthtire

Slowly I’m starting to see and hear about some local small businesses in my area who are “dipping their toes” into the process of implementing social media into their marketing plans. It’s great to see it, especially since I believe whole-heartedly in it. Some have started advertising their social media presences, on-air, in print, in-store, billboards, etc. and I’m hoping to see it continue to increase. I believe it’s important for local businesses to communicate with their current customers; not just one way communication, but true interaction. Find out what your customers like, what they don’t like, listen and respond to suggestions, and build upon it.

Last June I taught a series of “Social Media for Business” classes through the Darien-McIntosh County Chamber of Commerce, and was excited by the attendance, but surprised to find out most weren’t even using social media personally at the time. It was a good introduction for them, but I wasn’t able to dig as deep as I had hoped into how they could use Social Media tools to improve their business. Instead, it ended up being more of an introduction to Social Media, which was still a lot of fun to introduce them to.

I’m throwing some ideas around on how I can get involved and offer my expertise to those interested in implementing Social Media into their business models. Stay tuned as I’ll be announcing some of my plans in the coming days/weeks.

If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment below…

I picked up a Rubik’s Cube for the first time in a long time New Years Eve of this year and stayed up till 2 am until I had it solved. I pieced together a few different moves from several different sites I found while looking for the solution I had recently seen posted on Twitter.

I’ve solved the cube approx 50 times since, trying to memorize the moves I have written down on a piece of paper. I’m getting close, within a move or two of getting it w/o instructions. Another week or so and I should have it down. If you feel the need to solve the Rubik’s Cube that’s sitting around your house, here’s the best approach I’ve seen so far for solving the Rubik’s Cube.