I have a (okay a few) question for you…
- do you know the “day job” of bloggers that you follow regularly?
- do you know what your Facebook friends do for a living?
… neither do I. Well maybe some.
If you are here (or reading via RSS) you must know that I’m a blogger and I sometimes talk about pink things and other times talk about technology. I like to classify myself as a blonde computer nerd, which might be an understatement because I am in fact quite techie (particularly for a girl). By day, and by middle of the night noctural people time, I am a Community Manager for Bizzy. If you haven’t heard of it, yet, don’t worry because we just launched a new site, YESTERDAY!
So what is Bizzy?
Bizzy is a personalized local recommendation engine. The keyword here being personalized. Bizzy helps you find the best places to eat, shop, and play based on the spots you already know and love. You tell us your favorites, and we’ll find you new ones.
You and I both can visit our trusty friend google (or any number of social networking sites and ask “hey goog… what’s the best Pizza in Austin/Phoenix/Miami“. Guess what will happen? We will get the same answer. No offense to you dear reader but I know that I don’t like the same food places as you. I mean, I know not everyone shares the love of Mac & Cheese that Jamie, Lea and I have. It’s okay, not everyone is a carbotarian.
I digress… it’s quite simple. You answer a few questions. Think “who has the best salsa” the food kind, not the dancing kind. And Bizzy will provide some recommendations for things you might like. We are still in the beta stage (translation there may be a few bugs) but we’d love to have you check it out and let us know your feedback.
How to Be a Bizzy Ground Breaker in Your City
- Go to Bizzy.com
- Sign up via Facebook or your email address
- Answer some questions about your favorite places to Eat, Shop & Play
- Share your recommendations with your friends via Facebook and Twitter… or email or snail mail or staple some flyers to a board at your favorite dive bar
- Keep up with the latest news about Bizzy: Facebook, Twitter, & Blog
- Be awesome
Bizzy in the News
- Yelp Meets Netflix with Local Business Search Engine Bizzy.com – Media Bistro
- Just launched: Bizzy. A personalized local business recommendation engine. – The Next Web
- Bizzy Launches ‘Local Recommendation Engine’ – PCMag
- Get Custom Local Business Recommendations with Bizzy – Mashable
If you’re the twittering type you can follow @Bizzy or if you’re in the select pre-beta markets @BizzyDallas (me), @BizzyNY, or @BizzySF. If you have any feedback, questions, ideas, praise… you can leave a comment here. Comment on the Bizzy Blog. Or email me and I’ll pass it along.
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Up until age 25 I always thought I wasn’t really into books. I read the books I was required to read for school and that was about it. At 25, things changed, perhaps it was a quarterlife crisis or becoming single again but for some reason I discovered that I really am a book person.
Now, I’m not a typical girl when it comes to my book interests. I am a non-fiction, business and development book kinda reader. To give you an idea, the last few books I’ve read were Trust Agents, Outliers, and Tipping Point. I think in the past 2 years I’ve only read one stereotypical "girl" book, which was Eat, Pray, Love (highly recommend it!). I have read a few books written for women, one was about women and money and the other about business.
Because my book interests are so different than my Twilight reading friends I’ve never really taken recommendations from my friends. I’ve usually chosen the next read from the latest buzz on Twitter or from blogs I follow.
Lately, I’ve started to take an interest in the world of social networking for books and various online resources for finding book recommendations.
Here are some of the fun book related sites I’ve found:
Good Reads: a way to bring book lovers together. I first joined Good Reads by seeing a sidebar on my friend’s Facebook page showing the current book she was reading. I love this quote on the Press page:
"My geeky little Generation Y heart burst with joy when I found out about the social networking slash armchair critic book reviews site: Good Reads. More unaccredited, unsubstantiated, unfiltered streams of parboiled user-generated content! And you can meet others like you. Yes! The democracy of the web spreads yet further. Check out my profile, make your own and be my friend. I just listed the past 5 books I’ve read, the ones I’m on now and what I’ll be moving on to. Haven’t quite finished all of my reviews, so stay tuned." — misus spine
Goodreads is the largest social network for readers in the world. We have over 2,500,000 members who have added over 60,000,000 books to their shelves. A place for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, Goodreads members recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they’ve read and would like to read, form book clubs and much more. Goodreads was launched in December 2006.
Shelfari: a visual representation of the books on your virtual shelf.
Shelfari introduces readers to our global community of book lovers and encourages them to share their literary inclinations and passions with peers, friends, and total strangers (for now). Shelfari is a gathering place for authors, aspiring authors, publishers, and readers, and has many tools and features to help these groups connect with each other in a fun and engaging way. Our mission is to enhance the experience of reading by connecting readers in meaningful conversations about the published word.
LibraryThing: Catalog your books online.
LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. You can access your catalog from anywhere—even on your mobile phone. Because everyone catalogs together, LibraryThing also connects people with the same books, comes up with suggestions for what to read next, and so forth.
Readernaut: newest to the scene of books and social networking, Readernaut is still in Beta.
Share your reading experience by writing notes, tracking progress, and meeting fellow readers.
BookMooch: Give books away. Get books you want.
Give & receive: Every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Once you’ve read a book, you can keep it forever or put it back into BookMooch for someone else, as you wish.
No cost: there is no cost to join or use this web site: your only cost is mailing your books to others.
IndieBound: a resource to find independently owned bookstores near you. For those of you who are all about Buying Local here’s another resource for ya.
IndieBound is a community-oriented movement. It brings together booksellers, readers, indie retailers, local business alliances, and anyone else with a passionate belief that healthy local economies help communities thrive. Supporting local, indie businesses means that dollars, jobs, diversity, choice, and taxes stay local, creating strong, unique communities and happy citizens.
It’s a powerful tool for booksellers to communicate their part in a national movement supporting independents–and lets everyone know just how many independent bookstores there are.
BookCrossing: Where books take on a life of their own. They call it "The World’s Biggest Free Book Club".
BookCrossing is earth-friendly, and gives you a way to share your books, clear your shelves, and conserve precious resources at the same time. Through our own unique method of recycling reads, BookCrossers give life to books. A book registered on BookCrossing is ready for adventure. Leave it on a park bench, a coffee shop, at a hotel on vacation. Share it with a friend or tuck it onto a bookshelf at the gym — anywhere it might find a new reader! What happens next is up to fate, and we never know where our books might travel. Track the book’s journey around the world as it is passed on from person to person.
Book Trailers YouTube Channel: think movie trailers meets books. Most of the trailers are for books I would not read but, hey it’s a fun idea.
I’ve created profiles on GoodReads and Shelfari. If you’re on either of these sites feel free to add me as a friend. I’ve added a few of my past reads and some of my wish lists. I’ll be playing around with both of these sites in the near future. My favorite thing that both of these social sites has is the quotes section. You can add your favorite quotes directly on a book’s page. I got my book underlining obsession from my mom, so it will be fun to share my underline-worthy parts with the booknerds of the world. [Update: I just discovered Goodreads can post updates to twitter and Facebook. I'm all about bringing everything together!]
Do you use any of these social book sites? How do you get book recommendations? If you happen to be one of the many twenty-something ladies who like the girly books I mentioned before – you should join the Chick Lit group on 20sb.
]]>I mentioned in my previous post that today is the launch of the new and improved and shiny version of Brazen Careerist. I’m so excited for them that I decided I need to pass on some of their big media mentions:
- Fast Company: Brazen Careerist Launch: Twitter meets Facebook meets LinkedIn meets Gen Y… and it’s about time.
- Mashable: Brazen Careerist: The Job Site for Gen Y?
- Lifehacker: Brazen Careerist Makes Professional Networking Less Painful
- TechCrunch: Brazen Careerist: A Professional Network That Realizes You’re More Than Just A Resume
- still want more … do a simple twitter search for Brazen Careerist and you’ll see, they’re big time!
And some words from the founders:
- Penelope Trunk: All-new launch for my company. Hooray!
- Ryan Paugh: We Launched the New Brazen Careerist Today, and Why Bigger Does Mean Better.
- Ryan Healy: A Startup Isn’t About One Big Idea, It’s About A Lot Of Little Ideas
If you see any more that I’ve missed feel free to mention them in the comments or @elysa and of course @BrazenCareerist on twitter. Again I’ll say I’m proud of team Brazen! And luck to know you guys (and Penelope, hi P’Lope!).
If you want to see my posts about Brazen since the beginning they’re tagged Brazen Careerist. Have you ever noticed the fun browse by category option at the top of the blog?
]]>Long story short: 200 nominees and 15 judges later, Constructive Grumpiness has announced the Mentors crowned with the very first 30 Under 30 Tweeters and guess who is one of them!
Surprisingly enough, I only recognize two other people DShan of 20sb and Julia Roy. I look forward to connecting with the other mentors. Being given the title of mentor makes me feel like I should offer up some sort of twitter advice — all I’ve got for you is be who you are in real life (IRL). If you read fun articles and like to share them … do that. If you love ridiculous youtube videos … share those. If you respond to people when they talk to you … I might recommend that as well :).
I actually spoke for the DFW Social Media group back in May about Utilizing Twitter for Small Business (be warned the presentation was 1 hour long and this video is unedited). If you are involved in marketing, PR, do freelance work or just want to know more about networking, or perhaps growing your blog, through twitter feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email. I’m always happy to help!
If you’re on twitter and want to follow me, I’m @elysa. To follow along with the discussion watch the hashtag #30u30t. New to twitter and want to know about hashtags?
Thank you to the judges of 30 under 30!
]]>So, I met this guy … we’ll call him Kevin. So this Kevin character, I’m not sure what it was about him but something just seemed off so I decided to google him. Yes it’s 2009, I google people to find some credibility.
Beyond two incomplete social networking profiles with very few friends I could not find any signs of this guy. So then I began to ask myself, if google can’t find you do you really exist? Obviously I don’t mean this literally. But really, did this guy give me a fake name or is it possible to not be on google’s radar?
]]>Let me first preface this post with an apology for what will be a bit jargony of a blog post. I happen to be a pretty geeky/tech-savvy/ computer nerd kinda girl and I try to keep my geek love underwraps on this blog. But I wanted to share a combination I’ve worked out tonight to expand upon my two favorite communities.
I think that one of the struggles I find in twenty somethings is that sense of "am I the only one". We’ve grown up on aim, email & now blogging so the sense of community we find in the virtual world can be comforting.
So let’s start from the beginning – Twitter. If this is a foreign term for you, go check out What is Twitter and then come back. Seriously, the rest of this will be gibberish if you’re not on twitter.
Now some of my twitterific buddies (who are probably visiting this post through twitter) – probably think it’s a bit redundant for me to explain what Twitter is. Well, here’s my logic I have 300+ facebook friend whom 98% of I know in real life and 5 of them are on twitter, yes FIVE. Of my circle of friends 2 of them just joined only because I talk about it so much. End mini-debate with myself.
Ok Twitter I got it … Get to the Point!
I will be the first to say that I love twitter. But I am also a bit of an organizational junkie (at least with technology) so I’ve been wanting a way to organize my twitter buddies. You see I follow graphic designers, entrepreneurs, 20 somethings, social media people, brazen careerists, & Texans. Some days (particularly Saturdays) I’d like to just know what my Dallas neighbors are twittering about. However when Monday rolls around I’m ready for some Brazen Careeristing.
I’ve been slowly adding people of interest into my FriendFeed account. What I like about FriendFeed is I get a well rounded glimpse of what my "buddies" are up to the virtual world – their blog, twitter, bookmarks, & even amazon wishlists. If you haven’t seen FriendFeed here’s a look at mine. I have Amazon, Delicious, Digg, Flickr, Last.fm, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Tumblr & Twitter all in one place. Phew that’s a lot of internetizing.
Ok so yes … FriendFeed
Tonight I saw a post on FriendFeed that you can now import your Twitter friends into FriendFeed. At first I thought "ohh no I can’t try to keep up with over 1,000 people’s FF." But then I glanced over to the little list area – I quickly created a new list called twitter and viola imported all my twitter buddies – and they (you) don’t mess up my previous organization.
But wait there is more …
I mentioned there are two online communities I’m a big fan of. Those would be the little links in my sidebar (if you’re reading this in a reader you’ll have to pop over to see) — Brazen Careerist & Twenty Something Bloggers aka 20sb (looking for sponsors for our meetup btw). Since the FriendFeed import twitter friends option doesn’t require a password (yet) I decided to create a new FF list called Brazen and then I went back to the twitter import friends page and input @BrazenCareerist and added all of those people to my Brazen list. I’ve already found some interesting posts through Brazen people that I wasn’t already connected with.
For now I’m going to stop with these 2 communities – but there is always the option of following all of the twitters who follow Dallas Morning News or D Magazine to get my local category.
Another note- I would not recommend doing this with any huge twitterific people like Chris Brogan unless you’re vowing to devote your life to keeping up with the entire universe.
So there’s my little geek interlude, we will now commence to regular GenPink blogging … (guest post Thursday is coming back yay!).
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I’ve been having a debate for a while about personal vs professional internet presence. The question has been whether to combine my professional internet self with my personal or to create a two separate “worlds” if you will.
Let’s explain:
- Facebook: Do I want someone I meet at a networking event to be friends with me on Facebook? If I accept them there is a chance they will go through my old pictures and find pictures of me on my 21st birthday with my tongue sticking out. So do I ignore their friend request? Or the other option is to put every professional connection I make as friends with Limited Profile access. What about random internet strangers? Do I really want Jane Doe in Idaho to see pictures of my family Christmas? So this leaves me with a 3rd option – create a second Facebook account.
I do have 2 internet identities –
a) 26 year old blogger, random pink loving girl who likes to read about Gen Y
b) Freelance Graphic Designer & Internet Marketer - Twitter: This is the arena that I have really debated this identity crisis. For the most part I post about random things in my day like "I just ate the most ridiculous/random lunch – fried pickles, popcorn shrimp, & mac/cheese". Now how professional does that sound? Hey I post about macaroni & cupcakes randomly do you want me to design your company website? Don’t get me wrong I am great at what I do but I certainly have a professional, business consultant side and a random macaroni loving side and I generally don’t mesh those two worlds. The internet however is all one big web meshed together.
So what I have been doing is using twitter just for fun, and a way to promote the blog, and allowing "work" contacts limited access on facebook. But as of tonight I’ve decided that internet schizophrenia might be the better option for me. I created a twitter account for my business and a facebook account that I will upload portfolio pieces and samples of my work. I will use both of these as venues to post marketing tips and current projects and all things work related. Since LinkedIn has always been in the professional realm it will stay as is, and I guess I will get over the paranoia that it’s odd that a stranger wants to know where I worked 2 years ago.
Does anyone else run into the internet split personality issue or is it just me?
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This is only a small segment of how much McCain has inundated the twitter world.
The New York Times calls Twitter "one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet." TIME Magazine says, "Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app," and Newsweek noted that "Suddenly, it seems as though all the world’s a-twitter." What will you think? http://twitter.com
Are you following me?
I’ve decided twitter is for ADD blog readers. Every time I open my google reader I cringe because I am so behind on all my blogs. Now that I have twitter though I feel like I get cliff notes of what’s going on in my freaders lives.
I will warn you by following me you’ll find out that I have a love affair with food. I spend a great part of my day eating or thinking about food.
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