Every night, hundreds if not thousands of Twin Cities diners, concertgoers, sports fans and club kids are using smart phones to punch in their whereabouts on such social media networks as Foursquare and Twitter. These night owls are using their iPhones and Evos as a different way to see and be seen.

Not only have these mobile networks changed the way people go out, but they’re changing the way bars, restaurants and music venues market to consumers, with digital come-ons that include food and drink specials, instant coupons and VIP perks.

Use of mobile devices for such nightlife networking is big, and getting bigger. Twitter, which lets users send short messages called “tweets” to their lists of followers, has 100 million users. Foursquare is a location-based service that has a smaller but rapidly expanding user base of 1.5 million. With its geo-coding capability, Foursquare instantly records “checked-in” users as being at a particular location. Without making a phone call, people can track down their friends for a meet-up — or maybe avoid them entirely.

For fans of these networks, a night without smart phones is unimaginable. Detractors find the whole thing pointless, even narcissistic — does the world really need to know your every move?

On a recent Friday night, Kareem Ahmed, 23, stepped into First Avenue, the downtown Minneapolis rock club, and immediately whipped out his iPhone. He was there to see the electro-rock band Solid Gold. On his phone, Ahmed checked in on the club’s Foursquare page and sent out tweets announcing his arrival.

Ahmed has more than 3,000 followers on Twitter. Some he knows, others he does not. But they read his tweets and he follows their digital musings, too.

“Twitter is the main source of information for anything I do,” he said…

Read More Here: http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/dining/98075339.html?page=1&c=y

The Kicker EB101′s come with some decent stock earbud tips but if you’ve ever worked in an office setting with me, you know that I always use Comply Foam Tips with my earbuds in order to enhance the stock earbud sound as well block outside noise. These things do an AMAZING job of blocking out outside sound, even if your earbuds are meant to be noise reducing. The other great thing about Comply Foam Tips is that they are so comfortable in comparison to stock tips. I also like to use them when I’m working out because the foam actually expands in your ear which causes them to stay in place better when you are moving around. It’s always blown my mind that many people never change the tips on their earbuds but I think it’s the single best way to get the sound of $300 earbuds when you are only using $100 earbuds.

I encourage you all to give Comply Foam Tips a try and if you don’t agree with me, I’ll buy you a beer. Just go to the site, find the model that you currently own, and order the tips for them!

Disclosure: This post was written in exchange for material goods.

I want to give credit to Myspace. They revolutionized social networking. They were one of the first, if not the first platform, that allowed members to actually edit their profiles using HTML, to actually PERSONALIZE their profile with limited box filling. I learned the basics of HTML by making Myspace profiles years ago. I know more than the Facebook generation because I know how to make something bold or how to create an HTML link. I know many other people that know the basics of HTML only because of Myspace. If it wasn’t for the entire pimp your Myspace, glitter banner I bet Myspace would still be a favorite. (Hey Facebook. Learn your lesson. Farmville, Lameville, Crapville and more.) There will be a point when we get fed up with it. Remember that cruddy Twitter game that infiltrated your network with lame people playing? Yep, that’s gone now.

My second point is that Myspace led the entire world into making it be okay to talk to strangers. Twitter? You follow randoms that you don’t know in real life. Myspace you friended them. Myspace allowed us to be comfortable not knowing people but still communicating with them. It isn’t creepy to follow people you don’t know.

Third point. Myspace is great for bands. I will bet that if you type your favorite bands name into Google, their Myspace page will be at within the first five results. Its great for trying before you buy or checking tour dates.

I won’t rip on Myspace. Its there, it serves its purpose, and Tom has more money than you do.

More info @ http://www.shewearsyourtee.com

I feel wonderful.

We spend our days shooting the shit and having great conversations, but I was surprised when I asked a pretty personal/in-depth question that took more effort than just formulating a 140 character opinion:

Now, how many responses do you think I got? 3? 5? 7? Nope.

I got over 10 responses. I am not even talking about “I use X Brand, they are great.” type of responses (although a few people did say that and I do truly appreciate it, that is the kind of response that I would have given.)

What really blew my socks of was that people actually went out of their way to give me names of their personal agents as well as their phone numbers, email addresses, and personal web sites. So thank you all for making my search so much easier.

I didn’t even have to Google anything, which leads to to the question…will the future of online search be completely network based?

Something else that I noticed was that no insurance agents or insurance companies attempted to get ahold of me, so go pitch them.

“Follow @kareemy and RT for a chance to win ____x______”

It’s kind of like forcing something to become viral. It really pushes people to take action and they do it.

Usually people do follow and they do RT the message but they don’t do it because they like the product or brand…they do it because they want to win.

Isn’t brand building a way to gain more awareness amongst a target audience? Isn’t the goal of marketing dollars to actually make an impact on your consumer’s behavior? I don’t think that this does either.

Don’t get me wrong. It works for gaining followers if that’s what your goal is. It also works for increasing brand mentions if that’s what your goal is.

But if the goal doesn’t involve Twitter, I don’t think it’s a very effective way of promoting a product.

What do you think?

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I do think that this tactic works if you are planning on giving away something like snowboard bindings. The only people that will follow and retweet are snowboarders, therefore you are reaching your target audience.

Instead of traditional search, or voice search, you can now use “picture” search by taking a picture of a place or a thing and Google will bring up results based on the picture.

In all honesty, I am not sure how awesome this product actually is…but where is the excitement?!? I haven’t really heard anything about Google Goggles. Maybe I’ve just been busy lately?