Things I'm obsessed with: The Online edition

Seriously, what have I been doing lately? Not blogging, we can all see that. It's been almost 2 weeks since I last blogged and that was really just pictures because I was too lazy to write an actual post.
I guess I've been busy living that life I'm supposed to have offline.

Oh, no wait. That's not it at all. I've been tweeting like a crazy person and checking in on Foursquare so much, you shouldn't be surprised to see "Casey Just Checked in to Shower". Really, I'm addicted.
I know I said so previously, but that was before I realized that Foursquare was a competition. And if you were married to me, you'd know that competition is my middle name. I like winning, in any form.
And I especially like winning free stuff. Which is what happens when you check-in everywhere you go.
There are a few rules that people should follow when it comes to Foursquare, though:

1st: Don't post 57 check-ins every day. Just post the ones that make people jealous. Like, every time I visit a certain local thrift store, I post that so that every one of my friends can be reminded that I am the Mayor, ha ha ha! Or, post the ones that have rad deals. Like, free carousel tickets when you check-in to the Sacramento Zoo. People like to know that kind of stuff.  People don't really give a crap if you check-in to the OB/GYN, though. That's kind of weird.

2nd: If you work somewhere that has a special deal for their Mayor, STOP CHECKING IN TO WORK. You're screwing the customers. Target has yet to offer a Foursquare deal (hello, get on that!) but even if they did, I would never get it because some jackass that works there checks in every time they show up for work.

3rd: Everyone creates some cutesy name for their house & checks in there all day, every day. Hey, you get points for check-ins, so why the hell not? The thing that's not a good idea is to put your actual address online.  Use a dummy address or just your general neighborhood or even just your city. Unless you don't mind if some psycho that wants to wear your skin shows up at your door. Same goes for checking in to your kid's school. My friend & I are in competition for the Mayorship to our kid's school (I'll never catch up) but we don't check-in publicly. That's called being "Off the Grid".

OK, now that we've got that sorted out.....why are you not on Twitter?
For real.
Especially if you have a business, you should be tweeting. You can tweet deals that you have happening, get connected with other businesses, and chit-chat with your customers. There are so many local businesses that I would have NEVER patronized, had they not started following me on twitter. I don't drink, so I wouldn't think to visit a pub, but a local Irish pub started following me & tweeting with me and now I promote them to everyone I know. It makes the business more accessible and humanizes them in a way that other marketing tools don't.
And the same goes for bloggers, artists, writers, whatever. If you have some kind of product that you want people to be interested in, start tweeting about it.
It's important that you don't just tweet links to your site, though.
Nobody likes that. Twitter is a conversation, not a billboard.
By the way, you can Follow me here :)

Have you heard of Pinterest? Taken from their "About" section:
Think of Pinterest as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and "follow" collections created by people with great taste.

People use Pinterest to collect and share all sorts of things -- wedding inspiration, favorite T-shirts, DJ equipment. You name it, people are pinning it.

We know you have great taste in something. Our mission is to make Pinterest the best place for you to share your taste with the world.

I love it. Like, LOVE-LOVE it. I use it for home-decor inspiration, gardening ideas, and to list future purchases of realistic as well as unattainable-to-me items......it's fun. Super fun. Ask me for an invite!

Ooh! I almost forgot! I have to thank my husband for turning me onto Epitonic. Discovering previously unheard of eclectic bands from every genre imaginable & downloading samples of their music for free? Yes, please! Check it out. You will thank me. Or my husband. You'll thank one of us.

Lastly, please do your community a favor and Yelp!
I've gotten so that I don't go anywhere without Yelp'ing it first. Granted, some of the reviews on yelp are just ridiculous, (Don't give a taco joint 1 star because their hours don't fit your schedule. Are you serious? Rate based on quality!) but mostly it's a great tool to either avoid spending money on a business that consistently has poor customer service, or to discover a new gem. Of course, there are some that think this takes the adventure out of things but I'd rather know what I'm getting myself into when it comes to spending my limited supply of money. I use Yelp to check out parks, restaurants, automotive places, grocery stores, libraries..........the list goes on.

Now, those are all my current faves, so what online gems are you addicted to?