At our SEO seminar in late January, we had the opportunity to talk and meet with @maryannewendt.

She had mentioned that she was putting together an #OCtweetup in conjunction with @bigtrain, @yelpoc, @charmforcharity, and @dealgooder at Il Fornaio in Irvine to help support saveourbeach.org! Without hesitation, we all signed up and payed a visit Thursday evening to support the cause. Not only did we get the chance to check out products from local businesses and charities, we met and networked with some of the most passionate people involved with social media in Orange County!

@Maryannewendt is a purple loving techie and social media enthusiast, who put on the amazing fundraising event! She introduced us to some of our new favorite local brands including Big Train, DealGooder, and saveourbeach.org!

Big Train had an amazing selection of samples from their natural line of beverage mixes, but I must say, the Organic Chai was amazing, and left us wanting more!

DealGooder is an amazing local concept where companies can set up deals online that are promoted to the growing DealGooder network. A portion of the proceeds from each deal goes to charity, but what makes this program great is that DealGooder donates the money to a multitude of charities in Orange County! What a great community initiative! People get to save money on local brands while benefitting a local charity!

And last but not least… saveourbeach.org, a non-profit organization committed to cleaning our California coastline, had an amazing presentation of creative recycling. Meeting the founder Kim Masoner and listening to her story of how she started the organization, and how she was able to get support for her project from across the country was truly inspiring. Currently, she spends all of her free time spreading the word and getting people involved in helping to make the world a better place! She even makes blankets from recycled plastic grocery bags to give to the homeless in her spare time! Towards the end of the night, Kim gave my friend @veganvagrant one of the blankets that she had on display so that he could give it away to his eco-friendly subscribers on his vegan blog for one of his next contests, so be sure to check it out!

All in all, the #tweetup was a huge success! Saveourbeach.org was able to raise a good amount of money to help fund future projects, we met some great people, and we were able to learn about new products and services all while supporting a good cause! What a great way to use social media to bring people together to support one another, while also helping to make a positive social and environmental impact on the Earth!

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From your friendly neighborhood strategic design firm,

Golden Communications

Who would have thought the simple question “What are you doing now?” answered in 140 characters or less would set the stage for one of the most popular websites of all time?

The early days of the Internet were all about anonymity and the thought of streaming our lives to create our own Truman Show for strangers of the world to follow us around seemed a bit – weird.

Is there a deep down voyeuristic trait within us that wants to know, or really cares, that Aunt Sally is visiting, or what’s your favorite pizza, or how long it’s been since your kid went to the bathroom?

The bigger question is, how is this technology relevant to me and how can I leverage Twitter for my business?

Business Psych 101 teaches us that people want to work with successful, busy people and tweeting your latest project and task successes is a fast and easy way to let the world know that you are indeed one of these successful, busy people.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of Twitter is the way it bridges the gap between online and offline,  business and personal relationships. Building business means building relationships, and Twitter gives the opportunity to relate to others on a more personal level which make real-life meetups more comfortable, enjoyable, and prosperous.

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As we all know, Facebook is used by millions of people everyday to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet. But did you know that Facebook can also be used by lawyers to serve legal documents?

In Australia’s capital of Canberra, lawyers tracked down a couple that had defaulted on a loan by doing a search on their email addresses. They then proceeded to serve them a legal summons through Facebook’s private messaging feature.

After a landmark court ruling, the Australian Supreme Court ruled that Facebook is a sufficient way of serving legal documents to defendants who cannot be found.

Other unconventional yet incredible ways Facebook has been used in the past are:

• Finding transplant donors for seriously ill children
• Fighting Terrorism
• Getting elected to the Maine House of Representatives