Social Honeycomb

Happy Birthday, Social Honeycomb!

My little blog turns 1 today.  I’m a proud blogmama today, on my first social media birthday.  Happy Birthday, Social Honeycomb!

Five Helpful Food 2.0 Tools

Earlier in the summer, I blogged about beYOU.tv, and encouraged you (and myself) to live a little healthier. I don’t feel that I’ve been doing my best at following my own advice lately, but I’m embarking on some lifestyle changes that will no doubt kick my butt into gear.

One of those changes is that I’m not letting myself order delivery and takeout every day anymore. It’s easy, it’s comfortable, it’s familiar–but it’s an expensive and calorie-filled habit that isn’t helping me reach any fitness goals. The solution? I have to prepare some of my own meals. Ummm, easier said than done, Amanda.

I have no idea how to make food. I can use a microwave and I can open pints of sherbet. It’s a very special day if I make an omelette. But that’s the extent of my skills. The thought of having to prepare my own food is daunting to say the least. But I’ve found some helpful resources out there on the social web that I’ll be playing with as I explore the many unfamiliar appliances and utensils in my kitchen.

Zeer is a resource to help nutritards like me learn more about what you’re buying at the store, and what you’re putting in your body. The site’s community feature enables members to share advice and information about various food products related to specific lifestyles or grub preferences. You can also browse through huge lists of products to find better or tastier choices for yourself. This is a valuable tool: Zeer helps you shop smarter so you can eat better.

Tasty Planner seems like exactly what I need. This site allows you to search for new recipes based on keywords or choices from a tag cloud, and has Recipe Box and Weekly Planner functions to help you along the way. Once you find a recipe you like, you can add it to your Recipe Box so that it’s saved, and you can go a step further by adding it to a Weekly Planner that helps you outline your meals and nutrition for the week. For someone who hasn’t planned a meal in her life, Tasty Planner seems like a great, easy way to get a healthy diet underway.

SuperCook is an interesting concept. You enter what foods you already have in your kitchen, and the site will generate recipes for you based on those ingredients. For someone who really has no creative cooking skills to fall back on, and for someone who is pretty lazy when it comes to trekking out to the grocery store on the train (it’s so hard to get your grocery shopping done without a car!), this resource may come in handy. It’s sort of like a Top Chef challenge without having to think about anything.

Cookthink is all about cravings, which can be a girl’s worst enemy. This site lets you find recipes that may satisfy your various cravings, and you can search by entering a keyword, choosing an ingredient, picking a dish, selecting a cuisine, or focusing on a mood. Based on the cravings you enter, Cookthink gives you a list of recipes that will probably make your tummy growl and send you running to the kitchen.

FoodFeed is a strange creature. It’s like Twitter for eating. The premise is simple: you make updates to the site about what you’re having to eat and you can search for other users who have having the same thing. On the About page, the site claims that it isn’t really useful, but on some level I disagree. There’s a lot to be said about regularly, honestly, and publicly announcing what you’re eating, and that may drive you to make healthier choices so you aren’t forced to reveal that you’re having 2 Big Macs per day.

Have you tried any of these Food 2.0 sites? What are your thoughts? Are you hungry yet???

The Future of Viral Marketing…

Silly, but smart.  The world we live in can seem pretty over-saturated with so-called “viral” and “guerrilla” marketing messages, but this video from Slate takes the idea to a whole new level.  [Hat tip Cha-Cha]

Amanda’s Long Weekend

August 30, 2008

Amanda moves from her second-floor one-bedroom apartment down the street to a first-floor two-bedroom apartment with a new roommate. Her family assists her with the move, which has been described as “pretty brutal.”

August 31, 2008

Amanda unpacks roughly 12 large boxes full of the following: clothes she hasn’t worn in more than a year, kitchen utensils she has never used, candles she refuses to light, shoes she hates wearing, and speakers for her TV that has no audio capabilities on its own. She waits for the Comcast guy, who initially shows up at the wrong apartment, yet makes up for it by getting the entire installation done in roughly 6 minutes once he actually arrives. Amanda wanders down Beacon St., trying to remember where the Star Market is, and when she finds it, she purchases Nutri-Grain bars and bananas, among other foods. She stays up late, simultaneously talking on the phone and watching wedding shows on WE.

September 1, 2008

Amanda takes a train home and attends Jessica’s wake. She thinks this is one of the saddest days she’s ever experienced. She goes to sleep early.

September 2, 2008

Amanda takes a long walk with her mom in the morning. She then attends Jessica’s funeral at St. Mary’s in Grafton, where she used to be a member of the parish back in the days when she grew up Catholic. Amanda still can’t believe that Jess is gone. She goes to lunch with a group of friends she’s known forever, and listens to stories that prove everyone’s all grown up. Amanda later gets a ride back to Boston with her father. She has trouble sleeping at night.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin Won Project Runway

Twitter has been abuzz with “Little Known Facts” about McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin.  I’ve been cracking up all night, and wanted to share my proudest achievement of the week:

PR 2.0, 101

As of a few weeks ago, I’ve been given the task of explaining how social media plays a growing role in our jobs during training sessions for new SHIFTers.  I came up with a one-page document that outlines a few different resources and tips relevant to the evolving practice of social media and blogger relations within the industry, and I think it actually gives a really good overview that’s helpful to my colleagues.

But… I figured, why not reach out and see if any PR pros or people approached by PR pros out there have nuggets of wisdom to share.  With improving understanding and ongoing education in mind, what would you want to make sure your new hire had on a PR 2.0 one-pager?  Maybe it’s an example of what not to do, or a tip on how to leverage LinkedIn.  Maybe it’s a blog tracking tool, or what you consider the simplest RSS feed reader for newbies.

I think it would be cool to compile a list of quotes from people who can share advice, encouragement, examples or opinions that I’ll then pass on to the SHIFTers and my Social Honeycomb readers.  I’m sure I’ll dig up some gems from PR Squared, PR 2.0 and various other PR/marketing/communications blogs, but I figured I’d open the door and invite you to chime in here.

Your 2 cents.  Spill it.

Your Engagement Needs a Goal

Back in January, I wrote a post discussing the various meanings of the word “engagement” on the heels of my two good friends, Jenna and Thomas, making the choice to get hitched. It’s time for the follow-up post, because I’m sitting here near Westons Mills, NY, getting ready to attend their wedding this afternoon.

So, what’s important to note here is that engagement, a word we hear so often, is not an end in itself. (Duh.) Engagement for engagement’s sake is useless unless there’s a goal and you move toward it. Here, this engagement involved my friends both moving toward the goal of being husband and wife, and here they are today ready to exchange vows.

In many cases when we hear about being engaged online, the love story comes from having a goal in mind and not mindlessly participating just to say you were there. Maybe your goal is to obtain information. Maybe it’s to contribute something meaningful. Maybe it’s to help someone and in the process make some money. Maybe it’s to build strong brand awareness. It could be anything, I guess. The times when people and organizations get involved and engaged online that work come when they’re not just taking up space or “doing this social media thing” because it’s shiny, but because it’s a meaningful way to reach a goal.

Now, a two-part call to action:

1) Have you seen instances where people or companies (most likely it’s companies) are trying new media tools, saying they’re engaged but really not actively working toward anything? Do you feel that your “engagement” on the Web is goal-oriented?

2) Do you have a message for Jenna and Thomas? Leave a comment for them and I’ll make sure they see your congratulations and warm wishes. [I'm sure I'll have pictures up in a few days!]

From Tin Foil Phonographs to iPods…

Earlier, Greg told me he had some sort of old-fashioned phonograph contraption, which got me thinking about how we listen to and have listened to music. I’ve grown so accustomed to my iPod and iPhone playing music at my command, on-the-go, in high quality and with great choice, that it’s now hard to imagine a world where that wasn’t possible.

I remember having a CD walkman and a CD player, which at the time seemed so cool because you could choose songs without waiting, even if the machines skipped sometimes. And before that, I think I recall a cassette walkman, on which I would play mixtapes I had recorded off the radio, pausing, rewinding and fast-forwarding the songs I loved when I was 10. Before that, I have vague memories of an old radio my dad kept in his workshop in the basement, where he would play classic rock while he built adirondack chairs and American Girl doll furniture. I had seen a few record albums in the basement, tucked away here and there–Billy Joel, maybe Earth, Wind and Fire–but I don’t know that I’d ever heard music play from a record player. (Greg showed me one once while we were walking around in NYC, but it was in the window of a store that was closed–so, no music.) Long before I was born, jukeboxes were installed at the Wonderbar Restaurant, owned by my godmother’s family in Worcester, Mass. When I worked there all through high school, the music was always playing–Sinatra crooning away as hungry families ate Italian.

I never really thought about music players dating before that. But this timeline from Steven E. Schoenherr (that unfortunately only takes us through 2005) gives a detailed history of how people jammed out to their tunes all the way back to the first recording of a human voice on a tin foil phonograph in 1877. Now we can share music online, start our own Internet radio stations, discuss the meaning of lyrics with people all over the world with the click of a button–hard to believe it all started with a clunky phonograph in the 19th century.

What’s interesting too, is that I associate certain songs and artists with certain music players. When you think about it, technology can drive our music memories. Do you have songs or albums that you think of in the context of the technology you use or used to listen to them? And how far back do you remember? Growing up, did you ever imagine that we’d carry music around in our pockets, listen to it from our mobile phones, never hear a skip or have to fast forward to the song we really wanted? I didn’t. Thomas Edison probably didn’t. Did you?

Amanda Gravel is not Amanda Chapel

I just want to take a minute to clarify something that I only recently came to discover.  Some people have been confusing me–Amanda GRAVEL–with Amanda CHAPEL.  I really don’t know much about what’s going on behind the Strumpette panties Twitter avatar, but that definitely isn’t me.  I’m a real person, as many will attest.  Just figured I’d mention that in case there was still any confusion.

My Last 24 Hours Ruled

My life is pretty great overall, but the past 24 hours have been quite stellar.  Let’s discuss:

1. SummerMash Boston: Boston had been looking forward to this hot party for months, and last night it was finally here.  Pete and the gang showed us a good time at the Roxy on Tremont St., with drinks, food, music, photos, networking, hugs, high-fives and prizes keeping the night going strong.  Oh, did I mention prizes?  Yeah.  That.  Last night I put one SHIFT business card into the running for a pass to SXSW–and I won!  It was funny, because I had been saying that I never win things, and then Karen Hartline called my name.  Totally wild.  I’m thrilled.  Thank you to Mashable for a great night out and for handing out such a sweet prize.
2. Move-in Date: September 1 is the absolute worst day in Boston every year.  Thousands of students are moving back, young adults who’ve graduated but still live here are switching places, roommates are shuffling around… it’s just awful.  And that’s my move-in date.  But wait–my awesome realtor told me that the people in my new place are moving out 6 days early, so I don’t have to move on the darkest day in Beantown.  FTW!
3. Positive Feedback: Today I’ve just been feeling like my work has been appreciated, that people are saying thank you, and that my efforts in various endeavors haven’t gone unnoticed.  It’s a good feeling.  And please, let’s take it one step further, outside of my little life–tell someone in your life that you appreciate what they do for you, or say thank you where you otherwise wouldn’t.  It means a lot to hear it, sometimes more than you may expect.
4. SYTYCD: The finale performance show is tonight, it’s awesome, and I love it.

Photo by Gradon Tripp