#Epic Night of Epicness

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @maniacalmorgan

So, my Thursday night started just like any other Thursday night. Work work work. I was finishing up at work when I got a text from @TGumb: "Big plans for tonight and your coming" I'm always down for an adventure, so we met up at Backstage Bar and Grill..

So, I get there a tid bit early, but that's okay. I had my awesome adorable Spirithood on. Yeah, I made friends really quickly. I also discovered that they had $3 beers. It would have been fiscally irresponsible for me to not take advantage of said $3 beers, so I had a few. Tucker (@TGumb) showed up with his friends Lance and Mia and we proceeded to do some more drinking. We had a few extra spirithoods with us, so we were letting people try them on and just having a genuinely good time. Awesome. As the bar was wrapping up, the night was just getting started.

Tucker (the responsible DD) drove us downtown for the next part of the night. We had no idea what was in store for us. We end up at this Korean place called the Wi Spa. 

We walk in to the lobby and they give us all uniforms to put on. What? To put it lightly, I was not sober. At all. Poor Mia had to go to the ladies locker room while us guys went to ours. We changed and somehow in the process I got split up from everyone. I wandered up some stairs to the next floor. What did I find? A big open room with 50 people sleeping on mats everywhere. Like, what? Creepy. I go up another flight of stairs to the roof. Just some tables and a smoking area. I end up downstairs in the big open room and find Lance and Tucker. Now, on the outside of this big open room are all these doors to small saunas. The first one we go in is the ice sauna. ICE SAUNA. Yes, it was 40 degrees in there. We sat around cold as shit until I say enough. We found a couple of mats in the main room and lay down to wait for Mia. Might I add, that the tiles in the main room are all heated. Yep, hot floor. I had no idea what was going on. Oh, also. It was dead quiet. No one was talking or making any sounds. Being drunk makes quiet nearly impossible. Mia finally found us and told us horror stories that was the women's spa. She apparently didn't know where to go, so went and sat in the women's spa where they make you take your clothes off. Yeah, so you can imagine how awkward she felt. Some time during the night, we decided that we were hungry. By sometime, I definitely mean 3am. We called some random 24 hour food joint and had them deliver us sandwiches. Oh. My. God. We ended up staying there and exploring all the other sauna rooms until 8am. Can I just tell you that one of the sauna rooms was 240 degrees? Yeah, too hot if you ask me. This won't be a night that I'll be forgetting anytime soon.

#EPIC

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2011: The rise of the entertainment based checkin

If 2010 was the year of location based social media, 2011 will be the year of entertainment based checkins.

Let's face it, TV as we know it, is in for a major facelift. The recession caused a lot of people to reassess their finances, and one of the greatest casualties has been cable TV subscriptions. The rise of online streaming entertainment via Hulu and Netflix created an unparalleled demand for multimedia consumption, at an otherwise perfect time with social media in and of itself becoming something that cannot be ignored. MONNEEYYYYY is behind social media, as the engagement brands can have is priceless; that is powerful. When was the last time we actually sat through commercials anyway? Hello, Tivo!! It's all a numbers game, and they're just no longer adding up.

1/12th of humanity has a Facebook page - its undeniable. Google may have brought us the access to the information, but Facebook made the web a destination point for social interaction. Kudos, Marky Mark and your Facebook bunch!

We're willing to share the most mundane details of our lives and find value in it when our friends comment, and interact with us about it. It enhances the experience for those that actually lived it, and allows our network to be a part of the story telling in an incredibly passive but still meaningful way. We're literally taking all of the elements that make up life, and digitizing it. Talk about the greatest time to be alive for a nerd ... #sigh ...

Foursquare, the coolest kid in the location based social media game, had an incredible year. They've recently just passed 5 million users with a growth rate of 25,000 new accounts everyday. Dude, they're killing it. The World Economic Forum announced the company as a Technology Pioneer for 2011; they've had an incredible year, and recently claimed office space in San Fran.*golfclap*

I love love love me some Foursquare. I love going someplace new, checking in, and reading tweets from you all about what I should check out while I am there. Hence why I also enjoy the tips section as well. Think of all the times someone tells you that you should check something out, and it just goes in one ear and out the other. Foursquare allows that information to be stored and utilized only when you need it. Amazeballs!

Let's face facts here though, how many of us actually get out and about? We're creatures of habit, and being reminded of your 12,000,000 checkin at the same coffee shop everyday I'm sure can get a bit old. Rather than change our habits, we'd just end up losing value in the service in general, and subsequently just stop using it all together. 

Foursquare has relationships with MTV, Vh1, Logo, and the History Channel just to name a few, why not offer entertainment based checkins as well? For reals!

Entertainment based checkins are relatively new on the social media scene, but have SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much value!! The current heavyweights are Miso, Get Glue, and Clicker. Miso is cool, I met with their CEO earlier this year ... not mad at it, but not excited about it either. They offer badges for certain checkins, which are cool and all, but I don't necessarily want to be reminded of how many times I've watched Weeds. I don't have the same sense of pride in their badges as I do my FourSquare badges since TV is the leading cause of couch potato syndrome. FourSquare badges are like stamps in your passport. We wear them proudly.

Get Glue offers stickers. I'm not mad at it ... but I'm still just kinda meh. Clicker prides itself on being the TV guide for web watching. Awesome concept, but dudes were totally behind their branding. It has no personality. Foursquare is fun, and flirty ... the verbiage is cheeky, and the badges are just a riot. That works! We want to have FUNNNNNNN using this stuff, because it is FUN!!!

Right now, there is no loyalty to a single entertainment based checkin service. Facebook and Netflix are apparently in talks which could be a HUGE game changer ... but dude, Foursquare - you're missing out on a HUGGEE market!! If FourSquare came into the entertainment based checkin game, they'd kill it! You have this entire CHUNK of nerds that don't leave their house for one reason or another, so they won't use the service! By creating an avenue for those people to be able to share what they are doing at home, like watching the latest episode of Chuck, you're adding value to their life by them being able to share it. I feel like this is such a no brainer it's not even funny. But again, it has less to do with the actual social service and more to do with the people running it. It's the ultimate variable!!! I learned that from working for Brad Greenspan, one of the founders of MySpace, on LiveVideo back at the end of 2007. The man was sitting on an AMAZING platform, but was solely interested in milking it for as much money as he could, then walking away. He had no long term vision, and was overall one of the hottest messes imaginable.

The most interesting part about all of this too, is that I actually consume WAYYYY more movies and television series on my computer than I ever did when I watched it on the flat screen thing on the wall that doesn't connect to the internet. Think of the potential for advertisers too!! Dude! You login to what you're watching on TV, sync it with your Facebook page, giving marketers access to your likes and dislikes ... this is going to create an UNIMAGINABLE marketing opportunity which can be friggen captured in REAL TIME!! I kid you not when I say that I think about this so much my head actually hurts. Greatest time to be alive!! Ever. Ever. Everrrrrrr!!

Bottom line, I can't tell you who is going to come out on top just yet ... it's way way wayyyyyy too far out. But SUPPERRRR stoked that TV is going social. There's SO much added value in it, its crazy. You guys make my life when I checkin to watching something on Netflix, and you tweet me details about what I'm watching. It's awesome ... and I'm listening, so keep it up!! Whoop whoop!

#nerdsunite

Gap integrates #Foursquare in banner ads

looky looky what I just saw on Twitter ... 

Superly duperly smart ... but I don't ever use the "to-do" list. Do you guys?? It never occurs to me to use it. Definitely a feature though that could use some nerdy lovin. Maybe it would take something like this to do it. It's pretty smart marketing too since the "to do" list shows up on the web page for all of your friends to see when they're based in that city. But how often do your friends actually ever visit the foursquare.com home page? I dunno ... kinda on the fence. I dig foursquare in real time. I love checking in when I get somewhere, especially if there is a discount involved - but as far as my friends are concerned the only time I ever focus on that is when I happen to be checking in, or am looking for something to do - and scope where all my friends currently are. Foursquare is very much an in real time kinda network. I don't know if the to-do component will have any place in it. Maybe if they offered some alert when you were near it, that could work. Like, in LA - I checked in at the grove, and oh yeah there's a gap here ... so upon checking in I receive an alert saying, hey! this was on your to-do list! Why not move it to the to-done?! =)

I am confident that Foursquare will figure this out. Either way, w2g! 

For reals ... I cannot WAIIITTTTTTTT until I checkin at times square or something, and my face pops up on an applicable billboard. So much in marketing has changed ... I'M SO FREAKING EXCITED!!!!!

Greatest.Time.To.Be.Alive!! BAHH!! 

Here's my foursquare, btw: www.foursquare.com/JenFriel

Let's be BFFs! 

#nerdsunite

#HotMama Coming Soon!

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @JenSquard

Okay, it's time to get my swell on.  Here's the thing - having 3 kids in 4 years fucks you up.  For reals.  Between the three I gained 150.  I've lost most of that, but each pregnancy retained like 12 pounds, which means I've got like 35 pounds to wiggle out of.  Cue FourSquare checkin: 

It's on like Donkey Kong!  I'm certainly not fat, and it shouldn't be too hard.  And I finally know I'm not going to be pregnant again in a few months, so it won't all be pointless.  So yeah - I've got my Girl Talk loaded, and I'm gonna go kick the crap out of the gym.  Today.  As soon as Brian gets home.  And I'm gonna get my body back!

#HellsYa!

Come and Tweet all over my Facebook.  You know you like it dirty.

@PeteCashmore uses Facebook Places, but no love for @FourSquare?

I find @PeteCashmore to be a terribly interesting individual. I mean let's just face facts ... I'd pretty much jump his bones anytime his loverly GF says it's okay haha!! But for reals ... Pete and I are friends on Facebook. He used to say that he wasn't big on the location based social media game, because if he "checked in" somewhere, people would show up. Dude, totally get it - you're a big deal.

So, why is Pete now using Facebook Places??? He doesn't check in that often, but enough that it clearly caught my attention in my newsfeed, which btw gets a bit flooded at times with so much nerdy lovin going on. You guys are AWESOME! I have to start to wonder if Pete felt a level of trepidation in declaring an alliance with either FourSquare or Gowalla. Pete does follow a much more conservative path, and clearly Facebook Places is only going to introduce location based social media to 500 million of our closest nerdy friends. It's not like it's going anywhere with more than 200 million using Facebook's mobile services. Hmmmmmm ... Either way, it just made me wonder. I knew FourSquare was going to be a way bigger deal than Gowalla, just based on psychology, which is why I contacted them at the beginning of the year. But then again, my value in FourSquare is based on the tips, and general gaming component. Dude, I kick ASS in FourSquare!!! I'm the mayor of things in 3 different states!! Jigga ... jigga ... jigga!!!

It's most likely just a business decision on his end. As to not appear too out of touch with the booming location based space. You gotta be able to walk the walk and talk the talk. Either way, inquiring nerdy minds wanna know!!!

#WhatsTheStoryMorningGlory???