In 2008 my friend and roommate at the time had surgery on her back and was excited to make her return back to running, as she had run cross country and longer distances since high school and her back problem kept her from doing what she loved. Seeing how excited she was to get back into action, I decided to start running with her. At first it was simply a means for  me to get back into shape and to keep her company, but as I continued through the training schedule, I started to love having a set routine to follow and discovering new things in my neighborhood and surroundings. That year I ran a 5k and a 10k, but never ever fathomed wanting to run a marathon in my wildest dreams. Seeing my friend and so many other runners cross the finish line at the Chicago Marathon inspired me to want to do the same. I really didn’t think I would be able to ever run 26.2 miles. I had a year and I had some friends with the experience to share with me and I had my trusty internet to look up information about all things running.

Flash forward to ’09 and my big jump into using Twitter. I had been an avid user of Facebook to update and connect with friends and family, but the running updates were starting to get on people’s nerves. On Twitter I was quite impressed with the fact that there are literally a plethora of different niche groups of users who love talking all things running, or any other topic you can think of. Not only that, but meeting other runners in person, who had been running as long as I have or even longer was such a great discovery for me. During the tough Summer training months, I grew more and more confident after completing every Saturday long run. It was a whole new feeling of accomplishment. This feeling inspired me to start a Facebook page for other runners who may feel the same way about running as I do. Through Facebook and Twitter, I was able to connect with more and more people. My 2009 Chicago Marathon experience was a bit bittersweet as I caught a cold two days prior to the race and I still ran the whole thing by myself by choice.

After my 2009 marathon experience, I caught the running bug and remain today addicted to running, even though it can tend to be a love / hate situation. During my 2010 training season and my current training season, I have come to realize that training with a group of people and meeting up with people to train, participate in races, eat post-run and talk all things running with was way more exhilarating than simply joining a Summer training group and do most of my runs by myself. Through social media, I have been able to connect with runners, help motivate other runners, answer beginner’s questions and discuss my experience with others.

What’s so great about that? Well, the Facebook friends of mine who could care less about all of my running updates don’t have to be bogged down by my status updates so much, because I can share my love for running with those who want to hear about it! The running page that I created is still up and running and even has international fans! People feel open to share their questions, favorite race photos, opinions on all things running and even help motivate each other when someone may just not be feeling that double digit long run.

With Twitter, being one of the  #runnerds is an honor and a treat. It’s great to see what people really think about running and what makes them a “Runnerd”. If you have yet to join Twitter, you may want to consider it a try when you can find so many others to relater to and converse with!

The Facebook bible is filled with detailed resource pages, how to guides, and case studies on the most successful campaigns currently on Facebook. The bible allows advanced helpful tips to ensure that companies get the most out of marketing on Facebook.

The Facebook Bible advances your companies social marketing by helping you build, design, promote, and communicate through Facebook. For company’s advertising through Facebook, The Facebook Bible is a must have. For those who are not yet on set up, why not start with the help of The Facebook Bible?

The January 2011 Facebook Marketing Bible has now been released. Through January 31st all customers who purchase The Bible will receive a $25 Facebook Ads advertising credit, awesome boost  to help you kick off your social marketing. The bible is available at facebookmarketingbible.com

Hipstamatic is the first App selected which is available for iPhone users. The $1.99 App turns the iPhone camera into a toy camera. With its retro-recreation this App is unique from any other App. You can share your new pics through Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter. Most of all you can order prints on real photo paper, sweet! This App gives a creative twist to taking mobile photos.

Next, GoodReader is $1.99 App for ipad and is one of the best business Apps you can get for Apple’s tablet. At first sight GoodReader appeared to be like the PDF and document reader that Apple lacked in iOS. However, since its launch Apple beefed it up, opening large files and acting as a fantastic file manger and viewer. Mashable claims that what makes this App different than just a regular file viewer is that you can easily connect to network or cloud-based services to download file archives off the net. You can also add personal touches to the files like annotations, notes, and drawings.

Lastly is Pulse which is available for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Pulse is part of a trend of Apps that are recreating the news reading experience. Pulse is part Rss reader, part social aggregator, and simply just cool to look at.  Pulse is a awesome free way to get news on your mobile device.

Mobile Apps are simply an amazing advance in technology mainly because they are quick and accessible anytime and anyplace. Rather than having to sit down at your home computer or whip out your laptop and connect to the internet,  most mobile devices come equip with wifi. This provides a  simple  solutions to your problems at the very palm of your hand. From checking an updated score of a Monday night football game, to discovering which store sells those pair of pants cheaper, to figuring out what restaurant is rated highest in the area your in. Whatever it is you need to do I will assure you it is possible through a mobile App. There are endless possibilities for the future of mobile Apps, which is already made clear by the common phrase “There’s an App for That.”

We at Blueye want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, belated  Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa and even Happy Festivus, if that is more your speed. Whatever you celebrate, we hope you keep that sense of joy glued to your face. If you need help and don’t have an Aunt Carol in your family, here is a lovely eggnog recipe sure to get you glowing in the holiday spirit.

When first launching, Hulu seemed like a very innovative and convenient site to utilize. With hands tied by major networks they’ve partnered with, the creators of Hulu are unable to be ahead of the curve with new ways of viewing TV. Speculators say that it’s a little late to present a paid subscription version of the site. It is said that networks are intentionally holding back shows and limiting what can be launched to help better the site.

Networks are becoming more focused on how much money they continue to make on advertising on the traditional television and partnerships with cable companies, then how they can gain more within the custom internet ads played during the episodes available online. Form your own opinion, but check out this post titled “Why Hulu is the OPEC of OnlineVideo” on TechCrunch by guest writer, Mark Suster.

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Now that Foursquare has become a fun and useful tool for many people to use, there comes that awkward moment when a friend you often try to avoid hanging out with or an ex who “just happens” to show up at the same place as you and your friends appears (AWKWARD!)

Enter avoidr.org. Simply sign in using your Foursquare login and avoidr literally cross-checks “where your not-friends are so you can avoid them.”

Pretty brilliant! If you had avoidr and Four Square sooner, you could have saved yourself some unwanted forced cordial conversation or just the occasional dirty looks (second 28) from across the room.

Today I received a link from a co-worker. It was to davidondemand.com, a live feed of David Perez, who really wanted to go to the Advertising Festival in Cannes, France. Leo Burnett agreed to pay for his trip out to Cannes, but under one condition, he had to do whatever the Twittersphere told him to do for the entire week while in Cannes. He was at our mercy for the entire week, 24 hours day. I was even honored by a very “sweet” limerick dedicated to me because I told his dinner mates to put salt in his wine while he was away from the table. He was none too pleased upon taking a sip and spitting out the spoiled beverage. It has been a really funny week watching him. He got a tattoo of the Twitter Fail Whale, ran on the beach like Bo Derek in “10″ and para sailing. This was a pretty hilarious and refreshing site to come across. Watching the ridiculous commands from other tweeters in the feed next to the Live video feed was both distracting and hilarious. I had to remove myself from watching the site all day, so I could get my work done, but returned to the video at the end of the day to see what trouble David Perez has gotten into. My question to you is, would you do really do ANYTHING for an awesome prize like a week trip to Cannes?