I’m a big sucker for companies who go above and beyond for their customers and 1-800-PetMeds put a giant smile of my face when I opened up my shipped package. Inside were the two boxes of medication I ordered and two dog treats with a note that read “The big treat is for Leidi B and the small one is for Nikki.” (I had two dogs, a 70-pound Lab and a 20-pound Jack Russel).

When companies send you a little extra with your purchase, it means a lot, but when companies say “Hey, we paid attention and know you have two dogs, a big one and a small one, so we took the liberty to send you appropriate treats,” I’m hooked and even more so, I’ve become an advocate.

My vet even tried to convince me once to buy meds from her instead of 1-800-PetMeds, but I stood strong next to the company that not only cares about my pets’ needs, but also provides excellent products and customer service.

My latest purchase was a doggie bed that made me envy my dog; it’s really comfy: Ortho Small Dog Sleeper.

Oh and I love that no matter how big the company gets, they’ll always interact with you on Twitter.

P.S. Did you know that they’re based in South Florida? Just in case you needed another reason to like them

Kaufman, Rossin & Co.‘s tagline is “See beyond the numbers” and that’s exactly what their mission is with Social Media. KRCO is very much involved in the community and they want you to see their human side, that they’re more than just accountants and bookeepers. Afterall, there’s got to be a reason they’ve been named “Best Place to Work” by the South Florida Business Journal for five years and received Florida Trends’ “Florida’s Best Companies to Work For 2010″ award. And while we’re mentioning awards, let’s not forget their Accounting Todays’ “Best Accounting Firm to Work For 2010″ award. They deserve a round of applause! *clap* *clap* *clap*

Aubrey studied Accounting as well as International Finance and Marketing at the University of Miami and earned her position at KRCO by proving herself as an intern first. Aubrey is as social in real life as she is online and if you’ve ever had the opportunity to meet her, you’d know that she’s very eager to learn and expand her expertise across several platforms.

Aubrey has used different Social Media channels to establish the KRCO brand into the community and build/strengthen relationships with their followers. Her latest campaign was a Facebook photo contest in which she asked KRCO fans to submit a photo of themselves being involved in the community. The winner, Lesley Lyons, received a $500 donation prize to the charity of her choice: the Humane Society of Greater Miami.

Another one of Aubrey’s campaigns includes Social Media outreach for the Trial Pad, an app that allows attorneys to present evidence electronically in court rooms. KRCO has teamed up with a litigation firm to provide attorneys with this cost-effective courtroom tool.

KRCO is more than an accounting firm, they’re community leaders and innovators – they’re a company worth following. Learn more from Aubrey herself in the following video.

Interview: Kaufman, Rossin & Co. 5.8.11 from Agustina Prigoshin on Vimeo.

Want to follow Kaufman, Rossin & Co.? You can find them on almost every major Social Media network:

Twitter: @KaufmanRossin

Facebook

LinkedIn

YouTube

Flickr

Inspired by Austin Kleon‘s Newspaper Blackout project, Andres and Kevin started God Loves Poetry with the intention of flipping the negative messages that the Westboro Baptist Church puts out about military funerals and homosexuality into messages of love and inspiration. They collected the church’s press releases and blacked out certain words; the words that were left untouched would read as positive messages. Their mission was to disarm the church with positivity and obliterate their messages of hate.

God Loves Poetry encourages you to spread love by creating your own poems; just visit their site and submit your blackout poem. You can see a few examples on their Flickr page.

Check out the project:

www.GodLovesPoetry.com

Facebook

Twitter: @GodLovesPoetry

Interview: God Loves Poetry 4.24.11 from Agustina Prigoshin on Vimeo.

Web City Girls is a “labor of love,” as Lynn put it. It was originally intended to be a reality show, that featured Lynn’s sister, Linda Ponder-Mayer, but the brand expanded to include an agency branch (focused on public relations, social media and marketing) as well as a media branch (delivering marketing messages for clients that the agency side comes up with).

WCG Media: Mara Fernandez, Lynn Ponder, Linda Ponder

WCG Agency: Lisandra Carballosa and Lynn Ponder

Instead of hearing about how Web City Girls grew into a successful company in just four months from me, let Lynn tell you about it in her interview. Afterward, make sure to check her out in the following networks:

Twitter: @WebCityGirls

Facebook: Web City Girls

Foursquare: WebCityGirls W.

Youtube: WebCityGirls

Interview: Web City Girls 2.13.11 from Agustina Prigoshin on Vimeo.

Jamila and her two business partners, Rochelle Mukiza-Gapere and Daniela Backer, have just launched empoWOMENt, a campaign that aims to help girls and women by empowering them in all aspects of life.

Social Esquire will host a Tweet-a-Thon on Tuesday, March 8, 2011 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. For every tweet that is sent using the #empoWOMENt hashtag, $1 will be donated to a local (Honey Shine Mentoring Program) and international (Global Fund for Women) charity.

Why March 8? As many of us know, March is Women’s History Month, but March 8 is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.

Make sure to visit their site often to view new profiles of empowering women. If you are or know an empowering woman who deserves recognition for all that she does, send Social Esquire an email to empowoment@socialesquire.com with the following information:

• A picture of the empowering woman
• A bio
• Please answer 3 questions:

1. What empowerment means to you
2. What empowers you
3. Why it’s important to be empowered and to empower other women

Social Esquire is looking for donations and sponsors for the Tweet-a-Thon, so if you or your company would like to get involved, please email Jamila, Rochelle or Daniela at empowoment@socialesquire.com.

Make an impact on women worldwide by including #empoWOMENt in your tweets on March 8 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Interview: empoWOMENt 2.7.11 from Agustina Prigoshin on Vimeo.

As some of you know, I work with a youth group and I get a lot of insight from my kids regarding how much importance they give to their online lives. For example, have you ever heard of “FBO”? When some of the high schoolers start dating, they get asked if it’s FBO. FBO: “Facebook Official.” So if your relationship status isn’t changed from “single” to “in a relationship” on Facebook, it’s not 100% official that you’re dating.

It’s cute in a way, that we want to announce to the world of our new relationship, but what about when the relationship ends? Do you feel the breakup pain twice? Once when you actually break up and once again when you tell the world that it’s over? And who should be the first to change that status? Is the person who changes it a bad person for doing it? Talk about adding additional stress to an already stressful situation!

Another big question, and this one I’ve seen from my youth group kids to my adult friends and, I’ll admit it, myself: why take it so personally when someone removes you from their friends on Facebook?

I’ve had falling outs with people in real life that have resulted in unfriending on Facebook. Ever been unfriended? Did it sting a little bit? Why? In real life, we juggle so many relationships and deal with so many personalities that we’re bound to clash against some of them. And in real life, we admit our differences and move on without looking back, but when unfriending occurs on Facebook, it feels like someone kicked dirt in your face. Could it be for the same reason as the relationship status? It’s public?

All in all, I’m wondering why we base so much emotion off of Facebook decisions. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

What started as a regular day turned into a pretty adventure-packed one. I left in the morning to go about my usual business, stopped at Refresh Fort Lauderdale in the evening and then headed to the movies to catch the midnight screening of Iron Man 2. With all the tweeting, texting and checking in, my phone was down to one bar of battery so I turned it off in case I needed it for an emergency.

We got out of the movies around 2:30 a.m. to deal with a stressful situation: We locked the keys in the car and the lights were on. Luckily we had two cars. We took the available car and hit the road en route to pick up the spare key. Finally, with spare key in hand, we got to the car to find that the battery was dead. We then headed to my house to pick up my jumper cables and was greeted by my frantic mother. It was 4:30 a.m. and I forgot to text her to let her know I was alive and what’s worst, I had turned my phone off to conserve its battery. She had called me hundreds of times and even called to wake up my brother to see if he knew about my whereabouts. Knowing that I’m incredibly transparent in everything I do, she decided to check my Facebook page and voila!

She finally calmed down after seeing that I checked in to the movie theater at midnight to catch the movie.

This was a whole long story only to say that FourSquare saved her a call to the police, hospital, morgue and any other horrifying place a mother thinks of calling when their child isn’t responsive.

Then, I got to thinking: With so many news stories on how the police catch suspected crooks via Facebook and Twitter, FourSquare could be used as a great tool to start tracking people who have disappeared, for example.

Worst case scenario: I went missing that night. My mother or even investigators will know where I was at what time of the day (assuming my check ins are honest – which in my case, they are) and even know who was with me. People who checked in to that location with me can probably answer some questions that can help find me.

I’m very picky about who I allow to follow me on FourSquare because in reality, there are some crazy people out there and I don’t want them knowing my every move, but I rest a little better now knowing that my checking in could possibly save me if I were faced with my worst case scenario, which I hope I never have to test.

My mother also got a lesson on how FourSquare works just in case she ever needs to know where I am.

As friends, we tend to listen to each other and support one another in times of need. Some of those needy times are when we’re stressed and need to vent. What if the venting is work-related? How would hearing so much negativity from someone on the “inside” affect our perception of their employer?

A company’s biggest asset is their employees.

After reading each comment from last weeks’ post, I tried to imagine the opposite effect:

“Employees are arguably the BEST brand ambassadors for any company,” wrote Cristina Sotolongo. Imagine if these brand ambassadors are unhappy and complaining about their boss, the company and the way things are run.

“This goes back to the need for ‘authenticity,’” wrote Brian Breslin. Being that our brand ambassadors are our friends, we’ll believe them and more than likely take their side and look down on the company that makes them so unhappy.

“Even if we aren’t altogether familiar with a company or how it works, I think we have a tendency to give it a chance if people we trust are working in its behalf,” wrote Eileen Spiegler. Again, if the people we trust aren’t happy, we’ll more than likely put the blame on the company.

“Thanks for wanting a front row seat to our new ventures!” wrote Mallory Colliflower. If our friends are happy and are excited to work at a company, we’ll get excited to hear about new developments and become loyal fans, but if they’re not happy, we probably won’t give that company any thought.

We’re always hearing about Word of Mouth and its power. In my opinion, negative Word of Mouth is much more powerful and spreads quicker because people find it juicy.

All in all, companies need to be very careful, more so nowadays with Social Media, to ensure their employees are happy. I know you can’t always please everyone, but employers need to make a conscious effort to listen to their employees. There are several cases where companies have noticed their employees complaining about their job via Social Media and fired them. Then there are the companies that see these complaints and take the necessary measures to make the disgruntled employee happy – those are the companies I admire.

Please go to 12seconds.tv and post your Social Media predictions for 2010. How do you think the industry will change? Which network do you think will lead in popularity, usefulness, etc. Any thoughts you may have, we want to hear about it. PLEASE REMEMBER to use the #SM2010 hashtag. And make sure to come to the event to see your predictions discussed in a panel.
We need your Social Media predictions! #SMCSF #SM2010 on 12seconds.tv
Social Media Prediction: Rise of video #SMCSF #SM2010 on 12seconds.tv

Want to meet the SMCSF board? Make sure to follow Alex de Carvalho, Angie Henderson Moncada, Denise Jacobs, John Prieur, Matthew Chamberlin, Michelle Catin, Neil Bardach, Toby Srebnik, Ulises I. Orozco.

I need to write my bio for the Association for Women in Communications, South Florida and had a thought: ask all my friends to help me write it! I have an idea for everyone’s cooperation, but first, I need comments.

Check out the first half of my idea:

[kaltura-widget wid="a2bsjbkw9s" width="400" height="365" addpermission="" editpermission="" /]

NOTE: Please keep your comments professional. This project is professional and any comments that are outside of the realm of profesionalism will be deleted.

Thanks in advance for your help!