Paris Hilton’s Top Twenty Travel Tweets

by Andrew Evans on
OK, so how creepy is it for a grown man to follow Paris Hilton? Because I do, like, on Twitter.

I’m not ashamed–on the contrary–I love Paris and will always defend her, because that’s what BFF’s do for each other. For the record, I’m no follower-come-lately. I’ve been with @ParisHilton back to the time when she was barely hovering around one million followers. Since then, we’ve gone through so much together, she and I–Life’s ups and downs, laughs and cries, canceled flights, denied visas, the works.

What I’ve learned about Paris is that she and I have SO much in common: We both love scuba diving, we both use superlatives freely, we like to fly carry-on only, we just adore baby animals and both enjoy deep tissue massage. Oh! And we’re both 29 years old!

We’re also crazy about travel–loves it–though if it was a contest Paris totally wins, chihuahua paws down. No matter that I’ve been to some 25 countries this year–Paris travels much, much more. In the last year she’s been to France, South Africa, Brazil, Asia, and Anguilla. She also can’t get enough of Vegas–heads there as much as possible on her private jet.

I always know where Paris is because she’s forever sending little messages from such-and-such a place, often with a little picture to prove that she’s really there. It’s our more intimate version of postcards and over the years I’ve been collecting her digital missives in stacks.

Here’s a few of my favorites from 2010, unedited and published in full with links for the sake of journalistic integrity (Thank you Paris!):

1. I LOVE BRAZIL!! :) 7:04 PM Sep 26th

2. Love Michigan, so fun. Been fishing all day and been at our friend son’s 16th birthday party all night, now lighting fire works. Loves it! 9:12 PM Sep 18th
3. I love Vegas!
4. On set, what another beautiful day in LA. I love this city! :) 2:27 PM Aug 9th

5. Just went on Space Mountain 3 times in a row. My favorite ride at Disneyland. So much fun! :) 11:37 PM Aug 3rd

6. On set of the music video shoot. What an incredible house were shooting at and the weather is just beautiful! I Love Ibiza! 4:32 AM Jul 28th
7. Having the time of my life in St Tropez! Best Summer Ever! :) 10:26 AM Jul 23rd via web
8. Portofino is such a beautiful place. http://twitpic.com/26zwce 7:12 AM Jul 20th via Twitpic // Sailing to Portofino. Looking forward to the shopping there and amazing italian food. Loves it!

9. http://twitpic.com/13bhne – Me in Seoul, Korea

10. Jetting off to yet another amazing destination. Life is amazing! http://twitpic.com/25s5hy 8:11 AM Jul 16th
11. Another day in beautiful Paris. The most romantic city on the planet. Friday, July 16, 2010 8:24:35 AM
12, Having the most incredible time in South Africa. This place is magical! I Love Life! 3:59 AM Jul 7th
13. Went to Cape of Good Hope. So beautiful. Saw the cutest penguins and ostrichs. Having an amazing dinner in Cape
Town now. Love the food here 12:27 PM Jul 4th
14. Cape Town Rocks! 6:20 PM Jul 3rd
15. Finally finished packing for my trip. Excited to go to Brazil again. :) 12:39 AM Jun 9th
16. Had such an incredible day! Saw the mummy’s and tombs at The Egyptian Museum, Went in the Pyramids, Saw the Sphynx and rode Camels. So Fun! 5:13 PM Jun 3rd
17. Such a Beautiful View from My Room. Central Park is so Beautiful. http://twitpic.com/1rcmob 4:49 PM May 26th

18. Just landed in Madrid for a couple important business meetings. It is so beautiful here! I Love Spain! :) 10:36 AM May 13th

19. I Love staying at The Fountainbleau Hotel in Miami. It’s such a beautiful hotel and has the best club and restaurants. Th Club LIV is fun! 7:03 PM Mar 22nd

20. Just landed back in LA. :) Can’t wait to get home to all my pets, miss them so much! :) 10:56 PM Feb 16th

NYC marathon runners urged to focus on the race, fight the urge to tweet

by Tom Johansmeyer on

You’d think running 26.2 miles would demand all your attention, right? Apparently, the lure of connectedness is so great that a runners’ group is putting the word out to resist temptation. Sean Haubert, who manages social media for the New York Road Runners, which organizes the ING New York City Marathon, told the NY Daily News:

“People need to focus on the race,” Haubert said. “There are people running ahead of you, tying a shoelace or someone may throw a cup your way.”

This is good advice, since some runners are already planning their status updates. Arturo Barcenas, for example, told the NY Daily News:

“I’m already thinking about my updates like ‘NYC Marathon, here I go again’ or ‘I’m in one piece,'” Barcenas said of his Facebook page. “Maybe if I get a quick break I can tell my friends ‘I hope I do better than last year.'”

So, how hardcore are you? Would you be able to run a marathon without letting your friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter know where you are and how you’re doing? Leave a comment to let us know!

[photo by Randy Lemoine via Flickr]

Four Seasons to host Twitter wine tasting

by Melanie Nayer on

Social media just got a little sexier.

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts are bringing the fine art of wine tasting to Twitter on Nov. 17.

Join three Four Seasons sommeliers in a virtual wine tasting using the hashtag #FSWine. Sommeliers James Tidwell, Mark Sayre and Dana Farner will lead participants in a guided tasting of three distinct wines – Loosen Bros. Dr. L Riesling, Paraiso Syrah and Chappellet Mountain Cuvee. They’ll discuss each wine and its unique flavors, how to pair them with seasonal dishes and tips for weaving the wines into holiday menus. The virtual wine event will end with a question and answer session.

So how does one actually *taste* the wine if it’s virtual? Buy the wines yourself, or head to a Four Seasons hotel for a “tweetup” during the event, where participants can sample the wines and mingle in person while also conversing over Twitter. Tweetups will be held in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Las Colinas, Houston, Miami, New York City, Palm Beach, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Toronto.

If you can’t make it to one of the hotels, log on to Twitter at 7 p.m. Eastern time Nov and search for the hashtag #FSWine. To ensure that comments and questions are woven into the conversation, include the #FSWine hashtag with each tweet.

Cheers!

Travel and social media: five ways to cut through it all

by Tom Johansmeyer on

As I was scanning the headlines this morning, I came across Christopher Elliott’s article, “Are travelers overloaded by social media?” It’s a fair question. Not only are more and more of us plugging in – Twitter, for example, is adding 1.8 million new users a week – but we’re being increasingly being bombarded “communicated to” by hotels and airlines that are eager to get a bigger share of our wallets. So, there’s a whole lot of status updating and tweeting going on, and we need to figure out how to deal with it all.

It’s easy to blame the marketing guys for this. Aren’t they the people responsible, clogging our Facebook news feeds and Twitter timelines with hot deals and other promotional content? Well, yes … but we want some of that. That’s why I follow, for example, people like @Bsimi and @Colonnade, not to mention @JetBlue.

So, we have to balance our desire for promotional content (and let’s be honest – we do desire it) with keeping our social media environments clean and decidedly our own. Here are five ways you can get what you want without giving up too much:1. Make loyalty choices: with all the content floating around, you need to trim down the number of travel businesses you follow in order to truly take advantage of the best deals. Otherwise, you risk not seeing what you really want. Decide which brands mean the most to you, and ditch the others.

2. Make travel brands earn your social media share: for me at least, it takes more than a few hot deals to get me to follow a brand on Twitter or like it on Facebook. I want interesting content and customer service, too. I may test out a social media relationship for a while, but to make it stick, the company is going to have to perform.

3. Watch your friends: if you see a brand retweeted or otherwise interacting with one of your friends, it may be worth following it – or at least asking your friend why. This is why I follow @FSHotelHouston (Four Seasons Hotel Houston), for example, which was based on Twitter action I saw from @welshwonder.

4. “Favorite” and “like” what matters: use these features to bookmark social media content that you may want to use later. It will keep great deals from getting lost in your active social media stream.

5. Use these relationships effectively: By trimming your list down, you are effectively making a statement about customer loyalty – make sure the people managing those accounts know that! Don’t do it just for perks. Instead, develop a real relationship with the person behind the brand.

Top five social media destinations

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Do you live your life in 140 characters are less? Have you almost lost your life several times because you had to get that shot of a crazy cab driver uploaded to Facebook? If this is anything like you, here are five cities you’re just going to love.

NetProspex has ranked the cities in the United States by social media activity, and the results are not at all surprising. Using the NetProspex Social Index (PDF), which the company developed, it was able to rank activity across a number of social media platforms, including Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Here are the details on the methodology:

The data was mined from their database of business contacts. There are three components to the score. First there is social connectedness: the number of employees with at least one social media profile. Second there is social friendliness and reach: the average number of connections per employee across major social networks. Third is social activity: the average number of tweets, number of followers, and number of users following.

So, who wins? Take a look below:
1. San Francisco: home of Twitter and long-time tech city, is this really surprising?

2. San Jose: okay, like San Francisco but not as cool … pretty easy to see this one coming

3. New York: 8 million people with nothing better to do and plenty to TwitPic

4. Austin: who knew the country’s sexiest city would also be one of its most socially connected? Hot people flock together and like to stay in touch

5. Boston: another tech center, especially the metro area, and there really is nothing better to do up there …

[Thanks @zimmermitch, photo by Laurie DePrete]