“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
~ Henry David Thoreau

Having graduated early, the majority of my friends were still attending class, writing papers and living the college life while I was blessed enough to have found a full-time job in the exact field I hoped for, I often forgot that my friends were still in the job search with up in the air futures.

This past week I’m happy to say literally all of my friends from BU and other schools received job offers and some are already settled in their new positions. I wanted to post this to say how overwhelmingly ecstatic and proud I am of each and every one of you.

Congrats! I hope you enjoy every minute of it.

With two of my close friends recently discovering the wonders of Foursquare, I’ve heard the phrase “Did you check in yet?” more times than I can count. Each stop warrants a new Foursquare check in, and on good days, a new badge or mayorship.

Combining the media frenzy that surrounds the popular location based service and eagerness of social media addicts to try the “next Twitter,” Foursquare’s check in rate more than doubled in February. Even though some believe Foursquare is a unique service that is paving the path for all location based services, many early adopters the days of Brightkite and Google Latitude. Unfortunately, neither services were able to tap into the perfect mix like Foursquare.

So, why do you check-in? I was introduced to Foursquare as a location-based service where if I can receive coupons and other promotions from businesses when I check in at their venue. I love the check-in part of Foursquare but have yet to experience any type of promotional activity on the application. Since many already discussed the idea of Foursquare being the “next Twitter,” is this an indication of how quickly businesses will adapt to yet another social media service?

The way I see it, Twitter is still a scary concept to many businesses, both large and small. Blogging has yet to be widely accepted by top management. Communications professionals are still experiencing resistance when trying to introduce a company to the world of social media. So, how long will it take them to latch on to Foursquare?

We will see a trend similar to Twitter but I think business leaders will actually be more open to the idea. Those who have started to use Twitter have already taken a huge step. If their Twitter usage has been successful to them as a brand or a business, the next step of joining Foursquare is much smaller than the first. They’ve already seen how social media can help them and will hopefully be much more open to the idea than they probably were even just a year ago.

I feel uncommonly blessed when it comes to my college experience for several reasons, but mainly, in regards to academics, because of the valuable relationships I formed with my professors and friends, or soon-to-be colleagues. I learned everything from the intricacies of public relations to the routines of interviewing to the practice of networking while soaking up the knowledge of my experienced professors and the tales of friends just dipping their toes in the world, learning from everyone and sharing what I could.

An important milestone was, of course, my first internship interview and for someone who has never been in the hot seat before, it can be a very daunting. I went to everyone and everything – professors, friends, family, internet – gathering all the advice I could before taking my first step in the professional world.

Now that I’ve had the amazing opportunity to sit on the other side of the table and be the one asking the questions, I realized that some students might not have the resources I did when preparing for an interview and while all were wonderfully to speak with, some either forgot or didn’t know some of the basics of interviewing.

I wanted to share the three things that no prospective employee should ignore:

1. Research the company/agency before the interview
2. Create a list of questions to spit out when asked the final “Do you have any questions for me?” question
3. Write thank you emails after the interview

While the above might seem rudimentary, the most common one to forget is writing a thank you note. This is a tried and true tactic that will remind interviewers about your interview, and allows you to repeat some of your best qualities that set yourself apart from others for the position. In terms of always having questions prepared, this is a piece of advice I heard from almost everyone and I believe helped me many times in my interviews. Even asking a question that you don’t necessarily need to know the answer to will show how interested you are and might also uncover some facts about the internship or company that you didn’t know about. When jobs are as competitive as they are these days, it’s the little things that set you apart from the rest.

I was recently crafting a long (semi-rant) post about my Twitter frustrations, mainly consisting of my comments on Follow Friday (when will it end?) and spamming on Twitter. Thankfully, an event occurred earlier this week that caused me to change my tune and remind me exactly why I started my relationship with Twitter in the first place.

Boloco has become my meal of choice during the work days for a couple of reasons. 1) I can have a full lunch for under $5 and 2) It’s right around the corner from my office. Basically, there was no downside to this. Then, I was sitting at my desk happily munching on a Classic Burrito, when, alas, I found a chicken bone in my non-chicken meal. This, of course, caused me to throw out the rest of my lunch because if there’s a chicken bone in my food, who knows what else made it’s way in there!

I had already been on my Twitter page and I thought immediately (being the PR nerd that I am) – let’s see if Boloco is on top of their social media! I tweeted about my lunch time issue and immediately, the CEO (@Boloco) tweeted back with an apology and offering my money back. He also contacted the manager of Boloco location and asked them to be more careful. There was nothing they could have done to impress me more and they passed my little social media test with flying colors.

THIS is what Twitter is great for. It’s not a place to talk about your date last night, what you’re eating for dinner, or the other mundane activities that, let’s face it, NO ONE has any interest in reading. But companies and brands need to grab hold of the ever evolving world that is Twitter and other social media efforts because this is where everything is moving. It’s no longer solely about monitoring what the media is saying about your brand, it’s about each and every person.

If Boloco hadn’t responded during my test, I would’ve been thoroughly disappointed with them. After the chicken bone incident, I couldn’t stand the thought of returning to Boloco. Now? They’ve completely changed my thoughts about the brand, and because of their efforts, I will definitely give them a second chance.

Props to Boloco, and other brands who are doing the same thing.