The following is a press release about a cool opportunity for two Social Media Travelers. I was contacted by Ben, who asked me if I would share their story with the readers of this and my other travel blog. Please consider adding them on their various other networks and helping them with their cause.

Orlando, Florida – 19 November 2009 – Orlando Residents Ben Reed and Brian Sommer have been selected as finalists by The Tourism Authority of Thailand in their social media competition: Ultimate Thailand Explorers. Beginning December 10^th, Reed and Sommer will embark on a 6-Day assignment to Pattaya, Thailand where the couple will use social media websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to promote the Country of Thailand as a vacation destination.   To be selected as finalists, Reed and Sommer underwent a grueling vetting process including submitting a 1-minute YouTube video explaining why they want to go to Thailand and how they would promote their chosen destination. Selected as 1 of 25 teams from over 200 applicants from dozens of countries, the pair next had to solicit the most votes from Internet users from around the world.   On achieving this milestone Reed said, “We are thankful to the hundreds of fans and followers that voted for us each day.” He continued by adding, “we started with a blank website and in just a few short weeks, grew a twitter following that reached out to tens of thousands of individuals and built an integrated Facebook campaign asking people to vote for us.” Both Reed and Sommer are connected on traditional social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, but have also established a presence on Flickr, WAYN and have reached our to prominent travel bloggers too.

Reed and Sommer may be followed today on twitter at www.twitter.com/benandbrianthai as well as on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ultimate-Thailand-Explorers-Ben-Brian/128431649795. “Managing our social media sites is a full-time job,” Reed said. Their official blog address is www.ultimatethailandexplorers.com/blog/pattaya.   The couple will compete against four additional teams in the Cities of: Bangkok, Phuket, Chang Mai and Koh Samui for the Grand Prize of $10,000 and the title of Ultimate Thailand Explorer. Prizes are also awarded to individuals who participate in voting in the Ultimate Thailand Explorers Competition. Voting will take place from 1 December 2009 – 8 January 2010 at the official competition site, www.ultimatethailandexplorers.com.   “Neither of us have been to Thailand before, so we are looking forward to learning about the culture, sampling the local cuisine and of course discovering the many attractions and beaches that Pattaya has”, said Sommer. “We are excited to share our adventures with our followers and fans and have plans to encourage them to connect with us while we are in the city”, he concluded.   The Ultimate Thailand Explorers Competition follows similar efforts by tourism bureaus from around the globe. Locally in Orlando, the Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureaus selected 1 couple to capture their experiences at Orlando’s world-renowned attractions. And in Australia, Tourism Queensland selected 1 individual for the “Best Job in the World”.   Inspired by family vacations as a child, Ben is a travel blogger at adventureswithben.com. Through engaging, humorous and candid experiences from his travels to Africa, Europe, South America, North America and Asia, Reed shares his passion for travel. His full-time job is with a training and development organization in Orlando.   A physical therapist in Kissimmee, Brian is an avid traveler. His most memorable experiences include shark cage diving with Great White Sharks in Cape Town, South Africa and backpacking through Europe. Together they share a home in Orlando.

I was sent this video this morning by John Sullivan over at PotPolitics..thanks John.
The video I watched was originally on the website Film Festival: Green Unplugged.  Here is the page for the Green Unplugged Chicken a la Carte page if you prefer to watch it there.

How Sad?

Yes it is a very sad movie..the best part about the short video, I feel,  is at the very end of the film.

How often do you give thanks to the Lord and for what?

Just got an email from my bro who is into scuba diving. ScubaToys.com, a scuba site that he frequents, has started a scuba forum and they are paying participants to post. But they don’t pay in cash, they pay in store credit. What a great idea to increase your forum participation. Seems like a win win situation. ScubaToys gets increased traffic and develops a loyal user base, and the scuba visitors get to increase and share their knowledge of scuba diving while getting money to buy scuba gear.

In addition to the posting incentive, ScubaToys is also having a scuba gear photo contest where the winner can win a digital camera. Just come up with a photo “showing off a ScubaToys logo product”. Got to love contests that give away cameras. The picture to the left is an example of what not to do for the contest.
One other thing that ScubaToys did that I think is essential, they sent out an email to their mailing list to let them know about these offers

I had John from ThingsThatAreFun in mind when I wrote this, because well, Scuba diving is something that is fun. I also thought I would share this bit of info with you the readers…who knows some of you may decide to take up scuba diving. It may also give you some ideas to market your site.
Got a blog or forum. Why not try incentive’s to encourage your visitors or patrons to participate in the conversation. Sure we don’t all have the option to give store credit, but what can you give away? Advertising, a blog review, directory links etc.
What else do you do to increase the chatter?

Still on our honeymoon in Puerto Rico with lots of activities planned to include a spa visit today, moonlight Kayak tour tonight. I just posted some pics to Flickr so be sure to check out my Gran Melia Picture set, which includes pictures of our resort, but also Old San Juan pictures as well. Gran Melia is a truly 5 star resort that has a tremendous amount of beauty that surely can not be captured with my Kodak…but I am trying. I will be posting more about our honeymoon, but now, I must go to the pool…I have a Bali Bed waiting.

I have been tagged twice for the 1millionlovemessages “3 Things You Love” Meme because I have been a little slow to post. Too many memes to write. Lizzie says “thats what you get for being a slacker”.LOL

Lizzie, who tagged me for the second time, was tagged over at Fatladysingz.com by Laketrees, who was tagged by Mauro of OnemillionLoveMessages, the originator of the Meme, who by the way also tagged me. Visit the previous link to find out about the rules for the Meme if you would like to be tagged.

10 questions about Love.

1- 3 Things You Love in your soon to be wife.

• Nearly perfect Nose along with her Delicious smile.
• Kindness of her soul.
• How material things are so unimportant

2- 3 Things You Love in a Friend

• Inside jokes
• Unimportance of the passage of time
• Able to make me laugh at myself.

3- 3 Things You Love in a Book

• Develop a relationship with the main characters.
• Experience an adventure with the characters.
• Being drawn in so that I can hardly wait to read it again.

4- 3 Things You Love in a Movie

• Lots of action that attempts to be believable. Yea I love a good fight sequence like in the “Kill Bill” Movies.
• Great character development.
• Catharsis- examples of movies with a good catharsis include Pursuit of Happyness and one of my favorite tear jerkers, The Spitfire Grill.

5- 3 Things You Love in a Blog

• A great looking theme that I wish PixelHeadonline had…yes I have Theme envy.
• Interaction between the author and the readers via comments.
• Good stories, and interesting pictures.

6- 3 Things You Love to Talk About

• I don’t so much love to talk, but love to listen to stories of older generations. I love to get my grandmother going and talking about when she was a girl. Picture of Gram as a young lady in love.
• I love to have interesting conversations with my kids…one on one is best.
• I love to talk to successful people and find out about their struggles in life to find out about what obstacles they had to overcome. Must be why I enjoy talking to Lizzie.

7- 3 Things You Love to do in Vacations

• Love to go on ski trips and ski in deep powder.
• Love to play in the surf.
• Love to explore new places. I had a blast in Germany.

8- 3 Things You Love to Eat

• Love to eat seafood(born in Maine) such as lobster and little neck clams.
• Love to eat a good Salad that has lots of stuff such as cheese, shrimp, peppers, oranges. I once had a salad with crumbled up candy bar.
• Deserts such as exotic cheese cake or a huge banana split.

9- 3 Things You Love to Happen in Your Life

• Love to make plans and have them happen as planned.
• Love to spend time with family.
• Love to see people around me succeed.

10- 3 Things You Love in 1 Million Love Messages

• Both Lizzie’s and My Messages.
• Love the idea of 1 million love messages…that’s a lot of love.
• Love Mauro of 1millionlovemessage newest site, MyCityPicture.com which lets bloggers share pictures of their cities.

Now I get to tag some other bloggers.

• Alister Cameron, because he is such a deep guy, he has to have a lot of love.
• Phil over at RomanceTracker.com
• A new friend Justin Stanley.
• The evil John Chow has to have some love.
• Nicholas over at Six degrees of Inspiration…love just seems like something that inspires.
• Steli over at SuperCoolSchool. I know he has to have a lot of love he would like to share.
• I also want to re tag Adam the Hopeless Romantic. I know he has been tagged once, but hey a romantic guy like him ought to be tagged several more times at least. He is also running a Hopeless Romantic contest, at the moment, so check it out and win a meal for you and your love.