Help Schwan’s Feed America

What’s the point in having a blog if you can’t use it to help people in need—right?  I love what Feeding America does for the children in our own neighborhoods and I love that Schwan’s is helping do their part to make sure that no children go hungry.  If you have a minute or two see what you can do to help…it only takes a second to make a positive change in the life of someone else!

This fall, Schwan’s and Feeding America will encourage consumers to share a few words for what they are thankful for. Schwan’s is making an initial 250,000 meal donation, and then invite you  to share! Each “thankful” that is shared will trigger a five-meal donation to Feeding America. We’re also promoting “Thankful Thursdays,” where meal donations to FA are doubled each Thursday for the length of program – a great way to help us in the fight against hunger.



You can visit https://apps.facebook.com/schwansthankful to get started!

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“Like” This Post and I’ll Do a Giveaway…Really?

If we’re friends on Facebook (and if we’re not we should be, I’m a lot more fun on Facebook) then you may have caught my little rant last night about the constant status updates by bloggers asking their Facebook Fans/Friends/Readers to “Like and/or Share” said status update as a condition to begin a giveaway…ummm what?  Honestly, I thought it was just me who was annoyed as all hell by these requests, but some of my fellow bloggers seemed to agree with me and after reading this post by The Neat Things In Life, I couldn’t resist blogging about it myself!

Photo Credit:  Mad Tomato

Aside from being super annoying, the whole “Like/Share this status and I will put up a giveaway”, is kind of like buying your friends; or definitely banking on the fact that your friends have nothing better to do than unknowingly help your inflate stats…oh yeah, I went there!

I’ve been a blogger since 2008 and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that the one surefire way to gain friends and readers online, is by being honest with them, definitely NOT using them for your own selfish gain—and I most definitely think that’s exactly what this whole “Like/Share” thing is about!

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have a huge army of regular readers here on Misadventures, but that’s because I chose to shift my focus from a personal/parenting blog (which is how Misadventures started) to more of a review and giveaway blog; that switch came at the price of losing some amazing regular readers—a move that if I had it to do over I would definitely not make again! 

Getting back to my original point, I think that asking your Facebook Friends/Fans to Like and Share status updates before starting a giveaway is a little greedy, and definitely tacky, and extremely annoying.  I think that something that your Facebook Fans may not understand is that if it’s a sponsored giveaway (meaning that you are holding the giveaway for a company or PR firm) then you’re going to have to post the giveaway regardless…whether you get 1000 likes or none, if the giveaway is sponsored, it’s going up with or without the Likes!  I will say that I did check out a few posts where people were asking for “Likes/Shares” to start a giveaway and at least a few of them were being sponsored by the bloggers themselves.   In that case, as annoying as it is, I can’t really blame the blogger for trying to get as many “Likes/Share” as he or she can. 

BUT if the giveaway is being sponsored then you just need to be smacked for assuming that your readers/friends/fans are stupid enough to continue to “Like” your posts so that you can maybe, if you’re feeling generous that day, start a giveaway.  That’s seriously something that I see girls at my daughter’s elementary school doing; “Um, if y’all be my friend, I might give y’all some of my candy!” 

My point—stop this crap already!  Seriously it looks egotistical and sloppy and honestly, giveaway’s are hard enough already with all of the FTC and disclosure stuff…and even mentioning giveaway’s on Facebook is such a confusing topic for most bloggers, why make it worse? 

So, I can’t be the only one annoyed by this…right? 

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Dear Facebook Friends,

We need to have a serious discussion.  I’m kind of annoyed that I have to be the one to do this, I mean really you should have parents or significant others that tell you when you’re making an ass of yourself, but since those people do not seem to be doing their jobs as of late I guess I’ll be the one to have “the talk” with you!
I love Facebook—I really do.  I don’t get the appeal of Twitter (or maybe I’m just not fast enough to keep up with the endless stream of tweets), and MySpace is for 12 year olds, so that pretty much leaves Facebook.  I like being able to reconnect with old friends from high school that I haven’t seen in years and keep up with the busy lives of family and friends.  There are however, a few things about Facebook and some of its users that drive me INSANE!
1.  Friend A suggests you become friends with Friend B, C, D, E, F, and probably G…really?  I don’t need you to tell me that I should be friends with someone I think I can figure that much out on my own.  Now I’m not talking about the people who occasionally do this I am talking to the people who do this a thousand times a day. 
I get email notifications from Facebook and every single time you suggest a friend for me I get that shit in my inbox.  My inbox is FULL as it is…so STOP it!  And for those of you who will no doubt say “Quit bitching and just turn off email notifications.”…ummm no thank you I like knowing when someone responds to a comment…it’s just as easy for you NOT to check my name…I don’t care who you think I should know I’m not interested.
2.  I read somewhere a while back that blogging is a gateway drug and twitter is heroin or something like that.  While I tend to agree with that statement I’m taking it one step further…I think that Facebook is a gateway drug and Farmville is heroin.  I detest Farmville.  I mean far be it for me to deprive people from fertilizing their crops and building barns, but I don’t need to know every single time you give someone a brick or water someone’s flowers.  Not only is it annoying as shit it pisses me off that I have to weed through 500 status updates from Farmville to get to the updates I do care to read!
If you happen to be one of my FB friends and you happen to “geek out” when Farmville is down…GET HELP!  I’m sure there is a support group somewhere or a program you can get into to to help with your addiction…admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery! 
3.  Tagging me in photos of PS3’s and IPad’s to enter a contest!  First of all…really?  I mean you need an IPad bad enough to SPAM all of your FB friends?  I want an IPad too, but I don’t think making all of my FB friends mad is the right way to go about getting one!  Not only is this annoying as all hell, it will also get you unfriended or whatever you would like to call it!  STOP tagging me in photos of inanimate objects…it’s just weird! 
I would like to close by saying that while I love all of my Facebook friends and fans I cannot stand the people who do the 3 things listed above.  I mean in all fairness I am sure they are good people, but they make me want to stick forks in my eyes and that’s not conducive to a very healthy relationship now is it?  So if you would like to stay on my good side please stop the madness, or if you’re hell-bent on making sure everyone who friends you on FB hates you then go ahead and do your evil deeds…but don’t be surprised when your name ends up on my “People Who Hate Their Facebook Friends” post!
Love and Hugs,
Allison

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