Holiday gifts for your favorite social networkers

9 comments // Dec 1st, 2008 // Tools and Data

With the holidays right around the corner, you’re probably wondering what to get your special social media fanatic (i.e. me) so I’ve compiled a list of some swell suggestions sure to put a smile on @anyone’s face!

1. Premium upgrades for their favorite social sites

While many people active in the social media universe already pay for these sites, there are some poor folk (ahem yours truly) who can’t yet bring themselves to shell out the few bucks a year to unlock all the benefits of these sites. You can give someone the premium gifts of  Flickr , Remember the Milk, Vimeo (you have to create a free account and log in) WordPress (must log in for this, too) Audible and LiveJournal!
[ I'll take Flickr, please! :) ]

2. Custom social network swag

Twitter
Who doesn’t want a coffee mug or beer stein with the faces of all your Twitter friends on it? Or a T-shirt that implores strangers to follow @InsertYourTwitterNameHere? How ’bout a t-shirt that asks the age-old question “What wuld @jchrst do?” I sure do! =)

LinkedIn
Clothes, cups, totes… everything you need to tell the world you’re Linked! 500+ baby!

Myspace
A nice “Your boy/girlfriend is in my top 8″ t-shirt goes a long way

LiveJournal
Do people still use this? Oh well, they have a store.

3. A URL

Nothing says “I Love You” like www.yourname.com! I know so many people who host blogs on WordPress or BlogSpot who TALK about buying a domain but never get around to it. Hit up GoDaddy and save them the effort! Pay for 2 years if you want to be really classy. And if you really want to make someone happy, get someone to design the site, too. Andy did mine, he likes to help poor people for cheap :)

4. A day on this guys shirt: What a cool idea. I want somone walking around advertising me all day!

5. Mostly lame, but free, so efficient, ideas:
Love your social media friends but not enough to spend real money on them? Design a custom Twitter background for them, sure to WOW all their followers! Send them some thoughtful Free Gifts or Pieces of Flair on Facebook! Write them a great recommendation on LinkedIn!

READER SUGGESTIONS:

* Erik (@KidsIcarus) suggests, in HIS words, “Glamor Shots for better chances at getting girls/guys to like you on myspace.” Love the idea, not the packaging – let’s call this one a photography session for optimal avatars on social networks!
* Genevieve (@genart, and whose art is fantastic, BTW) suggests a Flip Mino. Oooooh… I want, I want!
* Pam (@dieverdog) suggests a gift certificate to Moo.com so your social networkers can print custom social ID business cards! VERY cool! She also suggests giving out “coupons” for your time (or my time if you want to pay for me… WINK WINK) to help n00bs set up a blog or to get started with Twitter and other networks!
* Phyllis (@soundadvice4you) suggests buying someone a plug on the Help a Reporter Out e-mail blasts… not QUITE sure how you would get this but try e-mailing peter@shankman.com!
* Mike (@mikergray) suggests, in the #1 category, upgrading Picasa/Gmail and Plaxo! I don’t think you can GIFT these upgades, or at least I can’t find a way on the sites, but you can always promise someone to pay for it for them!

Any more suggestions for great social media gifts? I’d love to hear them!


9 responses so far, want to say something?

  1. FireMom says:

    LOL.

    #1. Yes, people use LJ.

    #2. @jchrist made me laugh.

    Dec 01, 2008, 5:40 pm
  2. Andrew Markle-Desjardins says:

    Another great gift idea would be to package up a used iMac G3 that you just built, in hot pink, and send it to Bexley where his favourite social media guru will have a better 1 GHZ processing computer with over 1 MB of RAM and a new Mac OS X operating system.

    Also, from your’s truly, she will receive a complimentary membership to Apple’s MobileMe for 1 year and possibly, if I can find one, an iPhone 3G with paid service for 1 year.

    But the first three are your’s.

    Happy Christmas. :)

    Dec 01, 2008, 5:41 pm
  3. Genevieve says:

    I suggest the mino flip

    http://www.theflip.com/products_flip_mino.shtml#scene=sceneMain

    Dec 01, 2008, 10:49 pm
  4. Mike Gray says:

    To add to your list in #1:

    Plaxo Premium
    http://www.plaxo.com/settings/premium

    Dec 01, 2008, 10:55 pm
  5. Mike Gray says:

    Another for #1:

    Upgrade storage on Picasa Web Albums (or even just gmail) –
    https://www.google.com/accounts/PurchaseStorage?hl=en_US

    Dec 01, 2008, 10:58 pm
  6. Erik says:

    For the record while I was writing the packaging I was not in editorial mode

    I was eating a sandwich and admiring how good MY optimal photos for my social networking sites

    so there..jeez.

    ha, good post

    Dec 01, 2008, 11:43 pm
  7. Pam says:

    For your less adept social media friends/newbies you could give them a coupon for time from you to help them set up a site or to get started with Twitter and related software. I’ve figured out a lot on my own, but having a knowledgeable friend to help would be great! Some friends might enjoy social networking if someone just helped get them started!

    Dec 01, 2008, 11:53 pm
  8. Pam says:

    I just thought of this: a gift certificate for Moo.com for getting moo cards made (is actually on my Xmas list) and ppl can use to print moo cards/mini business cards with their social networking info on them that they can give out – using photos or images from their Flickr site for the cards. There’s other stuff they could get at Moo also.

    Dec 01, 2008, 12:01 am
  9. ShyTrbleMaker says:

    I love Hugh Macleod/Gaping Void so I’d suggest a set of street cards to pass out talking about your blog.

    You can go here to find them http://gapingvoid.streetcards.com/

    Dec 01, 2008, 2:46 pm

Leave a Reply