Twitter contest: Dave Matthews Band

We have a new Twitter contest starting today. We're giving away a pair of tickets to the DAVE MATTHEWS BAND concert at the Sleep Train Pavilion in Concord, CA on 8/27. Retweet this message to win:

RT this and you could win 2 tix to see DAVE MATTHEWS BAND on 8/27 at the Sleep Train Pavilion #SocialBuy http://bit.ly/dmY2Hh

Contest ends at midnight Pacific time on Wednesday night. Winner will be chosen at random and announced Thursday morning. One entry per retweet - tweet all you want for more chances to win!!

To claim your prize, you have to register for a SocialBuy account and let us know what e-mail address you used. Then we'll deposit the tickets directly into your account.

If you don't want to leave it up to chance, buy your tickets now on SocialBuy.com!

New Twitter contest announced!

We've got another great opportunity for our Tweeps! We're giving away two tickets to TributeFest (value: $80) to one person who follows us (either @SocialBuy_Jess or @Social_Buy) and RT's this message:

Twitter contest! RT this + follow and you could win 2 tix to TributeFest on May 1! #SocialBuy

This contest will end on Friday at noon. To claim your prize, you have to register for a SocialBuy account and let us know what e-mail address you used. Then we'll deposit the tickets directly into your account.

If you want to buy TributeFest tickets for half off, get them on SocialBuy now!

Pizza Rustica

Today's new SocialBuy deal is $5 for $10 to Pizza Rustica. I think I was probably the first person to click BUY NOW.

I used to work for a major newspaper in downtown LA, and a Pizza Rustica (it's a franchise) was just down the street. For some reason, I didn't eat there the whole time I worked in that area. But a couple of months later, I was visiting an old coworker downtown, and we decided to get lunch there.

HOLY COW. In general, I'm a huge pizza lover. Growing up, it was usually the thing I gave up for Lent... unsuccessfully. I ascribe to the theory that any pizza is good pizza.

Pizza Rustica is GREAT pizza. I ordered the Chicken Alla Florentina. I got the small, and it was enormous. It was the kind of pizza that's so huge that you have to fold it in half and eat it like a sandwich. Between that and the pitcher of beer we ordered, I was barely able to waddle out the door when I was done (no, there were no leftovers to speak of).

What I'm trying to say is, buy this SocialBuy deal. If not for yourself, then for me. This is a Los Angeles restaurant deal you don't want to miss.

TWITTER CONTEST!

Hey Tweeps!

We're having our first-ever Twitter contest today. If people RT our message, they can win 2 tickets to our upcoming event with Schmoozd at WokCano on March 25th. Here's the message:

TWITTER CONTEST! RT this to win 2 tix to our Schmoozd mixer at WokCano on March 25 http://bit.ly/afVzRb #socialbuy

Here are the details:

• This contest runs until midnight Pacific time on Wednesday (when the deal expires)
• A winner will be randomly selected to win two tickets to our event (details here)
• Anyone and everyone is welcome to buy the deal on their own at SocialBuy
• Winner must be 21+ (sorry!)

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I'll come back and answer them. You can also ask by RT'ing socialbuy_jess.

East Restaurant in Hollywood - Hang with the SocialBuy Crew!

Tomorrow night, Angelenos have a very special opportunity: to meet the team behind SocialBuy at our first-ever SociaLite "Classy Hour" event. We're holding it at East Restaurant and Lounge in Hollywood. It's one of the newer Hollywood hotspots, though owner David Judaken and chef Keven Allen Lee aren't exactly hospitality greenhorns.

Right now on SocialBuy, we're selling $15 drink vouchers to East for $7. If you want to try out East but can't make it tomorrow night, no worries - this deal voucher will be valid for the next year.

It starts at 5 pm and goes until 8, which is the extent of East's regular happy hour. The voucher applies to happy hour drinks - hey, we like to save money too!

Besides promoting East, this is a great opportunity for us to meet our fans and fellow web denizens face-to-face. It'll also be a solid chance to wind down and recover from mid-week slump.

Like I said, this is our first-ever SociaLite event - as in, we plan on having plenty more in the future. We'd love to see you there tomorrow night, but if you can't, no worries. You'll have plenty more chances to hang out with us!

Get your drink voucher here. RSVP to our Facebook event and get more details here.

Eye of the Tiger

Sometimes, you hear about a combination so awesome that you can't believe no one has thought of it before. Bacon and chocolate. Lady Gaga and Beyonce. Blankets and sleeves (though, to be fair, robes have been pretty popular for the last millenia or so).

Today's SocialBuy deal is equally awe-inducing: cardio, self-defense, and kung fu. Yes, KUNG FU. You can get a month of cardio-self-defense-kung-fu lessons from White Tiger Kung Fu for $23 with today's SocialBuy.

Not to be a downer, but in a big city like Los Angeles, self-defense skills are a necessity. If that skill set includes kung fu, so much the better.

True story: my college roommate's dad got mugged walking to his car from work one night. Her dad - who served in some sort of special ops military group that he doesn't talk about - said to him, "You really don't want to do that. I'm giving you one chance to walk away." The mugger didn't move. So her dad broke his nose.

Frankly, I'd feel better just by looking at strangers and thinking, "I know kung fu. Don't try anything fishy. I can chop you and then have the endurance to jog at a steady pace to a safe location."

What's the saying - you can't put a price on peace of mind? Find your inner zen (and inner martial artist) by getting in on today's SocialBuy and taking a month of classes at White Tiger Kung Fu for just $23.

Team Tan

We have an awesome deal right now for the sun-resistant: $60 for $125 worth of services from Island Spray Tan. Island Spray Tan has two very unique, very awesome things going for it: they use all-natural organic products, and they come to your work/home/movie set/whatever and do the spray tan for you there. How many companies still make house calls like that??

They do a custom job, so whether you're already bronzed or painfully pale (like me), the tan will look natural. You can either use your SocialBuy for a one-time thing or put the amount toward a monthly membership.

The whole vampire-Twilight-craze made being pale moderately more acceptable. But seeing as I *don't* want to be associated with any team of the Edward or Jacob variety, I think I'm going to get in on today's SocialBuy. (One of my Twitter pals, @tanningshoptips, held a contest to see who could do the best job of giving Edward Cullen a fake bake - check it out here)

Like I said, Island Spray Tan does a customized tan for you, so I know I won't get Jersey Shore Orange. I really don't want to go super-tan; just enough so that I look sun-kissed. Vampires be damned - I'm joining the dark side.

King - nay, QUEEN - of the mountain

I grew up in Chicago, where several skiing/snowboarding areas are just a car trip away and then I moved to sunny Southern California for the weather. And now every winter I have the inclination to brave the freeways and head to the closest ski resort Mt. Baldy. I didn't actually try snowboarding until junior high, when a couple of friends made me go snowboarding with them. For some reason, they didn't think I needed the lessons or any practice on the bunny hill. While we were on the lift ride up, both of them kept going, "It's so easy! Toeside-heelside-toeside-heelside!"

We got off the lift at the top of the hill, at which point they both promptly flew down the mountainside. At this point, I didn't know anyone up there, I didn't understand what a toeside or a heelside was, and most importantly, I didn't know how to start moving once both of my feet were strapped to a board.

As you might imagine, the first few runs didn't go very well. I sort of hopped to the edge of the slope and then went straight down it. Um, and I didn't know how to stop. So when I got to the bottom, I just purposely wiped out. It was a pretty rough day.

But that was a long time ago, and since then, I've had more patient friends who have shown me the way of the board. I moved to sunny Southern California for the weather, but every winter I have the inclination to brave the freeways and head to Mt. Baldy.

Since my first unfortunate experience, I've had more patient friends who have shown me the way of the board. With the majority of them currently being unemployed, it's pretty easy to get together for a weekday snow trip. So regardless of this recession, today's SocialBuy deal for $32 for a one-day weekday lift ticket will get them to stop complaining about budgetary concerns and head for the slopes.

If you've never been snowboarding or skiing before, you should consider this your sign to try it. Just make sure to start out on the bunny hill...

One fish, two fish, red fish, Malibu fish

For a really, really long time, I told people I didn't eat seafood. Keep in mind that I grew up in the Midwest, where eating fish really wasn't a thing. People didn't question me.

But then I moved to California, and had my first fresh sushi. Sushi turned into an occasional bite of a friend's salmon, or getting excited when my roommate bought frozen tilapia from Costco. Now I'm a fish-o-phile.

That's why I'm sort of overly excited about our Reel Inn deal ($15 for a $30 voucher). Though I like seafood a lot more now, my boyfriend is allergic to shellfish, so we don't go to seafood places that often. But this place has a really wide selection of all different kinds of shell-free fish, not to mention a ton of entirely sea-creature-free entree options.

I also like this restaurant deal because it gives me an excuse to go to the beach in Malibu and to try somewhere new to eat. Like most people, I've fallen into a rut of going out to eat at the same three places that are within walking distance of my apartment. I really have no reason to haul my butt (or my friends) to Malibu. But now, I can entice my pals and my palate with this awesome deal. According to Yelp, most of the dishes there are $10-$15, so this SocialBuy voucher will probably buy dinner for two. Mmm.

The tipping point

Great news - the Rosti Tuscan Kitchen deal went live yesterday! That means that if you opt in on that deal, the voucher will arrive in your inbox the next day and you'll be able to use it right away.

Radical Tan (today's SF deal) is doing pretty well too. That's the deal where you can get a week of unlimited tanning for $20.

To get in on this deal with Radical Tan, visit http://www.socialbuy.com/San-Francisco/

SheWearsYourTee.com

Today SocialBuy is featured on SheWearsYourTee.com, an innovative online marketing idea from a couple of Minnesota entrepreneurs and a New York-based model named Tanaya Henry. At the beginning of the year, she set up a calendar. Anyone who wanted their business or product featured on her site "bought" a day. New Year's Day was $1, Jan. 2 was $2, Jan. 3 was $3, etc.

Every day, she does a mini "photo shoot" wearing the t-shirt. Here are our shots!

Tanaya has started to garner attention for her unusual work:

"She’s Wearing a HootSuite Shirt ~ And She’ll Wear Yours Too" - HootSuite

"Model Tanaya Henry Becomes Human Billboard" - Huffington Post

"'She Wears Your Tee:' A Minnesotan Creation" - WCCO

"Pay A Model For Your Shirt On Her Back" - Coco Perez

It's great to see people coming up with innovative ideas for internet marketing. Check it out today for her writeup on SocialBuy!

Bountiful Baskets bakes it to the limit

Sometimes, sales reps bring back food for me. A lot of the time, the places we review want the person who writes about it to try some of their food.

A couple of days ago, a rep came back with a Cookie Pop from Bountiful Baskets. I didn't have particularly high expectations - cookies-on-a-stick are usually thin and dried out. But after wrestling the wrapper open, I bit into one of the softest, freshest, tastiest sugar cookies I've ever had.

Bountiful Baskets has lots of cool stuff other than (delicious, delicious) baked goodies. They do a spa package that has lotions and soaps in it, and a wine-and-cheese basket with... well, you can guess.

I think today's SocialBuy deal is a really good one. $25 gets you a $50 voucher to Bountiful Baskets. They're pushing their pre-made V-Day baskets right now, but you can save it until the next time you need to buy someone a gift (or just make their day).

More live deals - get 'em while they're hot!

All of our deals - Sparkles Forever, Sunset Gondola, LA Premier flowers, and Sprinkles Cupcakes - have gone live. Tonight, the deals change, but for now, you can still opt in on these.

I'm the most excited about Sparkles Forever. I actually got a chance to meet the person who runs it. Her name is Lala, and she's awesome. I really love antique-looking cocktail rings, and since they're so cheap on her site, I can buy three or four with just this voucher.

It's also an exciting deal because it's our first one that is available nation-wide. Since Sparkles Forever is an online store, you don't need to live in LA or SF to use it.

Things are coming along very well at SocialBuy. We moved into a new office a few weeks ago, and we're finally all settled in. Well, we still don't have a coffee machine, but other than that, settled. A bunch of new computers came in (including one for me!) and we've hired new customer service reps to handle user issues.

Since Valentine's Day is this weekend, look for more romance-themed deals this week...

Sprinkles Cupcakes is live!

We have had such an exciting first week! Within one day, the Sprinkles Cupcakes deal went live. That means that if you opt in on that deal right now, you can buy it, print it out, and have a Sprinkles cupcake in your possession by this afternoon.

The rest of the deals are coming close to activating. ZAZA Nail spa just needs eight more people before it goes live.

Now that our site has launched, our office is super-busy. Since we have a website to show off, our sales guys (and gals) have been working round-the-clock to close new deals. Good things are coming!

Launched today!

We launched today! We're offering fantastic deals at Sprinkles Cupcakes, Sunset Tan, YoCup, and ZAZA Nail Spa. Sprinkles and Sunset Tan are our Los Angeles deals, and YoCup and ZAZA are our San Francisco deals. Check out SocialBuy.com today to get on these daily deals before they disappear!