Guest contributor: Shelby Jones, ISPA Public Relations Manager

Social media is the wave of the future. Actually it’s no longer the future, it’s the present. If you aren’t Facebooking and Tweeting then you’re really behind (like monumentally). Your mom once asked you, “If everyone jumped off a bridge would you?” Well now you can throw it back in her face, because EVERYONE has a Facebook page – moms, dads and grandparents are all updating their statuses and checking out your Spring Break ‘04 pics. Carpal Tunnel is on the rise thanks to Twitter updates painstakingly made via your iPhone or BlackBerry (it’s totally important that everyone knows your opinion on last night’s True Blood episode). You might be waging an inner battle deciding whether or not to “friend” your mom or boss, but a business’ social media outlets should welcome everyone with open arms (even the haters). If you’re late to the game then it’s time to catch up, and these tips are essential for jumping into the world of social media.

• The Facebook (that’s what grandma calls it) isn’t just for young whippersnappers. AARP says that 37 percent of people age 50 and up use social sites. It just goes to show that you’re never too old to be social.

• Find out who’s talking smack about you, get free advertising and test out your new ideas and promotions by talking about yourself. It only takes 140 characters or less.

• Prove that your social media efforts are worth it by knowing your ROI.

• To page or profile, that is the question. What’s best for business – Facebook pages vs. profiles?

Like what you’re clicking? If you’re in the spa industry, we encourage you to become a member of our partner ISPA; weekly e-mails with pointers like these are just one small part of the package to help you succeed!

Although it would be nice to get weekly facials… let’s face it. It’s just not practical! Never mind the fact that it gets expensive, who has the time?

MEET THE PRIZE: I Need a Quickie

From the recently launched myfaceworks, a ”sheet” facial line that is no-mess, convenient, portable, and tailor made for every women’s individual skincare needs, comes the new I Need a Quickie facial mask. It’s a fast-absorbing mask that will hydrate and prime your skin for makeup application, giving you an instant glow.

These Quickies are a speedy solution to dull skin, infused with potent ingredients to leave your skin nourished and radiant in only 10 minutes.  Algae Extract helps firm and repair skin while Cucumber Extract moisturizes and soothes for ultra soft skin. Corallina Officinalis Extract is coral mineral-rich algae that helps reinforce the moisture barrier function of the skin. These concentrated ingredients are soaked in a non-woven biodegradable fabric that molds to the face, allowing the ingredients to be released deeply into the skin.

WIN IT

Win a box of I Need a Quickie — 6 masks, that’s like six 10-minute trips to the spa! Value: $55

TO ENTER

In the spirit of quickies, tell us: What is your favorite quickie makeup trick? Something you do on the go, in a rush, in the car… (although we hope you’re not doing mascara while driving!)

Enter by commenting on the post below or writing it on our Facebook Wall or the thread for this post.

Deadline: Sunday, June 27th at 11:59 PM EDT. Please link to a valid email address, or if you enter on Facebook make sure we can message you.

THE BONUS FUN PART

2 Winners will be chosen based upon the creativity/usefulness of your tips, and we will dedicate a blog post to testing out the winning quickies!

UPDATE: After an intense beauty deliberation, the winners of the giveaway are AmyFabulous and @texttiff

Amy Said: Ok, my quickie beauty SECRET – Vaseline on your eyelashes. Voila! Za Za ZOOOM!

Tiff Said: Quickie on the go makeup tip (like when you are in the car):
Apply some pink lip gloss on your lips and on your cheeks for a little quick glow!

As we mentioned earlier today…our office went outside of our comfort zone yesterday to run in the 3.5 mile, slightly-more-than-5k JP Morgan Corporate Challenge, along with 15,000 of our closest friends in New York City’s Central Park. A portion of proceeds from the race went to rebuild areas in the park that were damaged by high winds last winter.

The Spa Week team before the race!

It was a gorgeous evening – not too hot, which you’d better believe we were thankful for – and we were pumped up as we made our way around the top of the park on the race route.

It's important to stretch.

The male winner of the Challenge finished in just 17 minutes, and the female winner was just a few paces behind him, finishing in 20. We’re not ashamed to say most of our office took a little bit longer…but the important thing is we all finished!

Tired & happy!

If you’ve ever Facebook-surfed ’til 2 in the morning, slept with your Blackberry nestled under your pillow, or caught yourself thinking in 140 characters or less… listen up. The #SIGNOFF Movement is over for blogging’s sake, but now it’s up to you to keep it going on a daily basis. On June 10th in NYC, Spa Week’s Internet Week Retreat encouraged everyone to reap the benefits of frequent, wholesome breaks from the dizzying inter-webs and our many technology devices. We pampered over 200 Internet addicts with an afternoon of massage, meditation, acupuncture, refreshing cocktails and a wealth of #SIGNOFF inspiration from some of our favorite Internet personalities and wellness experts.

So before you listen to us and actually #SIGNOFF… learn a thing or two from the video recap:

Also, check out the Retreat pics on our Facebook Page

With Internet Week drawing to a close, we hope you enjoyed signing on (and off!) with us! Before we go, though, we want to leave you with one last treat – we polled our office and our Facebook friends for their favorite guilty pleasure Internet sites in order to bring you these 10 Guilty Pleasures of the Internet.

1. Outfit (or pretend to outfit) your dream wardrobe at Rent The Runway.
2. Get your dose of celebrities and celebrisleaze at Perez Hilton.
3. Gorge yourself on an endless array of addictive flash games at Kongregate.
4. Poke through user-submitted and rated stuff that’s newsworthy, weird, funny, or just plan cool at Digg and Reddit.
5. Create your own film festival with Netflix.
6. Ask any random question you want at Just Curious…just make sure you pay it forward and answer some, too!
7. Track where the dollar bill you used to buy your coffee this morning ended up at Where’s George?
8. Find out if the love of your life is trying to find you at Craigslist Missed Connections.
9. Play like you’re a Real Housewife and Google search “Real Estate in New Jersey.”

That’s all for Internet Week – happy weekend!