Guest contributor: Shelby Jones, ISPA Public Relations Manager

If getting a friend request from the girl who used to torment you in high school or an update every time some goes to the grocery store isn’t your style, it doesn’t mean you still can’t take advantage of social media. While Facebook and Twitter all have their merits, they aren’t for everyone.  The strictly business social networking site LinkedIn can connect you with colleagues, businesses and even land you a job.

For spas and other businesses LinkedIn can be a very valuable tool for networking and keeping up with your current and prospective customers. Below you’ll find dos and don’ts for using this social media tool.

• There are apps for that (promoting your business).
• Nine no-nos for your business.
• Boost your profile.

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

Image via socialmedia.biz

While taking a break from one of his usual twitter rants, Kanye tweets about not being able to relax during a massage. Oh, the irony.

Judging from the retweets, he’s not alone. Do you ever feel like Kanye during a massage?

There’s something so deliciously satsifying about round numbers like 10,000 and 25,000. Especially when they correspond to your very own Twitter and Facebook followings on the horizon!

As we race to these huge milestones with you, we’re looking forward to the celebrations most of all:

ON TWITTER: We’re giving away three $50 Spa Gift Cards when we reach 10,000 followers.

To enter, Tweet:

Follow @SPAWEEK, they’re giving away 3 $50 Spa Week Gift Cards at 10,000 followers! RT to enter. http://ow.ly/3FObK

ON FACEBOOK: We’re giving away three $50 Spa Gift Cards when we reach 25,000 likes.

To enter, Write on our wall:

I like Spa Week. No, wait, I LOVE Spa Week! (This is my entry to win a $50 Spa Week Gift Card when this page reaches 25,000)

Winners will be chosen at random from the entries and announced on respective social media platforms. Please contact candace(at)spaweekmedia(dot)com within one week of announcements with your address and phone number to redeem your prize.

’Twas the night before Christmas and all through the street,
Not a blogger was blogging, not even a tweet.

No Tumblr was Flickring, no status was shared,
For once in their lives… nobody cared.

Companies’ ad spends were suddenly frugal,
And the world had stopped spinning on an axis of Google.

RSS feeds disappeared on a sled,
Mashable predicted a silent night ahead.

When flawless real-time searching just would not suffice,
The notion of NOW took a piece of advice.

2.0 took a seat and real life took the stage,
Spa Week Daily and the world were on the same page.

Enjoy the little luxuries of the holiday season,
Do things that make you smile— with or without reason.

Relax, indulge, be healthy, be true…
And in 2011, don’t forget about YOU.

Happy holidays!!!

<3 Michelle & Spa Week Daily

And if you’re thinking you heard this before… YES, this is recycled from last year :)

Tis the season of giving… and giving back.

To celebrate all the love and generosity in the air with thousands of people giving the gift of SPA to their friends, family and coworkers, Spa Week Daily is giving back to charity AND giving you the chance to win a SPA gift card for yourself. We’ve partnered with one of our favorite new charity organizations, Glamour Gone Good, which encourages and supports beauty, fashion and spa businesses in giving back to women’s causes. Here’s how this Give, Give Back and Tweet to WIN giveaway works:

GIVE

We’d first like to thank everyone who chooses to give the gift of SPA this holiday season. With the mission of spreading health, beauty and wellness lifestyle to the next generation, Spa Week‘s Holiday Gift Card Sale offers $100 SPA Gift Cards for just $79.99. All other denominations are 20% off – you won’t find this deal anywhere else! SPA Cards are redeemable 52 weeks a year at thousands of day spas, medical spas, salons and wellness centers nationwide for massages, facials, scrubs, pedicures, acupuncture and more, and they never expire. Click here to buy Spa Gift Cards.

GIVE BACK

For every new @SPAWEEK Twitter follower we get from now until the end of 2010, Spa Week will donate 10 cents to Glamour Gone Good. Right now we’re at: 8,799.

We chose this organization because we absolutely love their concept, as well as the 3 women’s causes they support — scroll down for all the details. GGG encourages beauty, fashion, salon and spa businesses to integrate charity into their everyday business by giving them fun and easy ways to give back to women in need, even if they don’t have much to give.

WIN

Follow @SPAWEEK and @GlamourGoneGood on Twitter.

TWEET: SPA-liday Gift Card Sale from @SPAWEEK! Follow them to #GiveBack to women in need, and Tweet to Win a $100 SPA Gift Card. http://ow.ly/3gSns

Extra Entry: Comment below with the women’s charity that is most important to you, and include your @Twitter name.

Every Tweet will count as one entry to win a $100 SPA Gift Card from SpaWeek, redeemable all year around for massages, facials and so much more. Contest Ends December 31st at 11:59 EST. Winner drawn and announced on this blog post on January 3rd.

1/3/11 UPDATE: Congratulations Joanna Smith @joannaonthelake – you are the winner of the $100 SPA Gift Card! Thank you all for the support in raising money and awareness for Glamour Gone Good’s beneficiaries. We are now at 9,209 followers… thank you and welcome to our 410 new Tweeps.

About Glamour Gone Good and the 3 women’s charities they support:

Committed to women’s and girls’ empowerment, Glamour Gone Good is engaging America’s glamour-makers in charitable activities to raise funds for the Glamour Gone Good grants program, which funds America’s leading women’s and girls’ charities. Glamour Gone Good will award grants of up to $100,000 from the funds raised by professionals in fashion, beauty, salon and spa industries to the following three organizations:

Dress for Success Worldwide is an international not-for-profit organization that promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life. Since starting operations in 1997, Dress for Success has expanded to more than 100 cities in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the UK and the West Indies. To date, Dress for Success has helped more than 500,000 women work towards self-sufficiency.

Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS) serves girls and young women who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. GEMS was founded in 1999 by Rachel Lloyd, a young woman who had been sexually exploited as a teenager. GEMS helps young women and girls, ages 12-21, who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking to exit the commercial sex industry and to develop to their full potential.

Sister to Sister: The Women’s Heart Health Foundation is dedicated to preventing heart disease in women. It accomplishes this by increasing awareness that heart disease is the number one killer of women, offering free cardiac screenings for early detection and treatment, and by educating that healthy lifestyle changes can reduce heart disease risk dramatically.

Official Rules