#FollowFriday...Chanthana Tsai

This week my #FollowFriday person you should know is Chanthana Tsai.  This post is a little different than most of my #FF posts.  This is a true on-line friend of mine because we have never actually met in person (unless you call being on the same 26.2 mile stretch of streets in Chicago last October meeting). While I realize that this blog is read worldwide (well at least when I am traveling and pull it up) much of the readership is in Columbus, Ohio so I thought I'd take this opportunity to introduce everyone to Chanthana.

First things first it is pronounced “shawn-tonna”. 

Chanthana lives in one of my favorite cities (other than Columbus) Chicago.  She is originally from the west coast and went to college at Pepperdine University.  She is very well versed in social media marketing.  She also brings a background in business project work from her days at Deloitte & Touche.  Clearly Chanthana is committed, motivated and energetic with a focus on quality client outcomes.

OK now on to the important stuff...Chanthana is a runner.  This is actually how I connected to her on Twitter as she was building a twitter list of runners planning to run the 2010 Chicago Marathon.  From there I started following her tweets which allowed me to connect to her on Dailymile.  Dailymile is a great on-line community for tracking athletic activity with a huge running contingent.  I was struggling last year to come back from a foot injury and running was tough but being able to follow others that were preparing to run the Chicago Marathon helped me keep at it.  Chanthana specifically helped me as her training was awesome. Seeing what she was doing and where she was running motivated me.   She also engaged the community by commenting and helping others with their training, including helping me.  This commitment on her part to get better as well as helping others recently led to a pretty cool honor for her...this week Chanthana was named to the Dailymile Team. The team was created to share one's passion for running and I can think of no one more qualified and deserving than Chanthana Tsai.  Here is the video Chanthana made to submit to become a member of the team...

Given all that this is my #FollowFriday recommendation for Feburary 18, 2011.  Be sure to check out Chanthana on Dailymile and be sure to follow her on Twitter at @Chanthana.

Comments

[Chanthana]

Thank you so much for the kind post. I'm so happy to connect with you!

[Jenn Sutherland]

Awww, great post, Mike! I heartily endorse this post. I was a brand new baby runnner last year, and Chanthana was always there with encouragement, cheers, and support. She's gonna ROCK the DailyMile team!

[David Pittman]

I've met Chanthana in person, and I can tell you she's all that ... and more. I hope you two meet IRL soon!