An easy way to spread your social media links to the world, include them in your email signatures! And don’t forget to put them on all other marketing materials.

What I wanted to say was whether or not a business should use their personal Twitter profile or not is completely dependent on the type business and goals for Twitter. In my opinion, authenticity is key so using your personal profile for you biz is fine. However if you work for a company, you need to know what their social media policies are and have open and clear communication to know what exactly you can and can’t say about the company on your personal account

I’ve met and befriended people from Argentina, Turkey, Columbia and Tibet and have learned from them how different and diverse the world is; giving me a peek inside another culture and way of living; creating an internal craving for diversity within my life.

What my eyes have scene, my nose has smelled, my hears have heard, my mouth has tasted, my body has felt and my mind has experienced in one year is incredibly overwhelming in the most amazing way. I feel truly blessed and fortunate to have experienced what I have in 2009.

From my experiences I have learned so much about life, people and myself. I have found new passions to learn another language, travel the world and help others in need. I have learned the importance of following your heart and trusting yourself; finding love and strength from within. I have understood the importance of a good, genuine friend.  I have experienced such openness and beauty within myself and others that brings tears to my eyes and touches my soul. Words cannot explain what I have scene and experienced in 2009, but all I can say is I am extremely thankful for my life, for my family, for my friends, and for the opportunities.

For 2010, I can feel amazing things to come. I feel love, growth, strength, wealth and happiness. I’m so anxious for the next 365 days but I am trying to focus on today, and live it to the fullest both personally and professionally.

I’m excited to help conscious business owners tell their story to the online world and I’m thrilled to be a part of their businesses. I’m anxious to be a part of something larger than me, being challenged and therefore gaining insight and wisdom to pass along to someone else.

Today is the first day of 2010 but it is another day adding to my 24 years of age. It’s an addition block to the building that I have been working pretty damn hard on and it feels good to feel what I feel for the future.

So cheers! Here’s to today, here’s to tomorrow, and here’s to the opportunities that we will be presented with and hopefully take advantage of; giving us greatness. Happy 2010!

In blogs you can loosely connect to other blogs or websites through the use of hyperlinks. The linking from blog to blog paves the way for it to become a part of the blogsphere. Even if you have 1 visitor or as many as 100,000 daily visitors with hundreds of links, your blog is a part of a huge circulation of findable information. But regardless of the circulation, the most important aspect of the blog s that it is conversational and personal.

So why do businesses have or need to have blogs as a part of their online marketing campaign? Because blogs are just another way for business to build trust, they humanize companies and give prospective customers an idea of the people who are running the business. Going back to the older blog post I wrote about Joel Comm’s 4 step sales process, know me- like me -trust me -pay me, the blogs are the perfect outlet for your potential customers to get to know you a little bit, perhaps enough to want to do business with you.

Blogs are among the most powerful two way internet communication tools thus far. They can help your company tremendously and although about one third of blogs started may be abandoned in one year, the overall growth of blogging is among the fastest of any technology.

So, if you choose to join the ongoing conversation that is taking place a great deal on the internet you should know that your company is good for it and your customers will be better-off. Also, you end up saving so much money on marketing campaigns that are really expensive, don’t work, and straight up just annoy people.

 If you are only pushing promotion or sales through your social networks you will lack credibility, you are wasting your time and annoying people… try something different because you have recieved a D+

If your only active in advertising your routine tweets- ‘had a turkey sandwich’ you have received a C. You leave your followers wondering what your purpose for using networking tools like Twitter as a part of your business plan actually is. (Where’s the useful content, did you eat it with your sandwich or did you ever have it to begin with?!)

 If you allow your customer base to care and become interested and passionate about your product or service by educating and teaching them through the use of social networking, your integrating it effectively so you recieve a B but you could push one step further (and trust us, you need that A).

A+ If you provide an online community for customers to connect and support each other using integrated social media tools you have passed the test (Congrats). As a business, you want to have customer voices speak about your product or service so you know what works and what doesn’t work. Once you have provided a place for them to do so, you have received an A in integrated Social Media Marketing (yes, you get a star on your chart).

There you have it. It is so important to establish a strategic method for consumers to engage in online conversation because it can be used as the most efficient and effective approach to have your marketing plan support the notion of social media aka future marketing. We suggest that you go ahead and make mistakes (I’m still learning) because there is no cookie cutter recipe for how to use social media, but the fact that have an online presence will benefit you and your company  in the future. Go ahead, get creative, get followers and get active because there are over 300 million people active in online media, is your business involved in this conversation?

Sequel to Twouble with Twitter. Funny how Celebrities use Twitter. Great Video- Enjoy!

I’ve taken a little bit of a different approach to this year’s Blog Action Day than other bloggers I’ve read. They all have amazing points and I encourage you to read as many as you can! I wanted a very positive post and talk about something very simple, but often forgotten, love.

Loving our planet means many things to many people. It could be cleaning up trash in our oceans at a meet-up, clean-up group, it could be setting up recycling bins in your homes or offices, it could be educating students and consumers about alternative energy, or it could just be taking in a deep breath of fresh air while spending time with nature and appreciating every step, every tree, every smell, every feeling.

When you love something you want to give your all to it. If you’ve ever been in love with someone, you know the feeling I’m talking about. What if we started loving the planet as much as we love one another, and start proving our love? What if we walked a little more lightly, a little more consciously, a little more graciously, on our beautiful mother nature?

On Blog Action Day, I want to tell the world to open our hearts to the environment and look at ways we can show some love. There are many organizations to get involved with, petitions to sign, people to educate, laws to learn and know about, and probably many things that you could easily incorporate into your own life. Take that step, ask questions, research online, and try to do something nice for our environment.

Cheers to today and to our beautiful planet, the one I love and hope you will too!