About a year ago I decided to dedicate an entire month of my life to consciously learning something new every day. To track my learning I blogged about my daily learnings. Today, via one of my favorite bloggers (swissmiss) I found a site completely dedicated to the concept of Learning Something New Everyday.

I love the simplistic visuals of this site and of course the bright colors.

Here’s today’s lesson:

And a few of my favs from previous days:

the following guest post was written by Matt Wilson of Under 30 CEO

With the hype of Twitter everyone wants to know–how do I use this tool to successfully grow my business? The answer is public relations. As described by Wikipedia “Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its publics.” What better tool to have than a platform where you can send messages out to the publics on behalf of the company?

But I’m a startup, nobody cares about my company

So, let’s start at stage one, it’s time to get press for your startup by forming valuable relationships on Twitter. Sure, if a major corporation like Comcast uses Twitter they’ll get some attention out of it, but the little guys who are just looking for some ink need work a little bit. To get PR you have to look promising, this means establishing relationships and credibility in your industry. When you do make a pitch people will check you out and think “wow, these guys are the next big thing, I’m going to write them up.” Here are 5 steps to look like a promising story.

Step 1: Have a presence. If you pitch someone on Twitter and you are nobody, they’ll look at you as just that. Look like you’ve been on Twitter for a while: organically grow at least a couple hundred followers and tweet a couple hundred times. Don’t look like a newbie hopping on Twitter just to pitch. Gain a little bit of status first before you approach the media.

Step 2: Follow the right people. Make sure you have your finger on the pulse of the industry. If someone talks about your niche, you need to be in on it. Be on the scene and talk to the right people. Use search.twitter.com to track keywords, know who the players are in your industry, find the big dogs on wefollow.com and start engaging with them. This will give you an idea of what’s being written and talked about in your industry. Now you’ll understand how people promote themselves and their work.

Step 3: Have some friends. The first step to credibility is having people vouch for you. On Twitter simply communicating with other credible people is enough. If you’ve gone back and forth with people who know what they are talking about it is automatically assumed that you know what you are talking about. Talk to people with blogs, who have a voice and are well connected. The first thing someone will do after you pitch them is look at your recent Twitter activity. It better not be about what you had for lunch, hopefully its some dialogue with people they might know.

Step 4: Have a solid site linked up on Twitter. If someone wants to find out if you are the real deal, they are going to visit your site. You need a presence that says: this is why you should write about me. Your About page should link to other press you’ve received, testimonials, a bio and mission statement. Don’t skimp here, this is where you will be judged.

Step 5: Passion trumps all. If you have enough enthusiasm about a subject matter people will pay attention. If you are looking to be on TV or radio, the most passionate people who give their subject matter personality and excitement will be most attractive. Nobody wants to book a boring interview, so look alive. Post tweets that exude some energy, get on camera and start a video blog and tweet about those, do something to show you want to own your industry.

It’s time to find people who will give you some exposure.

Blogs: Bloggers are abundant on Twitter. Find any industry blog and you most likely can find their Twitter account. Establishing a rapport with bloggers is good, because if you are already “friends” with them, they are much more likely to write about you. Pitching them straight out, probably won’t work, unless you are super newsworthy. All bloggers need a break at some point so why not offer to help them out. Ask to guest post–this will at least get a link back to your company, make you sound intelligent and will tap another audience you would not otherwise have reached. If your post does well, then you’ll have a much greater chance of the blogger writing a post on you and your company in the future.

Radio: Everyone radio host needs guests. Asking straight out to come on a radio show is a lot easier. Bloggers have to sit and write about you, all a radio host has to do is have a conversation with you. Find your industry shows on uStream or BlogTalkRadio, google “entrepreneurship radio” or whatever your niche might be. Write to them and give it a shot. DM them and tell them why your appearance would interest their readers. Remember: you need to look like you’ll provide huge value, so don’t forget Step 4.

TV: Beware of any TV hosts who call you after you send out a press release, they may want to be paid to have you on their show. In any event, calling producers can’t hurt. The former COO of 800-Got-Junk? Cameron Herold says the best method to get free PR is simply picking up the phone and saying “I have a great story for you.” Under30CEO booked a Fox News gig by making friends with on air talent via Twitter, she simply liked us and gave us a slot.

Publications: Follow HARO, the Help a Reporter newsletter closely and shoot an email to any reporter who needs help. Competition is tough, so don’t be discouraged, you may only hear back from 1 in 10 HARO emails you send. You can also pitch writers and offer them help with a story. Getting on the phone with them also tends to work. Writers wake up everyday thinking “what am I going to write about this week”, so take advantage of that opportunity. Get on their good side and tweet about their recent articles and have some dialogue with them first. It’s all about establishing personal relationships. Then, turn this personal relationship into a transactional relationship and get some ink!

Once you do appear don’t forget to Tweet the link! The more exposure you can bring to that person’s work the better it is for both of you.

If you’d like more tips and tricks like these check out the Under30 Rock Star Business Series.

About The Author: Matt Wilson is co-founder of Under30CEO and has recently launched Under30 Rock Star Business Series a 4 week bootcamp on Personal Branding, Internet Marketing, Social Media and Blogging.

This morning inspiration is brought to you by Starbucks, well actually a photo of a Starbucks cup. You can see other “The Way I See It” Starbucks photo contributions in this Flickr Group.

I have a confession … I subscribe to Oprah’s E-Newsletter. For shame, yes I know, I’m not a stay at home housewife and as a career women I hate the which jeans look best on your butt articles but ya know I do find a lot of quality stuff in the vast media that is Team Oprah.

On this lazy Sunday, I particularly enjoyed reading Celebrities Discuss Following Their Passion. I’m not a celebrity gossip fan but I do love life lessons of people doing what they love to do.

Here’s a great quote from Aisha Tyler. Check out the rest if you’re interested.

Nothing really worth having is easy to get. The hard-fought battles, the goals won with sacrifice, are the ones that matter. I had to give up so much to do those awful college shows. But what I gained—the knowledge that I could do anything I set my mind to—was greater. What I learned in that shabby hotel room with the moldy shower curtain and the iron burns on the carpet was that I had what it took to go all the way: pure, unadulterated bullheadedness. – Aisha Tyler

I think it’s a pretty common struggle of twentysomethings to find our passion. Time and trial and error were my answers. What about you?

Up until age 25 I always thought I wasn’t really into books. I read the books I was required to read for school and that was about it. At 25, things changed, perhaps it was a quarterlife crisis or becoming single again but for some reason I discovered that I really am a book person.

Now, I’m not a typical girl when it comes to my book interests. I am a non-fiction, business and development book kinda reader. To give you an idea, the last few books I’ve read were Trust Agents, Outliers, and Tipping Point. I think in the past 2 years I’ve only read one stereotypical "girl" book, which was Eat, Pray, Love (highly recommend it!). I have read a few books written for women, one was about women and money and the other about business.

Because my book interests are so different than my Twilight reading friends I’ve never really taken recommendations from my friends. I’ve usually chosen the next read from the latest buzz on Twitter or from blogs I follow.

Lately, I’ve started to take an interest in the world of social networking for books and various online resources for finding book recommendations.

Here are some of the fun book related sites I’ve found:

Good Reads: a way to bring book lovers together. I first joined Good Reads by seeing a sidebar on my friend’s Facebook page showing the current book she was reading. I love this quote on the Press page:

"My geeky little Generation Y heart burst with joy when I found out about the social networking slash armchair critic book reviews site: Good Reads. More unaccredited, unsubstantiated, unfiltered streams of parboiled user-generated content! And you can meet others like you. Yes! The democracy of the web spreads yet further. Check out my profile, make your own and be my friend. I just listed the past 5 books I’ve read, the ones I’m on now and what I’ll be moving on to. Haven’t quite finished all of my reviews, so stay tuned." — misus spine

Goodreads is the largest social network for readers in the world. We have over 2,500,000 members who have added over 60,000,000 books to their shelves. A place for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, Goodreads members recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they’ve read and would like to read, form book clubs and much more. Goodreads was launched in December 2006.

Shelfari: a visual representation of the books on your virtual shelf.

Shelfari introduces readers to our global community of book lovers and encourages them to share their literary inclinations and passions with peers, friends, and total strangers (for now). Shelfari is a gathering place for authors, aspiring authors, publishers, and readers, and has many tools and features to help these groups connect with each other in a fun and engaging way. Our mission is to enhance the experience of reading by connecting readers in meaningful conversations about the published word.

LibraryThing: Catalog your books online.

LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. You can access your catalog from anywhere—even on your mobile phone. Because everyone catalogs together, LibraryThing also connects people with the same books, comes up with suggestions for what to read next, and so forth.

Readernaut: newest to the scene of books and social networking, Readernaut is still in Beta.

Share your reading experience by writing notes, tracking progress, and meeting fellow readers.

BookMooch: Give books away. Get books you want.

Give & receive: Every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Once you’ve read a book, you can keep it forever or put it back into BookMooch for someone else, as you wish.

No cost: there is no cost to join or use this web site: your only cost is mailing your books to others.

IndieBound: a resource to find independently owned bookstores near you. For those of you who are all about Buying Local here’s another resource for ya.

IndieBound is a community-oriented movement. It brings together booksellers, readers, indie retailers, local business alliances, and anyone else with a passionate belief that healthy local economies help communities thrive. Supporting local, indie businesses means that dollars, jobs, diversity, choice, and taxes stay local, creating strong, unique communities and happy citizens.

It’s a powerful tool for booksellers to communicate their part in a national movement supporting independents–and lets everyone know just how many independent bookstores there are.

BookCrossing: Where books take on a life of their own. They call it "The World’s Biggest Free Book Club".

BookCrossing is earth-friendly, and gives you a way to share your books, clear your shelves, and conserve precious resources at the same time. Through our own unique method of recycling reads, BookCrossers give life to books. A book registered on BookCrossing is ready for adventure. Leave it on a park bench, a coffee shop, at a hotel on vacation. Share it with a friend or tuck it onto a bookshelf at the gym — anywhere it might find a new reader! What happens next is up to fate, and we never know where our books might travel. Track the book’s journey around the world as it is passed on from person to person.

Book Trailers YouTube Channel: think movie trailers meets books. Most of the trailers are for books I would not read but, hey it’s a fun idea.

I’ve created profiles on GoodReads and Shelfari. If you’re on either of these sites feel free to add me as a friend. I’ve added a few of my past reads and some of my wish lists. I’ll be playing around with both of these sites in the near future. My favorite thing that both of these social sites has is the quotes section. You can add your favorite quotes directly on a book’s page. I got my book underlining obsession from my mom, so it will be fun to share my underline-worthy parts with the booknerds of the world. [Update: I just discovered Goodreads can post updates to twitter and Facebook. I'm all about bringing everything together!]

Do you use any of these social book sites? How do you get book recommendations? If you happen to be one of the many twenty-something ladies who like the girly books I mentioned before – you should join the Chick Lit group on 20sb.

I saw this via twitter and I thought was worth sharing.

The venerable Estee Lauder cosmetics brand has found a seemingly natural way to connect with social media: offering free makeovers and photo shoots at its department-store cosmetics counters coast-to-coast to produce shots women can use for their online profiles. – AdAge

The promotion will start in New York Bloomingdale’s October 16th and expand into Macy’s and Saks in other cities.

The gift that the brand hopes will keep on giving is that the profile photos include the Estee Lauder logo in the background, which, assuming they aren’t Photoshopped into oblivion, could give the brand lasting presence on Facebook beyond its own 27,000-member plus fan page. The promotion is being plugged on that page, as well as on Estee Lauder’s website, and the company is also using PR to spread the word. – AdAge

I am entrenched in the marketing and social media world so "new" ideas always appeal to me. What do you think of this idea? Do you think you’d act on this offer? I’ve never used Estee Lauder, but it sounds fun to me.

More info: Estee Lauder Facebook Fan Page

I’m on a Grey’s Anatomy marathon lately. I have the DVD’s and the high drama emotional rollercoaster has been my relaxation lately. Tonight’s episode ended with a great quote from Meredith.

Life is not a spectator sport. Win, lose, or draw, the game is on. So go ahead… argue with the ref, change the rules, cheat a little, take a break and tend to your wounds. But play. Play. Play hard, play fast… play loose and free. Play as if there’s no tomorrow. Okay, so it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game… right?

This guest post was written by Carlos Miceli. Argentinian. Questioner of things. Carlos posts daily short posts at Owl Sparks and can also be found on twitter: @CarlosMic.

Labels are the downside about the “community” thing.

We as a culture feel the need to label everything: our clothing style, our musical preference, you name it. It’s worrying.

Sure, we do it to belong. To feel closer to one another. To separate ourselves from outsiders.

But here’s the problem:

Labels are limits.

We need to be part of something bigger, that’s ok.

The problem comes when our need for exclusion comes before our need for belonging.

People don’t realize how much they lose when they exclude those other labels as learning opportunities. How much they stop growing.

Don’t ever label yourself as anything that will limit you.

If there’s a label that’s worth the effort, is being open-minded.

My question for Carlos, and you guys, is – where is the line between labeling yourself for the purpose of belonging versus excluding? I label myself as a 20-something because I enjoy conversing with other 20somethings about life. This is not the say I won’t have a great conversation with a 35 year old. What do you think?

http://www.explorethecycle.com/ via @Zakblogs