First a word from my fellow SXSW panelist Chris Brogan, who's looking a bit rockabilly biker-ish these days:

Too Busy to Shop: Marketing to "Multi-Minding" Women by Kelley Murray Skoloda shows markers and companies what they need to know and do to attract women buyers. After all, women control 85 percent of all consumer purchases.

Kelley explains that women are multi-tasking, but multi-minding – meaning that we are thinking about home when we’re at work, work when we’re at home, and about everything else of of the darn time.

Download an excerpt or see the reviews.

I highly recommend this book if your company markets to women through traditional media (print, TV, radio, etc.) or through social medial. Not only is it an easy read since Kelly keeps the ideas and examples coming, but she wraps up each chapter with Multi-Minding (or M2) Must-Dos, a list of the lessons learned in each section.

Too Busy to Shop is also full of stats, research, examples and terrific quotes from Stacy DeBroff, the CEO of Mom Central, who knows her stuff. (Stacy’s a colleague of mine. Every time I have a chance to speak with her, I learn so much.)

So if there’s one marketing book you read this summer on vacation – or during your lunch break at the office – it should be Too Busy to Shop: Marketing to "Multi-Minding" Women by Kelley Murray Skoloda.

Just a little snippet of me at SXSW on the Dad is the New Mom panel.

If anyone filmed the whole session and posted the video, please let me know.

Bonin Bough from PepsiCo DM’d me on Twitter that he had put up some video from the Dad is the New Mom panel.

All you can see is me and Chris Brogan, and it’s just a few minutes' worth of what turned out to be a pretty enjoyable and informational panel. Still it’s nice to have a record of the session.

You’ve probably heard that John McCain is using Twitter to let his constituents know about earmark spending. And this from a man who few months ago said that he didn’t know how to send an email!

So what’s Twitter and why should you use it? Twitter.com is a social networking site where you communicate online to a group of friends (your followers*) in 140 characters or less. Like blogging or other forms of social media, it’s all about the conversation. Yes, you can tweet* about mundane things like, “Eating lunch. Boy I like butternut squash soup.” But it’s also a way to connect with like minds, get feedback, and keep up with trending topics.

The basics

Signing up for Twitter is easy. Just go to twitter.com, click on the “Get Started – Join” button and fill in your name. Then pick a user name and a password, and enter your email address. Enter the CAPTCHA words to verify that you’re human, click on the Create My Account button, and you’re done!

Note: Give thought to your user name. You can use your name, your book’s name, or the name of your business or blog. As a professional writer, using your full name is wise. (Mine is amnichols because my full name is a bit long.) But if you’re known by a nom de plume like “GeekWriter” or “FictionFan” then use it. Remember, once you’ve established a username in Twitter, you don’t want to change it.

After setting up your account, go into Profile and download a picture of yourself. (You can also use a logo or book cover artwork.) Then choose a basic background, save and start tweeting and following!

Connecting and following

Want to connect with other writers or agents and publishers on Twitter? You can find them by going to Twitter search and typing in keywords like “books,” “writing,” or “editor.” Or use a Twitter application like Twellow to search by category. Good people/organizations for writers to follow are mass media outlets, freelance writers, publishing houses, and authors.

To follow someone, go to their profile page and click on the Follow button under their picture.

Get help from others

Looking for advice on approaching an editor? Or maybe you need to interview someone who makes custom wedding bands. Twitter is a great place to find advice, leads, and even jobs. Just today I saw @themamasphere* tweeting “Any Press Release experts out there? Ack~ writers block!” This could have been an opportunity to offer some advice and maybe get writing work out of it.

Trawling for news items

Recently I took a Twitter for Journalists class through Poynter’s News University. Journalists are using Twitter to find stories – and so should you! They say that news breaks on Twitter hours before it hits mainstream media outlets like CNN.

More info: books and websites

If you are interested in learning more about how to use Twitter to market yourself and your book, check out Joel Comm’s book Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time. You should also check out the TwiTip blog.

The jargon*

• Tweeting – verb: to use Twitter, to send out a message.
• Tweet – noun: your message is called a tweet.
• Twittering – verb: the act of using Twitter.
• @username – another way of referencing someone’s Twitter address or a way to reply to them on Twitter.
• Following – verb: the act of signing up to get someone’s tweets

(Originally written for the Northern Colorado Writers newsletter.)

Joshua Topolsky from Engadget was on Jimmy Fallon last night showing off the soon-to-be-released (we hope) Palm Pre.

After reading in Newsweek about its debut at CES, I’ve been eagerly awaiting its release. Even GeekMommy, who just became part of the iPhone Borg Collective along with half my friends and relatives, is looking forward to trying it out.

I knew that Jimmy was on Twitter, but I didn’t realize he was such a techno geek. I’m in love…with Jimmy and the phone. Josh is cool, too.

So Palm, hurry up already. Until then, I’ll have to make due with my old Palm Pilot, a cell phone and a Peek. Dang, that’s so 2004, you know?

(Thanks to GigaOm Gadget Gurus for the heads up.)

This morning the Today Show did a Digital Mom segment on Melissa of the ConsumerQueen.com, followed by Ann Curry interviewing Wendy Piersall of SparkPlugging and Terri Walter of Razorfish.

Pepsi invited me to speak at a panel at  SXSW. I had hemmed and hawed about going to SXSW because it would mean a week away from family and work. With the invite – which was too good to pass up - I’ll only be going for a few days.

The panel I’ll be speaking on is Dad is the New Mom on Monday, March 16th from 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm. (Add this to your SXSW Calendar)

Here’s the panel description:

While 'MotrinGate' and other recent events have demonstrated the power of mom bloggers around the world, the other side of the parent blogger coin is also developing an engaging and influential voice. Dad Bloggers are sharing thoughts and ideas about parenting - and news and reviews about parenting-related products - at a rapidly increasing rate online.This panel provides an opportunity to connect with today's leading Dad Bloggers as they share their thoughts about tapping online communities centered around fatherhood and their insight into the future of social media as a whole.

• Bonin Bough PepsiCo
• Chris Brogan Pres, New Marketing Labs
• Brad Powell COO, IFC/DadLabs Inc.
• Jory Des Jardins Co-Founder, BlogHer LLC
• Anne-Marie Nichols Blogger/Publisher, This Mama Cooks!

Hope to see you there!

This post was originally written for the Northern Colorado Writers newsletter before the recent brouhaha about Facebook. I’ve heard stories of people leaving Facebook, but with the change back to their original terms, I’m happy to stay there.

Just this week, I have “friended” my cousins and an aunt in France via Facebook, where it is the most popular social network. They are relatives I barely know and with the language barrier, I don’t know how else I would get in contact with them except through a series of relatives, email and Air Mail.

Facebook is a wonderful tool for networking and connecting with family and friends. But like most tools, you have to be wise about how you use it. If you do not want your mom, spouse, employer, or law enforcement to know what you are doing, then do not put it on Facebook.

Should you be on Facebook?

Facebook is one of the most popular online social networks. Originally created for college students, now people of all ages are using it to connect with friends. More recently, Facebook has become a place where professionals network and companies connect with customers. If you have a book to sell, a writing business to promote, or you want to network with other writers, you need to be on Facebook. Hopefully, you already are.

However, the melding of the personal and the professional has become a challenge for Facebook users. You want to present a business-like front, but you want to share your life with your friends, too. One way to do this is by organizing your Facebook page using Friends Lists.

How to use Friends Lists

To create a Facebook List, click "Friends" in the blue bar at the top. On the left side of the page, click the button "Make a New List." Give it a title. You should create a list (or lists) for personal contacts and another list (or lists) for professional contacts. Examples of lists on the professional side could be: Agents & Publishers, Clients, and Fellow Freelancers.

Once you have your lists set up, you can add people that you’ve already friended to your new list by typing in names one by one or click on "Select Multiple Friends" to add several people to the list all at once. (To add people, just click on their photos.) When you're finished, click the "Save List" button at the bottom.

Once you have some lists created, it is time to figure out who gets to see what. To edit your privacy settings, go to "Settings" at the top-right of the screen next to the search box. Hover your mouse over the link and click on "Privacy Settings" on the menu that pops up. On the following page, click "Profile," the top choice in the list of options.

On the profile privacy page, you have the option of customizing exactly who gets to see what. You can modify the following areas: Profile, Basic Info, Personal Info, Status Updates, Photos Tagged of You, Videos Tagged of You, Friends, Wall Posts, Education Info, and Work Info. If you're unsure of what any of those things are, click the "?" next to the item to read a definition.

Using the drop-down boxes, you can customize who gets to see your info: "Only Friends," "Friends of Friends," or "My Network of Friends." To lock down your profile to friends only, you could set all these to "only friends." But since you have now created specialized lists, you should use these instead.

To do so, click the fourth option from the drop-down box: "Customize." From here, you can add lists of people who should NOT be able to see this part of your profile. For example, if you wanted to block your high school buddies list from seeing your status updates, you could do so here – just type the name of your list in the box "Except these people" and save your changes.

More Facebook tips

• Untag unflattering, unprofessional and incriminating photos of yourself from other Facebook profiles.
• Delete inappropriate comments made by either you or your friends.
• Use a professional-looking headshot.
• Remember to put new contacts in the appropriate Friends List.
• Post content that is relevant to your professional life like publishing industry news or an article about a writing workshop you are teaching.

Just when you thought you knew everything, you go to a conference and learn about a bunch of new social media tools. Since we're all trying to blog in smarter and quicker ways, here are several that you should check out.

Google's Tools

Google now organizes most of their services under one member login. So if you have a Google account for Gmail or Adsense, once you log in at Google.com, you should have access to all your Google tools.

Some Google applications that you should learn to use are:

• Google Analytics – the daddy of all analytics tools. As soon as you set up your blog, you should install the Google Analytics code even if your blogging program comes with its own analytics.
• Feedburner - owned by Google, they’re in the process of moving all Feedburner feeds to feedburner.google.com.
• Google Reader - using Google's feed reader may have future SEO and social networking benefits.
• Google Webmaster Tools - For the technically savvy, installing Webmaster Tools will help with search engine traffic. For more information go to Google Webmaster Central.

Remember, it's Google's world - we just blog in it.

Search boxes

Lijit widget – provides content search for your readers and stats for you, and can be monetized.

List building

• With MyBlogLog you are able to build a community to contact about your latest post or contest. Also comes with analytics, recent reader widget, and “top links clicked on” code.
• AWeber, Constant Contact, and iContact are all great enewsletter list programs.

Photo editing

Picnik – if you don’t have the money to buy photo editing software like Photoshop, Picnik is the next best thing. Editing is done online and the basic package is free.

DIY Widgets

Widgetbox – make your own widgets or use someone else’s.

Blog Editors

Windows LiveWriter – If you want to blog offline because you’re concerned about losing a connection – and all your work – LiveWriter is for you. Another choice is ScribeFire, which works in your FireFox browser. Both are free programs.

Social collaborating and networking

CollectiveX and Ning are both ways to build social sites. CollectiveX is for work related groups, and Ning is more social. Best of all both are free.

Other tools

• Shortening URLS for Twitter or email: idek, TinyURL, SnipURL, TinyPaste, Link Bunch, Krunchd
• Polls and surveys for your blog: polldaddy
• Updating all your microblogging and social sites at once: Ping.fm, Hellotxt, Fuser
• Managing your online profiles in one place: AtomKeep, PeopleBrowser (Firefox only)
• Helping you keep track of online conversations: FriendFeed, TypePad Connect

Next issue: Twitter third party applications – should you trust them and which are good ones to use?

(Originally appeared in the Mom Central Blogger Enewsletter)

Have you set any of these goals this year for your writing?

• Write every day
• Interact with my readers
• Get a book deal
• Make money with my writing

I’m sure a few of them are on your 2009 writing goals list. But did you know that starting a blog can help you accomplish your goals.

Write every day

Some writers go the old fashioned route and write in a diary. However, since many of us are used to writing on computers and don’t feel comfortable without spell check and an online thesaurus, why not take it a bit further and write online? The beauty of blogging is that you can log on from anywhere, like the library or work, and write directly to your blog. If you’re shy you can keep it private, too.

Interact with my readers

I know a newspaper columnist who is putting together a blog so her readers can find her online. Not only can they read her blog, but they hold online conversations with her there, too. Not only does she receive immediate feedback, but her blog readers are a valuable source of ideas for future articles and blog posts.

Get a book deal

If you attended the 2008 NCW conference you know it was all about creating a marketing platform to sell your book to agents and editors. (Speaking of which, you should check out Christina Katz’s new book, “Get Know before the Book Deal” and her blog at http://getknownbeforethebookdeal.typepad.com.) A blog is an inexpensive and easy way to get known in your niche, develop a readership, and get your work in front of potential book readers and publishers. If you already have a book, a blog is ideal for self-promotion as well.

Make money with my writing

Yes, you can make money blogging by selling advertising, running affiliate programs, and doing paid posting. There are probloggers making four, five and even six-figured salaries doing just that. But what about getting hired to write a blog or a newspaper column, be paid to edit someone’s book, or do consulting in your area of expertise just because someone found you through your blog?

Again, it goes back to a blog acting as your marketing platform. Let’s say your blog is on environmental issues in politics, a narrow but timely topic. You work hard on marketing your blog, and regularly post well-written content. Through your blog, you’re contacted by an environmental group to do a guest column for their website. It’s a non-paying gig, but you consider it a donation to a worthy cause. In turn, it attracts the attention of an editor for a regional newspaper, who hires you to do a weekly column.

Let’s take this a few steps further. As you get more know, you’re asked to speak to local groups and eventually at national conferences – and get paid to do so. Then you’re approached by a publisher to write a book. Think this is impossible? Look at what happened to Christian Lander of the blog Stuff White People Like. According to the New York Times, Lander may have been paid $300,000 by Random House for the rights to a book based on his blog. (See the New York Times Article on blogging for a book deal for the whole story.)

Whatever your writing goals are for 2009, starting a blog is a great way to accomplish them. Get started!

(Originally written for the Northern Colorado Writers newsletter.)