You’re two weeks into the Social Media workout designed to save you time, make you more savvy and increase your business profile. If you’re still with me then congratulations. If you’ve gotten a little behind then make sure you check out how to get Facebook fit and set up a Fan Page for your business. Just by following my own exercises I’ve seen over 50 new fans to my WomanzWorld page- thanks.

You’ve toned up with Twitter and learned the rules of engagement and practical uses for business. I know there’s still some skeptics out there, so if there’s one exercise you keep in your workout routine it’s to use search.twitter.com to listen to what your customers are saying and provide the answer.

Today we’re looking at exercising your email rights. Both from managing your inbox to email marketing.

Inbox Workout

At the start of this month I was determined to exercise control of my email. Thanks to a timely email (ironic I know) from Leo Babuta of Zen Habits, I decided to follow his exact instructions and so far the results have been dramatic.

If your inbox is drowning with emails, both read and unread and that stresses you out then read on:

Exercise 1: Create an “actions” folder

This is where you’re going to store any emails that you need to take action on and are really important.

Exercise 2. Pick the most important.

Go through your entire inbox and check off 10-15 that are the most urgent action emails, and file them in this new folder.

Exercise 3. Temporarily archive.

Create a “temp” folder. File everything that’s still in your inbox into this temp folder. Everything. You’re going to get these out of the way and not worry about them at the moment.

Exercise 4. Set a new policy.

Every new email that comes in will follow the rules in the next section. No more allowing your inbox to pile up.

Exercise 5: Unsubscribe

I went through my inbox and unsubscribed from about 20 emails newsletters, you know the ones that come in you and instantly delete anyway. For the ones I like I switched to an RSS feed in Google Reader. The ones I really like I kept and put a filter to go straight into a `To Read’ folder. Bliss.

Exercise 6: Exercise Control

Check your email only 2-3 times per day and NEVER in the morning. I know it’s damn hard but get your biggest piece of work out of the way in the first hour and do not get sucked in to checking email. When you’re online try to work in 20-30 minute chunks so delete unimportant emails, file others into action or temporary archive and when you reply keep it brief. 1-2 sentences should suffice – otherwise pick up the phone.

Creating Business Email Newsletters

Now you have better control of your own inbox, you have likely seen what works to catch your attention from newsletters and what doesn’t. What you like to hear from businesses and what turns you off.

Exercise 1: Get an Email Client

Most of the tools you can use to send out email newsletters to your clients offer similar features: pre-existing templates and ones you can customise, importing and manging your list of customers,  automatic sign up and unsubscribe settings, auto responders, and tracking of email open rates and reach.

I really like MailChimp for their funky branding, easy to use templates and fantastic helpful videos. It’s also free to use if you send under 500 per month. Two other big names are Aweber & Constant Contact All of them have similar features. It’s entirely your preference.

Exercise 2: Find your purpose

What do you want to achieve with your email newsletters? Is it to inform of a new product or service? Is it to share information that’s helpful to your customers? Examples of this is white papers, Slideshare presentations, free reports, discounts and invites to events.

Exercise 3: Make it timely

Most companies stick with one newsletter update per month. If you have regular offerings such as a day spa, retail firm or event company then perhaps one per week is better.

The best times to send email totally depend on your business. 10am- midday and 2-5pm have been proven more effective. Tuesdays work better than Mondays as people have settled into their work week. Friday afternoons too as people knock off from work.

Interestingly 9-11pm has also been proven as the time many people read their emails. So pick your audience and know your preferences. Split your campaigns and test it out!

Exercise 4: Brand it

Whilst you can change your newsletter look and feel make sure you keep some elements consistent with your branding. Your logo, fonts, and social media links are really important to include. Make it easy to share with social bookmark buttons. Include testimonials and latest PR where possible. Visuals are great but make sure images are not disrupting your readers as many email clients do not display them.

Exercise 5: Be friendly

Formal emails I think are on the out. Even professional businesses take a friendly inviting tone, with clear information and entertaining content. Make sure your email has benefits for your customers, a call to action and your contact details should they wish for more information.

Top Tip: MailChimp offers great short videos and information on ways to make your email campaigns more effective so take the time to watch them and learn, and then test test test – and have fun!

Exercise 6: Deal with deserters

Yes you will have people unsubscribe from your email list, I personally have been lucky as you generally enjoy what I write and have to say! However of the few who have unsubscribed I always follow up to ask if they can give me feedback on why, what would make them come back and what else they’d like to see. If you ask you quite often get great responses that help you to improve for next time.

Top Tip: Know the difference

Subscribing by RSS (the orange icon on the right hand side bar) means you can subscribe to receive my blog posts direct to your email inbox or Google Reader (where you read them online).

By subscribing to my newsletter you’ll get these once every month or when I have something very special to say. These are generally more targeted and have special information, offers or updates.

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A passionate entrepreneur and award-winning educator, Dorothy Hamilton is one of the most influential forces shaping the American culinary landscape today.

She is the Founder and CEO of the International Culinary Center which includes the world-renowned French Culinary Institute whose graduates include many of America’s most prominent chefs and The Italian Culinary Academy.

Hamilton’s distinguished career in vocational education and her outstanding reputation for creating innovative programs in gastronomy has earned her numerous awards and even a knighting.

Most recently, she was inducted into the Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America by the James Beard Foundation and was nominated for the Entrepreneur Award of Excellence by the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

Hamilton was also the creator and host of Chef’s Story, a 26-part television series and the author of the companion book, Chef’s Story. The textbook she conceived for the school — The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Cuisine- received James Beard Foundation Award in 2008. Her book on culinary careers, Love What You Do, and the school’s Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts were published last year.

The lifelong food lover talks about her inspirational work philosophy in this following short video from NYBC New York Channel and shares advice on balancing a demanding career with motherhood.

WomanzWorld was able to take a moment of Dorothy’s time to find out what’s driven her entrepreneurial success.

WomanzWorld: What was the catalyst that made you want to start your own business?

Dorothy Hamilton: I returned to NYC during the recession of 1974. I was an English major in college and had just served in the Peace Corp in Thailand. I had no job skills or opportunities so I took the only job available to me—a job at my father’s trade school in NYC. I loved it. I loved working with the students. From there, I followed my passion for cooking and food after I visited culinary schools in Europe. I convinced my dad to create a culinary trade school in NYC and the FCI was born.

What has been your biggest challenge to date and how did you overcome it?

Business never runs smoothly. 9/11 happened 10 blocks away and the economy tanked. During the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s students couldn’t get loans. The day-to-day operations of a business are grueling. You have to steel your stomach and know where your center is.

When did you experience your first business win or success & what impact did it have?

When Julia Child got FCI on Good Morning America and the school started to fill up. I understood the power of the press and how integral the press is to you in helping your reach your consumers.

What’s the single most important thing you’ve learned to date?

Trust your instincts. At the end of the day, you have to know who you are and what you’re doing.

What are the key strengths/qualities you’ve found in yourself as an entrepreneur?

Creativity. I’m also personable. In business, people don’t work for you. People have to want to work with you.

What’s your secret to keeping focused on your business and the vision you have for it?

I love it. I absolutely love what I do.

Do you have any daily habits as an entrepreneur that propels you to success?

I try to go to bed at a decent hour most nights. I’m clearest in the morning when I can think and strategize. A restful sleep is key to intelligent thought the next day.

What are the 3 top books you’ve read that have made a personal difference to you and influenced you and why?

Pierre Franey’s memoir, A Chef’s Tale. Epitomizes the of joy of French cooking and cuisine.
La Technique by Jacques Pepin. Don’t ask. Just look at it and you will know why it is seminal.
Moby Dick. Because it is so much more than a whale of a book.

Which females are your personal source of inspiration and why?

Julia Child was highly influential in my life. I observed how much of a people-person she was. She taught me the value of spending a moment or two with people– listening to them, asking questions, paying attention to them. She never talked about herself.

My Czech grandmother was inspirational to me. She came over to the U.S. when she was 14.

My friend, Christine Baranski, too. I am inspired by how hard she works!

What are your future plans?

We’re looking to spread the gospel of the International Culinary Center (FCI and Italian Culinary Academy) on TV, radio and the web.

What is your key piece of advice to any female considering becoming an entrepreneur?

Find the courage to pursue your dream job.

Currently, Hamilton is on the board of Abraham House, an organization that trains ex-offenders from New York City’s Rikers Island prison for reintegration into society; is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and Les Dames d’ Escoffier; and is a Sopexa Chevalier..

Hamilton holds a B.A. with honors from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, and an M.B.A. from New York University.

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So tonight is the big night in the world of celebrity actors, talented film directors and producers. It’s a time to celebrate their brilliance.

But what about all the hardworking dedicated crew involved who make movie magic possible? When do they get acknowledged and have their moment in the spotlight?

If you think your business needs a little more of the red carpet treatment and you’re sick of being behind the scenes then add some magic and sparkle today.

Strut your stuff

Image from 3rdi

You get so caught up in our daily grind that we forget to step out, meet potential customers and partners and tell them why you’re great.

You don’t work this hard to shy away from promoting your business. So take time this week to connect with existing customers and grab a testimonial off them.

Then go and put it everywhere. On your website, on your email signature, in your online profiles as proof of your excellence.

Work it!

Add some bling

Image from Pyzam

That’s right, jazz it up, do something out of the ordinary for your business.

Have you been meaning to rebrand? Change up your strapline? Freshen up the website. Update your marketing materials to reflect your current brilliance?

Then do just one thing this week to add sparkle to your business, even if it’s sending out a pretty email campaign to everyone you think needs to know what your red carpet moments have been this year.

Tell them how your business has shone and how you can do the same for them!

Make this an award winning performance

Image from Oscars.org

It’s easy to say and much harder to do, but approach your business this week as if everything you do is being watched by millions.

See how much more importantance you automatically assign to every action you take – because it really matters. Every person you interact with and every touch point becomes that much more critical.

As Sting so wisely pointed out: `Every step you take, every move you make, I’ll be watching you.’

This your chance to have your best performance yet, make it count. Be the change you you want in life every single day.  Act out excellence in all you do and you’ll soon have the great honour of receiving the award of a lifetime.

You can be even more amazing
Just take 2 minutes to answer my quick survey of 2 multi-choic questions on what your biggest challenge is in running your business and what solutions you look to.

Click here to take survey

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I have to say that 9 months back I was a big Twitter skeptic and I chat to people every day who still feel
this way. Yet I’ve seen incredible things happen on Twitter, made amazing connections with people I just wouldn’t have had access to before and driven a ton of traffic to WomanzWorld.

Courtesy of BlackHeathBugle

What’s more I’ve learned about the latest trends, news and buzz as well as been exposed to hundreds of fascinating links to blogs, websites and resources that I never would have found myself.

So what exactly is Twitter?

Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that has seen explosive growth since its launch in 2006 with over 75M users worldwide according to many statistics. In fact Twitter just reached 10 billion tweets this week.

But really it’s an incredibly powerful search engine that gives you the pulse of what’s going on in the world in real-time. There’s more women than men on Twitter too (55%), earning good money (up to $60K pa) and aged between 25-54.

Every day, millions of people use Twitter and your business has an ability to achieve viral messaging and reach an untapped audience as well as become an authority and resource people look to first.

How do I maximise Twitter for my business?

First off I always look to emulate people who are using Twitter incredibly well. Since most women love shoes, what better example than Zappos.com. Check out there Twitter page here and follow what they do.

The founder is a prolific twitterer with over 1.6M followers and also encourages his staff to tweet and integrates it into all their marketing activities. Given they were just bought by Amazon for $928 million I’d say they’re a shining example of success.

Here’s some key ways I suggest you use Twitter for business:

Marketing and Promotions:

• Give updates on new product features or services you’re introducing
• Promote competitions, incentives and exclusive offers
• Showcase the latest company news via regular updates.
• Give tips and tricks on how best to use your product or service
• Promote articles and info and news relevant to your customers

Engagement:

• Be personable, friendly and real, be the face of your business
• Quickly share information with people interested in your company
• Gather real-time market intelligence and feedback
• Build relationships with customers by asking questions and starting conversations

Customer service:

• Answer any queries or resolve any technical problems within 24 hours
• Rapidly update customers on any issues or improvements in real-time
• Help customers with using your product or service

How to get started:

1. Got to Twitter and create a user-friendly Twitter ID (@yourname)
2. Set up your profile with a logo or a photo of you to make it real, a link to your website and a short and compelling description for people who visit (remember to use keywords as people search on this, i.e Marketing solutions)
3. Follow the right people – visit Twellow (the yellowpages of Twitter!), set up your profile, then search out people in your area of business and interest and start following them
4. Get a Twitter Manager: There are several great clients to manage your account(s). I love Hootsuite and highly recommend it as you can manage multiple twitter accounts, set up lists of people and interest areas to monitor and engage with analyse key metrics on what’s working. Two other very popular ones are Tweetdeck and Seesmic.
5. Learn the lingo. I’d suggest you read through this excellent resource on Mashable.

Become a Twitter Expert

Here’s some key things that will help you to understand and use Twitter to benefit your business:

Use links: Tweets with links are 3 X more prevalent in Retweets (RTs). Use Bit.ly to shortern your URL (it’s by far the most popular and best for SEO plus it also has excellent tracking tools so you can see the number of click thrus and more.

Be a grammar queen: A whopping 98% of RTs contain some form of punctuation (compared with 86% of normal tweets), with colons, periods, exclamation points, commas, and hyphens leading the way.
Break News Original content is way more popular than stuff people have already read:

Use Proper Nouns Properly: Headline-style tweets–such as “Johnny Depp starts using FundRazr”–are more likely to go viral.

Timing: Tuesday is the most popular day to tweet as well as 4pm on Friday.

Come join me on Twitter @womanzworld and @nataliesisson

Sources: FastCompany: report: Nine Scientifically Proven Ways to Get Retweeted on Twitter – September 21, 2009

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By Felicia Lee, Ghost CEO Advisor

It’s been such a joy to watch and participate in some of the 2010 Winter Olympic activities.  I’m quite inspired by the Olympic athletes, especially in their stories and journey.

Olympic Gold Medal (Photo by Natalie)

So many have always known that they’ve wanted to become an Olympian ever since they were little kids.  Some have been called “too ambitious”, but have not allowed naysayers to come between them and their ambition.  Today I want to take a quick look into this thing we called “Ambition”.

Are you ambitious?  What does the word “ambition” mean to you?  Do you feel uncomfortable talking about your ambition?

Does it conjure up negative connotations like self-centredness, egotism, or perhaps manipulation of others for your own purposes?

In my coaching sessions, I go over my clients’ business goals, and I usually ask them to aim for what they want, not what they think they can achieve.  Sometimes I really have to stretch them.  I find so many women uncomfortable with being public about their ambitions.

Many think that ambition is only condoned once they have first satisfied the needs of all their family members – husbands, children, elderly parents, and others.  Otherwise their ambition is called into question.  So they settle for something less.  Something that is maybe a little bit easier to achieve and won’t rock anyone’s boats.  Often, they pack their ambitions into storage, to be dusted off one day in the future, but certainly not today.

Today I challenge you to think about your ambition

What have you always wanted to achieve or to be?  Are you living your passion?  Are you taking steps, if slowly, to get there?

Your ambition doesn’t happen unless you intentionally map out a plan for how you’re going to get there.  Here are two factors to consider:

1. Your competency i.e. getting really good at what you want to do, and
2. Building a support structure to provide the proper recognition for your achievements.

Today, there are fewer issues around women achieving competencies – there is far less discrimination in getting into the schools or programs that you need to and getting the job or the promotion, and there are plenty of resources and support for starting and running a business.

However, I see women having more challenges in building the recognition and support they need to sustain the journey to fulfilling their ambition.  We tend to shy away from asking for appropriate acknowledgement of their contributions or to demand appropriate support.

We feel selfish when we don’t subordinate their needs to those of others.  We also tend to downplay accomplishments, and have much more difficulty tooting our own horn.

Yet recognition is such a fundamental emotional need, and can play a big part as the motivational engine that drives our pursuit.  Just take a look at why Olympic athletes compete – they are all going for gold, and the recognition that a gold medal brings.

I would encourage you to dare to be ambitious with your pursuits in the first place, and then take a look at the two steps again.  Do you have steps in place to become competent, and do you have a support structure to provide recognition and so motivate you to keep going?

Listen Up: You could win a complimentary 45 minute coaching session with Felicia valued at $150.

This can be in person or if over the phone so it doesn’t matter where you are in the world. Just answer these 2 questions in the comment section below:

1. What is the key area you need the most help with as an entrepreneur? (i.e Financial advice, marketing, social media, business plans)
2. What do invest your money in most? (i.e business books, courses, products, advice, outsourcing)

Competition ends Sunday 7th March at midnight PST. Winner will be announced and contacted on Monday 8th.

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Facebook is huge, with over 400 million users now it’s the place to be, both personally and for your business. Love it or hate it, you need to get yourself in Facebook shape quick.

You likely already have a personal profile on Facebook. In this session I’ll take you how to set up a Facebook Page for your business or brand and how to work it.

There are now more than 3 million active Pages on Facebook and half of these are local businesses.

According to Facebook the average user becomes a fan of 4 pages every month. That means exposure for you, your cause, your organization and your business.

Free for all

That double entendre was implied. I can’t get over the fact that people shy away from Facebook and think it’s a waste of time. For a start it’s FREE. With realtime feeds it’s also one of the largest search engines and a fantastic place to monitor the latest trends from real people – your potential customers.

A Facebook page acts as a free mini website so on the off chance you don’t have your own, then use Facebook. You can share information, links, photos, videos, poll your fans, run competitions, start discussions, feed your blog and twitter posts to it and more. No technical knowledge required.

Let’s start the Facebook workout.

Exercise 1. Create a Facebook Page

The easiest way is to just go to www.facebook.com/pages to set one up.

When you’re choosing the type of Page it’s important that you pick the right name as you won’t be able to change this later. Then it’s all up to you – have fun, get creative and make sure you target your message to the right audience.

Top Tip: Once you have 100 fans you can acquire your own `vanity’ URL with your business name so it’s much easier to search for you, e.g facebook.com/womanzworld

Exercise 2. Make Your Facebook Page Unique

The most effective Facebook Pages create unique fresh content on a regular basis. It’s not about replicating what’s on your website, or putting out the same messages that you may already promote via email and twitter. I learned that over time!

Courtesy of Wildfire App

It’s about getting personal and creating content that will build a community, showcase your own personality, or that of your business and engage with your fans. Check out Entrepreneurs Inc page and click on Vitamin Water’s page shown here.

Depending on what your organization does, this could mean anything from sharing fun facts about you, your business or a relevant topic, posting details of an upcoming event your holding or attending through to publishing pictures of recent work, a new product release or a customer you’ve worked with.

Exercise 3. Be Active

Use your Facebook page to give people an insight to the real you and what your business does. Publish insightful and interesting information in your status updates, ask your fans what they think with polls or when you post videos, photos or other links.

Ask your fans to utilize the Share options when you publish to your Wall, so that friends in their networks can also find out about your organization.

Exercise 4. Start talking

In order to build a community on Facebook you need to start and continue a conversation. You’re the voice of your business or organisation, so speak up. You don’t need to respond to every comment or question but you need to remain engaged.
Sometimes your fans will work on your behalf and answer for you and keep the conversation going, this all drives activity to your page.

Advanced Workout – go on push yourself!

Exercise 1. Be Insightful

If you go to > Edit Page you’ll a handy feature called `Insights Dashboard’. Here you can also analyze how fans are interacting with your page which gives you instant feedback on what your fans are doing.

As with any analysis tool it important to monitor your Facebook Page to see what’s working and what’s not. Do your video posts get more comments than your blog posts? Are you getting any comments at all? Keep up to date with what’s happening and work it to your advantage.

Exercise 2. Create multiple points of contact

Make sure your page has calls to action that allows fans to interact with you on other forms of media. Ask them to sign up to your newsletter, get them to connect with your on Twitter, visit your website, your YouTube channel and visit your blog.

If you have a blog you can actually sync it directly with your page. You just need to install the `Notes’ application and add it as a tab on your page and it will automatically feed in.

Even better is verifying your blog with Networked Blogs, then you can install this app on a tab and it feeds your blog in a much more visually appealing format.

The same applies to Twitter. You can also install the Videos app or even the YouTube one to directly link your accounts.

Exercise 3. Buy a Facebook Ad

If done right, those ads you see on the right-hand side of Facebook are an effective way to increase your fan base or visits to your page OR website. Given Facebook made $225M via them in 09 then it’s clear people are finding advertising effective. To set one up go to  facebook.com/ads

I recently started using them for FundRazr and was impressed at how effective they were at driving potential users of our app. They are super simple to set up and activate, you just need a succinct and compelling message as the word limit is small and an image, which is optional.

You can also do some amazing targeting of your audience and get very niche or go extremely broad. For example females in Paris aged 34-44 who are interested in tennis and wine. There’s a lot of flexibility.

The cost per click through rates are pretty high but you can set your budget to reflect what you can work with, and you can pause, edit and delete them at any time – we all knows as entrepreneurs like to think we’re in control ……

Exercise 4:

Use the Wildfire Application to run customised sweepstakes and campaigns on your page for a reasonable price. Use the FundRazr app to collect payments, sell tickets or run a fundraising campaign. For an example of an innovative campaign check out my birthday competition!

Stay tuned for Friday when we discuss Toning Up With Twitter. Feel free to post any questions or comments below too.

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It’s almost the 1st of March and what better time to start a new routine.

I’m going to take you on a Social Media workout plan to grow your business, connect with more people, listen to new audiences, increase your visibility and attract more customers within a month.

Source: Vi.sualize.us

I’ll start by laying the foundations and then we’ll work on building up your strength and skills progressively until you’re a lean mean social media machine!

I’ll keep it entertaining and manageable and at the end of the month I’ll provide you with a handy compilation guide of these workouts so you can refer to it regularly.

What exactly is Social Media?

It’s a phenomenon experiencing incredible growth and for that very reason alone you need to have a social media presence and strategy.

According to Wikipedia:
“Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.”

According to Natalie Sisson:
“Social Media is media with a social component that provides a two-way street for communicating.”

Here are examples of Social Media sites:

• Social Bookmarking. (Del.icio.us, Blinklist, Simpy) Interact by tagging websites and searching through websites bookmarked by other people.
• Social News. (Digg, Propeller, Reddit) Interact by voting for articles and commenting on them.
• Social Networking. (Facebook, Twitter, Last.FM) Interact by adding friends, commenting on profiles, joining groups and having discussions.
• Social Photo and Video Sharing. (YouTube, Flickr) Interact by sharing photos or videos and commenting on user submissions.
• Wikis. (Wikipedia, Wikia) Interact by adding articles and editing existing articles.

Basically any website that invites you to interact with the site and with other visitors falls into the definition of social media. Let’s get started

Exercise 1: Laying the Foundations

Sure, you’ve hung out on Facebook®. Followed some folks on Twitter®. Made a bunch of connections on LinkedIn®. But now it’s time to make these networks work harder for you. These are the three most powerful social networks to be on both personally and professionally, so at the very least you should have set up a profile on them.

What you need for your profile:

1. Got a photo? Make sure people know you’re not a faceless business. Use this on every profile.
2. Make sure your profile represents your personal brand. If you haven’t already, create your personal paragraph that sums up who you are and why you’re awesome.
3. Include as much as you’re comfortable sharing about yourself. The more you add, the better these tools can help you connect. But remember there are some things colleagues and clients don’t need to know.
4. Include searchable keywords, but don’t get spammy. Think about words that you’re customers would use to search for you and your business and add 5-6 of these.
5. Keep it current. Update your profiles regularly. Set up a system to store your login information to refer to easily, plus bookmark each site on your browser (Firefox or Google Chrome are the best).

Exercise 2: Strengthen your core.

Kick off your new social media regimen by developing new habits and cleaning up your memberships:

• Make sure your Facebook®, LinkedIn® and Twitter® profiles are up to date. If you don’t have one then set one up today.
• Create a Google® public profile. This will give you access to alerts and rich information down the road. And your Google profile makes it easy for the public to search and find you. If you don’t already have one, start by opening a Google account.
• If you haven’t already set up a Google Alert for your name and your business at a minimum so you know where you’re being mentioned and featured on the web.
• Use the same name on each site to make yourself easier to find. For example I use NatalieSisson and WomanzWorld.

Put aside 30 minutes for each exercise this week and you’ll already be feeling great.

The next workout on Tuesday will focus on how to use Facebook for your business.

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Angel Pui is the CEO of MyWeddingMatch.com, an online marketplace for weddings. This Vancouver entrepreneur has an insatiable appetite for innovations and new business ideas. Before stumbling into the wedding industry, she was a successful fashion designer studying in the UK.

While she was sewing zippers on custom-made wedding gowns, she had the light-bulb moment of creating a new web solution for weddings. Angel loves a good challenge and thrives on wearing multiple hats on a daily basis.

I was lucky enough to strike up a friendship with Angel after attending a Passion and Purpose workshop last year where I was introduced to her by another talented friend and entrepreneur. Since then Angel and I have had several get togethers discussing strategy, life, dating, pitching, investment, product management and more.

What I love about Angel right now is her focus and momentum. Not only has she gained funding, fantastic investors and great advisors, but she knows where she’s heading and what she wants to achieve.

She’s also a workaholic who’s intent on finding better work/life balance….. I guess that’s why, as I type, she just took on a contract to create six new designs for Earl Jeans!

The Pitch of a lifetime

Back in November Angel was up on stage pitching her company at Fusion 09 – an event designed to bring Canada’s top digital media ventures to the attention of leading investors in North America and beyond.  She kicked some serious butt and made the top three.

I met her straight after for dinner and she was just buzzing. We discussed every aspect of the forum and competition, how she felt, how she prepared and what her strategy was.

I was so impressed I said you have to write a blog post on this for WomanzWorld. Finally she has. You can read it here  and watch the five minute video below to see Angel in action.

By Angel Pui

As an early-stage entrepreneur, whenever you leave the bat-cave for air and sunlight, you are almost always pitching. Whether it’s on stage with life-changing VCs, in a boardroom with a sales lead, or convincing your spouse not to leave you because your pursuit is deemed crazy, the pitch will determine your future.

1. It’s all about the packaging – If you’ve ever bought a bottle of water for $3, you’ve participated in proper packaging (or timely location). Your presentation determines your product’s first impression and perceived value. Your amazing business idea is intangible, so materialize the thought that solely resides in your head into a vision you can share.

Stunning slides – especially your first one – are worth the time. Your audience will most likely have a few minutes to look at your first slide before you go on stage or answer the conference call. Whether you like it or not, that’s the slide they will give the most attention to, so set the tone that speaks volume about your personality. All following slides should have a consistent theme to solidify your branding.

2. Pitch Yourself - Founders should always pitch their own presentations – even if someone else is a better speaker. You can improve presentation skills but you can’t artificially inject passion. This is your baby, no one else can convey the vision like you can, so don’t hire the nanny to breast-feed your newborn. Pitch solo, it’s difficult enough to hold someone’s attention, let alone stumbling to sync up the presentation. It’s often clunky when presenters talk over one another and have that awkward pause (hmm… are you going to take this one or should I?).

3. Tell a Story – It’s much more compelling in your own words. Forget the standard packing lists of competitive advantages or market analysis…etc. It’s going to come off like an accountant showing pie-charts of your monthly expenses. Imagine a friend asking you about your brilliant new idea, what would you say in 5 minutes? Record yourself and speak freely – that’s the speech you should go with because it will flow with the most logical sense and people resonate with one core idea. It will also be the most natural to you. The real you will seep through and when it comes to closing a sale or making an impression, people remember your personality, not your mission statement.

4. We need to break things – Tell me it’s durable and I will immediately drop it on the ground. Remember that episode of Dragon’s Den with the indestructible bear-proof garbage can? One of the 190-lbs dragon immediately jumped on top of it – and broke it. End of pitch. Let that be a lesson to you. (And if you are selling bear-proof garbage cans that cant withstand human, even a perfect pitch won’t save you from lawsuits.) After explaining your price point and revenue model, your whole audience will come up with reasons why people wont buy it – it’s annoying but we do it all the time. It’s human nature to challenge things. Before the doubt lingers, shatter the critic in them by following up with bullet-proof research.

5. So What? – Each one of your slides should answer that question with one solid point. You wrote the content so if you cant even answer it, how can the audience (with their blackberrys blinking)? No fillers allowed! What? You are afraid of having too much time? In that case, end early and have a break. Every word in your presentation is taking up valuable time so don’t fill it with technical jargon, or fancy words. “I think…” or “We believe…” are empty calories that are distracting. “We are trying to…” should also be avoided. Trying means no, Oprah said so. You are not trying, you are doing it. Be concise and interesting.

6. Cut The Fat – Just because Guy Kawasaki said you should have certain topics, doesn’t mean you need them all, pick the ones you are good at. It’s much more powerful to have a solid pitch with only 8 points than a watered-down pitch covering everything. Every presenter thinks they will make $50 million in a few years, put the magic 8 ball away and skip the 500% growth chart. Highlight your strength and focus on your story. Your only goal here is to be interesting and inspiring. Turn them into a believer and they will ask you numbers after. Get to the next stage of the game.

7. Be Sexy – I’m not talking about the high-heeled boots, yet. Explain what you do in the first 30 seconds. Successful people with great time management skills will walk out of your pitch because they have better things to do. Use the first minute of your presentation wisely. Make an impact right away and summarize the 3 main points of your pitch – if nothing else, you might change their mind about answering your email in the future. Sense of humor and personality are key when delivering your speech, you are most likely one of many presenters, stand out. Even though your speech is well planned, it shouldn’t come out mechanical. You just happen to know it so well, but it should come out the same as your conversation with friends. Plan your jokes ahead of time and gauge your audience – turn it up or down depending on the vibe.

8. Practice your timing – If you are given 5 minutes, make sure your pitch ends 4 minutes and 45 seconds. If you are on stage, they will most likely time you rigorously with a buzzer. Personally, I go off on a tangent whenever I ad-lib, people tend to over-explain when they are nervous. Make sure your speech is written out, so it forces you not to over elaborate on some points and go over your given time. Practice no less than 30 times so you can edit the sentences that have words you trip over.

9. Visualize - Just like athletes before a big game, see your victory. A dress rehearsal might even be necessary (Yes, that’s right, you just realized this is written by a girl). Imagine yourself being called up, going on stage, clicking on the remote and dont forget to time yourself. Your last few runs should always hit the same time you’ve planned. This will increase confidence and ensure you are just that much more comfortable presenting publicly – because let’s be honest, anything helps at this point.

10. Wear High Heels – This tip is strictly reserved for the ladies. While it’s important to look your best, having a kick ass business model, being in market and showing traction might just be the most important tip of all.

Pitching is difficult, especially to introverts like myself. However, with planning and practice, it’s a skill you can definitely improve on and it’s the most important skill to have – whether you’d like to secure a round of financing or close a sales lead. Good luck and great success!

My Wedding Match is happy to announce, since presenting at The Fusion Forum in November (and winning the Top 3 Award , we have secured our first round of financing from W Media Ventures and various other angel investors. You can also read this on Techvibes.

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Welcome to the 6th installment of Savvy Sunday Series where I inspire you to become an Evolutionary Entrepreneur.

Social Media is all the buzz these days and for good reason. It’s possibly the best source of `free’ marketing and promotion you can get for your business. Yet I speak to so many of you every week, who say how totally confusing and overwhelming it can be. I hear you.

Luckily it doesn’t have to be. Over the next few weeks I’m going to offer you my tips, tricks and guidance on building an integrated social media campaign to make sure your business shines.

Over the last year and a half I’ve been finely honing my Social Media skills, and every day I’m learning more and putting it into action and seeing what works well and what doesn’t.

The trick is it takes time and effort and a desire to engage and connect. If you’re prepared to do this then you will really see great results for your business.

For me, it all started when I got intimate with Facebook. Building our business on Facebook has been akin to building a house on quicksand. We’ve constantly had to adapt our FundRazr application to the ongoing changes Facebook loves to make to their platform.

This has meant being flexible, innovative and always staying on top of the trends through reading blogs, websites, attending webinars and relevant conferences. In fact I’ve become an addict of trying, testing and using the latest tools that tap into Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more.

It seems every day there’s some new application of service offering to make your life easier. Yet I know the key tools that are tried and true and work really well to help you build both your personal brand online and your business.

You need an integrated social media approach

I believe Social Networks are a recipe for success for any business

• They encourage relevant action
• Make it easy to deliver fresh content
• Allow for viral growth and scalability

I use an integrated approach of social media tools in social networks to drive visibility, foster engagement, increase fan/ supporter base and maximise the viral effect.  It’s reflected in the diagram (I’m a visual person).

One more thing that’s not on this list is mobile. The advancement and use of mobile technology is nothing short of phenomenal and it will continue to impact and permeate our lives.  I’ll look to touch on useful mobile tools that will help your business as well.

This allows me to plug my new WomanzWorld iPhone app coming out soon! I’m overly excited that I created my own iPhone app and you’ll be able to download it for free so you can read my blog at your convenience any time.

I was really impressed with AppMakr. You really don’t need to be that tech savvy and can have an app designed within 20-30 minutes (if you’re a perfectionist like me it can take a little longer).

I tweeted about it and emailed them to say I thought it was a great tool. They kindly offered me – more rather you, the opportunity to get 25% off the price if you want to get one yourself! So I’m letting you know, all you have to do is quote WOMANZWORLD as the code, the offer ends 1 April 2010.

PS I don’t get anything from this, it’s just a benefit I get to pass on to you from complimenting them!

I’m going to touch on each and every one of the above components to a successful integrated Social Media approach over the next month. If there’s anything you’d like to know, or get the answers to feel free to email me or leave a comment below so I can look to cover it.

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As women, we are sometimes programmed to help others. We see problems, we know exactly what needs to be done to solve them, we run in to fix them, and all is good. And this is a good thing most of the times.

In corporations large or small, women are often the ones who notice what needs to be done, get the work done, and are the glue that hold everything together. If you are a mother, you know that you are often the first one to notice that your child is upset, is uncomfortable, needs to be fed, etc.

However, we may run into roadblocks when we transfer this desire and this know-how to working with potential customers. Have you experienced working with a potential customer where you can see exactly where they are struggling and where you have the perfect solution for them, but you can’t get them to buy from you for some reason?

You go over the benefits, how your product or service can solve their current issues, how implementing your solution will save them tonnes of money and time? And nothing. They walk away, they say they’ll call you back, and maybe they do, or maybe they don’t.

I’m going to challenge you today to stop helping them. Stop jumping in and offering to help, offering to give your products or service at a discount, or worse, for free. Just walk away. But before you do – ask them a few questions.

Ask them if they are seeing the challenges that you see in their business. Ask them if they have a plan to resolve it. Ask them how they’re going to fix it. And then walk away.

The key is – you can only help people when they are ready to be helped. People hate being told what to do, what to buy, where to buy it from, especially if they don’t already trust the person giving them advice. Your solutions, or pitch, or whatever you call it, will fall on deaf ears if your potential clients aren’t attentive to the fact that they even have a problem. And you telling them what their problem is doesn’t really go over well.

So instead of giving the solution, ask the question. Get them to think about whether they are doing well with their current course. Could things be better? Could they be more efficient? What problems are they not even aware of? Do they have a plan on improving things? How are they going to do it? Then leave them with your contacts and an opportunity for a further discussion.

When they call you back – they would have had some time to think about their issues, and they’ll be a lot more receptive to what you have to offer.

Felicia is a business coach specializing in working with women entrepreneurs on business growth and development. She is the Founder and President of Candeo Communications Inc, a strategic partner of the leading Ghost CEO program in development for professional and business women.

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