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Want to Get YourBuzz for Business?

on August 22, 2011 in Marketing, Social Media, Technology, Women & The Media

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Do you want to know what customers are saying about your business online? Managing social media conversations can be time consuming and distracting. There are a variety of products in the marketplace to help you manage discussions, post comments or retweet. Our favorite is YourBuzz , a free application from American Express® OPEN, which offers a unique means of monitoring, managing and growing your online presence across social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook with the added benefit of giving you access to your ratings and reviews on Yelp, Foursquare, Citysearch, Yahoo!Local, Bing Local and Superpages.

This app allows you to:

View customer reviews, ratings and online mentions in one place;
Respond, retweet, or create a new conversation;
See how you stack up against the competition; and
Get recommendations on action to take.

The YourBuzz application has some valuable features, including a scheduling feature so that you can pre-plan your marketing communications. It also provides reporting with trends information, ratings by source and even ratings versus your competition. By drilling down into the contacts area you can determine influencers based on their connections and review the geographic distribution of your network. You also have the ability to view, edit and create profiles on these sites through YourBuzz.

If you are utilizing any combination of these social media and ratings/review platforms as part of your online marketing mix, then be sure to check out YourBuzz. Let me know what you think!

is a valued and trusted sponsor of eWomenNetwork

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What is a Tweetup?

on July 10, 2011 in Annual International Conference & Business Expo, Events, Social Media, Women & The Media, Women in Business

Guest Post by Lisa Larter, Lisa Larter Consulting

At a Tweetup:

Bring lots of business cards
Know what your Twitter handle is (some people will only remember you as that)
Tweet from the event so people know you are there
RSVP using the Twtvite link
Be Social, smile lots, and have fun
Don’t forget to include the #Hashtag!
If you don’t have a twitter account, come to the BeSocial booth and we will help you set one up

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Let’s Get this Party Started! The Conference can begin today, if you engage!

on June 15, 2011 in Annual International Conference & Business Expo, Events, Social Media, Technology, Women & The Media, Women in Business

Through all the wonderful social media avenues, we can start making Conference connections today! Here are three things you can begin now to start connecting with others that are going to be at the Conference as well as preparing for who you want to see once you arrive.

1. Of course, I encourage you to “Like” the eWomenNetwork Facebook page. Just to be clear, if you happen to live in a city where there is a chapter, you may already be connected to that chapter’s Facebook page. I’m talking about the corporate eWomenNetwork Facebook page. I am posting new things about the Conference daily, and by “Liking” us, you will have access to the information instantaneously. Instead, you run the risk that your chapter Facebook page is not lifting the information and posting it. That keeps you out of the loop, and heaven knows we don’t want that to happen!

2. If you are a tweeter like me, I would love to connect with you on Twitter too! I usually post 2-3 times a day, so you are sure to get the latest nuggets of information! I love to pass them on as soon as I get them myself. My tweets include announcements, reminders, opportunities, and encouragement. Please make a note of my Twitter handle: @SandraYanceyeWN (don’t forget the “eWN” after my name or your message will go to someone else). You may also wish to know the corporate eWomenNetwork Twitter handle: @eWomenNetwork. Finally, if you have wonderful comments you’d like to make about the Conference, just include the hashtag #eWN2011. When you include this hashtag, your Conference comments will be posted to the Conference pages on the eWomenNetwork website. How cool is that? We will promote you to all our visitors for posting encouraging words about the Conference.

Just to be clear, if you have comments you wish to tweet that are not related to the Conference, just use the Twitter handle @eWomenNetwork (and don’t use the hashtag). That way, your non-Conference topics will be in the appropriate and perfect place!

3. Finally, you can always check out LinkedIn. The Conference is listed as an Event on LinkedIn. You can share the information with your LinkedIn Network by clicking on http://events.linkedin.com/11th-Annual-eWomenNetwork-International/pub/699912 and then clicking on the Share button to send InMail to your contacts. You can post comments on that page as well. Does your chapter have a LinkedIn Chapter Group? That is a great place to share and discuss Conference plans for your Chapter.

If you are comfortable, please go ahead and set up Facebook and Twitter on your mobile device. If the thought of this makes you twitch, no worries! You can either skip this or we can help you once you arrive at the Conference. We will have the “Be Social” booth set up prominently in the Expo Area. Lisa Larter, from Ottawa, Canada, will be our Social Media expert this year (don’t miss her breakout session). She and her team will be readily available at her booth throughout the Conference to answer your questions and get you moving and grooving in the social media world. She helped me, and there’s no turning back now. What once seemed intimidating is now like second nature!

That wraps up my highlights on how to maximize your Conference experience by getting social and starting now! Enjoy the tips … more to come next week!

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Put a little Show Business in your Business and Unleash Your Star Power!

on June 7, 2011 in Success Institute, Women & The Media, Women in Business

Guest Post by Barbara Niven

Every time you perform, speak, talk to a video camera, network or take a meeting….you want to WOW them! To do that, it’s not so much what you say, but how you say it. You can’t plan it or memorize it…you have to live it and be in the moment, so that the air crackles between you and them. That is Star Power! And I promise that you can create it every time. It’s a step-by-step technique that actors use…not to be fake…but to be our most authentic and emotional and revealing. When you do that and also plug into your passion, it’s contagious.

And sorry, it’s not all about you. It has to be all about THEM. True stars create a real experience for their audience and viewer. They take them on a real journey. It’s a full-out magic ride.

So you can’t just be all about imparting knowledge. Get out of your head because that is going to keep you stuck and removed from your Heart. No matter what your message or product or service is that you’re talking about, you must speak from your passion and truth, and especially your Heart so that your audience takes that journey with you.

And when you do…and they do…that’s when the magic happens. That’s when you have unleashed your true Star Power.

It’s never just you doing a monologue. It’s always a dialogue so that you include who you’re talking to. Always think of it as sending it from your heart to land directly on the heart of your viewer, whether you’re speaking in front of a large group or to that one person who is on the other side of the camera lens, watching you at home. It must be your most personal and passionate communication, straight from your heart. Your truth will then travel straight to their heart and they will be moved.

And remember to have fun while you’re at it! That is the secret that makes magic with your audience. The more you play and have fun, the more your audience does too, no matter what material you’re delivering. In fact, the heavier the material, the more you have to find the opposite. Don’t play a “mood” – go against it. Dip into it for an effect, because emotion is a powerful tool, but then turn it into something else. Be unpredictable. The audience will love you for it.

Be unique – reveal yourself. Don’t try to be like anyone else, because you’re not. You are special. And you have your own quirky sense of humor, your own delicious imperfections, your own sense of timing, your own unique way of talking or walking. These differences that make you YOU are what make you compelling to watch, especially when you are fueled by your passion and sense of play.

Think about movie stars like Katherine Hepburn, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Will Smith and so on. They are movie stars because they know how to connect to their truth and they are unpredictable in how they convey their message. They don’t just ask themselves “how would somebody else play this part.” Instead they integrate the words into their entire being and when they speak, it’s magic. That’s why you can’t take your eyes off them! They are compelling to watch. And each of them, if given the same script, would act it out differently. They use their own unique qualities.

You must too. Play with it and unlock yourself to all the possibilities. Don’t try to do “what you think they want.” Change it up. Do something difference each time. Shock yourself and shock the audience! They will go on the journey with you. For instance, I start out different speeches that I give in a number of different ways. For one, which is for my “ACT AS IF to Live your Dreams!” presentation, I open by running up screaming from the back of the room clutching my fake Oscar, as if my name was just called at the Academy Awards. The energy is electric and the room is full of laughter and excitement and magic before I even say my first word!

Dare to be different in everything you do. Mix it up. If you’re at a networking event, do something that doesn’t sound like everybody else. Put your real passion into your 30 second message instead of just your name, business, blah blah blah. Don’t waste your valuable time. Use some drama. Ask a question, put in some emotion and humor, stand out! You will be remembered…and your business will grow.

I wish you lots of success and fun while you’re building your business. Get out there and share your passion, your service and your product with the world. You have the power to change lives! Get excited about it. When you’re fired up, it’s contagious. That gives you charisma and STAR POWER! If you use it, people will walk out the door differently after they leave you, with a new sense of their own power and purpose. And you’ll have them as a new client. That is a beautiful 360 degree win.

Original post from Show Business 101

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The Power of Self Expression

on April 13, 2011 in Success Institute, Women & The Media, Women in Business

Guest post by Carren Smith of the Quantum Leadership Group

One thing I know for sure in life is that our beauty and authenticity creates magic in the world when we are fully self expressed!

Too many of us have suffered throughout our lives and held ourselves back from sharing how we feel, what we think, what we believe and our thoughts for so many reasons, and NONE of these reasons are true! We have become so accustomed to our negative beliefs about what will happen if we ’share’ what is really going on for us, that I believe we are bordering on the edge of insignificance and worse still, global incongruence!

As a speaker, one of the most important messages I can share with others who are ‘flirting’ with the clarity of their own personal message is to allow yourself to express outside, what you are feeling and thinking inside.

If you have a desire to speak, present, share your message or educate/coach others, then learning how you can be fully expressed is crucial.

If you have a desire to share your message, business, story, product or service then, that sharing, is part of your purpose here! Not everyone has the desire to speak from the stage, to share their message and contribute in that way, so if you’re feeling it, it’s not coming from ‘nowhere’, it’s coming from your deepest desires for self expression and fulfillment! Imagine what that would feel like…….. I can assure you, it’s the most magical feeling! It keeps you in a state of bliss and gratitude all day, every day, so that everything you create and everything you do, is a reflection of your BRILLIANCE!

Join Carren Smith on Success Institute, 4.21.11 at 1:30pm CST for “Speaker Secrets Exposed: 5 Tips to Profitable Presentations

Original Post from the Quantum Leadership Group Blog

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Fried: Lessons From the Fire

on March 31, 2011 in Success Institute, Women & The Media, Women in Business

Guest Post by Joan Borysenko

Life really does have an uncanny way of imitating art.

It was Labor Day of 2010. I’d just finished penning the final revisions to my latest book Fried: Why You Burn Out and How to Revive. My husband Gordon and I returned from an early morning hike and spotted smoke in the gulch below the house. Within minutes there were flames. Hastily packing what we could, we loaded the dogs into our cars and prepared to flee.

A hundred foot wall of flames raced up the gulch as we said goodbye to our home. The roar of the conflagration was terrifying as we witnessed the worst wildfire in Colorado history. It burned for almost a week and incinerated 169 homes and more than 7500 acres of pristine beauty.

Fried was suddenly more than a book title. Five days into the evacuation we were told that our home had, against all odds, survived. Twelve neighboring homes were reduced to ash. The once magnificent view had been replaced by a charred lunar landscape. Clouds of soot and toxic dust settled over everything inside and out.

Staying on top of the insurance claim, hiring and overseeing contractors to clean and repair the house, canceling checking accounts and credit cards that might have been compromised—all the while traveling, working, and living in a hotel–started to burn me out.

Berkeley psychologist Christina Maslach created a scale that measures the three basic components of the syndrome: emotional exhaustion and physical depletion; loss of empathy; and decrease in self-confidence and competence. Burnout starts innocently enough with working harder, but slowly and surely culminates in physical and mental collapse.

As work expands and threatens to eat life whole, values get turned upside down. Exercise, play, and time with loved ones may get short shrift. The result is snarkiness and impatience, a tendency to feel edgy and judgmental—a closing of the heart. In an attempt to feel better you might overeat, drink to excess, turn to prescription or illicit drugs, get lost in porn, or find yourself staring mindlessly at the television. It’s like a film of plastic wrap has been stretched over the world and you can’t connect with life.

Motivation gets replaced by a “why bother” attitude. Headaches, trouble sleeping, stomach problems, muscle aches, high blood pressure, and the whole panoply of stress related ills increase. The end result looks a lot like depression. The cure is not in a pill, but in making choices that allow you to make a living while having a life.

Tips for Revival:

Unplug and take stock. Go away for a few days to a quiet place where you can get some perspective. What’s burning you out? Are you a square peg in a round hole? Customer service, for example, is a bad choice for the conflict averse. Are you a caregiver who needs respite? Are you a people pleaser who needs to say no to others and yes to yourself? Is your lifestyle so expensive that working enough to fund it is killing you?
Purge what’s not necessary. Pareto’s Law states that 20% of one’s actions result in 80% of hoped for results. Identify leverage points and energy drains. What serves you and what wastes your time? When I cut down on radio interviews, reviewing people’s manuscripts, and doing favors for just about anyone who asked, I had much more time for what really matters. The fire gave me permission to say no without feeling guilty. But you don’t need to wait for an excuse to live your own life.
Play both for the sake of fun itself and because play changes your brain state and supports creative thinking. Work smarter by exercising or playing when you feel stale.
Pay yourself first. Schedule time for self-care, family, and friends before filling up your calendar with work demands. Waiting for free time to materialize is the same as deciding to save the money that’s left at the end of the month.
Take a weekly Sabbath. Do absolutely nothing related to work on that day. This is a time-honored strategy for staying sane and enjoying life.
Cultivate beginner’s mind. The late Zen teacher Suzuki Roshi wrote, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”

As a result of the fire I’ve had to give up expert status. After months spent grieving the destruction of the land, I’m constantly surprised by new life revealing itself . Charred trees are host to flocks of magpies and woodpeckers. Some of the browned out trees are showing signs of life. The pleasure of seeing the landscape with fresh eyes is not in the end product of what all the cutting, pruning, and planting might create, but in the act of creativity itself.

We humans are born artists, and when burnout wipes the canvas clean, it is an invitation to pick through the ashes and make life new again.

Join Joan Borysenko on Success Institute, 4.12.11 at 1:30pm CST for “Fried: Why You Burn Out and How to Revive”

Original article in Huffpost Living

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Are Your Blog and Email Friends?

on February 1, 2011 in Marketing, Social Media, Women & The Media, Women in Business

Guest Post by Karen Talavera

Sometimes we get so caught up just keeping our email programs running that we get tunnel vision. We forget that email is an essential tool in the marketing toolbox, an ingredient in the marketing mix, and not a channel to be kept unto itself.

There’s been plenty written about integrating email and social media (I know, I wrote some of it!) but what about an even more obvious connection you can make – integrating email with your blog? Here are three easy ways to do so:

Tip #1. Promote email subscriptions and content offers on blog pages

A well-written, frequently updated blog can drive significant amounts of traffic to your website (or, it may BE your website). With the impact of search indexing and social sharing, it’s likely that many potential readers are first landing on your blog pages – not your home page or product pages.

Make sure you have a way to capture email addresses from blog visitors who might not take time to explore other parts of your site. How to do so?

Make your e-newsletter or promotional opt-in offer visible on every page of your blog. That way, visitors who land on a specific blog post – and like what they read – will easily see other ways to receive content and information from you. When you build this into the standard frame or design template of your blog, it’s easy to do.

Tip #2. Offer an email subscription to your blog posts

Although it’s standard practice to use RSS syndication to provide automatic updates of blog content, RSS readers remain a niche technology (various studies have placed RSS adoption between 10%-20% of Web users). But many feed management systems, such as Feedblitz and Google’s Feedburner, allow subscribers to receive updates by email. I myself subscribe to many blogs this way, as I prefer to have as much content as possible pushed to my inbox where I use tools to sort and prioritize it from there.

Promoting an email update service can help you attract a lot more subscribers for your blog content. You’ll also capture a vital piece of information that you don’t get from RSS subscribers – an email address. And this as we know is CRITICAL to including blog subscribers in your marketing and promotional communications funnel.

Also consider taking a cue from listserv mailing lists and create a blog “digest” newsletter. This could be a weekly, biweekly or monthly publication that consolidates blog headlines from that time period for easy scanning and skimming. The option may appeal to visitors who want to follow your blog but don’t want a lot of new messages in their inbox. You also can use space within that email to promote relevant offers to subscribers.

Tip #3. Repurpose blog posts and other articles for your email newsletters

Get the most from the content you work so hard to create by repurposing and re-using blog posts within your email newsletters. A favorite tactic of mine (which you’ll soon see in my e-newsletter, InSight) is to write a blog post, then use the first half of it as an email newsletter article with a link to continue reading the full article on your blog.

This drives email subscribers who HAVEN’T yet sampled your blog to the blog on a regular basis. Also, since you have more latitude and control over what happens on your blog/site and more ability to drive conversion or sales from there than the inbox, getting readers in front of your content in your preferred context should always be the goal.

You can also consider dedicating a specific section of your newsletter as a “blog corner” – highlighting your most popular posts, a featured guest post, or a post by an industry luminary.

Finally, look for ways your blog content offers variety or a departure from typical newsletter articles. If your blog tends to be more informal or entertaining than your newsletter articles, that content may be a welcome addition. For example, Jim Palmer (the Newsletter Guru) routinely includes a video in his email newsletter which plays on his blog.

Remember, your blog and your email can work beautifully in tandem to both distribute content and invite readers to interact with you in other ways . . . ways that produce deeper engagement, greater loyalty, and more revenue. Plant the seeds to forging stronger ties between your blog and email marketing and watch your opportunities flourish!

Join Karen Talavera on Success Institute 2/15/11, 1:30pm CST to learn more about The 3 Keys to Unlocking More Revenue from Your Online Marketing in 2011

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Seven Most Positive Impacts of Becoming an Author on Your Business

on June 29, 2010 in Annual International Conference & Business Expo, Events, Women & The Media

Guest Post by Jan King eWomenPublishingNetwork

For coaches, psychologists, attorneys, physicians, and many others, writing a book is an important part of a successful career. In case you aren’t convinced, we think there are seven dramatic impacts a successfully published book can have on your professional practice.

1. Developing and profiting from your intellectual property

Writing a book forces you to really think through the content and the methods of what you tell your clients. You can gloss over things or not fully develop your ideas in speaking or working with clients, but you really put your ideas to the test when you write them.

You can then figure out what types of products you can produce from these ideas – it may be a book, but it might also be audio CDs, seminars, teleclasses. These marketing tools, but these are marketing tools that pay for themselves directly. You also have something to sell to prospective clients and every time you speak. The perception of the value of something you sell is higher than the perception of something you give away like a sales kit.

2. Expanding your audience reach

You probably have clients locally, or maybe even regionally, but to do business nationally or internationally, clients need a way of knowing who you are and what you do. A book tells a client more about how you think, what your values are – real insight into you. And you can reach many more people than you could personally. People you can get to come to your web site, become part of a mailing list and then regularly communicate with. It is particularly important to publishers that you have a larger emailing list – preferably 2,000 or more.

3. Getting much closer and more connected with your target audience

It is important to not only broaden your reach, but also to deepen it. The sweet spot is the intersection between your exact expertise and your clients needs and wants. You need to get intimately familiar with the audience – using demographics, psychographics, and understanding how they behave in problem-solving and where they look for help. When you write a book, your most powerful place is where your ideal client is the same as your ideal reader for that book. Describe blogging, using blogging to create content for the book as well as to get audience reaction to your thoughts before you write or as you write. You can test concepts and see what attracts the most attention or discussion. Blogs that can demonstrate they are widely read are a current hot button for publishers.

4. Proving your credibility as an expert in your field

Experts write books to communicate their wisdom in ways their audience will relate to. Experts have their pick of clients and can set higher fees. A book differentiates you and puts you at the top of the list. Would you rather do a strategic plan with Tom Peters or Jack Welch, or just someone who claims to be an expert? A book allows clients to see who you are and how you work independently – before you ever meet them, and then decide to seek you out. Saves a lot of sales time.

5. Building your platform to sell your core business and other products besides your book

It is a lot easier to get speaking engagements, to get booked on radio and TV, to get to be interviewed as an expert by magazines and newspapers and to begin to build your list of media contacts and corporate and association contacts when you can demonstrate your expertise without having to be there.

6. Increasing the number of marketing tools available to you to sell your core business

As an author, you have written intellectual property you can use as marketing tools. You can write articles that are really excerpts of your book or pieces from your blog.

You can also take much better advantage of free PR opportunities that come your way when you are asked to comment on current news and trends as the expert. Virtually all the expert commentators on news shows are authors. They get free publicity for their products and services every time you see them on TV.

7. Putting you on par with the most sophisticated competitors to your core business

Who else is competing with you for the same clients? Aren’t the ones who command the greatest fees and get all the free publicity the experts who have demonstrated their expertise with books?

With a book, you can take pages and pages to show how you are different than your competitors, and cover what you see that they don’t, and show why your approach is more in tune with what clients really need.

You don’t want to compete with the other local attorney, or psychologist or life coach – you want to compete with the nationally know experts in your field and leapfrog over the local competition, even if you still want local clients. They will line up to work with someone with a national reputation.

Writing a book is a rewarding experience personally and professionally. Once you’ve done it, your resume has the word “author” on it forever.

Ó Jan B. King 2009 888-337-0636 www.janbking.com

Don’t Miss “The ROI of a Book for Your Business!” 6/30/10, 1:30 CST https://events.ewomennetwork.com/event/details.php?eid=13513

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Growing Staff to Grow Your Business

on January 22, 2010 in Motivation & Inspiration, Success Stories, Women & The Media, Women in Business

Maria Coyne

From Maria Coyne at Key4Women:

For many women business owners, one bright spot coming out of the recession is that they’ve figured out how to make their companies operate more efficiently.

These successful business owners are thinking carefully about their core business, strategy, and long-term goals. And they are asking employees to adopt a more entrepreneurial mindset, to actively contribute to growing the company. Read more.

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