Willie Jolley, courtesy of the author

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, President Obama declared keeping the “American Dream” alive to be “the defining issue of our time.” At a time when a large percentage of the working population finds itself questioning whether if it will ever recoup the lost income, property, earning potential and savings lost in the aftermath of the greatest recession of that last 75 years, I talked with one man who says we need to create our own opportunities and stop waiting for  our ships to come in.

Don’t just look for a job; make a job! Financial success is linked to thought, so get creative. – Willie Jolley

Willie Jolley, host of the Sirius XM talk show, The Willie Jolley Wealthy Ways Radio Show and author of Turn Setbacks into Greenbacks (Wiley, Hardcover, 2010) has been dubbed “America’s Comback King” by Success Magazine.  I asked Willie to share his formula for jumpstarting the American Dream.  Warning: His irrepressible positive outlook is infectious.

Cindy Ratzlaff: I’m noticing a lot of fear in the entrepreneurial world. Financing is tight, spending is weak and people are saying this isn’t a good time to start a new business. How can we keep the American Dream alive in that kind of climate?

Willie Jolley: People are still spending money on things that provide value and that make them feel good.  Movie tickets are at an all time high, but people are still going to the movies because they make them feel better. Apple just released their earnings statements for 2011 and they had a banner year. People are buying ipads and Macs because they provide value and they make them feel good. Warren Buffet said that tough times are the greatest times to start a new business and I agree.  There are two kinds of animals in the dessert; vultures and humming birds. Vultures focus on dead things and hummingbirds focus on life. Focus on it and you’ll find it.

Cindy Ratzlaff: The press has talked about the “uncounted underemployed,” those people who have simply given up looking because they can’t find a job that pays what they are used to earning and they just can’t let themselves take a job that’s beneath their previous positions for fear of stepping down the ladder permanently. If we stop progressing in our earning potential, how can we continue to uphold that American dream?

Willie Jolley: Don’t let your pride poison your prosperity. Stop trying to put up a façade of success and get real.  Any work that is moral and legal is honorable. I knew a man who built an IT firm from the ground up. He had 600 of the brightest IT employees and he was doing great. But hard times hit and he had a choice to make. So he took the money he paid himself as CEO and he paid his employees salaries to keep the company going with the talent it needed.  He worked a full day at his own business and at night he drove a trash truck.  And he kept those employees and because of that he kept that company afloat and later sold it for $600 million.  Here’s what you have to remember.  It’s not personal.  It’s not permanent.  Get over it and do what you need to do.  Don’t just think about today or tomorrow.  Think about the tomorrows down the road and get over it.  Do what has to be done.

Cindy Ratzlaff: Close friends and family might logically tell you that this is not a good time to start a new business. What do you say to people with a vision and a dream but no idea how to make it happen?

Willie Jolley: Stop commiserating!  People who sit around and commiserate are the people who would rather complain about problems than do anything to fix them.  Stay away from negative people.  Sometimes those people are right in your inner circle. Read and listen to something positive every day. The news will tell you the economy is down, gas is up, terrorism is here.  It’s all doom and gloom. Turn it off.  Surround yourself with people who believe in your dreams and turn the rest off.

Cindy Ratzlaff: If you could give one last piece of advice to a new business owner or entreprenueur what would that be?

Willie Jolley: Stop waiting for your ship to come in.  Financial success is a choice you must make happen, not a chance that you sit around and wait for.  There’s nothing stopping you. People have lots of excuses like “I only have a GED.” I say so what. Lots of people only have their GED’s. That can’t stop you from success. They say, “I have an idea but all my friends and family think it’s crazy.” I say “stop talking to them about your idea. Talk to people who share your vision and encourage you.” People have “possibility blindness.” If you spend all your time talking about your goals with them, all you’ll get is discouragement. Don’t just go through tough times. Grow through them. Take control of your ideas and dream.  Think like the CEO of Y.O.U.  Figure out how what you know can fill a need for others. And get yourself into the right frame of mind to believe you can succeed.

Have you started a new business during a down economy?  I’d love to hear your experiences, lessons learned and ideas for beating the odds as an entrepreneur in a down market.

Show clients you’re a great resource for new information with the gifts you give.

Here are a few gift suggestions that any client will appreciate.

The Gift of Time: A handwritten note, delivered through the mail, thanking the client for his or her business and offering an hour of your time in 2012 gratis is a great gift and one you already know your client wants and needs.

The Gift of Analytics: Give your client a year of deep, rich analytics for their Facebook Fan page from PageLever. For just $34, you can give them an app that will provide insights to guide their marketing efforts for the coming year and position yourself as a forward thinking, socially savvy gift giver.

The Gift of Apps: Be the source of business solutions for your client by recommending your favorite apps and giving them an app store gift card.  Turn them on to the file sharing app, DropBox or TurboScan with an Apple app store gift card. For Android users, the app store on Amazon offers gift cards and apps like Read it Later Pro, an app that lets you save webpages to read offline at your leisure.  Increase their productivity, encourage them to use their mobile device in new ways and share your favorite time saving or just plain fun apps.

Are you giving gifts to business clients this holiday season? I’d love to hear your ideas.

Clearly seeing our mistakes is as important to business growth as celebrating our successes.

1. Unemployment: I didn’t file for unemployment right away. Shock over being downsized and my “fight or flight” instincts kicking in caused me to accept a series of freelance consulting jobs before I’d done my homework. My state was offering a job transition program for newly downsized executives who wanted to start their own businesses that would have allowed me to collect unemployment for a period of time while I set up my new company and even while I got on my feet with my first few clients. But because I didn’t consult with unemployment, I missed the window for this program and wasn’t able to avail myself of that financial cushion. The first year was very hard financially and if there are any programs in your state, they are worth checking out. Call your local unemployment office or check with the Small Business Association to see if there are programs that can help you with start up costs.
2. Legal Advice: Deciding whether to become an LLC, an S-Corp or simply to be a single person consultancy are all decisions that have tax implications. Consult both a lawyer and an accountant so you can make an informed decision. In the early days of starting my business, I asked everyone BUT those professionals for advice and ended up starting as an LLC, transferring two years later to an S-Corp, filing to change the name of my corporation and dissolving a smaller, second LLC I created. The chaos, extra money and tax challenges I created for myself all came from not being clear about my business end game and from not spending the money, upfront, on professional advice.
3. Accounting: Keeping the books for a business is different than balancing your checkbook. If you’re good with details and filing and your new business is straightforward, you can use accounting software. However, if tax law and deductions are not your area of expertise, I highly recommend forming a close business association with a good accountant. First, because you’re life and business will run more smoothly. Secondly, because you should be focusing on creating and promotion and selling your products or services and not on managing your finances. I did not do this in my early business years. Instead I filed for tax extensions, kept my receipts in a box and worried, every single day about when I’d find the time to get my financial house in order. In addition to the stress of bookkeeping, I wasn’t able to professionally forcast cash flow, expenses and business growth; all important metrics for taking a business from an expensive hobby to a fully functional corporation.
4. Board of Advisors: This is a trick I finally learned from a great mentor. Instead of asking every person you meet how they manage their business, gather together an elite group of highly successful business people you admire and who each have the experience and business gifts you need to succeed. Ask them to serve on your Board of Advisors. Hold monthly or quarterly meetings and present your state of the business address to them. Share your goals, challenges and needs. Ask for, and listen to, their sage advice. I finally started doing this and my business is growing exponentially based on my willingness to head the advice I sought from those who are further down the entrepreneurial road than I am.
5. Forecast: In any corporation, forecasting for the next 1-5 years is an annual exercise. It needs to be in your small business as well. Taking an honest, unvarnished look at where you are, where you want to be, what’s working, what’s not, evaluating your products and pricing and making tough decisions is the only way to take your business from here to there. I did not do this in year one because I felt I was “dancing as fast as I can.” Therefore, year two was slow and a struggle. I had not projected for or made a plan to acquire new business and when current client’s jobs were complete, I was in a very slow and very scary place. Do not do this. Spend a percentage of your time planning new products, prospecting for new clients, promoting your business brand and expanding your circle of influence and your business offerings.

So there’s my humiliating story of being downsized, panicking, making a lot of mistakes and learning valuable entrepreneurial lessons. Ultimately, I persevered and my business survived and is thriving. I suspect I’ll make more mistakes along the way and I promise I’ll share those with you here.

I’d love to hear about your entrepreneurial journey. When we share our stories, we support the entrepreneurial community at large and that’s good for all of us. Is there one piece of advice you’d give to new business owners? Please share it here or on my Facebook wall and let’s see how we can help one another celebrate more business anniversaries.

Your brand is what your customers think it is, not what you think it is. So listen, engage, and if the message you want is not the message they’re repeating, alter your strategy.

If a company stays away from social media so as to avoid negative online feedback they will accomplish two things:

1. They will be unaware of problems that might have been easily resolved but when left alone may become much bigger problems.
2. They will be miss a valuable opportunity to fix minor problems and turn cranky customers into happy evangelizers.

Mashable wrote an excellent post recently sharing three terrific examples of how major brands monitored, managed and resolved (or not) some important brand missteps and criticism.

Bottom line: The conversation about you is going on with or without you. You can only influence it if you are aware of it.  Every company should be active on Facebook and Twitter, at the very least, to monitor and influence their brand reputation.  Every company should have a google alert set for their key words and get that digest daily.  Every company should search their brand name or the name of their current campaign on Twitter daily.

Catcher in the Sky's Lisa Gordon

Lisa Gordon spent two decades at the top of her field in advertising sales for newspapers and magazines like Time, Real Simple, Prevention and Entertainment Weekly. When her industry took a particularly hard hit as the economic climate worsened, she realized that she needed to reinvent herself, add to her skill set and move forward without looking back.  Lisa’s transformation took her from old school, traditional communications to the new high tech and cutting edge world of app development.  We caught up with Lisa recently to ask her five questions about her reinvention process.

RATZLAFF:

Your background is in print advertising sales and sales management, how did you make the leap to developing mobile apps?

GORDON:

I spent more than twenty years in businesses related to ad sales. When I started
working in the 1980’s I was in a thriving field with no end in sight. I could
never have guessed what kind of atrophy would occur this many years later.
When my oldest son went to kindergarten I was experiencing a lot of personal
upheaval and was in the fortunate financial position to take some time off to be
with my kids. After three or four years I started thinking about getting back to
work. By this time, newspapers and magazines were closing all over the country.

It was clear that I could not go back to a vanishing industry.

I had had my own business for ten years so the idea of going back into business
for myself was a very attractive one. Having some time off gave me the insight I
needed to break from my rut. I contacted a former colleague and we
brainstormed ideas for more than a year. With an idea in hand, we consulted with
a dear and successful friend who gave us direction. In the end, our app has
nothing to do with any of our original business ideas.

RATZLAFF:

What do you find to be the biggest challenges in starting over in an industry that is not just new to you, but new in general?

GORDON:

Actually the easy part is starting in a new industry. I embrace the challenge of
learning something new. The difficult part is the fact that the industry is new.
There are no real experts yet. The app industry is growing at an exponential
pace. It seems like everyone is learning by trial and error and what worked last month, won’t necessarily work this month. Being part of this Wild West is fascinating to experience from the inside.

RATZLAFF:

Your apps, NameCatcher and NameCatcher Biz help people to remember names of acquaintances. What inspired you to create these apps?

GORDON:

For the most part it was born out of necessity. My partner and I both have young children and I have an aging father. Just through our kid’s activities and my dad’s caregivers, new people, acquaintances, really, come in and out of our lives regularly. These people are important to us, but sometimes it is just hard to remember all of the names and how we know them. It can be embarrassing to keep asking people to repeat their names. As a regular user of my own app, I have seen how good it makes someone feel when they are remembered.

RATZLAFF:

You and your partner both have marketing backgrounds. Can you share your thinking on how you’ll go about marketing your apps?

GORDON:

One very interesting thing about this app is when people see it or hear about it they
instantly know how they would fit it into their own life. And, everyone thinks they
are our demographic. The truth is, nearly everyone with an iPhone is our
demographic. As exciting as it is to have the millions of iPhone users as possible
users, such a broad audience is hard to reach. So, we have broken down the possible
users by category and are targeting them individually. So for example, we speak to
“mom” targets differently than we do to our Boomer targets. We will often break
those targets down even further so we can speak directly not generically.

RATZLAFF:

What advice would you give to someone who wants to get into the mobile app business or any new business for that matter?

GORDON:

• Start with a great idea, but be flexible as to how it can work as an app.
• Get a basic understanding of the app business and the available platforms before investing any money.
• If you are not technical, hire the right people who are. If you are not good at marketing, hire someone who is.
• Never get comfortable with the way things are because they will change.

Both NameCatcher and NameCatcher Biz are available for download at itunes and readers can find more information about the company, Catcher in the Sky, on their website.

Guest Blogger, Bob Martin

A few weeks ago, the Eastern Pennsylvania Business Journal published an article from an experienced marketing and communications professional, offering a contrarian view of the rush to incorporate social media into business communications. The gist of the argument seemed to be that incorporating these new techniques and channels into your business’s marketing efforts offers no obvious, tangible benefits over those delivered by a traditional mix of marketing communications activities and media.

I respectfully disagree – and not just because of the increasing power of younger, more social media-oriented individuals in the customer and consumer pools. As someone who’s worked in media and business communications for more than two decades, I see a compelling philosophical reason for embracing the new social media in our efforts to reach and serve our customers.

Since the beginning of mass media, business communicators have struggled to overcome the technical limitations of traditional communication channels, as we work to make our message connect more effectively with target audiences. Today’s new social media channels – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogs and the like – are game-changing advancements precisely because they’re breaking through those limitations, and creating a new, more effective business communications paradigm in the process.

Encouraging give and take during discussion, alternating the roles of messenger and receiver within the communication, adjusting your message on the fly based on the other party’s reactions – by enabling these actions, social media presents smart business communicators with something we’ve always wanted: a way to have an honest-to-goodness conversation with our audience.

Admittedly, this new conversation paradigm can be disorienting to traditional business communicators, because it adds a third dimension to our messaging – not brand to customer or customer to brand, but customer to customer ABOUT the brand, in which the communicator has to relinquish some measure of control over the message. For example, consumer products companies are realizing that relationships with influential bloggers can be excellent avenues to introduce new products, or emphasize features of existing ones, or just communicate their brand promise. But it comes at a cost: the power of the blogger can be directly related to their perceived independence from your influence, and you need that perception of independence to maximize the potential benefit of your relationship, so you accept the possibility of loss of some control over the message to the blogger and their audience.

Forward-thinking companies who can accept the social media conversation paradigm can use it to constantly adjust and update marketing strategies as they are executed. A social media audience is different than the total target audience, of course – but they’re different in ways that add to their value as “thought leaders”: they enter the conversation as generally knowledgeable about your company and its products, they are comfortable with the new conversation paradigm, and they relish the feeling that their opinion matters to what happens to “their brand” and so take that perceived responsibility very seriously.

To that point, a current ad campaign supporting the launch of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating systems centers on PC users who offered feedback to Microsoft that ended up reflected in the new product – prompting each to claim that “Windows 7 was my idea.” The theme carries over to the product’s Facebook presence, which encourages groups of users to suggest, complain about or tout features of the product that others may find useful. It’s easy to see how these discussions could lead to adjustments in marketing strategy emphasis on particular features – which would in turn reinforce the umbrella theme of “Windows 7 is my idea.”

A final word of caution: by facilitating the continuation of a conversation, feedback through social media fundamentally changes the nature of any business communication effort. Establishing a presence in social media amounts to a commitment to your audience to continue that conversation. Fulfilling that commitment will cost time and money, but failing to live up to it will cost precious standing with key audiences that you won’t easily regain. Before embarking on a strategy that includes these new communications capabilities, make sure you’re prepared with the right resources and mindset to commit to a real conversation.

1. Watch the show, many times. What types of guests do you see on Oprah’s show? What topics are those guests discussing? Does your book fit into the wide range of interests you’ve seen discussed on the show? For many, many authors this is the hardest point to digest. Not every book is right for Ms. Winfrey’s show. You may have written a fantastic book and still not be right for her show.
2. Think like a producer. If you were in charge of booking guests for Oprah, would you be absolutely positive that the subject matter of your book is a perfect fit for Oprah’s audience? Would you stake your job on recommending your book to Oprah for a segment? Do you know the demographics of Oprah’s audience? They are women. Will your book appeal to women?
3. Are you an experienced television guest? Television is a big business and the cost of an hour-long show is enormous. Would you and the topic of your book be a good investment for Oprah and her team? Would you and your book be so interesting that ratings might increase because people truly desire the information you have to offer? Can you, personally, deliver that information in a telegenic way and by that I mean can you speak passionately, animatedly and engagingly on your area of expertise? Can you make the viewers “see” your topic?
4. Television is a visual medium. Standard talking head interviews are alright if you’re a celebrity. If you’re not, Oprah or any television show would be more interested if you had ideas for visually presenting your material. During one appearance on Oprah, Dr. Oz brought a human heart so that Oprah could see and feel what a damaged artery feels like. She was able to touch it and describe to the audience how stiff it felt. It was riveting TV. Do you have something amazing to show your ideas to her television audience?
5. Can you surprise and inspire a television audience with your information? Do you have something so interesting to say that Oprah will feel compelled to share it with the women who watch her show? Now every author thinks they have compelling material or they wouldn’t have written a book. But to make your book a candidate for Oprah’s show, it needs to appeal to Oprah first and then to her audience. A book about a World War II battle, however important, might not be the best fit for her audience unless, perhaps, it’s about the Navy nurses who are still today, visiting veterans and have banned together to raise money to send deserving young women to nursing school to help fill the nursing shortage. That’s inspiring, motivating and engaging for Oprah’s audience.

Here’s the last observation I’d like to share. No one can guarantee you and your book a spot on Oprah. I mean no one. Oprah and her producers receive hundreds of books and book pitches every week. Her producers comb through the pitches and bring forward those that promise to be the most compelling to Oprah’s audience. Even then, a book may not be slated for a show because books are not the only basis for Oprah’s shows. The team will create a schedule of shows and mix in authors, artists, celebrities and experts throughout any given season. Oprah could, in fact, love your book and still not invite you to be her guest. She is responsible for putting together a season of shows that appeals to her audience across a wide range of subjects. You and your book may or may not fit the needs of her show during a given season. That doesn’t reflect on you as a writer or your book.

So what can you do? Go through the questions above and ask yourself honestly “Is my book right for Oprah?” If you believe it is, submit your pitch. But if after honest reflection you see that it’s not, your time might be better spent connecting with your natural readership where they live.

Make a list of media you watch and listen to ~ after all, the topic of your book was interesting to you. Where would you find YOU in the media? That’s your sweet spot, the place where you’ll find readers who will be as passionate about your book’s subject as you are. Go there and speak to your audience.

As someone who is currently engaged in training with Mari Smith, http://www.marismith.com (someone who also cares deeply about ethical behavior online) and who will be part of the first class of certified social media professionals, I’m very interested in hearing about your concerns, issues and ideas for perhaps a “Golden Rules” of using social media for publicity and marketing. Let’s post our ideas here and start the conversation. If you post, please include your full Facebook, Twitter or Website URL including the http:// so that others can friend, follow and connect with you in just one click. You’re welcome to list all of your preferred connection options in that way. Let’s start a movement.

Every person with computer access is now a writer and a publisher or has the ability to be so within 10 minutes of hatching the desire. Anyone can log onto the internet, start a free blog, open a Twitter account (where every 140 character thought they have is indexed and searchable by Google.com) and in effect, publish their thoughts. Business slide presentations, nearly virtual business books, can be posted on LinkedIn and everyone with a glimmer of an idea can create an e-book and distribute it by tonight.

The era when gatekeepers carefully chose which ideas would be presented to the consumer has passed. The idea-makers are taking their work directly to the universe. Less driven by the desire for monetary gain than by the need to express themselves and connect to others, these new world order writers are dumping endless content into the cybersphere. Yet without the filter of publishing houses, editors, agents and the like, how does the end user find the work and commune with the writer? Even if the reader finds the work, how can he/she be assured the work is good, interesting, valid.

The aggregator sites are a start but lack the “taste filter” an editor might have provided. Readers must self-select which writers they’ve liked in the past and hope they’ll enjoy future work. Here’s where the community kicks in. People who share a passion for a particular genre, writer or subject matter become the referral mechanism for those who are searching. People are developing trusted communities and sources from whom they’ll accept recommendations much like we once trusted our local independent bookseller. The hunger for information, the lust for a great read hasn’t died. The medium, the delivery system and the discovery process, however, are changing.

So what does this mean for the future of books, fiction and non-fiction? Publishers will continue to act as curators, finding and nurturing talent, but the financial model will have to change. Increasingly the burden of finding an audience for a writer’s work will fall squarely back on the shoulders of the writer. This is not always a good fit in terms of an writer’s skillset.

Mystery writers and women’s fiction/romance writers have an edge in this new world because publishers have always placed the lion’s share of the promotional responsibilities back on those genre authors. They’ve become experts at self-promotion and understand the importance of building a passionate fan base and engaging with those fans. They’re already social media pros. Business writers tend to be good at this as well. But perhaps this appears so because publishers are only buying books from business writers who have already demonstrated their ability to build a database and a following for exactly this purpose. The business model seems to be, “build it and we will publish.”

How, then, will first time novelists and self-help specialists with new ideas fare in the new Social order? How will great work rise above the noise to capture the imaginations and heart of millions rather than just delight hundreds? Will this democratizing of publishing rob us of literary talent who are not also self-marketers or will this process open the door to bright new talent who might never before have been able to squeeze by the gatekeepers? I don’t know the answers and most likely neither do you but I’d love to hear your thoughts. Since we can’t look at things the same old way, we might as well talk boldly about what “new” can really be.

The sheer volume of social media sites available could make a grown man or woman weep as they try to navigate the landscape and place themselves or their brand in the mix. Social Media can jumpstart awareness of your brand or it can be an enormous time waster. The key is knowing where to put your energy, how often and when to turn your time and attention elsewhere.

Here’s a quick down and dirty checklist of sites I think are worth your attention as you stake your space in the social media world.

1. Facebook: More than 200 million users. Enough said. You need to be here. You can create a Facebook page and begin inviting people to join you as friends and if you’re using Facebook for your business you’ll want to create Facebook Fan Page. For a very informative video and written instructions, there’s no better coach than Mari Smith. I highly recommend her “How to Create and Promote Your Facebook Fan Page video and here’s the link. http://budurl.com/z53e. Your Facebook Fan page is indexed and is searchable inside and outside of Facebook. This means that when someone googles the topic or your name, bingo: You’ve achieved virtual visibility. If you do nothing else (and you will) create a Facebook Fan Page for your business.
2. Twitter: Six to eight million U.S. users, depending on whose stats you’re viewing. Come on. It’s 120 character microblogging. You can find the time. Note: Each tweet can be 140 characters but keep it to 120 so others can Retweet you and help your info go viral. Twitter can be addictive. It’s real time conversation with the entire world. You can easily lose your focus and participate for long periods of time with this cyber cocktail party. Set a time limit (and a kitchen timer if necessary). Start with 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at another time during the day. Share your expertise and look for others who are interested in what you have to say. Ask others about themselves. Engage, share worthwhile information, link to your website for more detailed information and stop for the day.
3. LinkedIn: You simply must be on LinkedIn. It’s the yellow pages of business professionals. LinkedIn can be a “set it and forget it” site but there’s significant value in updating regularly because every update puts you into the stream of updates on all of your colleagues with whom you are linked. It reminds them that you’re out there, doing interesting things, and keeps you and your business top of mind.
4. WordPress or Blogspot: Content is King and a blog, be it wordpress (my favorite), blogspot or another program, it is a great avenue for communicating your passion and purpose. You need to have a homebase for posting interesting and useful information in more than 120/140 characters. You can link to your blog on Twitter and Facebook to drive additional interest in your content. You’re blog can live on your website or can serve as your website, depending on your goals and the needs of your business.
5. Friendfeed: Great resource for sharing your favorite blogs and posts with all your social media sites at once. I simply love this application. You can add “Share on Friendfeed” to your toolbar and with one click post interesting information you find on the web to all of your social media site instantly. Yum! Three cheers for time saving applications.
6. Twellow and/or WeFollow: These are like the Yellow Pages of Twitter. For a minimum investment of your time, you can list yourself, free of charge, and make it easier for other people to find you. You’ll enter a few “key words” to describe your business, your service and your interests. You can also search these site for like minded people that you’ll want to follow. These are excellent resources for finding folks to follow and worth a few minutes a day as part of your twitter-follower building strategy.
7. Tweetdeck or Twhirl: For filtering the stream of noise in Twitter and making sure you don’t miss really important tweets from your peeps. Free to download and easy to learn to use, these are time saving applications that will help you take a look at your Twitterverse quickly and efficiently.
8. HootSuite: You can pre-schedule your tweets, manage multiple twitter accounts and measure your success with this wonderful Twitter toolbox. This, again, is a free application but you can choose to give a donation to help them continue to add new features. The choice is yours. Either way this will help you disseminate content, say from your blog or website, during pre-scheduled time periods throughout the day on Twitter, automatically. This is a wonderful time saver and definitely a worthy Phase One strategy.
9. Google Profile: You can now set up a google profile, similar to what you’ve already done on LinkedIn. I’ve made mine slightly less corporate and with a little more personality because I have multiple businesses and I want to engage the reader more with my personality than with my professional resume. I’ve included those links on my google profile so that information is there too. This is free, easy and indexed by google. Be there or be square. This really does seem to be a “set it and forget it” tool. If I find that it is evolving to a more social tool, I’ll visit this on a new post.
10. Technorati: If you have a blog, “claim” it on Technorati to help others find your words. Once you’re blog has passed their review standards, you’ll be indexed, an essential step toward standing out in the online universe. Technorati is also a terrific resource for finding blogs you’ll want to read and perhaps share with your Twitter and Facebook friends. This application is easy to use, takes very little time to set up, is a solid resource for content and thus makes my top ten Phase One Social Media tools list.

Now bookmark this page, shut off your computer and go outside. Here’s my challenge to you. Do one of these a day for the next 10 days and let me know how it goes. You can do all of this one step at a time and reduce your anxiety level to zero. Let me know if you have questions or suggestions for future posts. I want to write about things you want to read about. Let me hear from you.