Let me give you some examples…as annoying as they can be to the child:

Nail Trimming: Oh my goodness, who hasn’t seen a filthy-nailed child running around? Think of all the germs that are under those nails. Yuck.  I’ve always been obsessed with trimming Bella’s nails. I’m often the only one she’ll even let do it, out of her Father or Stepmother. Along with making sure she washes her hands as soon as we’re home from grocery shopping…dirty carts.

Lotion: I’ve always taken into consideration…how it feels if I have dry skin, especially after getting out of the shower. I lotion my skin to keep it as healthy as I can…in turn, always make sure my daughter’s skin is the same. There is never a time she doesn’t get lotioned up after a shower.

Clean nose: I’m not gonna lie, I remember when I was a wee tot at her age, and I’d be at my babysitters. When it was nap time, I would take that opportunity to clean my nose…on their sheets…(Sorry MaryNell)… but it’s the truth. I don’t want my kid to do that, especially to our sheets, her sheets, or anyone else’s sheets. I want her to be comfortable in every way possible so I’ve always been adamant about cleaning her nose in the morning, and at night. She never would run around with a runny nose…gross…unless for some reason, I wasn’t there to wipe her face.

The point is…using the child as an example, attention to detail matters. Whether if it’s with your kid(s), your relationships, YOU, or your work life. It’s important to start good habits in all areas, that way, everyone feels fulfilled. Your attention to detail deeply affects how people view you and judge you.

When it comes to managing blogs and social media for yourself and especially for clients, no stone should go unturned. Respond to everyone, good, bad, or indifferent. Take the time, give some love, and that will help grow your brand.

I was (am) going through my Twitter accounts today, and someone said something pretty funny and very kind about one of the companies I work with. I responded with a thank you and started following the person. 22 followers this person has. Not many. Not right now.

I remember when I had 22 followers.  When I did, I made excuses to not tweet. To not work so hard on it. After all, only 22 people were listening.  If I had continued with the excuse of not tweeting because my audience wasn’t huge, I’d never be where I am today.  My business wouldn’t be the same. Realistically, I most likely wouldn’t even be in this business…and that would suck because I really enjoy what I do.

Life is this short (picture me pinching my fingers together VERY SMALL). We only live one time (that I am aware of). Do not, whatever you do, take for granted the power of you and your voice. Take the time to blog. Take the time to share. Take the time to learn how to be the best you, you can be. And NEVER make excuses.

Photo Credit: Facebook

For example, I called one of my clients the other day and gave her my theme idea. She loved it and is running with it. (Check out Get Out Mom’s blog on Fit February so you understand more in depth.) By doing this, she is able to cater her Facebook posts, Twitter posts, make hashtags, and create a buzz around that particular theme for the month. In March, switch it up and so forth.  (On a side note, I do not write Get Out Mom’s blog posts…I occasionally do a guest post, but I help on her creative team.)

When you do this theme stuff, your readers can rely on your posts and learn in depth about a particular subject rather than being jostled from post to post about random things.  I also find that if you do a little planning ahead, topically (and typically), you won’t have as much apprehension or dread about actually blogging.

But this doesn’t have to only apply to blogging. You can use it in your business (maybe). Example: I’m one of the co-founders of Girls Rock! Indianapolis and sit on the Board of Directors. GRI is a nonprofit rock n’ roll summer camp for girls’ ages 8-16. The whole camp is based on building positive self-esteem and body image at a time when girls really need it. We use music empowerment, (ie: learning an instrument, making a band, learning about past female musicians) music and creativity as the platform for building a strong self.

We are about to go into our 3^rd year of camp. So I thought, why not apply this theme stuff to Girls Rock!?  By doing a theme every year, the campers can learn the same song of that particular era of music during instrument instruction (to learn chords, chord progression and song structure…after all, why not learn from the master songwriters?) Then, each day can be one of focus and intention.

Applying a theme can help overcome redundancy.  In the GRI case, the campers will learn a different focus each year and have appreciation for all genres. They learn more than one band or group that was associated with that musical era. Then, the music workshops can be tailored to the era, etc… This allows for musical progression each year. It also keeps them wanting to learn more, which they know they will the following year. Keep your clients coming back for more. I know I want our campers excited every year.

Make sense? My challenge to you: Think about your blog or your business. What type of theme or monthly theme can you apply to keep it interesting and more importantly, educational?

I’ve been in sales and marketing since I was 3 years old. That’s right. Always working toward things I believed in. I’m still the same way…only as an adult, it’s with my ghostwriting and social media business, my band, Neon Love Life and our rock n’ roll summer camp for girls, Girls Rock! Indianapolis. I am a tireless promoter, advocate, and marketer.

Everywhere I’ve been, and more importantly, everywhere I’m going, I rely on my network of women, family, and friends to provide help, resources, and support marching in partnership with me toward a common goal.  At some point the “me” morphs into “we” and “we” becomes so much more powerful and produces greater results than just “me”.

This week has been an excellent example of this. We asked our families, friends, business alliances, Twitter followers, Facebook friends, Linked-In connections, and complete strangers to vote for Neon Love Life to win a contest to perform at Rolling Stone’s Super Bowl Tailgate Party. Winning this contest would give Neon Love Life the rare opportunity to open up for Jane’s Addiction and The Roots… two bands I didn’t live without when I was younger and they’ve been gig influences on the entire band. Our campaign has been insane; however, without the teamwork of everyone in my life, Neon Love Life would not have generated the (massive) amount of votes cast to date.  And by the way… the contest doesn’t end until Sunday at 8pm and we still need votes… so please, vote here and spread the word…and you can vote once a day until Sunday.

But if you think about it… running a business, running a band or nonprofit, running a family and life…all of these things take teamwork. Too often, we let pride or the thought of “I can do this myself,” get in the way of actually having peace of mind and things REALLY getting done.  If you’ve ever read the Tim Ferris book, “The Four Hour Work Week,” you’d understand that outsourcing and asking for help can be the difference between success and failure.

Each of us is only one person; we are simply more powerful as a team rather than individuals – strength in numbers.  Life should strike a balance of work and play; however, we would all agree that more play is always better!  Having more (quality) time doing what we love with those whom we love should be most important part of our lives.  The best way to achieve this “balance” is through teamwork and asking for help.

So ask yourself these questions:

• “What do I need help with?”
• “Who can I call on to help me achieve my goals and objectives?”
• “To whom can I be of assistance?”

The great Zig Ziglar* said “You can have everything you desire if you will just help others get what they desire”; stated another way: “teamwork makes the dream work”.

Follow Neon Love Life on Twitter.

*Special thanks to Muffy Davis for the encouraging words!

Also…if you need help with something or want to help someone else… check out Get Out Mom!

Hands in photo: Lindsay, Bella, Sharon, Tasha and Ashley

One thing I’ve been doing over the past few weeks (and my boyfriend has also joined me) is meditating.  But we’ve been doing an abundance meditation. There are many people doing this in Indy right now. Now, we’re not doing this to “get more stuff.” We’re doing this to be fully aware of our blessings…what we DO have, and to recognize where that comes from and figure out how we can give more, rather than focusing on our “1^st world problems.”

We live in a country of such opportunity that we sometimes forget that there are countries/people/human beings out there who have nothing and are oppressed, starving, sad, and yet we complain of our iPhones not pulling up Foursquare or Facebook fast enough. Trust me, I speak out of being 100% guilty.

We are blessed. We are blessed because we get to do what we love. At least many of the people in my life do. We have nice cars that get us from one place to another, we have a great community that for the most part, likes each other, and get to connect with people all over the world and then meet them once a year and sometimes more at blogging and social media conferences. We get to help businesses build. We get to write, encourage and love.

I just want to encourage you all to not take anything for granted. Not the laptops we get to work off of, not the free social networks we get to use, not our children or significant others. I know that personally, I wouldn’t like any of these taken away.  I hope you all have an amazing holiday season and love big!

As a social media controller, manager, person…whatever you want to call me, I have passwords and logins for all of my clients’ accounts, and this includes their Twitter accounts. Once a month, I take the time to go through and unfollow inactive accounts, people who are not following, people who aren’t a good fit for my clients, etc. In essence…I “clean house.”

What blows my mind as I am doing this are the number of accounts that just….drift off. There are tweets, tweets, than suddenly… no tweets.  3 months, 9 months, 11 months go by and businesses have given up.  It’s all just silly, in my opinion.

Every single person I’ve interacted with in real life that is on Twitter and using it to create relationships along with getting business stuff out there, has indeed GOTTEN business.  Even MUSICIANS.

Case and point: Cathy Hurt (@cathhurt) just joins twitter. She really doesn’t know why… she just does it.  Ashley Plummer (@ashleyplummer), guitarist for Neon Love Life and Butler University video and web producer extraordinaire, is tweeting that we’re looking for a female sax player. You see…we recently had the opportunity to play Indy’s Tonic Ball and one of the artists that was covered, was David Bowie. Since we have an all-female band, we wanted a female saxophone player for our version of Modern Love.

Ash tweets of our need. Someone responds with Cathy’s name and twitter handle. Cathy then gets to experience the Neon Love Life madness in 6 rehearsals and a killer performance that was tons of fun. ALL BECAUSE OF TWITTER. Let me also mention that Cathy has always wanted to play Tonic Ball and finally got to. ALL BECAUSE OF TWITTER. (Her experience was of course, the biggest factor. I mean, she was prepared and came into the first rehearsal nailing it. She was a joy to work with and was utmost professional.)

This may be a small example to you, but not to us, and not to Cathy because it was a perfect fit.

Sometimes it may take some time to find your individual perfect “fits.” But I urge you, DO NOT GIVE UP ON TWEETING because Twitter IS as Tweeters DO. Take the time to ‘do.’

Questions? Please ask.

Experience? Please share.

Let’s get down to basics. How many of you have a social media account? More importantly, how many of you have a LinkedIn account? What I notice about LinkedIn is that most business professionals on there not only have a stellar (most of the time) professional business photo, they also have a completed profile.

I’m not gonna lie, it took MONTHS for my profile to 100% complete. You know why? Because I was busy…maybe even a bit lazy. I mean, profiles take time to fill out. It’s like doing your resume, right? There are lots of questions about yourself, lots of thinking, a lot of articulation that needs to be done in a flattering-yet-not-cocky way, self-reflection, etc. You get the point.

Let’s carry that same model over to the online dating profile world, and you have a load of people out there, really hoping for love, but aren’t getting the attention they need because a) their photo sucks and doesn’t put them in the best light, or b) they have an incomplete profile and it inhibits them from having a strong presence. Not to mention if someone is shy, and really has no idea what to say about themselves.

That’s why Dating Headshots is such a cool concept. They help online daters look their best and really pull out that “umph” in people, so perhaps they can have more confidence, and reach their ultimate goal…find a companion to share life with. (I know I totally sound like I’m giving a sales pitch, but man, been there, done that. I get it.)

Look, if you know anyone who may find their service useful, check them out and have your friends check them out. They have a good success rate and I feel they’re just getting started. I’m pretty excited to be working with them. They also have a great blog with online dating tips, warning signs, and tons of other useful information for those who are embarking on online dating.

Follow them on Facebook and check out their Twitter.

So, what are your thoughts on online dating and this service in particular? Do you think it’s a helpful one?

So to my readers, I apologize for my sporaticism…(yet another made up word). Here’s what’s on my mind today. I’ve been running across a million posts lately about how social media marketing is pretty much recession-proof. At least, that’s my all-in-one sentence summary.

This is good but at the same time, kinda scary. Because that means my mom, who recently joined Facebook (we’re talking less than two weeks ago), could hop on the social bandwagon and think she can be business development in the next 6 months. Wrong. She can’t. (Not that she would even consider that…she just gets to be my lucky example.) It’s a scary thought, and now, more than ever, it’s high time companies, large and small, understand who they’re dealing with when it comes to the voice of their company, if they’re hiring outside help.

Stretching Too Thin

Prime example: I began my company, Linzstar Inc nearly three years ago. I am extremely fortunate and blessed to still be here and growing…to the point that I get to pick and choose who I get to work with. I have a client I dedicate most of my time too, because for many SM marketers, it’s easy to let their plate get too full with different industries. In other words, people like us are already of the social sort, so when we’re out there, it’s easy to chase rabbits down holes. So easy in fact, that sometimes, clients can get buried in the dust freelancers are kicking behind as they try to grow. Been there, done that. For greedy people, this may not be a problem. For me, I hate the thought of others not thinking I’ve done my part for the money they’ve spent. My job is ultimately to create such a positive social and user experience, that a company grows…period. It’s been an interesting learning curve over the past three years, but one I wouldn’t change.

I’ve also learned that to be successful in this environment, it’s quality clients, over quantity. It’s like one of the five top rules of the social media mantra, right?

So, while this industry is on the rise, which means I perhaps have some job stability in my field, it’s still insanely important to learn what you can about whom you may consider for your company. Find a marketer that places you as a priority and work out budgets around that. I know one great thing for me and my clients, because I’m such a small company, I get to work with people that may not want to spend 40-50K a year in their online marketing.

So, as we round the curve in social media marketing, you know, that one that had people arguing over whether or not the job of an online marketer was sustainable a few years back, it’s still very important to pick the right fit for your industry.

This company happens to be an IT company trying to do social media marketing. This kills me. It pains my heart. I was ranting on Twitter the other day…yes, it happens when a) it’s close to shark week, b) I’ve been in front of my computer too long, or c) I see more idiot people who can’t run their own businesses successfully, decide they’re going to “get into” the “social media marketing” business because someone told them it’s a way they can make money.

BULLOCKS.

Back to the meeting: This individual shares that he’s having a hard time “selling” social media. (Honestly…at this point, I wanted to slap him.) ps…if you’re reading this, I’m sorry. I’m being honest.

Why did I want to slap him? Because IT companies SHOULD NOT BE doing the job of MARKETING COMPANIES!!! EVER!!! YO, do you know why you have a hard time “selling?” Are you on Twitter or Facebook? Are you making movements and gaining ground? Are you so passionate about something that people get you? I wouldn’t believe that this guy could do anything for my company. Of course there is a hard time selling.

As a matter of fact, half the new “social media” shits out there really can’t do what it takes, and I’m pretty fed up with the people who fail doing their own thing, suddenly decide to become marketers. It gives marketing a bad name. Say it with me: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IS ONLY ONE ASPECT OF MARKETING. An IMPERATIVE one, but NOT the ‘be all, end all.’

This isn’t an easy job. It’s taken years to gain the experience and knowledge I have. My response to his question, “Do I have a hard time “selling” social media?” No, I don’t sell it. When people call me, they’re ready to do business…write a check and get it done, because they know they have to incorporate change in today’s business world, and they know I love it and I’m passionate about it. Period.

What are your thoughts about the emerging social media businesses?

Even the greatest of writers and bloggers sometimes struggle with new ideas or concepts to share. What often inspires me when I’m going through the lull of idea birthing, is reading what other people are sharing. Another thing that helps inspire me is to get the heck out and DO something. Go to a networking event, go to a social media meeting or tweet up. Meet people and share. Sometimes the most trivial of conversations can strike up ideas.

As a ghost blogger and content creator, many of my clients want to know what the perfect solution is. And really, over and over I let them know that there is no perfect solution. It’s about creating content that people need. It’s about being real with your audience. It’s about talking about what your kids did that day and how it clicked with something you experienced. It’s about the jerk in the traffic that cut you off that made you think of a time you did that and what was going on at the time that caused you to do what you are now cussing about.

We all experience the same emotions, some more often than others. I don’t care who you are, what your station is in this life, or how much you’ve been praised as a child or adult. Sometimes the most personal experiences then sharing of those experiences have the most profound affect on your readers. Never be afraid to share. (note: use discretion here…not EVERYTHING is good for a business blog.)

The main point of this is that sure, we all get the contential blues sometimes. Don’t be afraid to go in a different direction in order to pick the momentum back up.

Happy writing.