If you are interested in a great twitter tutorial… check out Charlene Kingston’s free eBook, Twitter for Beginners. You do need to register to get it but I promise you won’t get ANY spam from her and you’ll have a great resource.

I wish I could show you right now the power of real time search. If you follow smart people, leaders in your field, you can learn a great deal in a short period of time. I use it to search for relevant information for my clients. I also search for articles that I think would be relevant to my connections, then I add my 2 cents and post the link to Linked In.

This article helps you to learn how to target your tweets to people by occupation (e.g. attorneys) and location (e.g. city). You can provide customer service or listen to what people are saying about you or your competition. In just a few minutes a day, you can keep up with real time information about your industry.

Just remember that marketing today isn’t about telling the world how great you are… it’s about adding value.  Just because you can easily find a target audience on twitter doesn’t mean you should spam them! (definition of spam: I don’t want it and I didn’t ask for it).

I realize it’s popular to say (and think) twitter is stupid.. and it’s certainly your choice to stop reading this or think twitter is dumb. But it’s the business that is most adaptable to that often wins. Are you adapting?

Image credit: twitter tricks

In 54 hours, teams work to build a company idea. By Sunday night, the teams pitch their company ideas and the winning team gets cash and prizes.

This is why I feel like I’m a 20 something trapped in a boomer body. I loved the idea of spending hours hanging around young entrepreneurs who are so excited about their ideas.

But more than that, I am excited about change. I’m excited about the revolution that’s taking place across the world– people telling their governments what they want.

I see tremendous power in the social enterprise and the way customers are telling companies what they want.

I am thrilled to see so people involved in changing the world for the better.

Here’s how I am contributing:

• teach as many people and organizations as possible about the power of social media
• teach college student where I learn more from my students than I teach them
• lead a small non-profit that helps people who live in low income communities
• speak for free for any non profit that asks me
• mentor entrepreneurs through SCORE
• support and encourage people of all ages to live life fully
• respect every person I meet for exactly who they are

I hope that I am also a loving wife, mother, in-law, sister, friend, etc. Let me know how you are making your life as fun and vital as possible. It’s great isn’t it?

Whether I was right or wrong in my beliefs; I was speaking up. It was scary but  I felt it was important.

Today’s younger generation, Gen Y (aka Millenials b. 1980-2000) is also taking it to the streets. In the form of  The Occupy movement. The press criticizes them for:

- not having a clear agenda

- not really knowing what they want

- being lazy and protesting as a way to get out of work

When I saw this last minute prep list for today’s May Day protests, I thought about 1969 and what it would have been like to have websites to help prepare us and cell phones to take photos of abuses and communicate with friends. Some of this sounded very familiar…

- Know your rights: The ACLU has some good basic info on your legal right to protest here

Other items are heartening:

- Know how to identify legal observers: Observers from the National Lawyers Guild will be on the ground throughout the day.

You may or may not agree but they are speaking up. They are not lazy or self absorbed — they are fighting for their future.

Photo Credit: RedhatRob.com

First — the good meeting!

One was with a guy I met who has been unemployed for about a year for the first time in his career. I met him briefly after a talk I had given. He confirmed our meeting the day before. Yeah for him. Then he offered to buy me a coffee, I always appreciate the offer. Another yeah for him. (cost him $1.72) He told a story about delivering meals to shut ins as one of the ways he spent his time while unemployed. Triple wow. He even asked how he could help me. Unbelievable.

And now the not so good meeting:

Meeting with someone I had met before and had helped him with something. By 5pm the day before, he had not confirmed our meeting so I did. Ick, not happy. I usually send my cell phone number so in case something comes up last minute.. the person doesn’t leave me sitting there. Hmm, maybe you could send me yours so in case something comes up for me? Nope. Didn’t improve.

In the article, “5 ways to lose your dream job during the interview process” — the same simple etiquette applies. Confirm your meeting, be polite, don’t talk too much, think of ways you can help the other person, don’t be cocky, send a thank you note, etc.

Seems pretty simple to me. But if it’s so simple, why don’t most people do it? I have no idea. Sigh…

Oh, and did you send a Linked In invitation after your meeting?

Photo credit: photo bucket

You often feel like this guy. Overwhelmed by ‘paper’ and buzzwords that don’t tell you anything.

Before you spend more time and get more opinions about your resume, check out this article, “How Recruiters See Your Resume…” Take a look at the heat map associated with this article.

It tells us that the more structured your resume, the easier it is for those 6 seconds to be productive and get you into the consideration pile vs. the no way pile.

The goal of the resume is to… wait for it… get you an interview! Be sure to think of it that way. It’s not to document your entire work history.

By the way, how’s your Linked In profile? Do you have 300 connections? Do you belong to several groups? Have you uploaded your PowerPoint presentations? Do you answer questions? Make sure you include a live link to your Linked In profile from your resume.

Now go forth and streamline that resume!

Image credit: Career Insider

Do you know what an RSS feed is?

If not, think of it as an inbox. A virtual inbox where you send information that you want to read later on. Google reader is a good tool (RSS)  for managing electronic information.

I send the posts from about 40 different blogs to my reader and at night when I’m watching TV — I scan through my inbox. Would I rather be reading something else? Yes, often I would, but this is what I need to do to stay in business.

If you’re a job seeker… how are you adding value to your network? Are you synthesizing information? Are you a producer of content not just a consumer?

Not sure which blogs to read?  How many civil engineering blogs do you think there are? well, here’s the top 50!  and here are the top 10 dog blogs…  and top 10 science blogs. Read as many as you can, be interested and interesting.

My point is… get used to getting your information from a real time resource like blogs, twitter, ning groups, etc.

If we are going to be effective at work, model appropriate change behavior for our children and proactively manage our personal growth– we need to change and fast.  Like taking vitamins for our health, we better learn to absorb new information everyday.

Photo credit: Mylotphotos.com

There’s madness all around. Not just in basketball circles but in education, science, art. Here’s one example:

— Education… have you heard of Khan Academy? They were just highlighted on national television.  Their mission:  to help you learn what you want, when you want at your own pace for free. “With a library of over 3,000 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 315 practice exercises… there’s something for everyone

So back to basketball. All you dads, we’re grateful for the hours you spend encouraging, coaching and beating… our daughters. Title IX changed everything and the world is a better place because of it.

Image credit: Buzzbox.com

When I was a young mother (back in the last century), there was a lot of talk about work/life balance and how “women” needed to work harder to ‘find’ it. The only thing I needed to find was a few hours sleep and someone else to plan dinner and drive the kids all over the place.

It’s better today because both men and women are looking to balance their responsibilities and my observation is that they are doing a fine job. Their bosses and workaholic colleagues might disagree but the truth is, they understand that it’s about balancing themselves — not their work/life. They only have one life and work, family, play, learning are all part of it.

If you look at the younger generation and think they don’t get it… take a look in the mirror. My friend Hannah Morgan (Career Sherpa) was telling me about “helicopter” parents. These parents who think it’s perfectly ok to go to a career fair with their college senior! A College CAREER FAIR!

My kids would barely let me review their college applications never mind go with them to a job interview. Michael Jackson wrote these great lyrics from The Man In The Mirror—”Take A Look At Yourself, And Make A Change”. Yes, please.

Photo credit: Believe in you

What I don’t like are businesses that take advantage of customers. In the world of Free (think Facebook (FB), Google, Twitter, etc.) are services really free?

I have been teaching social media for about 3 years and have heard 100′s of FB stories. Some heart warming (“I keep in touch with my grandchildren”), others disturbing:  lost job opportunities, stalking, loss of privacy and being fired. If only people had thought a little about what they were sharing, many of these terrible circumstances could have been prevented.

In reading the post, “The Facebook Hiatus”, the author deactivated his account because he spent more time reading “status updates than books.” Beyond the issue of time, are you aware of how, how often and with whom FB shares your data?

“Unlike other big corporations, (FB) doesn’t have an inventory of gadgets or cars; its product is personal data — yours and mine, ” says Lori Andrews in, Facebook is Using You.

As FB goes public, we’ll see even more exploitation due to sagging ad revenue. Ads will now be inserted into your news feed and on log out pages.

I know you love FB. All your friends are there. I don’t really expect you to stop using Facebook, I just want you to think before you post.

Photo credit: Inkstainedknuckles.com

I believe that with all my heart.

When I say important, I don’t mean big… I mean significant. These are 2 very different things. The cool part is that each of us gets to find it. No one else can tell us what it is.

Some of us will find it and rise to the occasion and many of us will recognize it but will let fear or judgement keep us from it.

We can learn a lot about living today from,  the Top 5 Regrets of Dying People.

1) Be true to yourself. This in itself is an act of courage.

2) Don’t work so much. (Millenials already get this and we Baby Boomers criticize them for it instead of understanding their point.)

3) Express your feelings. I know it’s hard, but there are substantial rewards for saying things that you feel deeply.

4) Stay in touch with friends.

5) Give yourself permission to be happy. Even though the pain of changing seems to outweigh whatever we fear we’re facing, we continue to do the same things over and over. Be brave and be happy.

If you don’t know what is holding you back, talk to someone. Reason things out. Avoid gossip and criticism. These are just ways to hide from yourself.

Truly great people don’t think less of themselves… they think of themselves less.

Photo credit: One step at a time