Today’s guest post is written by Rieva Lesonsky.

Although I’m a bit superstitious, I’m going to go ahead, channel iconic 1950s television personality (and songwriter, who knew?) Steve Allen, and say I think 2012 is going to “be the start of something big.”

I know there are naysayers out there who will disagree, and point out the numerous reasons I’m being too much of a Pollyanna, but frankly I don’t care. There are plenty of signs the economy is finally on the rebound.

Consumer confidence (as measured by The Conference Board) soared in November (December’s numbers won’t be out until the end of the month) to 56 (on a scale of 100), from 40.9 in October.

Although 56 indicates consumers are still feeling fairly uncertain, a 15-point jump in a month is a good sign, which is amplified by the “Expectations Index” part of the survey hitting 67.8, an increase of nearly 18 points in a month. Continue Reading »

A few weeks ago, Rieva Lesonsky was in town for an event and we got together for brunch. During that brunch we talked about running a business, social media experts, whether or not we’re facing a bubble burst, and solving all the world’s problems.

Rieva is one of the smartest women I know. If you don’t know who she is, I recommend Googling her. She’s kind of a big deal, though she would never, in a million years, give off that air. In fact, to sit and talk to her, you really have no idea how big of a deal she really is. And, I mean she’s not a social media big deal. She’s an in real life big deal.

But this isn’t a post about Rieva (as much as I love her). I did that in a #FollowFriday post last year.

This is a post about the myths she wrote about, after we solved them all. Continue Reading »

Did everyone see Google yesterday? In honor of Les Paul’s birthday, they created a little guitar that you can actually play. And, due to popular demand, they’re keeping it there for another day. So. Freaking. Cool!

If you haven’t had a chance, head over there and cut yourself a little song. It’ll even teach you how to play certain songs. It’s a good loss of productive time.

This week’s Gin and Topics is a mish-mash of things. There are a couple of videos I thought were hilarious, along with protecting yourself on Facebook, being happy, and integrating gaming into your marketing programs. Continue Reading »

It’s Christmas Eve so I’m cheating. Rather than do a normal a #FollowFriday for today, I’m giving you a complete list of all of the blogs I’ve recommended since I began doing this in March. Wow! I’ve been doing this since March. You’re going to find Twitter handles hyperlinked to people’s names and their blog URLs hyperlinked to their blog names (or taglines – those darn Canadians don’t follow the rules!).

If I had more time, I’d pull these into Twitter and Google Reader lists to make this super easy on you, but alas! I’ve run out of time. Perhaps I’ll do that next week.

So here they are…the people (with Twitter handles) and their blogs (with links). Continue Reading »

I realized last Friday that the past few #FollowFriday recommendations have been men. Nothing against you, guys, but I gotta get some women in here! As luck would have it, I got to see Rieva Lesonsky live, and in person, last night, so it makes perfect sense that she be today’s recommendation.

Where to begin? I met Rieva, by chance, at a TweetUp at the International Franchise Association show nearly two years ago. We immediately hit it off and, through social media, have become good friends. She is one of the smartest women I know, both offline and online. You can’t help but mention her past when you talk about her – she was editorial director at Entrepreneur Magazine. So I’m not the only one who thinks she’s smart! Continue Reading »

When I speak across the country, I have a lot of people tell me they want to start a blog and they want to know how to get started. I always caution that blogs aren’t for everyone and that, once you get started, you can’t stop. It’s a pretty big time commitment and it takes some effort to not only attract readers, but also engage them and keep them coming back for more.

My friend Rieva Lesonsky has a great article at AllBusiness.com about the pros and cons of having a blog. I also love Gary Vaynerchuk’s philosophy that first comes your passion. Your passion may be monkeys and you think no one will want to visit a blog about monkeys. He argues, in “Crush It!”, that no matter what your passion, if people can tell you really care about it they’ll keep coming back. And you won’t mind the time commitment because it’s what you love more than anything else. He also argues that you don’t necessarily need to write a blog. This is important thought – there also are video blogs (called vlgos) and audio blogs (called podcasts).

If, after reading Rieva’s article and figuring out whether or not you can write/video/speak about your passion, you still want a blog, following are some tips for getting started.

1. Go to WordPress or Blogger and set up an account. I like WordPress because it’s more professional and it has lots of really great templates for you to choose from so you can create something really nice in a couple of hours. Blogger is really easy to use, but it looks more homemade.
2. Write a list of 30 topics you can write about – just headlines. For instance, I write about social media, the PR industry, and what it’s like to grow a company. Under those three topics, I have 30 bullet points of different headlines. Under social media, I know tomorrow I’m going to write about how to attract readers to your blog, because it follows today’s topic.
3. Write (or video or speak) five to 10 posts and save them as drafts in your blog. Do not publish them yet.
4. Schedule an hour a day on your calendar to write your blog post, answer reader’s comments, and comment on other’s blogs about your topic
5. Publish your first draft on a Monday.
6. Send an email to your friends, clients, colleagues, peers, family, vendors, and partners and ask them to read your blog post. Ask them to check back on Wednesday and again on Friday. Ask them, if they like what they read, to send the link to their network.
7. Make friends with 10-20 people who already have strong social networks and ask them to help you spread the word. People will do this IF it’s a topic they’re also interested in and know their networks also will like to read. If your blog is about monkeys and I’ve been attacked by a chimp, you won’t want to ask me. Know your audience.
8. Be prepared to publish at least three times each week. And keep your drafts full – have five to 10 ready to publish at any time. This is hard to do, but trust me when I say that it makes life A LOT easier when you’re overly busy and something else has taken over your hour to blog.

I’m always willing to introduce bloggers to my network if they are consistent, have an interesting topic, and make me think. Think about that as you begin to write (or video or speak) and why someone like me would want to help you (other than I’m nice and help everyone). Then ask!  You’ll be surprised at how willing people are to help.

Tomorrow I’ll blog about how to attract readers, beyond your network and your 10-20 friends who already have communities built on the social networks. In the meantime, if you blog, do you have anything to add for people just starting out?