Web Business Woman

by Guest Blogger, Lena West, Chief of Social Media Strategy at xynoMedia

Many of you may know that thanks in LARGE part to Natalie MacNeil, last week, I was named by Forbes as one of the top 30 women to follow on Twitter. You also may know that I’m not big into “lists”, however I am always humbled to be mentioned on any list with other women who are doing remarkable work in the world.

I’ve always been successful in business, but being the introvert that I am has kept me very low profile and “behind the scenes” with many wondering who I am and what the heck I actually do. This worked out well for me. I could do great work, get paid well for it and disappear into the sunset. Not so much anymore.

Two of my favorite quotes are:

from the Bible, “For of those to whom much is given, much is required.”

and

one by Sidney Poitier, “You’re different from – not better than – everyone else.”

Ahhh, therein lies the rub. One would think if those are my two FAVORITE quotes, I would be…

prepared for visiblity. Not. Many people who meet me coming off stage from one of my speaking engagements around the country are stunned at my need for solitude and absolute privacy.

For example, if an event is held at a hotel, I’m the one who 95% of the time stays at an off-site hotel usually under an pseudonym. (Yes, people have called my room LATE at night wanting me to come out for drinks or whatever.)

And, yes for the record, I used to think I was nuts, too; until I took the time to learn more about ME and who I am. Then, I also started to meet other so-called “social introverts” and I started to make more sense to me.

So what’s all this got to do with social media?

I meet many, many women over the course of a year. Some of them are very much like me. They are absolutely nerve-wracked about what they would share on Twitter or Facebook and how they could keep people out of their personal lives without being rude or stand-offish (funny how most guys don’t care about crap like this). They also know that you need to have SOME personality in order for people to even pay attention to you on social networks. And, they also get that the fastest way to “show some personality” is to share something personal – whether it’s a feeling, a life occurence or a particular topic about which they are passionate.

To my introvert sisters who want to use social media to market their businesses, I always offer the same advice:

be personable without being personal.

People don’t have to know where you live, how many kids you have and whether you and your husband are fighting about where to spend the hollidays to engage with you.

The easiest way to be personable without being personal is to “reveal” three things about yourself (obviously, tidbits that you feel comfortable revealing) and talk about those three things a lot. For me it’s the fact that I love art, travel and Judge Judy. For you, it could be that you like needlepoint, sailing and DWTS.

Whatever your three things are, make sure you really do LOVE them and make sure you’re comfortable sharing details about them because you’ll be relying on those details alot. And, who knows, when those tidbits of information get told, perhaps you’ll select another three nuggets to share, but by then you’ll be so comfortable with social media, you’ll know what works for you online and what doesn’t.

Are there any other introverts out there using social media? What are your secrets to staying sane? C’mon, I can’t be the only one…

Short and sweet today. We’re here, in our new home in CO. We are moving between boxes, scratching our heads, wondering, “Where did I put that?” and waiting for the final arrival of the rest of our ‘stuff.’

There is much to be thankful for this year. We have you, dear readers, and for that I am personally very thankful. You comment and talk and tell stories and share your world with me and Lena and Mary and Donna and Robbi, and there is little in this world that is better than that.

The one thing better is family. This year I’m with a different part of my family – my eldest daughter, her husband, and my granddaughter. Tom will miss his family, but we know they will visit – soon, we hope!

Despite the negative news blaring out of our TVs, and in news reports online, I have nothing to complain about this year. I am so very thankful for my family, my friends, my outstanding clients, and the sun that is streaming through the windows of my ‘new’ office (which used to be a family room, in this house.).

Giving thanks daily, accepting the little setbacks without allowing them to defeat you, being confident in your place in the world, is all it takes to be happy and successful. It’s about positive-thinking, but more than that – it’s about doing whatever it takes to make your life the way you want it to be. Being a bricoleur, and being stalwart in your focus. “Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.”

Tom says he can do anything with a little duct tape and wire-hangers. I believe him.

What tools do you have at hand that can help you move forward with aplomb – into 2010 ?

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna’s Promo Talk

Well on this Thanksgiving Day Eve I am thankful for many, many things this year. But have to admit that at the moment I am really thankful for my husband who got me a new computer monitor today. Ever since last weekend my old monitor had been just shutting off on me. It seemed to happen when it went to screen saver. So I changed the settings and it seemed to help for awhile, but just continued to get worse.

My husband happened to be home since he took a few vacation days and was tired of my complaining. So he found a great deal on Craig’s List and ran out to grab it before it was gone. Now I have this wonderful 24″ LG monitor that is so much bigger than the little screen I got from Dell when I bought the computer 4 years ago. Plus the color is so much more vibrant. I just love it.

Which brings me to the realization that over this past year I have spent a great deal of time in my home office at this computer. I am incredibly thankful that social media is now such a big part of my life. I have learned so much while sitting at this computer just over the past year. Because of social media I have made local, national and global connections and have engaged in so many conversations. I have attended dozens of webinars, listened to many podcasts and viewed some great presentations on Slide Share. All of this education I received mostly for free.

I am thankful to be engaged with some of the people that I consider to be at the forefront of this changing media landscape and am excited to be part of the “revolution”. I got started which social media when I launched my blog almost three years ago. Now my involvement on Twitter and Facebook has enabled me to spread my blog posts to a wider audience and share my knowledge and the conversation with many others.

I am extremely thankful for what social media has done for my career. By actually participating in the various social media platforms and creating a community online it has allowed me reinvent myself. I now combine my years of experience in promotional marketing with today’s new media to help guide marketers, small business owners and entrepreneurs. Without the strength and support of my social network I may have not taken this path and the risk that’s involved in having your own business.

From a more personal note I am so thankful that my husband and I have raised two daughters that have grown up to be really fine young women. Both of them are in college this year and Facebook has helped to keep us connected. I’m thankful that they are both comfortable enough with having their mom as one of their “friends” as long as I keep my promise not to embarrass them on their wall. Which I believe I have.

Also on Facebook I’m so grateful that it allows me to stay connected with my sister who moved down south a few years ago. We’re still trying to convince the “other sister” to join the network. Maybe this coming year since she moved down south as well. It’s wonderful to be able to share our everyday lives with friends, family and close associates through simple status updates. To wish people a happy birthday or anniversary and congratulate them on a recent achievement is really priceless. I’ve never been good at remembering to send cards! Just ask my mom and sisters.

Now for Twitter. It’s a great tool for quick, short conversations, to thank and acknowledge someone, to share articles and knowledge with people all over the world. The real-time function of the tool is so unlike any other we’ve experienced in our lifetime. I was one of the many who all cried our eyes out together watching the final episode last year of Gray’s Anatomy and shared through our tweets. I also was one who got to view photos coming out of Iran that you wouldn’t see anywhere else. Not to sound boastful, but I am thankful that I’m one of those that “get it” when it comes to Twitter which is a result of putting in the time to learn it.

I’m also very grateful for all those in my social network who have prayed for my mother who has been battling cancer this past year. I’ve written about my mom in several blog posts and people are able to follow her progress through my updates and tweets when I’ve been back to visit her. Mom doesn’t quite get this social media thing, but she is grateful when I tell her my friends have been praying for her.

Now my thanks wouldn’t be complete without saying how grateful I am to Yvonne and her partner Tom for getting me involved into this wonderful world known as the blogosphere. They helped me launch my blog and have continued to give me guidance along the way. I was very thankful when I read the previous post on this blog Yvonne wrote yesterday saying that they had arrived in their new home in Colorado safely. I will miss them being down the road, but know that we will stay forever connected through the Internet and this thing we call social media. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

I can’t believe it. We did it! We managed, with great difficulty, at times, to make it all the way from Rochester, NY to Frederick, CO…and we love our new home!

I could write a whole month’s worth of posts about preparing for the trip – that was a lesson in… being the Three Stooges, I think. Yes, we had a plan. But, like all plans, it resisted our efforts to make it work. And yet, we packed (and at one point UNpacked) several trucks…and drove to Colorado, kitty in her carrier between us. Bumping along like pioneers – ok, not pioneers, they probably clumped along behind their horses at 20 mph, while we were hitting the 60s almost all the way. And, they had it way more uncomfortable than we did.

The trip was a treasure. Not one I care to repeat anytime soon, or even, anytime at all. But, it’s an experience we will never have again, and we are so thankful that for the most part we had great weather, stopped at great truck stops, and did NOT have a problem with the Queen Kitty, the Wabby Wibby. We saw states I would never otherwise have visited (though we didn’t have time to do any site- seeing; more’s the pity there).

Poor Tom picked up a cold along the way, and I will admit that my old bones did not care for the bad shocks in the truck (felt like no shocks at all!), and yet, we want Uhaul to know that we are not only satisfied customers, we’re proud to say we would recommend Uhaul. The customer service we received from them was over the top, and I am sure the bouncing of the truck is just a truck thing. For the most part, the truck was pretty comfortable.

Mind you, there was only one cup holder (although the cab was set to hold 3 people – lucky for us as the kitty sat in her carrier between myself and Tom), and there was no glove compartment to put maps and things in. And, no room behind the seats for snacks. I don’t know if that’s an engineer thing, or if it’s just cheaper and easier to make the trucks without those comforts. But, those are “creature comforts” and not all that important in the greater scheme of things. If we’d been looking for comfort, we’d have rented a limo – and gone broke!

On the opposite side, there was plenty of leg room, and even though the truck was noisy, it handled well (at least, for Tom… I did not even attempt to drive it; not with our car being pulled behind us!). We ended up renting this truck in a pinch, btw, and the folks at Uhaul in Henrietta were so accommodating and helpful, it took a lot of the worry away. Worry about how to actually fit everything we own into our lives here in CO, rather than leave a lot of it behind, in Greece, NY. Yes, at one point that was a consideration. If we ever meet in person, ask me to tell you that story. It’s a keeper.

I’m sorry I didn’t tweet or post as I meant to. The truck was so bumpy, I could barely get a few important emails out via my phone. And, the two places we stayed had spotty Internet (besides, by the time we got to the stops for the night, we were exhausted! no energy left to do anything but feed kitty and ourselves, then off to sleep…and up early the next day to press onward). I do have to mention the White Rabbit Inn because it was so beautiful and AJ, our B&B friend, gave us the best suite! Even the Wabby loved it. She thought we should live there!

We’re here. We’re a bit rested. We have a lot of unpacking to do…and two PODS have not even arrived yet!

Life goes on. At our end, life is good. We are thrilled to be here, thrilled to have our ‘puters up and working, and eager to get back to the work at hand. And, just so you know, I missed all ya all! Thanks for the good wishes.

More outstanding, exciting, fabulous news to come – plans for 2010 are over the top already! 

Have a fabulous Turkey Day! I will be feasting with my daughter and granddaughter. What a grand country we live in!

by Guest Blogger, Lena West, Chief of Social Media Strategy at xynoMedia

Last week, I had a bear of a time paying our Verizon bill for our landline service (no we haven’t gone to VoIP yet, that’s another post for another time).

I was trying to pay the bill via their website, but their online interface wasn’t working. I was getting some sort of system error message. So, I tried to pay on the telephone, but they charge you an extra $3.50 if you want to pay on the phone because they use some sort of third party service.

I didn’t think it was fair that I should have to pay $3.50 just because their website wasn’t working, so I called customer service in the billing department and asked if they could take my payment for me without charging me the fee since their website was broken. Of course, you know the answer. Nizzope.

The first guy, Mike, tried to transfer me to someone in their ebiz help center and ended up transferring me out to the same queue that I used to reach him. What a genius!

Another rep then came on the phone and she tried to transfer me to the ebiz center, too. She was smart enough to stay on the phone and soon realized that she dialed the wrong phone number. Luckily the woman on the line was able to give us the correct phone number to the ebiz center.

We finally got through to the ebiz center in Tampa and the woman told me that she can’t log in either and that I should pay my bill via the phone and she’ll issue me a credit for $3.50 to offset the fee I have to pay just to pay my bill. You can’t make this stuff up.

Sidebar: To show Verizon’s commitment to their telephone service, when you call them the prompts as you about everything else BUT the telephone service, the telephone service is under a prompt called “other”. Sheesh.

The whole time I’m on the phone, I’m Twittering. I check to see if Verizon has an account on Twitter and it turns out, they do. I use @Verizon no fewer than 10 times times in hopes of getting someone from Verizon’s attention. No such luck. It’s DAYS later and I still have not received a reply from the folks at Verizon about my ordeal.

The moral of this story is just because you’re ON Twitter and you’re Tweeting, as Verizon does, about your latest FiOS hotness, doesn’t mean you’re using the medium in a way that helps you provide quality customer service to your customers.

It’s quite clear by looking at Verizon’s twitterstream, that they only answer people who have something positive to say about their products. It’s not as if they’re not paying attention – they clearly ARE because there are LOADS of @ messages in their Twitterstream. They clearly know HOW to reply, they just don’t; which, in my opinion, makes their lack of response even WORSE.

And, they call themselves a technology company? Wow. Clearly they don’t know which end is up.Don’t they know that you can’t ignore problems??

How many of you think I’m going to forget to see if they credit me the $3.50? Not a snowball’s chance. I’ll chase them like the paperboy in Better Off Dead.