My Grani Invented Social Media in 1975

My parents met at Ohio State, got married after college and I was born 4 years later.  When I was 3 months they moved to New Jersey, I have been stuck here ever since.  The food is good here so I think I will stay.  I spent 5 weeks of most of my summers growing up at my grandparents house in Ohio with my mom and my younger sister.  My dad would drive out our last week and we would drive home with him.  My Grani AKA MaryEllen Lewis was a kind and loving grandmother, the kind all kids dream of having.  She was a very talented artist, especially portraits.  She used to draw portraits of my grandfather while he was sleeping in a chair with his mouth hanging open.  She also taught me how to draw and I credit her with my gift and love for art.  She was funny and very social.  My grandfather was a doctor in his earlier years and they had many local friends that would just stop in to say hi anytime of the day.  I loved that!  She had a huge open porch with wicker furniture big enough for these impromptu parties.  These Ohio natives could really party too, let me tell you.

I was thinking about Social Media yesterday like everyday and realized that my Grani had invented it as far back as 1975.  One of the Grani-isms she would tell me over and over was "Don't worry about people talking about you..worry when they quit talking about you." OH MY GOD!  She was a genius I tell you!  I understood what she meant back then as a kid but now I REALLY get it.~~~~ hi 5 Grani rock on!

10 Ways Not to Be a Twitterhole

I know the title is intriguing but now you are also going to learn something that can save your reputation on Twitter.

 1. Do not RT contests all day long in your feed
 2. Do not Spam people with your products or services
 3. Do not call yourself a Diva or a Guru
 4. Do not DM people with generic garbage. In fact don't DM people you have not had interaction with prior.  It's like knocking on a strangers door, entering their home and then riffling through their underwear drawer. INAPPROPRIATE!
 5. Do not do this ((((HUGS))) to every person you know on Twitter. I'm from New Jersey we don't hug everyone here unless you are in the mob unless we like you.
 6. Do not overuse the word "Awesome" or "Rockstar"
 7. Do not over share your personal "stuff" on a business Twitter account. Unprofessional.
 8. Do not use puffery to make yourself seem larger than you are.  Humility never goes out of style.
 9. On Follow Friday do not mass tweet names because all the cools kids are doing it.  it is not cool, tell why you find a person follow worthy.
10. Do not over use words like tweets, tweeps, twitterverse,IRL, etc CHILL!

This is meant to be funny, don't get worked up.

My Biz Tip for MSNBC Entrepreneur Book

In addition to my feature "Paying It Forward" on MSNBC's Your Business TV show, I was asked to contribute to a book that is four years in the making.  You can read my blurb below.  I tried to make it as simple as possible so it does not overwhelm people that are not Internet savvy.  Hope you find it useful?


Marketing your business today needs to be a combination of old school and tech. Keep making those calls and knocking on doors but also learn a new trick. You can start a blog for free by using www.blogspot.com  embed it into your company website. Blog on a weekly basis and Google will pick up your posts in their search engine according to the tags you use for each blog post. Another way to track your business and your competition is through the use of http://www.google.com/alerts . Put your business name in the alerts to see what people on the Internet are saying about your company. Track your competition as well and see how you can improve your branding. Keep all of your online tools connected by Facebooking your Blog posts and Tweeting your Facebook posts etc. I also keep my www.etsy.com  shop on my blog in addition to my existing website presence. Social Media, Blogging, and Website are becoming standards in a small business. Take baby steps, and soon you will see that they do all add up quickly. It took me a year to master this, so I know it can be done, even if you are not a technology wizard.