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Are you a new citizen of the Twitterverse or struggling to get started?  There are a few governing ordinances that you need to have in place to truly become native. Twitter is not the new kid on the block, but it is a vital part of the social marketing mix.

Be a Real Person

The ideal Twitter profile is extremely personable. Just like in the real world, people like talking to people. The follower counts and improved click-through rates tell us so. This also means having your profile as a picture, rather than your business logo.  Unless you are already very well known, it is a hard slog to get traction on Twitter while being an ‘anonymous’ brand profile. Read more

Where do you get inspiration from?

Over the course of running my Grateful in April campaign, I’ve been inspired (and humbled) daily by the thoughts, expressions and honesty of the people taking part.

People are unbelievably grateful for everyday things that most of us take for granted.

How often are you thankful for the legs and feet that carry you around? For being able to access clean drinking water and fresh food? Being able to operate your business in a country that enforces transparency? For your own health and wellbeing – and that of your family and friends? Read more

Sorry ladies, I’m going to focus on the men here, mainly because I’m a guy and that’s what I know.

You know that old saying?

You never get a second chance at a first impression.

Clichés are clichés because they’re often true.   It’s really important that when you dress – and I’m not just talking about a formal client meeting here or a job interview.  I’m addressing the whole activity of relationship building.  When you need to speak to someone to get advice or arrange an introduction, or pitch for new business the best thing to do is to wear a suit.  You may not want to wear a tie but, you know, it’s probably better to have a tie than not. Read more

A guy goes to an airline counter and checks in for his flight. He asks if one of his bags can be sent to Melbourne and the other one to Perth.  Definitely not, is the answer. “Why not,” he asks – “you did that for me last week”.

Okay, so maybe it’s a joke, but it was not much of a laughing matter for me recently when I flew to Sydney and my luggage didn’t follow.

While at dinner awaiting a call from the airline to see if they had located it, our waitress accidentally tipped an entire cabbage salad over me – soiling my only outfit. Read more

Disclaimer: this post actually isn’t for you. This article is for that one person (or multiple people) you come across online that doesn’t seem to have a filter for what information should or shouldn’t be shared to the public. I urge you to share this with them. It’s for their own good!

A few months ago a friend of mine was having a lot of trouble getting a job. She’d been to university and achieved all the qualifications required to land a great job. She’s very personable and pretty, and can do the job as good as anyone who works in the industry. But application after application she was bombing out for some reason. It was getting her down almost as much as it was baffling her as to why.

So we decided to do a Google search on her name to see what came up. First result – Facebook profile.  Read more

Turns out spreading yourself too thin can actually cause you to become, well, the opposite of thin…

I recently discovered a horrifying side effect of being extremely busy. Like many business owners, I was spending long days in front of the computer, lots of time on the phone and many hours frantically driving from meeting to meeting. The result? While I got a lot done, my waistline suffered the side effects!

It’s easy to see how – too much time sitting, grabbing unhealthy snacks on the run because I was too busy to plan to feed myself properly and not enough exercise all contributed to stacking on some unwanted kilos. Read more

It is that time of year again -  business award season!

If your business has been nominated for a Telstra Business Award you could be in the situation where you’re at the gala dinner, enjoying your night, and suddenly -  your name has been called out as a winner! You need to give a speech… but don’t panic!  Be you a business owner, or employee this is your opportunity to shine in front of your peers, and enhance the reputation of your business.

Here are my top tips for sailing confidently through your acceptance speech.

Practise and palm cards

Take the time prior to the event to think about what you want to say and who you want to thank (team, clients, family, supporters, fellow competitors). Read more

Is your business being stalked?

They say imitation is the sincerest flattery form.

Yet its effect on the source (you) can range from mildly inspiring to downright maddening.

Let’s table some shades, to colour this copycat world.

Copy cat

I once had a client at the bleeding edge of their field.

They were so ahead of their time, almost everything they did was a first. Read more

With the busy lives that we lead it can be so easy to fall into the trap of going hell for leather at work and simply not paying complete attention to what we are doing.

Here’s an example of what can happen when you don’t concentrate properly when replying to emails at work…

Minutes ago, I sent a quick note out to my database to advise when tickets would be on sale for an upcoming event.  Read more

How do you come up with something new to write about frequently enough to build a successful blog? As blogs become more common, so too does the problem of blogger’s block: that awkward moment when you feel as though you’ve run out of things to say.

Coming up with enough material to write a weekly post is a big challenge for many people – so unless you have a background or passion for writing, be careful about the frequency you commit to. Read more