A recent AP Newswire story tells the tale of one Justin Bassett who was asked by a hiring manager for his user name on Facebook. When she opened the site and saw that his profile was private, she asked him for his password. Bassett refused and withdrew his application, stating that he didn’t want to work for a company that would ask for such personal information.

Apparently this is all too common. Simply doing a search for a social media mention or profile isn’t enough, some companies want to look into your personal posts as well. Even if they don’t ask for your password you can bet an HR person will have googled you and viewed your profiles on Linkedin,Twitter, Facebook and Google+ at the very least. Sometimes they require you to log in during your interview so they can see your profile and be sure you aren’t a hazard to the corporate reputation or a spy for competitors.

Some companies are a bit sneakier than others. Sears for example “allows” job applicants to log into their jobs page with Facebook, Myspace or Linkedin, just to make it convenient for you. Isn’t that nice?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Privacy online is a myth. If you want something to be private, don’t put it online in the first place.

The problem with that model is; you aren’t the only one who might be posting information about you online. Maybe it’s a mention of a great weekend away on a blog, photos on Facebook, Twitter or Flickr, a video on youtube of you being silly. All of these things can easily be taken out of context if it suits the goals of the viewer.

So what to do?

Fake profiles have been used to harass and defame the real account holder many, many times. Check for identity theft on a regular basis. You can even sign up for regular monitoring from sites like Reputation.com

Search for yourself, not just on Google but on Bing and popular social sites. Not everyone uses the most popular sites and there may be information buried out there.

Keep your profiles active and up to date. You want people to find YOU when they do a search, not some lame broken profile or a fake one set up to mock you.

Untag photos on Facebook. Scan tags on popular sites frequently to see what has been tagged with your name.

Download Outspoken Media’s Online Reputation Management Guide for more tips and tricks to keep your reputation squeaky clean.

Personally i think it’s reprehensible for a potential employer to ask for your password or even to ask you to log into a social profile in their presence. But that’s why I am a happily self-employed entrepreneur!

I admit I’m a little behind with this post. Everybody and their cousin Sally has already written a post on Pinterest by now. Its’s the media darling of the day. Or at least it was. Then we actually read the terms of use and some people are already deleting their accounts in protest. See, it turns out that not only does the TOU state “Cold Brew Labs and its licensors exclusively own all right, title and interest in and to the Site, Application, Services and Site Content, including all associated intellectual property rights”, (that means the pins you post too!) but Pinterest is apparently adding affiliate links to some of the posts to earn money when you click on the links. On top of that their sign-up process is really designed to “automatically” build your following by notifying your entire list of connections that you’ve joined and suggesting they follow you. Smart eh? That’s why you are suddenly getting tons of emails from Pinterest.

Hmm. In this day and age, transparency is hugely important and this wasn’t cool. The digerati who are up in arms about the TOS. But when all is said and done though, does the user base care? The market is collectors and mostly women, who like to curate collections of images around things they like. I’m willing to be they could care less if Pinterest makes money from affiliate links on their collections as long as they are free to curate more. As for the emails, either filter them into a mailbox or change your email settings on Pinterest.

How is business using Pinterest?
Now see, that’s the interesting thing. Because it’s all the rage businesses rushed to figure out how to leverage Pinterest’s incredible popularity to get people talking about their business and there are some very creative uses by brands large and small alike, as well as nonprofits.

Which businesses do well on Pinterest?
Clearly interior design, food and infographics are doing really well here, but it’s really all over the map. Here’s a board of Fashion Brands on Pinterest and another for the America Heart Association. Here’s one just for the boys, er, men, called Board of Man. Even the National Guard has gotten into the act. Just do a search for what you do and you’re likely to find some boards built around it.

Start with a core group of pins and then drip them in over time
Remember that as more users follow your boards you have an opportunity to remind them of your existence every time you post a new pin. If you post a dozen pins at once they get a dozen emails at once. Once a day is probably a more tolerable noise level for most. Just like with Twitter it’s better to spread out your shares rather than inundating us with them all at once.

Create boards that are different
We do not need another board all about cupcakes. We don’t really. Do something to make your board stand out from the crowd. Here’s a fun way to do it by slicing up images for a single board, similar to what people have done with Google+ photos.Post items that are shareable. (DUH)

Think of ways to pin on a schedule
It trains your users to expect a great pin from you every day and they begin to look forward to it. Can you have a theme for every day of the week, or even weekly that keeps people interested?

Name your boards with SEO in mind
While we have very little demographic data about our boards it’s clearly showing up in search engines too. Create your board title with SEO in mind. “My board” doesn’t mean a thing. “Hot Cars” is clear and much more likely to both gain interest from users and seo form the search engines. What will people search for to find you? Select a category for your board that is appropriate to your purpose in pinning. Fill out the description with keywords in a complete sentence.

Follow other pinners
Follow the people who are most popular in your areas of interest. Most likely they’ll follow you back. It’s super easy for people to click that “follow JFouts’s back” and they are following all of your boards. This is important. Let’s say you are in the wine industry and you’ve created boards for sustainable wine making, your wines, Sonoma valley travel and wine accessories. When someone follows all your boards they get a bigger picture of who you are and when you post your new labels or the latest vintage, they see that too.

Collaborate
When you find an influencer you are impressed with invite them to collaborate on a board. To do that you just create a board, then go to edit and choose “Me + Contributors” under who can pin. This will allow you to invite influencers in your area of interest, people who have a complementary viewpoint, etc.

Be social
Pinboard is boring if nobody comes to your party. Re-pin great finds from other boards. It’s good for them and it’s good for you. It’s likely they will reciprocate and may even invite you to collaborate. Go see who the people are who like or re-pin your posts. Follow them, re-pin something of theirs. Reciprocation is the core of social interaction. Ph, and of course don’t forget to share your pins on social networks, add the Pinit button to your blog and maybe even add a widget with your recent pins to let people see what is important to you.

I spoke recently to a group of PR and marketing professionals about how to use social media in their work. One woman told me that she was trying to get the CXO’s to use social media as part of their brand awareness. She’d send them emails with links to blogs they could comment on, tweets for their information, etc. They were ignoring her. Several other people in the room commented they had similar issues. One said her CEO simply said, “That’s what I pay you for, you do it for me.”

She doesn’t and she’s right. Any Marketer worth her salt knows that pretending to be the CEO and writing tweets–god forbid commenting as– the CEO is social media poison. If and when it comes out that it’s not really the CEO but a marketing person it’s going to be ugly.

I’ve seen this a lot in corporate trainings. CXO’s are busy. If they’re not up to speed on how to use social media they won’t adopt. It reduces the marketing or PR professional to an annoying mosquito who keeps bugging them and those emails with all that great info go straight to the trash.

How do you deal with the CXO who won’t make time to learn how to use social media?
Instead of trying to address this in a Chinese water torture fashion where you are constantly dripping “great opportunities” on their heads, do your homework and build a presentation for the C-suite. Get them all together in one place and show them the impact they could have if they were only engaged.

• Do some searches and pull metrics to show the impact of a positive social media outreach from a CXO level. Then show them some data on a social media nightmare story that could have been better handled through social media.
• Show them some numbers on how the C-suite is using social media effectively.
• Find you biggest competitor and show what their social media presence looks like. Either they’re doing it well and it’s a challenge to attack, or if they’re not doing it either it’s a window of opportunity to be there first!
• Find their peer group and show them what they are missing, how they could use social media as a collaboration tool and for professional development.
• Let them understand you’re not asking them to spend all day on social networks and that training is available to help them learn the right way to engage if they need it.

But I don’t have time for this!
There are lots of ways to use social media efficiently. I’m not saying you have to get the CXO on Twitter all day, they’ve got work to do. Give them the tools to work smarter.

• Set up a social listening dashboard, maybe Netvibes so they can quickly scan for important news to share with their networks.
• Set them up with Cotweet or Hootsuite so they can post efficiently and schedule posts out in advance
• Get them an admin or social media manager who can help set up their accounts, do some searches for appropriate connections and information (but NOT pretend to be them).
• Send a daily or weekly update on progress and the impact they are having (atta boy!). Show each CXO and what their Twitter reach is, for example, and then the combined company reach.

If they still aren’t interested?
Fine. Social media is not for everybody. Stop being a mosquito and do what you can around them. Feel free to say I told you so if it makes you feel better, but better yet, just do a kick-ass job and someone will hire you away…..

If they’re interested but you don’t feel qualified to train them?
I’m a social media coach, I do this for a living. Hire me to come in and give them a presentation that will make it very clear how they can use social media, who else in your space is doing either well or poorly, and then train the team how to use social media efficiently and effectively. My success is your success!

There’s a deep, dark secret that the social media marketers don’t want you to know. It doesn’t matter what your social media strategy is unless it includes what you expect the prospect to do after they find you through social media.

You can have the biggest following on Twitter and Facebook and Google+, the best videos on Youtube and a constant flow of repins on Pinterest and still not make a single sale.

Whaaat? I know, social media is what I do, and I love it, but in the end it’s a tool. Just one of the tools you should have as part of your online marketing. It’s how you use it that counts.

• Use social media to create an approachable persona that encourages people to contact you and then follow through when they do reach out.
• Send traffic to your blog, where deeper conversations can take place.
• Have a clear call to action on the blog so people can do something when they get there.
• Make sure it’s easy for people to comment and share your brilliance with others. They’re your social media evangelists.
• When they get to your website make it super easy for them to know what you do and how you can help them.
• Put your contact information everywhere. Basic, but often ignored.
• Use landing pages on your site for specific channels of your business. For example, I have one for a Google+ e-book
• That doesn’t mean you spam your social media streams with calls to action and special offers, but if you don’t tell us what you offer,

Social media allows us to make our businesses personal and approachable. We’ll do business with you because we like you before we even get to see that landing page or your new website design.

And that my friends, is why social media is a great tool for your business.

I doubt you could have missed it by now, but just in case; Tuesday evening the story broke that  the Susan G Komen fund pulled support  from Planned Parenthood across the US. Rumors abound as to why they did it.Some say it was politically motivated. Komen says it was because their policies changed and because Planned Parenthood is under investigation.

After a couple of days of sticking their head in the sand and hoping it would all blow over, Nancy Brinker, the founder of Susan G. Komen made this announcement:

“We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities”

Supporters of Planned parenthood were excited. A  South Florida office of Planned Parenthood posted this on their Facebook wall:

“Thanks to YOU and people who care about women’s health, the Komen Foundation has reversed its decision…”

That post was later removed.

Although people applauded the apparent reversal of the decision, the fact remains that Komen only changed the qualifications for the next round of grants. That doesn’t necessarily mean they will continue to fund Planned parenthood. 

What about the social backlash?
For me, it started with a flood of requests to join causes on Facebook like “Komen can kiss my mammogram“, started by Alison Fine. supporting Planned Parenthood to replace the lost funding.

Then, as news spread, people started producing graphics representing how they felt about it and this collaborative Pinboard  was created by Beth Kanter allowing others to add “pins” to the board about the issue as well.

Donations flooded into Planned Parenthood to the tune of over $650,000 in 24 hours, effectively replacing what Komen’s grant would have been.

New York Mayor Bloomberg plans to match up to $250,000 in donations to planned parenthood in his own response to the decision.

Petitions started circulating from Moveon, the Breast Cancer Action Network, MomsRising and others to protest the change in policy.

3 of Komen’s top executives quit in protest.

In this screenshot of a report by analytics firm Attensity the sentiment about Susan G Komen is pretty darn clear. While up to now it was largely neutral according to this post on the Attensity blog, things have changed dramatically. Read the post there for Attensity’s take on the matter.

click to enlarge

Oh let’s just move on shall we?
In the official statement Brinker also said she hoped people would now move on. I’ll just bet she does.

“We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue. We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics — anyone’s politics.”

Um, yeah, let’s not. 
Whatever your politics, or how you feel about hot button topics like abortion, this is not about abortion. Abortion makes up only 3% of what Planned Parenthood does.  This is about the right for a woman to get screening services that could save her life. It’s about making donations to an organization and knowing where your money is going. It’s also about showing organizations who do not believe in transparency that WE DO.

While millions of people are watching the superbowl on Sunday, @KomenfortheCurehas plans to use the tag #Supercure on Twitter during the event. (The NFL is/was a major sponsor of Komen). Please help spread the word about the counter-campaign. Here’s a link to share ways to take action. Please share it with your friends. bit.ly/takebackthepink

After the Super Bowl
This doesn’t end after Sunday. In addition to this effort, take a look at what the Breast Cancer Action has to say about the whole pink phenomenon. I haven’t bought pink ribbons for years. I donate to BCA and the Avon Foundation for Women because I can see where the money goes. Please. Think before you buy pink again. Think about how you can help support women (and men) who need these services through other channels.

I speak a lot about Google+ as a tool for business. In fact I’ve just written a book called “Google+ for Business Tweet” and I’m presenting a second  Focus.com Roundtable  in February. So you might think my position would be that Google+ is the be-all end-all social media network for business and people should be pitching their blogs and Facebook pages out the window in favor of Google+.  And there you’d be mistaken.

Here’s the thing. Google+ is a social network with huge potential for businesses, but it’s best value is as an individual user, not a business page. If it had any of the following features it might be a contender, but as it is today? No way.

• A “vanity URL so you can direct customers to your page in print material or verbally. “Find me on Google+ at Google.com/SocialMediaCoach” would be one thing. But wh’s going to remember “https://plus.google.com/b/113284144259635347526/“???
• User interface editing abilities. If you’re good with using only the wall on your Facebook page, this might still work for you, but one of the ways Facebook has Google+ totally beat is the many ways you can interact with your followers. Custom landing pages, polling, events, insights into traffic and performance, now that would make a difference.
• Notifications. Managing a Google+ page is a bit easier now that you can add multiple admins, but getting an email or text alert that someone has reacted to a post , followed the page, or tried to contact you would be great.
• Integrated profiles. Currently there’s no way to know who is managing a Google+ page,  and precious little on the “About” page. Give us a place for a call to action, a link to our Google Voice number please.

Now there’s more, but after all Google+ is still in beta, I’m cutting it some slack. They’re working on it and it keeps getting better and better. For now though, here’s how you CAN use it for your business.

Research and outreach
Needless to say, Google profiles are a huge resource for business. Who’s interested in your industry? Where are the influencers and groundbreaking technologists? Follow the best of the best and learn about what interests them. Take a look at the Ripples of some conversations to find even more influential Google+ users.

Building the brand of your company through the intelligence of your staff
YOu hire the best and the brightest right? Let them shine on Google+ and help build the brand identity of your company through your fabulous employees and their ideas. This includes the CEO, the marketing team and your engineers. Nothing proprietary of course, but perhaps there is a collaborative opportunity out there waiting to be discovered.

Customer support
YOu don’t have to have a business page to support your customers. Search Google+ for people talking about your business and reach out to them as a human person who wants to help. Now that’s something they will remember. Be genuine about it though, no Trojan horses allowed.

Hangouts
Schedule some hangouts with your staff to talk to real live customers and potential customers. .Show them who you are and what you’re thinking about.  A relaxed environment like this can bring out the best questions and show you’re truly interested in the needs of your customers. Hanging out in somebody else’s hangout is also great. Don’t steal the show but be pleasant and useful. Add to the conversation and support the owner of the hangout.

Micro-blog
Really Google+ might be a good replacement for your micro-blog. Post URLs here with a short comment or two. Got a quick thought but not the time to write an entire blog post? No problem, on Google+ you can shout out and ask others for their input.

Collaborative meetings
Another way to use Chat and Hangouts is to share docs and screens within a Hangout with your team. If you work with a team spread out all over  the world, this is a great way to inspire unity.

SEO
Last, but certainly not least, is the HUGE SEO value of a Google+ profile for individuals. If your CXOs set up profiles with links to your business with the right keywords it may really be one of the best traffic drivers you have. We’re still testing this theory, but it only makes sense that these profiles will be SEO gold.

So, what do you you think? Are you ditching your Facebook page for a Google+ business page yet? Will you? Why or why not?

On January 18 websites all over the net will go dark from 8AM to 8 PM, and this will be one of them. Why? Well for one, because I still can. One of the most powerful things about the internet is that it is largely not controlled by government. Sure, I’m against piracy, but not if it means DNS filtering that could actually penalize lawful businesses. Not if it means messing with the Domain Name System and push users towards unreliable, less secure DNS servers just to avoid frivolous lawsuits, block “suspicions Foreign websites”, and squash the entrepreneurial spirit of the internet. Especially not if it gives companies who get your site taken down because of supposed IP violations without due process and even if you can later get it re-instated you have no recourse.

Want to know more about SOPA and PIPA?

• Here’s the anti-SOPA protest site.
• Here’s what President Obama said about it.
• Rupert Murdoch and Chris Dodd think it’s a good idea (what does THAT tell you?)
• Here’s the full text of the SOPA bill on the Wall St Journal site
• Here’s the text of the PIPA bill

I’m giving you two perspectives. Now go decide on your own, because that’s the best thing about the internet, you get to gather your own data and make your own choices. Isn’t it grand?

Maddie Grant threw down a glove challenging a number of people to participate in a meme answering the question “How are you going to change the world in 2012?” It’s a great question.

I love the chaos theory metaphor called the butterfly effect. The idea is that a small, relatively insignificant act can created marked and sometimes unexpected change. The flap of a butterfly’s wing can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world.

Small business that we are at Tatu Digital Media, we have been fortunate to impact corporations and individuals and show them how to be more effective and efficient in how they do business online. Hopefully the effect of our small efforts can help to change the world in ways we can’t begin to predict.

We are already working with a number of non-profits to help them understand social media tools and techniques. In fact, it’s part of Tatu Digital’s mission for a minimum of 25% of our work to be with non-profits. in 2012 we plan to increase our pro-bono work through interactive training for nonprofits, particularly in inbound marketing practices and of course, using social media.

Through our work with corporate client we’ve amassed a pile of content on these topics that will be useful to non-profits who want to expand their outreach to volunteers, donors, evangelists and potential team members through inbound marketing. We’ll be adding social media training webinars or live sessions for non-profits throughout 2012.

The first of these trainings will be a webinar for Vivanista on January 12, 2012 at 9 AM on using Google+. Come join us, it’s free, you just need to sign up.

Stay tuned for more of these free training sessions for non-profits, and if you work with non-profits and would like to talk about setting up training on social media or inbound marketing, talk to me.

Now, what are YOU going to do to change the world in 2012?? Add your thoughts in the comments!

I follow almost 4,000 people on Twitter, over 1500 on Linkedin, and more on Facebook, Google+, blogs, forums, a zillion social networks, wikis and more. I get around 800 emails a day (half of them are alerts, newsletters and feed reports for my clients). I’m not bragging, there are plenty of people with more, it’s just a fact of my life. How do I manage to do all that every day and still run a full time business? Great question. I don’t. Nobody else does either, at least not by themselves and definitely not every day.

Here’s the big deep dark secret about using social media for business; you’ve got to have discipline. If you get derailed by Farmville for an hour every time you go into Facebook your business may have a problem. If it’s open all day in your browser while you “work” then you may need an intervention.

People tell me 5-6 times a day that they can’t make time for social media. I agree it’s hard, but when you look at how much time it takes to cold-call a customer, visit their office, buy them lunch, walk their dog and take out their trash to get their business it’s nothing.

Think about the literal time it took to get one client to return your calls. Break it down. How many times did you have to contact them before you could talk business? How much aggregate time did it take? Now multiply that by how many individuals you want at the top of your sales funnel this week.

Now look at social media where you can break the ice and get that initial conversation10, 20,100 or thousands at a time. Then you continue to add value to their day every single day with the click of a mouse and a few carefully chosen mentions. To top that off the very people you reach will share your message and value with their own connections and act as your agents to attract new business to you without you even lifting a finger.

So don’t talk to me about how social media takes too much time when it’s really that you aren’t focused in how you’re using it. By this I don’t mean you are constantly pushing out your marketing messaging and talking about business. You know as well as I do that you don’t approach a new client, stick your hand and say “HI, I’m Janet, buy my stuff!”. No, you have to get to know them first. Listen to what matters to them and what they care about, then you can help solve their problem with what you have.

Turn off Twitter
Leaving Twitter open in your browser all day is distracting. Set your mentions and direct messages to send you an alert. I use TweetBot on my phone and it lets me know when I get a message and I can then respond. I open Twitter up 3-4 times a day, scan for new things to share and decide if I’m going to send them now or later. I shoot off a few pertinent Tweets, bookmark some links for later reading and get off.

Scheduling is your friend
I use a combination of tools to schedule my updates and they almost all have a browser bookmarklet so as I surf I can add items to the scheduling tools on the fly. Sure some posts are timely but a lot of them can wait a little while and if you use an app like Buffer you can send that tweet when your network is most likely to be paying attention too. I also use Hootsuite which is good for scheduling a series of tweets for when you may be traveling or getting close to an event you want people to know about.

On Facebook I use a combination of Hootsuite and MediaFeedia. Both tools allow me to monitor and update multiple accounts which is great. Mediafeedia also allows you to send out special offers to your fans and like Hootsuite pro, delegate to others on your team as needed.

Check the mirror
Is your messaging getting derailed by cool cats and hip conversation? Use a tool like NutshellMail to see a summary of your conversations on a regular basis.What do you talk about most? Who are you talking to a lot and who is talking about you? Use what you learn to fine tune your messaging and reach out to connect with people on a deeper level.

Delegate
You don’t have to do it all yourself. There are lots of task that can be handed to a virtual admin. Moderating forums, replying to basic questions on your social networks, finding new topics for your to comment on or RSS feeds to add to your reader, research on industry information for your blog posts, updating your blog software or finding the right plugins.All of these things and much more can be done by a talented assistant. Heck, you can deliver a pile of information and have an admin split it up into items you can share on your social networks and schedule them for you. These are all things you can outsource and leave the focused personal interaction to you.

Turn off email
I tell my clients to contact me by direct tweets, text, phone and email and in that order. According to many recent surveys email is dead. I won’t go that far but honestly I just don’t read it as often anymore. I only hit my email box 3-4 times per day. I scan for spam and delete it, filter all of my alerts into mailboxes relative to the topics so I can scan and use or delete, and filter all of my clients into boxes so I can scan the boxes quickly and see which businesses are sending me mail and reply quickly.

Get a plan
An organized plan can be a huge help. If you blog create an editorial calendar. If you use microblogs think of a theme for what you want to talk about and schedule some conversation starters. Then fill in the gaps with real-time post to specific people. If you are blogging set aside some time once a month to brainstorm new ideas and if you can, write 2-3 or even more blog posts, then schedule them for release. Better yet, send them to your admin and have him format and schedule them for you.

Stay focused
If you love the games on Facebook, surfing for videos of cute cats or save them for after hours. Your goal is to create relationships and raise the visibility of your business. Keep your eye on the ball and think of never making a cold call again.

Choose your friends
Be thoughtful about who you connect with. The idea of automatically following anybody who follows you on any social media network is a recipe for a clogged private message box full of spam. Even more important, people judge you by who you follow to decide if I want to be associated with you. Set aside a few minutes each week to look at those new followers. Are they truly interesting or after you as a notch on their social media bedpost?

If it’s not working, quit
You don’t have to be on every social media network in the universe. Keep your networks limited to what is truly useful. If a network just doesn’t work for you just move on. Maybe the crowd you want isn’t there or maybe you just hate the interface. Don’t worry, there are plenty more where that came from. I tell clients to pick one network you like. learn it and let your followers tell you where the next network you need to use is. Go where the potential is not where the social media gurus tell you you “gotta be”.

Follow through
Social networks are a tool for business but they do not replace actual conversation. Once you break the ice with social media reach out to the people you’ve connected with. Give them a call. Meet face to face. I can’t tell you how many out of the blue conversations have become fruitful business this way. Go ahead, give it a try! Here’s my number 408.216.7423.

One of the fantastic things about the growth of social media is how it has widened our window on the world. We live in amazing times where we can create deep friendships with people we may never meet face to face, or meet people whom we’ve known through social media networks for the first time face-to-face and it’s as if we’ve lived next door to each other for years.

As I wrap up the year I want to take a moment to share with you 15 amazing women bloggers I’ve gotten to know, respect and learn from on a daily basis. Some of them I know in person, but many I know through their blogs and Twitter personas. You should probably get to know some of them too. By the way, instead of just linking to their blogs I linked to some of my favorite posts, so make sure you visit those links! So, without further ado, a few of the many women I’ve learned from this year in no particular order at all. Am I missing someone? Help us find new great women bloggers and add your favs to the list.

Amber Naslund

@Ambercadabra Amber co-wrote The Now Revolution with Jay Baer, they really get what makes new media work for business. She’s smart, she says it like it is, and her insights on business and marketing are spot on. Amber’s recently left her role leading the social media charge at Radian6 to go out on her own with HiddenStartup and it will be fun to watch her grow her business.

Naomi Dunford

@Naomidunford Naomi is one smart marketer. She calls herself a “micro business marketing consultant”meaning she loves to help small companies get the most out of their marketing without spending a ton of money doing it. She’s salty, irreverent and I always learn something from her newsletters I can apply to my own business.

CJ Brasiel

@CJBrasiel CJ is one of the most sincere and generous people I know. She blogs about real estate at TalktoCj where she shares everything from Silicon Valley market info and tips on marketing a home to local events and politics. If you’ve got a question about real estate, San Jose or cat rescue, ask CJ and if she doesn’t know it she’ll find out.

Liza Sabater

@BlogDiva Liza blogs on culture, tech and online communications. She’s outspoken and often outrageous in Spanish and/or English and a delightfully refreshing voice among the usual culture and political pundits out there. Read Daily Gotham for her insight into New York politics and culture.

Shelly Kramer

@ShellyKramer Has been named one of the 200 most fearless women in social media and the top 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter by Forbes Woman. She’s smart, sassy and never afraid to say what she thinks. Shelly owns marketing and branding agency V3 Integrated Marketing.

Maddie Grant

@MaddieGrant Another fearless woman entrepreneur, Maddie is a co-author of “Humanize, How people-centric organizations succeed in a social world”. She co-funded Social Fish, working with non-profits and association to show them how to make the best use of social media.

Liz Strauss

@LizStrauss Liz is the founder of SOB Con, dedicated to connecting the great thinkers around the internet to get together and brainstorm, share best practices and insights and get to know each other one on one. She’s also a leadership and marketing mentor and is on more top 100 social media, blogging and women in business lists than you can shake a stick at. At the same time she’s down to earth and generous with her knowledge on all of the many platforms she participates on.

Corvida Raven

@Corvida SheGeeks is the name of her blog and Corvida delivers all that us girl geeks love. Wanna learn about tech, social media, mobile? Corvida delivers it all up with her characteristic sense of humor and she makes the geeky technical details approachable and helps keep me on top of the latest gadgets, gizmos and software I just gotta have.

Sarah Perez

@SarahinTampa Another amazing tech blogger, Sarah brings her experience in the financial, retail and software industry to TechCrunch where she is always on top of the latest news, gadgets and mobile apps. I first started reading Sarah’s work when she was at ReadWriteWeb and now
she’s at TechCrunch turning out all you need to know about tech.

Nina Kaufman

@NinaKaufman An award winning speaker and business lawyer, Nina blogs about legal tips and best practices for business on everything from Trademark law to the risks of letting your employees blog. Scan through her posts and you’re sure to find something you wish you’d known about before.

Lisa Hammond

@thebarefootceo Founder of the Barefoot CEO and author of “Dream Big, Finding the courage to follow your dreams and laugh at your nightmares” and several other books dedicated to empowering and inspiring women to live the life they want to live.

Beth Kanter

@Kanter Speaking of non-profits, Beth is the queen of all things social media in the not for profit world and she shares more generously than anyone I know. Her book, “The Networked Nonprofit”is a must read for anyone wanting to understand how social media fits into their business model. Her Slideshare, blog and wiki are treasure troves of information for small business and non-profit alike.

Sonia Simone

@SoniaSimone blogs at Remarkable Communication where she writes about effective content marketing, among other things. She’s also co-founder of CopyBlogger Media and also ThirdTribe, spreading the word of how to do Internet marketing the smart way.

Catherine Friend

Catherine is the author or “Hit by a Farm–How I stopped worrying and learned to love the farm”. With my own history of growing up in rural Wisconsin her stories regularly leave me rolling on the floor with tears in my eyes. Really. This is how life really is out of the city.

Nilofer Merchant

@Nilofer is a Ted speaker and cultural change agent. She’s worked with humongous corps like Apple, Autodesk and inspires innovation in businesses of all sizes and types. If you’re looking for someone to disrupt your normal way of thinking about your business you should know more about Nilofer.