My 30th Post: It's Bittersweet

This is my 30th blog post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am as excited as I was about my 10th post and my 20th post but this time it is mixed with pride and a little sadness. See, for the past 89 days I have been involved in a Fastgirls challenge called Be The Expert. This has been every bit of a challenge for me. I've experienced a tremendous amount of growth not just within my career but in my personal life. We may not get what we want when we need it to but I can promise you that we ALWAYS get it when it's right for us to receive it. I am so thankful for this experience and honestly I cannot put into words how much I needed this but I hope that you can feel my energy and can understand.

My Dear Fellow Fastgirls... You are all conquering the world. No one, no where, no how, can ever say different because no matter what you will steadily move up the ladder thanks to the amazing, magnificent and brilliant energy that surrounds you every day whether seen or unseen. I now understand the importance of surrounding yourself with positivity. You all are WONDER WOMEN!! I salute you! I congratulate you! I love you!!!!!

 

LET YOUR GREATNESS SHOW!!!

Top 92 Social Networking Sites of 2010

As we all know by now, social networking is the wave of the future. If you have not caught on by now then I suggest you grab hold and be ready for a long ride. I always stress the importance of social networking to anyone that would like to grow their network. Many people don't like the idea of getting too comfortable with networking online because they feel that face to face contact is what is the most important and with that I agree but just think of how many more business relationships you can develop if you started the connection online and followed it up with a meeting- way more than you would if you went to a networking event.


I came across a wonderfully informative article on BigMoneyWeb.com titled, "Top 92 Social Networking Sites For 2010".


Check it out...

These Are My Top 92 Useful Social Networking Sites For 2010

Twitter Is a website, owned and operated by Twitter Inc., which offers a social networking and microblogging service which enables its users to send and read other users’ messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the user’s profile page. Tweets are publicly visible by default, however senders can restrict message delivery to their friends list. Users may subscribe to other author tweets—this is known as following and subscribers are known as followers. As of late 2009, users can follow lists of authors instead of following individual authors.

Facebook is a social networking website launched in February 2004 that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc., with more than 500 million active users in July 2010, which is about one person for every fourteen in the world.Users can add people as friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by workplace, school, or college.

Linkedin Is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. As of 9 August 2010 (2010 -08-09), LinkedIn had more than 75 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.

Bizsugar is a social bookmarking and networking site for small business and medium-sized business owners and managers. It allows you to submit, share and vote for the best business information links on the Internet.
Any story submitted will show in the live feed on Bizsugar.Add a couple of friends a week to your account to gain more visibility to your profile and activity on Bizsugar.
Bizsugar will also produce thumbnails of your website or blog next to your story.

Black Business Women A Social Network for Black Business Women and Women Entrepreneurs

Bloggerluv is about a community of bloggers that  offers DoFollow links that take pride and great joy in helping other bloggers achieve. John Sullivan is the founder and is one of the most generous bloggers around and is great at helping other bloggers that he likes promote their blog.

Bloglines is a FREE online service for subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content. With Bloglines, there is no software to download or install — simply register as a new user and you can instantly begin accessing your account any time, from any computer or mobile device. And it’s FREE!
Bloglines is a window to a whole new world of dynamic content that is being created and distributed over the new “live” web. You can make your own personalized news page tailored to your unique interests from our index of tens of millions of live internet content feeds, including articles, blogs, images and audio. And it’s FREE!
Bloglines shields you from the confusion of news feed standards — RSS, Atom, and others. Bloglines allows you to subscribe, read and share any updates from your favorite news feed or blog regardless of its authoring technology. And it’s FREE!

Dofollowluv Is a Do Follow Luv Community gives a place to share your links, vote on your stories that interest you and get noticed from other blogs around the world.

CommentDrop Is online Community gives a place to share your thoughts

Cofoundr is the fastest growing online network for Entrepreneurs! Join the private community of startups founders — developers, investors, CEOs, advisors, programmers, and designers — to find co-founders, build teams, and get advice.

Digg Posts, comments and websites are submitted from Diggs members. Allowing people to comment and then “Digg” it. Setting up a Digg account is very simple and just like any other. The best news, videos and pictures on the web as voted on by the Digg community. Breaking news on Technology, Politics, Entertainment, and more!

Ning Is an online platform for people to create their own social networks, launched in October 2005. Ning was co-founded by Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini. Ning is Andreessen’s third company (after Netscape and Opsware). The word “Ning” is Chinese for “peace”. Ning started development in October 2004 and launched its platform publicly in October 2005. Ning was initially funded internally by Bianchini, Andreessen and angel investors. In July 2007, Ning raised US$44 million in venture capital, led by Legg Mason. In March 2008, the company also announced it had raised an additional US$60 million in capital, led by an undisclosed set of investors
On April 15, 2010, CEO Jason Rosenthal announced changes at Ning. The free service would be suspended and of the current 167 employees, only 98 would remain. Current users of the free service will have the option to either upgrade to a paid account or transition their content from Ning.
In June 2010, Ning was recognized as one of the “Hottest Sillicon Valley Companies”
Ning is located in downtown Palo Alto, California.

Delicious Is one of the most popular social bookmarking services. Many features have contributed to this, including the website’s simple interface, human-readable URL scheme, a novel domain name, a simple REST-like API, and RSS feeds for web syndication.
The precursor to Delicious was Muxway, a link blog that had grown out of a text file that Schachter maintained to keep track of links related to Memepool. In September 2003, Schachter released the first version of Delicious. In March 2005, he left his day job to work on Delicious full-time, and in April 2005 it received approximately $2 million in funding from investors including Union Square Ventures and Amazon.com . Yahoo! acquired Delicious on December 9, 2005.Various guesses suggest it was sold for somewhere between US$15 million and US$30 million.

Dzone is a free link-sharing community for developers, anyone can submit new links to the incoming queue.
Very easy to navigate around the site, first of all create an account then start adding your links, the only downside to this is you can not choose or type in your own tags there are however 55 to choose from but they won’t all meet your needs.
When adding a link you will need to enter a heading followed the URL, a 2-3 sentence description then choose your tags and press submit.
It may be a bit long winded but it will sure give you some good link juice.

Designfloat is a social media site dedicated to the design industry. A bookmarklet is available for Design Float.
Edit your profile and add your homepage URL and save.
Click “submit a new story”, and fill in your URL and click “continue”. All the fields will need to be entered.
Once you have done this your link with the description will show in the live feed on Design Float.
Other members can vote on your submission.

Dotnetkicks is a community based news site. You will get traffic from this site too.

Ecademy offers online networking for business, offline networking events and global networking groups.

Gather is the place where millions and millions of people come for fresh perspective on what’s happening now. Gather members can share their own views and join in conversation with others who share their interests.
Gather’s audience reach has grown more than 700% in one year, to more than 7M monthly unique visitors.

PartnerUp Is an online networking community that entrepreneurs and small business owners use to find the expertise and resources they need to start and grow a business. Members can connect with potential partners, advisers, and business resources.

Blogster Is a blogging community that features specific-interest blogs. Blogster maintains an online community of users who publish content, images, video and more. Blogster members can network and collaborate by creating a blog, building a personalized profile, creating friend lists, commenting on articles and interacting in an online community. Blogster is positioned on simplicity, and easy-to-use settings options. Compared to other blogging services, Blogster differentiates itself as having spam-free blogs.
The purchase of the domain name “www.blogster.com” was first announced by a pair of entrepreneurs named Tony Colan and Ed Harrison of Cleveland, Ohio, which was priced at US$100,000. It was considered as the top domain name acquisition in 2005. Their programming team rewrote the entire software for the site before going live that same year.[1] The site was then put up on sale in January 2007 through SitePoint before being purchased by a group called “Blogster Team.” At that time, the site already has over 30,000 members.  As of August 2009, the site has over 50,000 users.

Couchsurfing is an international non-profit network that connects travelers with locals in over 230 countries and territories around the world. Since 2004, members have been using our system to come together for cultural exchange, friendship, and learning experiences. Today, over a million people who might otherwise never meet are able to share hospitality and cultural understanding.

Diigo is slightly different to other social bookmarking sites and can sometimes be over looked it is actually one of the top 20 most popular social bookmarking websites.

Bebo Is a social networking website launched in July 2005. It is owned by Criterion Capital Partners. From March 2008 to June 2010 it was owned by AOL Inc.
The website’s name is an acronym for Blog Early, Blog Often. Users receive a personal profile page where they can post blogs, photographs, music, videos and questionnaires to which other users may answer. Additionally, users may add others as friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.
Bebo was founded by Michael Birch and his wife Xochi Birch in January 2005 at their home in San Francisco.
It was acquired by AOL on March 13, 2008 for $850 million. In April 2010, AOL announced it was planning to sell or shut down Bebo, with the sale being completed on June 17, 2010 to Criterion Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum. It has been reported that the sale raised less than $10 million.

Bnet BNET.com provides working professionals with the advice and insights they need to get ahead in today’s workplace. It isn’t a site for those who merely punch the clock: It’s for business leaders—of today and the future–who believe in the meaning of work and who know that nurturing excellence in their staff and their organization is the true measure of success.

Blogged At Blogged, our vision is to provide a destination where people can talk about news with their friends and family. Not only do we provide the breaking news from various media sources, but we also try to create conversation by integrating social discussions from your trusted network.

BlogGerden is a new social news and media site for bloggers, internet marketers, designers, developers, entrepreneurs, and anybody looking to make money online! Our goal is to provide the best articles from the most popular blogs, news sites, RSS syndication, and anywhere on the net where bloggers and internet marketers normally go. We would like to provide you as the new Digg – but for internet marketing articles!

Meet The Boss is an IPTV business channel for executives around the world. Covering eight channels, including Leadership, Sales, Innovation, Technology, Marketing, Strategy, Human Capital and Governance, the channel features a mixture of one-on-one interviews with Fortune 500 CEOs, business leaders and entrepreneurs, talking-heads programs and a Meet The Ninja leadership training portal.
The site is free to sign-up to and offers members access to free weekly interviews with industry leaders heading large global companies. Comment boards, articles and an editor’s blog create a dialogue between members.
Officially launched in January 2010, Meet The Boss TV has featured interviews with the likes of Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos.com, Herbert Hainer, CEO of Adidas and Vint Cerf, the so-called “father of the internet.”
Meet The Boss TV is an updated version of Meettheboss.com, a business networking tool managed by publishing and events company GDS International. While the .com version allowed members to communicate with fellow executives via video calls to discuss common industry challenges, the IPTV channel operates more as a learning tool for executives.

Multiply Is a social networking more enjoyable for its users and here’s how. Start my opening an account filling out your profile.
Users can create, share and discuss blogs, photos, videos and music with others as well as post reviews of movies and books, or share a calendar of events.
For a quick post you can use the drag and drop option which takes just seconds to do.
You can create your own web site with multiply and include videos, photos and lots more. With the added benefit of being able to change the theme, colour scheme to make it suit your needs. Have fun…

My Opera is the support community for the Opera web browser. More than 7,500[1] new members join per day, and the site has more than 5 million members. In addition to being a support site for the Opera browser, My Opera is a social networking site, featured with blogs, photo albums, and more

Netlog (formerly known as Facebox and Bingbox) is a Belgian social networking website specifically targeted at the European youth demographic.
The site was founded in July 2003 in Ghent, Belgium, by Lorenz Bogaert and Toon Coppens, and as of September 2010[update] has 70 million registered users across 25 languages.
On Netlog, members can create their own web page, extend their social network, publish their music playlists, share videos, post blogs and join groups.

Orkut is a social networking website that is owned and operated by Google Inc. The service is designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. The website is named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten.

As of Sep 2010, Alexa traffic ranked Orkut 79 in the world; the website currently has more than 100 million active users worldwide. Anyone 13 years old or older can join orkut.

Stumble Upon Is a discovery engine that finds the best of the web, recommended to each unique user. It allows its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos that are personalized to their tastes and interests using peer-sourcing and social-networking principles.

Skyrock Is a social networking site offering its members a free web space where they can create a blog, add a profile, and exchange messages with other registered members. The site also offers a specific space for members who create blogs showcasing their original musical compositions.
Skyrock ranks as the world’s 7th largest social network with over 21 million visitors in June 2008.

Homebased Business is an online community and resources for starting a home based business, featuring home business profiles, blogs, forums, videos, ideas, and more!

Qapacity is a business-oriented social networking site and a business directory founded in March 2008 and launched in February 2009. Users are given a set of tools to promote their business online, to keep their clients and business partners up-to-date with their work and to reach new clients.

Daily Strength Is a social networking website where users provide one another with emotional support by discussing their struggles and successes with each other. The site contains online communities that deal with different medical conditions or life challenges. As of November 4, 2007, Daily Strength has created over 500 support groups focused on issues such as depression, divorce, parenting, and a wide variety of cancers.
The company was founded on August 3, 2006 by Doug Hirsch, Lars Nilsen and Josh DeFord and has offices in Los Angeles and Santa Cruz, California, USA. Hirsch was one of the first employees at Yahoo and previously built products for online communities there and at Facebook. Hirsch founded the company in response to his own difficulties dealing with a death in his family as a teenager.

Talk Biz Now is a comprehensive interactive business networking site[1] for business professionals. By displaying how each member is connected to any other member, it visualises the small-world phenomenon.

Ryze.com Is a free social networking website designed to link business professionals, particularly new entrepreneurs. The site claims to have over 500,000 members in 200 countries, with over 1,000 external organizations hosting sub-networks on the site. Both paid and unpaid membership levels are offered. Founded in late 2001 by Adrian Scott in San Francisco, it was one of the first new generation of social networking services.

Reddit is a social news website received from its user’s personal choice and preferences,When posting a link ensure you place it in the correct category of the closest category that best describes your story. Your post/comment also has the opportunity to be voted for or against, the ore votes received in your favour the more chance you have of getting listed under the “hot” tab or the “top” tab from the home page.

Konnects is a business social network aimed at the young professional who wants to start building a network of contacts. It is also geared toward the new business looking to start their own community and offers the tools needed to promote the business.

KillerStartups is a user driven internet startups community. Entrepreneurs, investors, and bloggers are staying informed on up-and-coming internet startups using our blog platform, where internet entrepreneurs submit their startup to see what others think about it.

Small Business Brief Benefit from the popularity of Small Business Brief by posting your articles. It’s a great way to build credibility, get exposure and increase traffic to your site.

Storeboard is a networking site where each business is able to establish a profile page. On the profile, a business can post contact information, photos, videos, blogs, a podcast, links to external websites, and goods or services for sale. Businesses can also sell their products and services through StoreBoard. By reducing the barriers to e-commerce that small and mid-size businesses currently face StoreBoard provides an easy solution for selling products and services.

Spoke is a business social network that specializes on the recruiting aspects of social networks. Unlike many other social networks for professionals, Spoke is an open-ended network that allows businesses to search through the database and tailor their recruiting efforts to a specialized audience.

ShesConnected is the one place for women to manage both the personal and professional sides of their lives. Our members can create a personal profile for family and friends or a professional profile for clients and colleagues. They can keep them separate or combine the two but only if they want to. We are a unique and spirited community infused with compelling content from experts on careers, health, relationships, beauty, fitness, parenting, pregnancy, food and entertainment. Our members use our interactive features to meet friends and colleagues, manage daily activities, coordinate events, join groups or networks, blog about their interests and much, much more. We invite you to join now and connect with thousands of women online.

StartupNation provides real-world business advice to people who want to start a business and who want to grow their small businesses.

Skyrock is a social networking site offering its members a free, personal web space where they can create a blog, add a profile, and exchange messages with other registered members. The site also offers a specific space for members who create blogs showcasing their original musical compositions.

Spotback is a personalized rating system that recommends relevant content based on personal rating history using collaborative filtering and aggregated knowledge technologies.

Spicypage is a great simple, easy to use way of submitting your blog to there community. With the added benefit of writing a brief description, and keywords to the blog submission too.

Technorati is great with a great Alexa rank of just 932 it is great for link juice. Holding over 112 million blogs on its database it is one of the top internet search engines for searching blogs. Technorati looks through the tags on the authors website which is how the blog search results are categorized.

Apsense is a business social network where people get paid to come together to share their business. Imagine a place where you have all the tools you need to make your business grow and get paid for using it. We enable users to share their business through networking, exploring and creating quality business content. The development of new networks and constant exchange of information is happening everyday at APSense. We are changing the way people build their businesses while making money online.

Tipd the social media site for financial news, ideas and tips. a place to meet, share, discuss, comment, and vote on what’s happening on both Wall Street and Main Street. they focused on building a smart, friendly, and open community, and I hope you join them.

Tagza is a social bookmarking web site for web users to save/submit their favourite interesting links. Our users (you!) submit stories to the site and other users decide by their voting power which gets a submitted link to the front page.

Viadeo is a Web 2.0 professional social network with over 30 million members worldwide,and a membership base that is growing by more than one million per month.Members include business owners, entrepreneurs and managers from a diverse range of enterprises.The site is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

Fast Pitch Networking Fast Pitch connects enterprising professionals to other professionals and is a great way for job seekers to become involved with potentially their next boss. It also provides tools for businesses to market themselves and helps drive traffic to the business website. In this way, it is a great business social network for entrepreneurs.

Tumblr is a blogging platform that allows users to post text, images, video, links, quotes, and audio to their tumblelog, a short-form blog.

Doostang is a business social network marketing itself as an exclusive career community for top young professionals. To become a member, you must either be at a company that is hiring or have an invite from a current member. While the idea is to raise the level of talent in the job seeker pool, whether this is actually true is open for debate.

Shoutwire is the latest community based internet news website. It allows the community rather than a news editor to submit and review news content
Sign up and join the Shoutwire community.

Perfect Business helps entrepreneurs launch and grow their businesses. Our resources include easy-to-use tools and resources, plus a network of entrepreneurs

Plurk is a social journal for your life. Tired of your existing Social Networks? Share your life easily with friends, family and fans.
This is a lot like Twitter. Firstly sign up, this gives you access to your own profile where you can add new friends, add links to your profile and share any information that you want.

Plime Plime also works similar to other social networking site by enabling you to add friends to your profile, the more friends you add the more chance you have of people seeing your articles and links.

Xing is a social software platform for enabling a small-world network for professionals.

Xanga A social blogging site that combines social networking elements with blogging. Members earn credits for participating in the site and can spend credits on various things such as buying mini-pictures to post in the comments of a friend’s blog.

Myspace is a social networking website.

Yelp is a company that operates yelp.com, a social networking, user review, and local search web site. Yelp.com has more than 31 million monthly unique visitors as of early 2010.

Yattle Gives you access to your favorite websites and links when you’re not sitting at your desk.Yattle will happily tell the world about your site or favorite link through Featured, Latest or Hot Favorites.
Yattle will list your own bookmarks for FREE and for a small charge, it will publish your links for the world to see.
Yattle will help your SEO plan along the way, bumping up the number of visitors to your site. Yattle is the online answer you’ve been searching for.

Yuwie Is 100% free to sign up and Get paid to social network. The more you use Yuwie, the more you get paid.

Zorpia goal of bringing people together from all over the world and allowing them to share their ideas and interests. The primary features are the photo album, online journal, social networking, customized homepage, comment system and discussion forum.”

COOKING/FOOD
All Recipes Barmano
Bake Space
Epicurious Community
Family Oven
FohBoh – Restaurant network
Kitchen Bug
MyDish
Nibbledish
Recipe Key
Recipezaar
Sharecipe
Tasty Planner
We Eatt
WineLifeToday – Wine

Pets:
Catster
Dogster
Fuzzster
MyCatSpace
MyDogSpace
PetSide
PetZume
Petlvr
Pikapet
UnitedDogs

So You Want to Be A Successful Artist?

 It has been the dream of so many throughout the decades. There was even a play about it- Mama I Want To Sing, but what does it truly take to be a successful artist? As a publicist I often get approached by people who, usually since early childhood, have been bitten by the celebrity bug. We've all fantasized about it. Whether it was while watching American Bandstand, Soul Train, Star Search, Video Soul, Yo MTV Raps, or 106th and Park, we've all day dreamed at some point about what it would be like to stand on stage, microphone in hand and have thousands of people yelling our name as we give them what they came to hear- a performance to remember. 

Yes, we can dream but this is not the path meant for every one of us. If it is a part of your path though, what can you do to help push your success along so that you can become one of the most successful names in the world? 

1. Have a vision:  What do you want to be? Yes you want to be a performer but what kind of a performer? How do you want people to react towards you? How do you want to dress? Where do you want to perform? Who would you like to work with? Who would you consider your biggest competition? It is one thing to know that you want to be a household name but it is another thing to know everything that you want to come along with that. Don't just use that pen and paper to write a song- write your own story. You have the power to create anything you want. There is no such thing as too much or too extravagant if it is what rings true within your spirit. All great work starts with a vision and being a celebrity is no different. It's all about branding.

2. Create your road map: Now that you know what you want your career to look like and all that you want to be, it is time to create a road map to get you from point A to point Z. Input this information in your GPS. (*Don't forget to set your GPS for the reverse directions as well.) Please be prepared to make many pit stops along the way. You don't mind do you? Patience is everything but drive will get you there before you know it.

3. Get on the Road: You know where you are going and you've mapped out how to get there so it is time to put your pedal to the metal (or your feet to the concrete) and get moving. There's no time to sit and wait for things to fall in your lap. How will success find you if you are no where to be found? Get out there and build your network. Showcase your talent. Get some press. Don't complain about the speed bumps, they're just there to help you stay focused. Drive, drive, and drive some more. You'll be at your destination soon.

4. Be Thankful for Along The Way: Once you're within the vicinity of your destination, start being thankful. Not everyone even makes it THIS far. Never forget about the people who are back where you came from. Those are the same people who will be there to let you vent, laugh with you, cry with you, and even send you a sandwich if need be. The journey you've chosen is not an easy one so be prepared to do go through all of the aforementioned. If this is the life you truly want then you'll get through it. It will all be worth it.

5. Acknowledge Everyone: I do mean everyone. You're almost at the top of the mountain. Wave and say hello to everyone that you meet along the way. Kindness will get your further than shade. You never know who may be doing your first major album review or buying your album.

6. Don't Lose Sight Of Your Vision: You have arrived at your destination. It is wonderful to celebrate and to enjoy the perks that come along with it but DO NOT lose sight of why you are here. Your vision is what got you here in the first place and if you lose it, your success is as good as lost too.

7. Get Your Masters: Now that people know your name, it is time to master the art of speaking, eating, and dressing. Yes you can still be Boobie from 125th and St. Nick but Boobie chose to be in the spotlight and the press will have a field day if he's at a Black Tie Fundraiser wearing sagging jeans and slurping his soup from the bowl. You don't have to change everything but you should be willing to change anything that can shed bad light on you because once you get in the public eye it isn't about CAN it shed bad light on you, it's a question of WHEN will it.  After all, you're looking for longevity, not to be a one hit wonder.

8. Stay Grounded: Some people are thankful on their way to "Destination Success" but find it very hard to stay in that place of gratitude once they've been there for a while. Continue to count your blessings and keep a prayer on your lips no matter who you pray to, for it is a higher power that blessed you with the talent that has gotten you this far and that in itself it a gift.

9. Enjoy it all: All work and no play makes for a dull, dull, life. Enjoy the fruits of your labor. Don't allow all of the work to change you or rob you of your joy. Surround yourself with those people in the industry whose careers pattern the one that you have always envisioned yourself having. Energy breeds energy and like attracts like just remember to stay positive because though press is press, bad press can prove to be a huge blow to your career.

10. *Set Your GPS To Return Trip: Yes you have arrived, but you always want to go back to where you came from. You have been blessed and sharing a blessing with the community who supported you the most when you had nothing not only shows your appreciation but opens doors for you to receive even more abundance.

If you need assistance in any of the above areas, please feel free to contact me for a PR consultation. In the meantime in between time...

Peace, Love, Soul.... PR.

Chrisette Michele: Letting Freedom Reign

If you have not picked up Chrisette Michele's latest CD, "Let Freedom Reign" you can either do one of three things:

1. Run to your local music store to pick it up. (Or order it online and have it delivered.)

2. Let your fingers walk over to ITunes. (I provided the link to help you out.)

3. Slap yourself. (Because only fools would deprive themselves of this album.) 

"I Am" was hot! "Epiphany" was hotter!! "Let Freedom Reign" is FIRE!!!!!!

If you need to add to your personal soundtrack this is the album to get. I will guarantee that there is at least one song on this album that will be your new favorite (though I know that if you like GREAT music you will not want to skip a single track.)

I can appreciate an artist who does not bring watered down music for the sake of greater album promotion and support from their label. THANK YOU Chrisette for being SO REAL!!! 

El DeBarge: Second Chance

Will you all join me in giving El DeBarge a standing ovation?

I was excited when I heard that El was making a comeback but I must admit that I was sort of clutching my necklace at the thought of other chart toppers from the '80s who try making a comeback and get the recognition because of who they are but not what they are currently bringing to the radio waves. Don't get me wrong, I was very happy for him but I prayed that he wouldn't let any of his loyal fans down, I mean this IS the man who has brought us some of the best and most memorable music. I sat and patiently waited. Anxiously awaiting the finished masterpiece as I fell in love with "Lay With You" (featuring Faith Evans).

FINALLY the album was released and so were all of my worries... HOW DID HE DO IT? It was almost 30 years ago that El first came on the music scene and yet his voice sounds like it did when he first blessed us.

WOW!!!! How appropriately named is this album, "Second Chance"? After years of battling drug addiction and overcoming legal troubles he is living evidence that will power, determination, and prayer will get you anywhere you want to go.

GET THIS ALBUM!!! YOU WILL BE SOOOO HAPPY FOR IT!!!

Twitter Me This, Twitter Me That: How To Use Twitter To Build Your Brand

On Sunday, December 12 I was delighted to conduct a tele-seminar titled Twitter Me This, Twitter Me That: How to Use Twitter To Build Your Brand. This was a part of the power up series for the Fastgirls, Be The Expert Challenge. Below is the transcript from that call. Audio will be posted soon. 

Welcome! Thank you so much for joining the call.

Tonight we’re here to discuss how we can effectively use twitter to build our personal and business brands.

Remember the Wonder Twins and how they’d say: WONDER TWIN POWERS- ACTIVATE!?

Well by the end of this call I hop to have helped you activate some of your TWITTER Powers.

So- I’m sure we are all pretty familiar with twitter by now but what IS twitter?

Well, twitter is a social networking service which lets users to micro-blog in increments of 140 characters allowing information to be viewed first by that user’s followers but also viewable by others in the twitter galaxy.

It was launched in July of 2006 and since then has grown to a whopping 190 MILLION users with tweets averaging 65 million per day. 100 MILLION people signed up for twitter in 2010 alone which proves that people everywhere are being bitten by the twitter bug.

What this means is that if you use Twitter in the right way you can achieve maximum exposure and build your network in ways that even facebook cannot help you achieve.

So let’s get into the hows…

First understand that Twitter gives you not just an online presence but a voice and you want that voice to be heard as loudly as possible by as many people as possible.

Let’s compare starting a twitter account with attending a networking event. You’re approaching the door and you can hear the buzzing of several conversations all taking place at once. Right now no one knows that you’re there – so you need to make your presence known.

First you approach the registration table and you sign in. Then you will hand them your business card and put on your name tag…These are all aspects of setting up your Twitter Profile.

What should your profile include?

Well -for starters you need a photo of yourself.

The photo for your twitter page should be a little more relaxed and laid back than a photo you would use for your linked in account or as part of your bio on a corporate website. If the twitter page is for your company, you can use your logo. Remember that when choosing a personal picture you don’t want to choose something that’s TOO relaxed to the point that it takes your image into a whole other direction.

For example, a colleague of mine who is a publicist and has her own business has a habit of using twitter photos which you would be considered border line soft porn and then she complains when she only seems to get the freaky deaky clients who want to hire her and expect special bonuses on top of not wanting to pay her.

AS you can see your picture says a lot about who you are.

So…

After you’ve selected your photo you want to choose a username. This serves as your name tag… : Hello My Name is Ask me about… It can be your company name or a name that clearly helps others understand who you are be it your first and last name, your pen name, your industry name… Whatever it is that you want people to remember you by.

Next you want to include a very short bio of yourself. This can be a condensed version of your actual biography or just include something fun, creative, and to the point about who you are and what it is that you do. This bio is usually the deciding factor between someone choosing to follow you and not.

Lastly you want a nice background graphic for your profile page… Something simple and polished is better than over the top and gaudy. Twitter provides you with a few pre made backgrounds to choose from OR you can create your own. You may choose to use a larger version of your company’s logo but remember depending on the style of the logo a stretched version may look better than a tiled version. Sometimes a tiled version can be too busy.

You can also create a background which incorporates valuable information such as your email address, website, links to YOUR other social networking sites, and your phone number.

Oh- and a rule to remember when setting up your profile is that if you are using twitter for business DO NOT protect your tweets. That is a sure fire way to make people stay away from you.

In keeping with the networking event comparison think of it as someone walking around the room knowing that they have seriously offensive body odor and then wondering why no one wants to come close. (laugh)

Okay now you have walked into the event. Your business card periodically flashes on the big screen for others to view. You have on your name tag and you’re ready to make some connections. It’s time to work the room…

Lucky for you your business card is not the only one that is flashing across the big screen so you have an idea of which people are in attendance and who would be most beneficial to your network; whether they could possibly be future business partners, potential clients or customers… Use this information to your advantage.

So how do we work the Twitter room?

On your profile page you will find a link called Find People. Once you click this you’ll be asked, “Who are you looking for?” Use this to search for any and everyone within your industry that you have always admired or looked up to or can see yourself working with in the future. As you come across each person click to Follow them. Follow as many people as possible. The goal here is that you want to increase your own following. Usually about 2/3 of the people you follow will actually follow you back though that number will decrease if you choose to follow all celebrities (unless you are a celebrity yourself or they know you in some way).

I find that one of the best tools for finding people is Twellow. Twellow is the Twitter Yellow Pages. You can go there and carefully select people you wish to follow by industry or location. You can go through the list and follow people straight through the Twellow site.

Now that you are attracting followers and you’re following more people you want to do regular maintenance. Some experts believe in what is called the Rinse and Repeat cycle where every few days you delete those people who you are following but aren’t following you. I personally suggest that you only do this about once a month. Some people don’t check their twitter pages as often as others and so they may not realize that you are following them and other times people just are a little slower with getting around to following new people. Plus if you add and delete too many people within a short time frame, the system may flag you as a spammer.  So, once a month you should take inventory of your twitter following to see who you are following that isn’t following you back.

At this point it’s s up to you to decide which (if any) of these people you would like to stop following.

Also, people seem to be quicker to follow those twitter users who have a higher number under their “followers” category than they have under their “following” category.  I think they link it with being a celebrity and someone important.

A tool that you can use to take inventory of your followers is Friend Or Fellow (Friendorfellow.com). You can visit the site and enter your username, and it breaks down your following, your fans, and your friends.

Your following being those who you follow but aren’t following you back, your fans being those who follow you but whom you aren’t following back, and your friends; those are the people who you’re following and who are following you back.

Okay so let’s go back to this networking event… You’re walking around and approaching people. You’re being approached by people. How do you keep things interesting? How do you grasp their attention and REALLY make them want to learn more about you and your business so that you can build a mutually beneficial relationship?  It’s all in your tweet…

Your tweets serve as your conversation starters and as a means to keep the convo flowing. Every time that you post a new tweet you are breathing life into your image.

So if this is your company’s page you want to be sure to ONLY tweet about those things which apply to your company- Events; News; Website or blog updates, even information within your industry that you’d like to share. The idea is to get the message across that you are firmly grounded in the _________ industry. If this account if for a personal brand then you want to allow others to get to see you as the professional that you are while still allowing them to get to know you personally, afterall you’ll always be able to direct them to your business page and you never know where your next connection will come from. So, mix your business updates with personal information such as- which event you will be attending tonight, or a picture that you stumbled upon while you were out.

If this is for your personal brand though you want to remember to keep a balance between your professional self and your personal self. Meaning, don’t tweet a play by play of your blind date… Unless you are a relationship coach or love guru but (at the same time) don’t be afraid to throw in some humor and really show your personality.

It’s also very important to keep conversations flowing if you are trying to connect with someone through twitter so if you see a tweet and it’s interesting; reply to it or retweet it.

Often times you can also gain followers this way. If you go to your twitter homepage you’ll see a search box on the right hand side of the page. Type in a word  topic, or phrase and twitter will show you all of the tweets and conversations pertaining to your search. Browse through and reply or RT those people who you believe would be most beneficial to your network growth.

You want to tweet as much as possible to hold the interest of your followers so that they will RT what you’ve posted which gives you more exposure and will in turn bring you some of their followers.

Research shows that:

Thursday and Friday are the busiest days of the week on Twitter with a drastic slow down in tweets on weekends, picking back up at the start of the work week on Monday.

The highest percentage of retweets occurs on Fridays at 4pm. (Monday afternoons also have high retweet rates.)

Use tools such as SocialOomph.com to pre schedule your tweets so that you can always have a twitter presence even when you’re not physically available.

When you’re tweeting it’s a great idea to provide links to online news, blogs, and video. These are the tweets which seem to be retweeted the most. This is a great way to draw traffic to your blog or website. You can post an entire link but in keeping within the 140 character limit you may want to use a site such as tinyurl.com to shorten your website links before posting them.

The highest click through rate on tweeted links occurs between 2 and 3pm. (Followed by the 8-9pm time slot and the 5-6pm time slot.)

Keep in mind though that tweets that include links are far more likely to be retweeted than tweets without links BUT the more links you tweet, the less likely people are to click those links.

Some ways that you can get more RT’s as well as followers are by taking an interest in those who are following you. Whenever you get a new follower take the time to read through some of their tweets. If you like something then retweet it. Examine their profile and then send a direct message to thanking them for following you. In this message, mention something that pertains to what you read about them when you checked them out. This builds a quick connection and they will be more likely to support anything that you tweet. If you feel that this is someone who you would like to have in your network then reciprocate by following them back.

Set a goal for yourself. Say that you’re going to respond to x amount of tweets per day or and RT x amount tweets per day. Also take the time to visit the blogs and websites of those following you and post a link to anything that you find interesting.

Sometimes you DO lose followers. Do not be alarmed. A great way to keep track of those followers is  Qwitter. Qwitter emails you each time one of your followers leaves you and lets you know which of your tweets triggered it.

SUBTOOLS----

There are also certain sub tools within twitter than can be used to help you to build you brand.

These are hashtags, trending topics and twitter lists, twitter search.

Hashtags are simply topics that follow a pound sign to send out messages that pertain to a certain event or topic. This allows for ease in following a particular stream of information and in seeking out those people who are linked to these topics. For example if you were to go to twitter and perform a search for #fastgirls, every conversation and tweet which included this hashtag will come up and it gives you ease in finding either those people who are fastgirls or their supporters.

Check  hashtags.org to see if the hashtag you want is already in use and if it IS available, make sure you are following @hashtags, and send a message including the hashtag you wish to use. Be careful when starting to use a hashtag. Research it first to see if and how it has been used in the past because you wouldn’t want to start using something that would associate you with any negativity.

One of the most popular hashtags is #FF which stands for Follow Friday. Every Friday twitter users promote those followers or people who they find most interesting which results in an increase in their following.  #FF has proven to be a great way to network and get yourself noticed. It shows an appreciation for your followers as well as opens lines of communication. You can register a hashtag at hashtag.it.

Trending topics are those topics which are most talked about on twitter. It has been found that it takes about 2000 RT’s to make you a trending topic so you can either try to start a topic and ask other people to RT it or you can make yourself seen by riding the trending topic train. One way to do this is by going through the list of trending topics and relating it to your brand in a tweet. For example… #JustinBeiber is a topic that always seems to be trending. Someone who is a clothing designer may tweet something like: "My clothing line is so hot #JustinBeiber would pay me just to let him wear it. And then include a link to their website."

This is a great way to use trending topics to get yourself seen by an audience outside of those followers you currently have. 

Twitter Lists are a great way to help build your brand. You can start a list of your own, give it a name that reflects the group that you would like to be included in such as Power Women or Relationship Gurus and then add all of those people who you would like to build business relationships with. This is a great way to get you noticed and included amongst the greats. Also, follow lists that were created by other people. That way it shows them that you value their work and time and it leaves plenty of space for conversation between the two of you. When you attend an event, create a list for that event and as you meet people in person add them to your list on twitter- it will keep you in contact.

You can also create a list of satisfied customers or happy clients allowing potential clients to easily get information on your business.

Twitter Search can be extremely beneficial to use as a search engine. As a matter of fact, when I was seeking out contests for this challenge I searched on twitter and though I didn’t find a contest on there that would have applied to the challenge I DID find a contest in which 3 people would be selected to win free Raheem DeVaughn concert tickets and I entered a day before the concert and won. So it a wonderful tool because often times companies will post information on twitter that you may not find easily by using a search engine. It would also be in your best interest to do a search of your name to make sure there is nothing negative floating around about you. It is a great tool for damage control.

So now we have mixed and mingled, we’re making connections. We have received business cards and exchanged twitter names and now we’re about to leave the networking event feeling charged, and positive, and ready to take on the world.

So now what I would like for you all to do is un-mute yourselves. Go ahead… LOL And on the count of three I would like everyone to say “Twitter Powers: ACTIVATE!!!

Ready 1, 2, 3… TWITTER POWERS ACTIVATE!!!

You are now one step further to being a twitter branding expert.

R&B Hippie Neo-Soul Rock Star Takes Over NYC

On November 29,2010 I had the pleasure of attending one of THE most phenomenal concerts EVER! That's right, I'm talking about Raheem DeVaughn LIVE at BB Kings. Radio Rah took full control of the stage and had every lady in the audience in a trance as he swayed, swooned, and crooned, his way into the ears, minds, hearts and (if I may be so blunt) loins of them all. His performance included songs from his "Love and War Masterpeace" album as well as favorites from his previous albums. He even pulled out a few tricks from his bag, performing hit classics such as Marvin Gaye's, "Let's Get It On". Every note that escaped from this man's lips grew fingers and gently stroked the melodic fancies of everyone in the crowd. Women with lust filled eyes and sweat popping off of their brows stared at him with the most ravenous "jump off of this stage and you're all mine" looks as if they were mentally engaging in sessions of lovemaking with Mr. DeVaughn to his very own music while those men who attended solo stood by giving a head nod and skillfully plotted on which one of the 368 King's trance induced fans they were going to try to get their hands on that night.

Since pictures speak louder than words, here are a few for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

An Oldie But Goodie: YOU

Previously published in SDW Magazine

August 2006

FROM LONG LOVE TO NEW LOVE: The Journey Starts With YOU

By Aisha Nailah

Picture it. You’ve broken up with your boyfriend after he has cheated on you for what seems like the hundredth time. You didn’t want to do it because you believe that everyone deserves another chance. You’ve just spent the entire night on the telephone listening to your girlfriend tell you how good of a person you are and how you can have anyone in this world that you want to. You believe her. So why is it that it has been six months and you haven’t been on a single date yet?

Sometimes when we spend years with someone we become so conditioned to being “one of two” that we close ourselves off from the rest of the world not allowing anyone to notice us as just “one”. When we leave our relationships we are still stuck in the couple mentality. This is why it is important to give yourself time after a breakup; time to heal and time to learn about who you are. Though you may think that you are the same person that you were when first entering the relationship chances are there are small aspects of your life that have been slightly altered. Follow these tips to get yourself back on track to finding true love.

Understand Yourself- Look at your life. Are you the same person that you were a few years ago? It is okay to be different. As time goes on we grow and with that growth comes change. You used to like horror movies but recently you find that you only like romance. The club that you once liked to frequent has now been replaced by chi-chi lounges and bistros. Embrace and recognize the butterfly that you have blossomed into.

Love Yourself- Now that you have recognized the changes that have taken place within your soul, love them. Love every part of you. Step out of your clothes and look into the mirror. Look at your curves. Feel the softness of your body and love every bit of it. See those eyes? Have you ever noticed how exotically shaped they are? Your hair may not be long but it is of thickness that many would pay for. Look deep within yourself. Isn’t your heart simply beautiful? You have to learn to love yourself totally in order to be able to show that next special person how to. Once you completely love yourself, magically you will attract those who will do the same.

Pamper Yourself- Men really are attracted to women who exude a high self-esteem. If your esteem isn’t sky high then fake it. After faking it for a while you’ll realize that your head really is up and your shoulders are being held back without your having to try. Keep your hair and your nails done. Treat yourself to a pedicure. Stop by the local spa from time to time and get a massage. You are worth it. Too often we get caught in the hustle and bustle of our lives believing that there has to be a special occasion to allow ourselves the simple luxuries that surround us. If you cannot find the time in between leaving work and picking up the kids to go to the nail salon schedule a mini spa treatment for your next lunch hour. You’ll go back to work feeling refreshed and beautiful.

Take Care Of Yourself- While loving the shapes and silhouettes of our bodies we should get into the practice of exercise. Physical activity is not only a good stress reliever but it is great for our hearts and minds. Put on your cutest workout outfit and go for a brisk walk. As you walk, pay attention to how you breathe. Allow yourself to take in extra deep cleansing breaths. Visualize all of the tension, hurt, and mistakes of your past being blown out as you exhale. Say goodbye to the negativity of yesterday and leave it all behind as you continue walking towards your new goal of happiness and well being. Seek out new recipes for healthy and delicious foods. Explore the tastes of an exotic island. Instead of a Crème Brule opt for a frosty smoothie. Your energy levels will be endless.

Be Open To Love- Many times after a break-up we wallow in anger and hurt and build walls around us to prevent all of the Mr. Wrongs from coming our way. Unfortunately we also block the Mr. Rights. Once you have taken the time to reconnect with the person that you are, step out into society knowing that you are capable and good enough to attract all that is good. Carry yourself like the queen that you are and your king will find you. Remember that you will only attract that which you put out. If you give off an insecure vibe then you will attract those men who are looking to suck you dry and put you through the wringer. Show the world how much you love yourself and the world will love you in return.

Remember that YOU hold the key to your heart and happiness. YOU control your destiny and YOU are the only one who can set the example for how YOU want someone to love YOU.