I’ve been thinking a lot about what I got out of this year (a failed franchise, husband working 2000 miles away) and what I want out of next year (money, less stress, etc.). I always try to be thankful for what I do have (health, family, general happiness, a Wii and now an XBox) rather than focus on the negativity, although as we all know, that is often hard.

A while back, I posted my interview with Steve Yastrow, author of We: The Ideal Customer Relationship and Brand Harmony. I just finished We and wanted to share my thoughts.

I hope you’re  having a great Christmas (yea, so why are you reading my blog right now??)! I know I am.

If you’ve paid attention, you’ve noticed I’ve gotten really into social media marketing lately. It just gets me really egg-cited! Today I wanted to share with you why I think Facebook is all of that and a plate of sushi.

I often talk about what to do when it comes to marketing. Here I thought I’d tell you what not to do!

Jim Kukral, of Your Pitch Sucks and Biz Web Coach, will be interviewing me on my tips for writing great press releases. You know how much I love press releases, so I’m egg-cited to share what I know with you!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcfvpxE9DLc[/youtube]
Here is my original post about the shirt.

Twitter is like instant messaging on crack. You can have multiple conversations going on with as many people as you like. Why should you care? More business owners are finding it a useful tool to network and develop new contacts.

I know for many of you, networking is solely offline. You attend your local BNI or Chamber meeting, rub elbows and trade cards.

But for me, and a growing number of entrepreneurs, our networking is done online. We become “friends” on Facebook. We swap stories and links on Twitter. It gets to a point where many of us have never spoken on the phone, but know each other pretty well.

So Wendy Piersall and I are strolling through an outlet mall in Orlando last week, and the mall sharks were circling. You know, the people who stand at the kiosks in the middle of the mall that squirt you with perfume, take your picture, massage your head or otherwise molest you in the vain hope that you will buy their product?

“Look away, Wendy, look away. Do NOT make eye contact,” I hissed.