Tag Archives: lena west

14 Technology Experts Worth Following On Twitter

by on December 13, 2011 in My Recommendations, Social Media, Technology

Technology is an even bigger factor in achieving small business goals than ever before.  But the explosion of information about so many aspects of technology makes it hard to form conclusions and make decisions about the right tech tools for your business, (especially, if you’re not a techie.) From social media to cloud systems or the best scheduling software there’s lots to choose from.  Here are 14 technology experts on Twitter worth your follow.

Pete Cashmore is founder of Mashable, “largest independent online news site dedicated to covering digital culture, social media and technology.” Mashable provides the latest headlines on those topics in bite-sized summaries with links you can follow for the full story.

Mario Armstrong is America’s TV Tech dude. He’s a Radio & TV Host, and Emmy winner. He is regularly featured on CNN, HLN, TODAY show! and SiriusXM Radio. He’s also a speaker, entrepreneur, and Founder of TechTechBoom! He  tweets about technolog,y small business & his busy life! http://marioarmstrong.com

Lisa Barone is well known for making her opinions plain, and for the work she’s done promoting brands as co-founder of Outspoken Media. She regularly writes for smallbiztrends.com on all things tech. She tweets around the clock about social media and internet marketing.

Ramon Ray is a journalist, technology evangelist & editor of Smallbiztechnology.com, author of “Technology Solutions for Growing Businesses” & “Technology Resources for Growing Businesses” and a national speaker.  Ramon brings his unique dose of humor, insight and “practical home advise” to thousands of small business owners on technology issues. advice to twitter daily. I love his tweets.

Jenna Wortham is a New York Times tech reporter with a huge Twitter following. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she tweets about tech trends, gadgets, and industry stories.

Lena West is CEO and Chief of Influence Expansion is an award-winning social media consultant, founder of the social media course Real Women Do Social Media. Lena is always straight-talking and bold, with a solid technical and practical background to back her up. She writes and tweets about how to use social media for your business needs.

TJ McCue writes for his blog Tech Biz Talk which provides reviews of web-based software (mostly), tips, tutorials, and how-to for the top applications to take your company and business to the next level.  He also writes tech reviews for Forbes, Open Forum, Smallbiztrends and Dun and Bradstreet’s AllBusiness.com

Cali Lewis Host of GeekBeat.TV, an online news show about technology gadgets and research. The show is downloaded millions of times each month by viewers from around the world.  She’s a Tech correspondent for CNN, FOX and Sirius 101′s GeekTime.  I think she’s one of the most effective users of Google+ I’ve ever seen.

Veronica Belmont is a San Francisco-based video host of @Tekzilla who made her start with CBS Interactive as an on-air talent and producer. She tweets about gadgets, gaming, video production to her 1 million-plus Twitter following, and blog readers.

Guy Kawasaki,is founder of AllTop, is a venture capitalist and among the best-known brands on Twitter. As the co-founder of AllTop (a collective of headlines of many topics, including tech) and Garage Technology Ventures, Guy is found tweeting about many of the newest gadgets and tech tools to be found online.

Maisha Walker is founder and president of Message Medium, a web design and internet strategy firm for businesses as large as AOL/Time Warner as well as small businesses and solopreneurs. She is known as “The Internet Strategist” at Inc. Magazine.  She tweets about her expertise on online business growth and strategy.

Christopher Penn is the Director of Strategy and Innovation at WhatCounts email marketing and co-founder of Chris Brogan’s PodCamp, co-host of Marketing over Coffee, and professor of Internet marketing at the University of San Francisco online. He tweets the five most interesting digital marketing tech news stories he can find every day. His current outlook on the tech and marketing, reviews and interviews with other tech and marketing experts, and more appear at his own blog.

Stanford Smith of Pushing Social is one of the top social media bloggers on Twitter, with constant updates on what works and what doesn’t on WordPress, Twitter and other social media platforms. The Michigan-based VP of Marketing at Fluency Media always has the apps, tools, and gadgets to make social media more productive for your needs.

Adria Richards of But You’re A Girl is a San Francisco-based organic technology consultant and speaker about various tech fields. She helps businesses and other organizations increase productivity and profit from tech tools in daily business operations. She tweets about technology, business, news, and more.

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small businessMelinda Emerson "SmallBizLady" experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine named her #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also bestseller author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works.

 

 

 

 

 

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How to Stop Wasting Time With Your Social Media

by on September 24, 2009 in SmallBizChat, Social Media, Women in Business

Each week as Smallbizlady, I conduct interviews with small business experts on my weekly Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. This is excerpted from my #SmallBizChat interview @Lenawest, Lena is a social media locksmith who helps dynamic women business owners untangle “social media spaghetti.” She makes social media easy-to-use, manageable and worthwhile. She also a columnist and blogger for Entrepreneur Magazine and Fast Company. For more information her website http://www.xynoMedia.com

Smallbizlady: Why does social media become such a black hole of time for so many people?

Lena West: Because for the most part, it’s easy to use. Notice I didn’t say easy to use effectively, I said, easy to use. And, the tools are mostly intuitive. Click here, type that, etc. And, people mistakenly equate easy-to-use with knowing what and why to do something and then it’s all downhill from there. It’s hour after hour of trying to get it right — to no avail.

Smallbizlady: Why is the source of where business owners get their social media information so critical to success with social media?

Lena West: Because everyone has an agenda. And, I don’t mean that in a bad way. I have an agenda, too. I am passionate about helping women CEO’s. So every word out of my mouth is going to be in favor of them and my agenda is to help them remove the “craziness” from social media and start using it as a marketing tool that gets results.  So, women CEO’s need to know where they’re getting their information. Is it from someone who’s just learning what it means to be a business owner or is it from a 12-year business veteran like myself?Understand to whom you’re listening and make sure you’re on their agenda. 

Smallbizlady: You talk a lot about people tapping into a “why” when they are using social media to market their businesses, how does that help them save time? 

Lena West: Once you figure out what your company needs to get from the blogosphere, you can figure out how and what to contribute. It’s like being in a relationship with a guy. You can’t figure out what you want from him until you figure out where you’re going in life overall. Otherwise you’re just hanging around watching each other breathe and there’s no way that’s productive.

Smallbizlady: Social media has its own vocabulary, is it important for entrepreneurs to understand the lingo – even minimally?

Lena West: Absolutely, it is. Anyone who knows me knows that I do NOT believe women CEO’s should spend all their time thinking about and learning social media “stuff”. But, just like you need to know how to read a profit and loss statment without being a CPA and sniff out a crappy contract without being a lawyer — you need to understand the basics of social media. And, if you don’t know, ASK. Educate yourself so people can’t give you the ear hustle about social media, even if they try.

Smallbizlady: How can business owners resist the urge to join everything and accept everybody?

Lena West:  They can treat it like they do everything else — have rules. Whether we know it or want to admit it or not, we all have rules. Rules for how we allow people to speak to us. Rules for how we allow people to treat us. Same deal with social media and social networking. You need to have rules. I get invites to join other social networks all the time, but I ignore them. I know where my market is and that’s what I care about. What do I care if my friends are on some other social network? My market’s on Facebook and so that’s where I put my energy. It’s OK to delete and ignore requests that don’t meet your business needs.  

Smallbizlady: What’s the quickest, most effective way for CEOs to evaluate social media consultants?

Lena West:  I’ve met so many “so called” social media consultants. They have glossy websites and you have a conversation with them and they’re managing PPC campaigns or running website stats. Those are all honorable jobs, but if you’re a social media consultant, don’t you think you should be working with social media tools? The bottom line is this: unless someone makes the lion’s share of their livelihood providing social media services to clients, they’re a hobbyist. If they’re not writing and PAID to speak about social media topics, they’re a hobbyist. Again, know your information sources!

Smallbizlady: How can we make sure that we’re being effective with our social media work – what metrics should we measure, etc?

Lena West: This greatly depends on the business owner’s goal. If you are using social media to learn more about your market, then you should be measuring how your products and services are resonating with your market (one way to do this by asking and keeping track of the answers you get). If you’re measuring blog post comments or some other metric, you’re not connecting the metric back to your original goal.

Smallbizlady: Many business owners now have less staff and thus less time for marketing, What is your Social Media Auto Pilot Program?

Lena West: This is a program that I’m really proud of. Women Business Owners love it. They get to work with me to figure out the big picture and then our team of VA’s execute the day-to-day details. Many of our clients don’t have the time, interest or inclination to get deeply involved with social media and so based on a proprietary process we’ve developed we do everything for them yet 100% of the content comes from THEM, not us. Clients love it. You can read more about it here: http://ow.ly/pSjU

Smallbizlady: What do you think is next for social media?

Lena West: What’s immediately next is more adoption and understanding — and WAY more women CEO’s releasing the fear and confusion energy surrounding social media, getting the expert help they need and stepping up to claim what was ALWAYS ours — word of mouth.

Smallbizlady: How should people approach social media?

Lena West: I place a HUGE amount of importance on personal responsibility. I believe that you should do what you say and mean what you say. I’m not perfect, but I strive for excellence. And, I believe that social media, by virtue of the medium, is making more people accountable. If you’re not who you say you are in this day and age, you’re in for it. I LOVE LOVE that!

If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9pm ET follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter. 

How to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/S797e

For more tips on starting or growing your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog at www.succeedasyourownboss.com

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