UberTwitter and other Twitter Applications

Last night I had forearms like Popeye and it wasn’t because I was yelling, “Oh my God, here I come,” either (giggle) but it was equally exciting….I was tweeting!

People have been asking me to set up their social networking tools for them and want to know how I’ve managed to become #3 in Chicago on TwitterHolic.com, in the top 100 in the Midwest (#97 and climbing) on TwitterCounter and in the Twitter Elite of Chicago (#13) on TwitterGrader.

All that may be impressive but really I have no idea how I got there. So when people started asking me to set up their social media for their corporations or small businesses I decided I best figure out how to explain what “I do” when I do it. I just get up and do it without any plan, thoughts or guidance.

Peter Francis at TwitterPowerSystems sent me a packet of Twitter Tools they developed for Twitter that they wanted me to check out. Well I looked at the first few pages and was like, “How is this going to benefit me?” and set it aside. I’ve had a change of heart since I’ve agreed to help set up social media accounts and I’ve gone back to this tool kit and am reading through it slowly. Doing it everyday for yourself and trying to explain it to others are worlds apart. People ask me how I do it and I go blank. I am clueless. I JUST DO IT!

Most of it I know and do on a daily basis without thinking about it but a lot of it is very useful. Like yesterday I installed my first application ever for twitter. I am now using UberTwitter for my black berry to enhance my tweeting experience from my cell phone. Wow! I am elated by this application. I am now a true twitter addict. Last night I was tweeting from my black berry while lying in bed, in the dark, on my back, arms in the air and typing away at 1am and loving it! The whole reason why my forearms started screaming and my fingers knotting up.

Carpal tunnel from tweeting. Do you think the insurance companies will cover that?

The first BB application I tried yesterday was Twibble but it didn’t have all the features I wanted–like being able to take a picture and share it on twitter like you can with your Facebook BB application. Or that I could read just my @FredaMooncotch reply’s.–after about 10 minutes of frustration I thought there had to be a better application and went to my twitter family and asked my fellow tweeps what they recommended. Everyone seemed to really like UberTwitter. I downloaded it right on my phone, rebooted and just like that I had full tweeting capabilities and then some!***

Some other applications that I am learning about are the Twitter Directories. Get your twitter account listed in the 2 Twitter Directories. It is simple and pretty straight forward. They are: JustTweetIt and Twellow

I would also like to make a suggestion: add your twitter handle or the entire twitter link to your profile at the end of your posts and on your profile page anywhere you have a blog so people can readily click on it and follow you! Take out any extra steps.

As I learn more I will continue to share!

***NOTE: Make sure if you use UberTwitter on your BB to disable the GPS in the set up menu or people will be able to track the exact location where you are tweeting from. In my mind that is just plain stupid.

Building Rapport with your Children

I’ve been  listening to Dr. Pransky’s Common Sense Parenting Cd’s over the past week. Each time I read a new chapter and listen to a CD, I am humbled to how much I didn’t and don’t know.

I am thankful to have crossed paths with George and to have had the privilege to get to know him personally. When someone touches your life in such profound ways you can’t help but to be full of gratitude.

If I could share just one idea with you that I’ve embraced from George Pransky cd’s, it would be the idea of building good will and rapport with your children and people in general. I will attempt to put into my own words what I internalized from George.

If you treat your children like second class citizens, talk down to them, argue with them, enter into battle with them, if you are more concerned about having control or being right or wield your parental power instead of talking with them and enthusiastically trying to understand where they are coming from, you keep them from learning their own lessons under your guidance and you slowly remove all rapport and good will they have towards you. You put a huge wall in between you and your kids. This results in the sad fact that as a parent you lose the ability to influence and talk to your kids. Worse, you set them up for rebellion and tug of war relationship that will last far beyond their teens.

You don’t have to be a good communicator to communicate love and enjoyment of your kids. You don’t have to know the right words to say as long as you get it across in good feelings to your kids how much you enjoy them and love them. You remain calm with them and instead of reacting you respond to them out of love. You admit when you’ve lost it, you humbly take responsibility for your crazy thoughts and fearful beliefs and allow yourself to be influenced by your kids ideas and thoughts. Doesn’t mean you will always agree with them but you can have a conversation and still leave the table with good rapport even though you don’t agree. Trust me this works.

The more good will you have with your kids, the more rapport and credibility you will have with them the less they will want to rebel and the more they will reach out to you for guidance and leadership. You also set them up to be stable, secure, happy people for the rest of their lives.

What a gift.

The more you stop and realize your kids aren’t deliberately trying to piss you off or do things to aggravate you the more you will recognize that you need to give more instruction and guidance or teach more because they are missing something you see and they don’t get it. It is all in your approach and how you talk to them, how you see them.

You can be firm but still exude tenderness and love towards them. When we stop assuming our children know what we want of them and we realize how innocent they are the more we will recognize that we need to slow down, calm down and have far more patience with ourselves and our kids.

And what is even more fascinating is that this applies to our spouses, partners, parents, siblings and people in general.

Dr. Pransky leaves every one of his clients with this suggestion: every conversation they have with another person should end with feelings of good will. Even if you disagree, you agree to disagree but never allow someone to walk away from us feeling bad or worse off after having a conversation with us. Why? Because we lose rapport with people. We lose the opportunity to lift someones spirits and send them away feeling good.

I love these little golden gems of wisdom. I can’t even begin to tell you how applicable and true they are in my life as I have embraced them and try to live by them.

10 Intriguing Women on Twitter (You Need to Follow)

Amongst some other very fabulous women, like Arianna Huffington, I was listed as one of The 10 Intriguing Women on Twitter (You Need to Follow) by 2morrowKnight’s Awesome Blog! You can follow him on twitter @2morrowknight.

He was a volunteer internet strategist for The Obama Presidential Campaign.

Thanks! I am honored!

45 Pros You Should Be Following on Twitter

I am very excited to share that I was included on the 45Pros You Should Be Following on Twitter list! I am #10! Blogtrepreneur.com

Adam from Blogtrepreneur.com was awesome enough to include me on this list! THANKS Adam and Matthew!

Be sure to check out Blogtrepreneur.com – “For entrepreneurs that demand excellence in business,” and
YoungEntrepreneur.com – “Inspiring Millions”. You can follow them on Twitter at http://twitter.com/blogtrepreneur

Follow us on twitter at:
http://www.twitter.com/FredaMooncotch

Ride, Ride Motorcycle Ride

I did it! I took and successfully passed the written portion of my motorcycle licensing. I am officially a permitted motorcyclist woman! I am now signing up for a class either through Harley Davidson or RideChicago.com motorcycle schools. I am thrilled! Woo Hoo! Soon I will be a part of a group riding club, traveling the world on my motorcycle!  Gotta love life! The more I let go, the more open I am to adventure and taking life one moment, one day at a time!

Nice to “Tweet” You! Twitter.com – Freda Is #3 in Chicago’s Twitter Elite!

Twitter.com: what is all the hype? Well, let me tell you: Twitter is a social networking site that started out asking the simple question: What are you doing? To which the tweep or user responds in 140 characters or less. Stupid, right? Well, Twitter is now second to Facebook in its viral marketing power. So powerful that Dell made over $1million in sales through Twitter during the 2008 holiday season.

I started Twitter account a little over six months ago, not really realizing just how powerful this Twitterville would become. After seeing some of my friends with followers in the 60,000 to 200,000 range, I started getting serious. In a little over a month I went from 700 followers to 7,324–and it’s growing. Much to my surprise, today I discovered that according to TwitterGrader.com I have arrived at Twitter heaven in style and made it into Chicago’s Elite, landing at #3!

Twitter doesn’t have a businesses model, yet just after a little over three years has received approximately $35 million in VC money, while at the same time rejecting Facebook’s takeover offer of $500 million, deciding they will figure out how to generate revenue…and they are doing just that (see: Twitter To Start Charging Companies For Having An Account?)

What is exciting about Twitter is that it is a user-generated, micro-sharing site that truly is run by the community. Even though twitter asks the question: What are you doing?…the members determine how they will respond and they may choose or not choose to answer that question in the way that it was originally intended. It is the fastest information sharing site on the web with instantaneous results. The conversations move rapidly–one must stay on one’s toes; it is addicting and a full-time job–and has the potential to go global in virtually seconds according to the message and the authority of the tweep who is sending the message.

People connect on Twitter by sharing information: from business, to career, to fashion, to product reviews, to networking, to personal information…people are baring it all. It truly is a powerhouse and will only grow stronger as more people recognize the organic and viral power in this social networking tool. In addition, businesses like Dell, Starbucks, and more recognize the value in Twitter and how they can get their message to the world in record time by getting in on the conversations and engaging their target market.

Twitter gives many businesses, small and large, the opportunity to communicate to their audience, testing new products, getting feedback and putting a face to their brand. Consumers want to talk to corporate America and share their opinions and thoughts. Corporate America will no longer be able to do business without utilizing this tool!

Don’t be mistaken, though: Twitter is a two-way conversation. Although it seems very narcissistic and one-sided…if you don’t respond to your audience and you take them for granted…they will abandon you. You must appeal to your audience!

See also: Why Facebook Isn’t Poised to Steal Twitter’s Thunder

So let me ask you….why the hell aren’t you tweeting?

Follow me: www.twitter.com/fredamooncotch

Never Enough

The other day I met with my dear friend Chip. We were chatting away about life, family, love…all those things that matter in life and Chip remembered a story/poster he had read while eating at a Jimmy John’s called Never Enough that really left such an impression on him that he wanted to share it with me. I went to Jimmy John’s and sure enough I read it too. Great story. I will do my best to try and tell the story as I remember it.

The story is about a Hawaiian man who own a fishing business where every day he spends each morning fishing, returns home about noon with his catch, sells it then goes home to spend the rest of the time with his wife and kids playing at the beach or whatever. He was very successful and was also very committed to his family and happy!

Well a business guy from New York happened to be vacationing with his family in Hawaii and took notice of this guy and realized he could really make this guys business explode. He pulls him aside and says, “Wow, you’ve really got a great thing going here. Do you know how much money I could make you if you were to expand your business, buy bigger boats, more boats and set you up in every port? Your business would explode and you would be a millionaire.

The NY business guy asks the Hawaiian guy if he wanted to be rich and he replys, “Yeah, I guess.” The NY guy asked the Hawaiian guy, “What would you do if you had all that money?” The Hawaiian guy said, “Well I would have to do something with purpose, so I would probably fish all morning and after selling the fish go home to spend time with my wife, play with my kids and well pretty much what I am doing right now.”

Moral of the story: Why work so much harder for what you already have right in front of you? The Hawaiian guy got what so many of us forget, he had a great life and didn’t need MORE of anything in order to live the happy life he was already living.

I thought that was such a great story. It is true on so many levels and a great reminder to all of us. Most of us have every ingredient we need to live the fulfilling, satisfying lives we dream of living right now instead of in the far distant future!