Bev had a perfectly good Twitter background that she had been using for a little over a year, but when she updated her logo she decided it was time for something new — not totally different, just something fresher – featuring her new logo.

Here’s what we came up with:

Go on… admit it… you’re completely fried aren’t you?

You’re spending hours and hours fiddling with your Facebook page, updating Twitter, racking your brain for something to talk about in your newsletter.  You spent 3 hours yesterday finding contacts in LinkedIn, and inviting them to join your network.

What line of business are you in again?

It’s so easy to get wrapped up in all the ins and outs of social media!  Don’t be overwhelmed!
I’ve created a free teleseminar where I’ll give you 7 simple steps to social media zen.  [Register below.]

We’ll discuss:

Step One:  Defining your message.

Step Two:  Setting Goals

Step Three:  Defining Targets

Step Four:  Defining Target Benefits

Step Five:  Picking a Platform

Step Six:  Scheduling

Step Seven: Automation

… and as a bonus, I will also give you three quick tasks you can hand off to your virtual assistant today, to minimize your social media stress.

A recording will be provided to all registrants, just sign up below to join us live or watch the recording:

7 Steps to Beating Social Media Meltdowns
Wed September 15
3pm ET, 2pm CT, 1pm MT, 12pm PT

Haha, well not quite a movie, but this is the video they used in their announcement… It was designed to evoke an emotional response and it worked on me. I am such a sucker for these things! Please also enjoy the “rad” South African accent… LOVE it!

On Wednesday Facebook announced a new feature called Places and I am super excited about it! 

You may know that I am not a native American.  I was born in South Africa and have family and friends living all over the world.  We’re a bunch with serious wanderlust and I think it could be super cool to check into a site in a  foreign country and be able to view pics taken by my friends there, and find out what they thought of the location, what they ate at that quaint little cafe in Paris, which boat tour they used in Aruba that they were raving about.  This system will make for a global shared experience and I think it’s going to be incredible!  Of course the roll out will start with the USA at first, but I am hoping that it won’t be long before the whole world has the ability to use Places.

Some of the great features that stood out for me:

-  Reading friend’s comments saved from their last visit to the location

- Ability to check in with friends and create a “story”

- Tagging photos taken at the location and saving them in the location history.  These will later be shared with friends who check in there at a later date.

Of course there are the usual security questions… and I am sure we’ll be hearing loads of chatter from concerned users over the coming weeks.  But I wanted to get out ahead of all that and say that if this is used properly, it has the potential to be so much fun for my inner sociologist and long-lost-friend.  Facebook, I [Like]!

If you’ve been following this story you’ll know that many people were concerned that Places would take over from Gowalla and Foursquare you’ll be pleased to know that it was made clear that they are partnering with these two established check-in services to enhance the Facebook check-in experience.

I recently took an inspired walk through Inc Magazine’s 2010 List of the Top 30 Entrepreneurs under the age of 30 and it got me thinking…

Many of the bright young things I have followed and admired have little to no “real world” business experience. Very few have wasted years trapped in the cube before making their great escape. In all cases these young entrepreneurs show a seemingly endless list of new ideas for marketing, product development and business management.

What I have wondered is… are these wunderkinds just naturally talented people who would have been super successful even if they had made the leap much later on in life. Or, are they so successful because they are unhindered by a restrictive, numbing experience in a corporate box?

Have your say!  I’d love to know what you think…

Do you remember back when Amazon.com had reasonable shipping rates, and everything you ordered came in one box?  Wasn’t that just THE BEST?

I was just about to place an order for 3 small items — Total was $20.  I clicked my way through all the upsells and promotions, and finally got to the check out page I was shocked to see that they wanted $23 in shipping.  Yep.  Shipping was going to cost more than the products I was buying.

Now don’t get me wrong… I completely understand that to stock just about everything a person could want, you need to have several warehouses and multiple contractors.  I realize that it’s a very complicated system that runs like a well oiled machine… still, part of me longs for the days when shipping could cost less than the products we’d order, and everything arrived in one tidy box…

So often we are asked by our clients for assistance with book projects.  Clients want to self-publish but have no idea where to start.  The following article taken from Mashable.com and written by Scott Steinberg is an incredible resource list for aspiring writers and anyone who wishes to “publish” just about anything online.

Starting your own fashion label; becoming a high-flying media mogul; publishing the next great novel — everyone’s got their own vision of the “American Dream.” Today, courtesy of countless online self-publishing services, taking the first big steps toward these goals is easier than ever.

Anyone can take advantage of custom design, order fulfillment, payment processing and worldwide shipping solutions to start their own record label or launch tomorrow’s most addictive software app. Even better still, most options are generally affordable enough (ranging anywhere from $10 to $1,000 and up), that you don’t have to sell a kidney or beg friends and family for cash to fund the enterprise.

Assuming you’re the hands-on type, don’t mind a little micromanaging, possess a knack for self-promotion and (better yet) have a friend who’s a graphic designer, there’s nothing more satisfying than building your own business and enjoying complete and total creative freedom. The following sites and services can turn you from idle dreamer to entrepreneur overnight.

Artwork, Clothing and Collectibles

The globe’s largest online art fair Etsy makes it possible to send handcrafted goods including pottery, furniture, jewelry, knitting and purses to millions of fans of fine Bohemian wares. Set up a stall there and you can sell virtually any crazy item, from Twilight-themed pet collars to necklaces adorned with Gary Coleman’s likeness.

Fancy yourself a fashion plate instead? Try CafePress, where you can build your own online clothing boutique and stock it with custom baseball caps, hoodies, boxers and baby clothes. Spreadshirt also lets you upload t-shirt designs and build personalized aprons, messenger bags and other goodies, while PrintMojo provides the tools to make and sell your own wearable slogans.

Should your tastes range more towards stickers and souvenirs, Zazzle makes for a worthwhile pit stop too. Hit the site to design individualized mugs, magnets, greeting cards, mouse pads, binders and beer steins. PrintableMemories further makes it possible to put one’s own stamp on pillows, photo tins, jewelry bottles and other assorted objects.

Aspiring photographers might also turn to Snapfish, Shutterfly and Picaboo to produce coffee table-ready collections of their work. Images can also be appended onto stationary, address labels, coffee mugs, serving trays or anything else that can benefit from a candid close-up of your pet Pomeranian.

Books and Magazines

Lulu and Blurb are handy services you can use to produce paperbacks or hardbacks, as well as yearbooks, cookbooks, CDs, DVDs, calendars and other keepsakes that look as good as their professionally-produced counterparts. Granted, if you’re not technically inclined, some outside graphic and visual layout assistance may be needed. While I’ve used the service successfully, others have complained of mixed results.

Lulu can also be used as a platform to secure distribution with vendors like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. This is also the case with iUniverse and a multitude of other vendors including Wordclay, Xlibris, BookSurge and AuthorHouse. As with any item, you’ll pay significantly more on short runs, but volume discounts are awarded based on larger orders.

Food and Drink

To share dad’s secret chili recipe or grandma’s sponge cake with the world, you might try Foodzie or Foodoro. The former makes it possible to market and sell a wide assortment of nuts, candies, meats, tea, coffee and other foodstuffs directly to legions of online gourmands. The latter lets you do so as well, but takes a more gourmet stance with its inventory, making it better suited to those selling specialty or high-end foods. Either way, this pair of sites offers a great way to get a taste of what running your own bakery or catering company is like.

Music and Video

Creating your own podcast or digital audio recording ready for Internet distribution is easy enough to accomplish with a $10 headset and free recording software such as Audacity. Other tools like REAPER, ProTools and GarageBand can also help rock star hopefuls.

Once recorded, talk programming or musical performances can then be syndicated onto Apple’s iTunes, Microsoft’s Zune or through your own site to help find an audience. Afterward, TuneCore and CDBaby can help you get tracks out over the airwaves via eMusic, Amazon MP3, Rhapsody and others. Music licensing company Rumblefish can also help you get your music placed in films, television shows and other outlets. Video game lovers can also submit tunes to the popular music game Rock Band via the Rock Band Network.

For those with cinematic aspirations, new low-cost, high-definition video cameras make it easier than ever to get started. Models like the Bloggie, Flip and Vado (all under $200) can help, but I personally recommend the Kodak Zi8, which offers external microphone support, allowing for superior audio. A webcam ($20-50) can also provide a ready way to record the next viral video sensation.

Once clips are recorded and edited, just upload to YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, Metacafe or other online aggregators for sharing and embedding, or you can simply distribute them on your own site. Live streaming services such as Justin.tv, BlogTV, uStream.tv and Stickam also let you become a talk show host in no time flat.

Software and Video Games

While there’s no simple way to create software for PCs, smartphones and video game systems, you don’t have to be a computer science major to self-publish.

To create programs for Android devices or the iPhone (the latter of which costs $99 for the developer’s toolkit), you can seek help from outside contractors at sites like oDesk or Guru.com. Other options like iPhoneAppQuotes, iPhoneAppCoder and Get Apps Done also promise to put you in touch with capable coders and artists. Be forewarned: Any outsourced project requires stringent management and oversight, and no sites guarantee quality of output or any return on investment.

Entrepreneurs hoping to make their mark on the gaming scene can further try Microsoft’s XNA Creators Club, which lets you design for Xbox 360, PC, Windows Phone 7 or Zune. Software suites like Torque Game Engine, The 3D Gamemaker and Adventure Game Studio also offer an outlet for custom productions, as does PlayFirst’s free Playground SDK. But once again, if you’re short on software coding or 3D animation skills, you’ll need help from outside sources.

Conclusion

Scott Steinberg is the CEO of high-tech consulting firm TechSavvy Global, and a frequent tech analyst for ABC, CBS and CNN. He’s covered the field for 400+ outlets from NPR to Rolling Stone. His latest self-published venture is the online video series and magazine Game Theory.

Mashable.com has compiled a great article about some of the popular blogging platforms.  Super interesting if you’re a blog geek like me.

Saving dozens of e-mail file attachments to your computer just became a hell of a lot easier.

Google has added a new feature to Gmail: the ability to save file attachments by simply dragging-and-dropping them onto the desktop. If you hover over the file icon or the “Download” link for any attachment, you’ll notice the new text prompting you to drag the file to your desktop to save.

We just tried out the new feature, and we have to tell you: It’s really as simple as it sounds. There is one caveat to saving file attachments via drag-and-drop, though: The feature is only available in Google Chrome.

Google has been adding more drag-and-drop functionality to Gmail in recent months. Back in April, Google launched the ability to add attachments to e-mails via drag-and-drop. In May, Google gave Gmail users the ability to add images to e-mails via drag-an-drop.

Source:  Mashable.com