Are you looking to up your involvement in social activities this year? If you are asking yourself “what should I blog about today?” then here are some of my top tips to help you get going in 2010. This will give you a head start on potential blog topics for your small business blog.

Focus on your Business/Industry

1. Create a list of the best industry resources
2. Attend industry events and blog about them
3. Your best marketing tips
4. How your industry is like Your Favorite TV Show [I like competitive shows like Top Chef.]
5. People in your industry you want to meet
6. Comment on an industry-related conversation going on in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google Groups
7. Give a solution to a industry issue or problem
8. Interview someone well-known that your readers would care about and profile them
9. Publish a presentation, article, seminar, meetup, etc. that you gave
10. Have a chat with a competitor and blog about it (make sure to get permission)
11. Create a list of the 10 books you recommend reading.

Start Talking With & Building Relationships Online

1. How you’re using Facebook, Twitter & other social media to increase earnings
2. Post a video or picture that you think people would enjoy.
3. Share the who’s HOT in social media and the tools they are using
4. Hold a contest and have people compete against each other
5. Create a poll. (Use SurveyMonkey) Blog the result.
6. Invite a guest blogger to post on your blog
7. Search Delicious for popular posts on your topics and switch it around to mean something new.
8. Post photos from your company party, event, seminars, workshops
9. Create a list of the Must Follow Twitter people in your industry

About You & Your Business

1. What is your niche is.
2. A video tutorial showing your product or service in action
3. The problems you or your team hears about most
4. The answer to the most common questions you get
5. Look at your site blog posts and answer customer questions
6. Give 10 reasons to sign up to your email newsletter/free report
7. What you’re doing to adapt to the new economy
8. Share a case study or testimonial
9. Share something that was not working in your business and how you changed it
10. 25 reasons why someone should hire you

Talk About Your Raving Fans

1. Talk about those who comment most on your blog
2. Give praise your best customers
3. Post a question and let the community to answer it
4. How customers can get secret giveaways you offer
5. Feature a video detailing a customer’s success with your product or service
6. Publish a customer testimonial
7. Hold an event for Twitter followers to meet and blog it
8. Explain the benefits of being a customer
9. Share local organizations you support and ask customers to share their favorites
10. How customers can connect with you on social media

Open Up & Let People Get To Know You

1. Tell what you have read lately that inspired you or that you did not agree with
2. Introduce yourself or your team
3. Share your greatest successes in your business
4. Your biggest challenges as a business owner
5. What you love and are passionate about in business
6. The perils of doing everything by yourself
7. Who has helped and mentored you in business
8. How to remain effective working at home
9. Describe your company culture, what is it like working with or around you
10. Share your or your company’s story

These are just a few things to talk about. Have fun, be passionate, be yourself!

What Are Your Favorite Blogging Ideas?

For more ideas to Grow Your Business Using Uncommon Strategies go to www.intellimodus.com

This week on Facebook I asked “Who should I follow on Twitter” and surprisingly only a few people responded, one in which is an amazing photographer that you may want to follow twitter.com/@steffoush By asking for who should I follow I was opening up opportunities for businesses to connect with me and my large network. I have many biz owners say “What can Twitter do for me?” so I’m laying it all out right here…

Build Credibility
1. Share your opinion and expertise
2. Pass on interesting links/posts
3. Strengthen relationships with client, competitors and jv partners
4. Tweet often to keep your brand on top of your customer’s mind
5. Share quality content that addresses your clients needs, frustrations, fears & dreams
6. Promote friends and colleagues
7. Promote upcoming events

Market Your Business
1. Talk about your company believes in and is committed to
2. Offer special offers to customers who find you via social media
3. Talk about what you’re doing, who you are, and what you do
4. Direct people to your blog/website
5. Find & Give referrals
6. Hold contests and give aways
7. Promote your latest blog posts and newsletters
8. Tweet when you see or do something cool or funny

Listen To What’s Being Said
1. See what others are saying about you (use TweetDeck.com)
2. Listen to what’s being said about your industry
3. Conduct Twitter polls to quiz consumer opinion
4. Learn about what’s working/not working & next for your competitors
5. Find your competitors clients (Read: Sun Tsu’s Art of War, i.e. do not neglect the use of intelligence.)
6. Identify Twitter trends or hot topics related to your industry
7. Ask people for their opinions. Listen to them

Expand Your Network
1. Build relationships instead of selling
2. Use Twellow, We Follow to find clients & people with common interests
3. Meet POI’s (People Of Influence) and talk to them
4. Connect your Twitter account to your website, Facebook, LinkedIn and other medias you use.
5. Give and receive testimonials on Follow Friday and connect with new people
6. Use services like bit.ly to see how people are interacting with your content

Build Your Offline Network
1. Hold/Attend meetups/tweetups and meet your online network offline
2. Use TweetDeck to track when potential customers mention a competitor…and then reach out to them
3. Find new employees
4. Ask Twitter followers to leave testimonials on your site
5. Tweet about products and services on Twitter before offering to general public
6. Create special events around holidays for your Twitter followers

Meet People, Celebrate Life & Have Fun
1. Share content that you enjoy
2. Get inspired and motivated by others
3. Learn new things
4. Make friendships, not just professional relationships
5. Be part of a community (your industry or personal)
6. Find new ideas for your business or just for fun

What are your Twitter tips or advise?

Ps: You can connect with me on Twiter at twitter.com/mickeyobrien

Or to Grow Your Business Using Uncommon Strategies go to www.intellimodus.com

On Saturday February 20th I’ll be speaking at Successful Thinkers about “How To Double Your Income”, how to get more clients, how to get bigger and better clients, how to expand services for existing clients, how to increase fees without losing business, how to manage time and resources so your practice can be stress-free with plenty of time off….etc. Come and be a part of an event that could change your business and life…There’s limited space so reserve your spot. Oh, did I mention it’s free?

I meet with business owners daily and a consistent question is how do I hire the right person? Their past hiring practices has been to go by their gut and wing it. There is a easier, more effective way to hire or bring someone on your team and that is to hire based off a profile of the perfect person for that position and to if can be determined in just a few questions, observations and if your want to be laser accurate you can even use a profile assessment tool that takes about 20 minutes to do. This video will give you the basics of determining personality traits to find that right person for your team.

Which are you, a Driven Person, a Influencer, Steady contributor or Compliant and a analyzer? from Mickey O’Brien on Vimeo.

What struggles have you encountered when bringing on a partner, team member or employee?

Unafraid To Fail – 100 Ways To Succeed In Business, Comes Out In 2010

As a coach I’ve been helping people succeed in business and life for years. And this year I’ve decided to put all my techniques, strategies, key distinctions and sure fire ways to improve you business in one place, that’s why I’m writing this book. It’s for my clients to have for reference, for myself to put all my most successful strategies in one spot, and for anyone that wants to grow their business and improve their life.

If you don’t want to wait for the book, I’ve giving as a FREE GIFT to the first 100 people who request it, of my yearly CD Club membership ($240 value). Just email me at mickey@mickeyobrien.com and put the subject as “Coaching CD Club”

Let me know your thoughts on the book cover?

Key Distinction On How Successful People Are Unstoppable

We as human beings tend to make the past our future. We hold onto our old stories and take future actions based on them. But what would happen if you dropped your old stories and created new ones? Who would you be? What would you do? You can learn from your past and what did not work, but you also learned what worked and what was missing.

Babe Ruth, a famous baseball player, was able to drop the past. He said “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” His strikes meant nothing to him, they were merely just part of the process to getting what he wanted. Babe was cheerful and optimistic for each new pitch that was thrown no matter what he did on the last pitch.

Most people carry around their old burdens, fears, failures, disappointment and expectations like a backpack full of rocks. If you want to have more fun and be more successful, do what Babe Ruth did, be cheerful, have fun, be optimistic and don’t let the past be your future…make something greater, do something extraordinary now.

What past failures have you been holding onto?

What has stopped you from going to the next level?