Top 10 Business Blogs for Women - You Go Girl!

It's always encouraging and uplifting to see business minded women bloggers getting recognized for their work in promoting business growth, opportunities and resource sharing. Also wonderful to see the ladies of Women Grow Business made the list!

Amplify’d from littlepinkbook.com

Top 10 Business Blogs for Women By Caroline Cox & Muriel Vega Women turn to blogs nearly twice as often as social networking sites to find information and share opinions, so it’s no surprise women business blogs are booming. Blogs are a great way to find resources, connect with other career women and share tips, advice and words of wisdom. Furthermore, blogs can connect businesswomen who are driven to succeed and gain equity at work and joy in life, the same mission we have here at PINK. Here is PINK’s list of the top business blogs for women, based on site traffic, credibility and business know-how: Brazen Careerist: Penelope Trunk’s blog is her third start-up. Through her posts, she caters to Generation Y and dispenses career management advice, like how to ignore people who steal ideas or effective ways to pay attention during a conference call. She Takes on the World: Started by Natalie MacNeil, this Stevie Awards finalist for Blog of the Year caters to your dream career. With features like interviews with up-and-coming businesswomen and tips on how to focus on your future, founder MacNeil puts her entrepreneurship experiences to work and provides plenty of career-savvy advice through posts. The Glass Hammer: Their tagline is short but powerful: “smart women in numbers.” With a focus on finance, law and business, this online community hosts hundreds of bloggers, is one of the top leadership blogs and addresses tough subjects like gender discrimination and failure. BlogHer: At “23+ million unique visitors per month,” BlogHer is the largest female blogging community. In addition to being a blog-hosting site, they also hold conferences and have a publishing network for blogs written by qualified, professional women. Women on Business: CEO Susan Gunelius has worked at some of the world’s largest companies for nearly 20 years and has written several books. Forbes put Women on Business in their list of the Top 100 Websites for Women (along with PINK!) and the site offers sources, ways to contribute and even posts job openings around the U.S. She-conomy: This blog focuses on and recognizes the marketing power women have (they make 85 percent of all brand purchases) and how untapped their market is. Packed with up-to-date news, statistics and frequent lists of top brands that women value, this blog is a resource for companies trying to cater better to their female audience. Flokka: If you’re looking to start your own blog to share your business experience and workplace wisdom, Flokka is the place to start. They help you easily set up your blog and connect with fellow businesswomen bloggers. They even offer benefits, like the opportunity to be featured on their homepage and the ability to earn a percentage of their ad revenue. Women Grow Business: From topics like “The Work Impacts of Domestic Violence” to “Release Yourself from the Press Release” and “The Myth of Brand Control,” WGB is a great resource for timely topics, a wealth of advice and a forum to discuss the issues that matter to career women. The Boss of You: Two business partners started this blog, focused on women who can successfully run their own business—they recently turned the idea into a book of the same title. Their blog focuses on independent, creative women mastering the business world. Making It Legal: Hosted by Entrepreneur.com, award-winning attorney, author and speaker Nina Kaufman’s blog focuses on helping your business avoid legal hurdles. She also offers a plethora of legal resources and uses her well-honed humor to keep her posts interesting. Read more at littlepinkbook.com

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What Men Aren't Telling Us

I have never, in all my born days, heard a man express ANYTHING like this author shared. When I do, when I find a man who HONESTLY feels this way and isn't just trying to use these kind of expressions to manipulate me, I think I would have finally found my soul mate.

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Photo: Stockbyte/Getty Images That women are mysterious and unknowable is something every young man grows up believing. Men, on the other hand, never think of themselves as mysterious or confusing, and we are often at a loss as to why women want to figure us out. But since you asked: When you say we don't really talk to you or reveal ourselves to you, we wish you knew just how much we have had to suppress about our desires, pains, fears, and vulnerability over the years to conform to the script of masculinity that we are given. Sometimes we don't open up because we are afraid of what we will find. We are also afraid that if you see who we really are, in all our flawed humanity (and not the flaws that annoy you, like being untidy or driving fast), you won't like us. Men do communicate, often very directly, but women sometimes cannot accept how simple what we have to say is. We seldom play games—we aren't that sophisticated. If we don't call you for a couple of days after a date, it is because either we are afraid you will think we are stalkers (and we will call on day three) or we aren't into you. That's all there is. We are as nervous as you are about sex; I don't care what you've heard. Your anatomy is a mystery that nobody bothers explaining to us. Even when we think we have mastered one woman's body, every body is different. We feel inadequate if we can't satisfy you in bed, and since no one has told us what to do with feelings of inadequacy, we project them onto you. Sad but true. We are very insecure about how we look and what you really think about us, and we are excited when you do small, nice things for us like make coffee or come with us to the barber or just buy us a good book. We've been trained never to show this side to you, but it is there. We are not subtle creatures. You might think that when you play with your hair in our presence, we know that means you like us. We don't know for sure. Men who do are bad men (sorry, guys!). And anything you've been told about playing hard to get is wrong. We crave cuddling and hand-holding, maybe even more than you do. We are desperate to please you because we know you are far sexier and more beautiful than you will ever admit to yourself, and we're confused (but extremely happy) as to why you like us. Here's the thing: You rescue us every day in small, quiet ways, so why not in this way? Let us into your mystery, tell us how you would like to be loved, show us how to see you, really see you. Read more at www.oprah.com

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A Conversation with Tyrese about Saving Our Youth

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Just before Tyrese Darnell Gibson, also known simply as Tyrese, hit the red carpet for the Kennedy Center Honors, I caught up with him at a Georgetown Hoyas game to discuss a venture near and dear to his heart, “Community in Schools.”   

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Tyrese, an R&B singer, songwriter, rapper, actor, model and former MTV VJ first came to my attention when he did his very first TV interview on BET’s Video Soul.  I was a young Senior Producer and he was a model looking to crossover into the music business.  Fast forward several years and we found ourselves in a sky box at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC reminiscing about old times and talking about the dire state our youth find themselves in.  While the official announcement won’t be made until next month, Tyrese spoke to a few select DC bloggers and I about his upcoming appointment as the spokesperson for “Community In Schools” and his role as the voice of the youth and the mission of the program.

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You may think of him as only a pretty face and a talent singer/actor, but to his friends and the children he represents, Tyrese is a beacon of hope.

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At a time when dropout rates are an issue in all communities, The Alliance for Excellent Education, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., estimates that dropouts each year cost the nation more than $300 billion in lost income.  Community In Schools is making it their mission to beat those odds.  Tameka Green, CEO of Community In Schools in the Nation’s Capitol shared with me the program’s mission to combate the dropout rates in Washington, DC. 

Championing the connection of needed community resources with schools to help young people learn, Community In Schools goal is to help students stay in school, and prepare for life. 

 

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Congratulations and many thanks to Tyrese and Community In Schools for taking on the challenge of decreasing school dropout rates and for their continued dedication to our youth.  To learn more about Community In Schools go to their website at http://www.communitiesinschools.org/ and look for the announcement of Tyrese as their new spokesperson coming in February. 

I will not stalk my ex on Facebook, and other social media resolutions

A friend of mine (who I met through social media) shared this post with me and I just had to add my two cents.   I'll admit that I stoped dating a guy because he "stalked" my Facebook page, my Twitter feed and my blog posts. I'm sorry but he was just creepy and he got even creepier as the days rolled on. I'll also admit that I "unfriended" an ex when he got married... NOT because he got married... but because he admitted he kept up with my whereabouts on Facebook (uh, no you don't buddy... you're married now... don't you worry about what I'm doing). Yet, I'm not one of those people who checks up on someone's social sites. You would think with my type A personality and my controlling nature that I would be all over some guys page but it's really not my style. In fact, my single girlfriends who are also "power users" have a rule: If we are seriously dating someone, you cannot be their friend on Facebook, allow them to follow you on Twitter and if it gets really deep, you might even want to block them from reading your blog posts.

Here's the rub... what if they are already your "friend" or "follower" and THEN you start dating them? Ahhhhh, dating in 2011 just got interesting didn't it? I'll be blogging about that very soon but if we're dating you'll never get a chance to see that post now will you?

I need a certain amount of freedom to be me. I need to check in on Foursquare, write about my feelings and post content without censorship. So, while some folks need help NOT stalking other people, I need help making sure other people don't cyber stalk me! That is all...

Amplify’d from thenextweb.com

On Christmas day 2009, my ex defriended me on Foursquare and stopped following me on Twitter. Fair enough, I suppose. I didn’t need to know what bars he was going to and he didn’t need to read my 140-character self-deprecations. But I noticed his unfollow immediately and I cried, really hard. Three glasses of mulled cider later and I began to meditate on the aspects of sharing our lives, our work and our love online. For all the other modern messes out there, here are 5 New Year’s social media related resolutions: 1. I will not stalk my ex on Facebook. There are so many different reasons why Facebook makes breaking up with people exponentially harder. First, if you were in an established Facebook relationship, the ensuing broken relationship will fill up your friends’ newsfeeds, dragging your already broken heart out into the virtual highway. Second, it means you have access to his or her life, even after you are no longer a part of it. If you don’t have enough willpower to avoid viewing your ex’s photos like a slideshow, then feel free to de-friend him or her. Just realize, that chances are they won’t ask for your friendship on Facebook ever again so it could make for an awkward digital reconciliation . 2. I will be more discerning with my friend requests. On Facebook, if your News Feed looks anything like mine these days, then you need to start being more discerning with your friend requests. Ask yourself 3 questions: Have I met this person in real life? Do we have mutual friends? Do I want this person to see photos of me and status updates for the rest of my Facebook using life? If no, then hit ignore or keep them on the wait list until you can answer yes to all three of those questions, otherwise known as Facebook purgatory. On Foursquare, this is even more important. You can’t seriously want people you don’t even know to know where you are every time you check-in. That’s downright dangerous. I receive loads of Foursquare friend requests from people I don’t even know, most of the time its because they are new to the platform and haven’t realized Foursquare is more personal in nature than other platforms. But some of the time, the requests are simply scary. 3. I will not “auto” anything on Twitter. Don’t auto-follow. Don’t auto-DM. Don’t auto-tweet. Don’t do anything that shortcuts the already less-than-personal nature of social media. Nobody likes being on the receiving end of auto-generated messages, so don’t be the person to send them. In other words, be a human. 4. I will not spam my “friends” asking them to “Like me.” So you’re an artist, a fashion designer, or a musician, or you just think you’re going to be famous because you live in L.A. and you can breathe properly. Don’t badger your entire network asking them to “Like” you. If you’re really trying to get your message out there and gain notoriety ask your Mom, Dad, your roommate, a couple close friends, your boss and your significant other, but then stop there. More importantly, do something worth notoriety. If its truly notable, people will notice. It’s already a shallow effort and chances are you’ll piss off quite a few people who would’ve “Liked you” on their own without having you request their approval. Lastly, you’re devaluing the entire “Like” process by guilting your friends into adding one more “Like” to their Facebook page. 5. I will forget about MySpace. MySpace had its day, along with Ace of Base, white washed jeans and JNCOs. There are much better ways to waste your time on the Internet. Read more at thenextweb.com

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2011: The Rise of a New Breed of Blogger

I am LOVING the term "Lifestyle Blogger".  Have I found my calling?

Amplify’d from www247.americanexpress.com

Let’s face it: blogging is big business. I predict that in 2011, there will be a rise of Lifestyle Bloggers. This new breed of business-savvy blogger not only writes, but also handles business development and prioritizes having a fulfilling life NOW. Cash flow positive with a happy, small and flexible team, this type of blogger has a balanced, sustainable new business model. As creating content gets easier, we are faced with more noise online than ever before and more data than people are willing or able to parse. Curation was the inevitable trend of 2010 -- everyone from huge corporations to small businesses to college kids uses platforms like Tumblr and Twitter to distribute content and create influence. In 2011, we’ll need people to curate the curators to find a more refined signal. This is where the Lifestyle Blogger comes in. Are you a Lifestyle Blogger? Do you want to be? If not, does your business know how to best work with and benefit from this rising group?   Read more at www247.americanexpress.com

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