Social Media for Dummies

By now, everybody has heard the term "social media," right? And do we all know what it means? NO!!! Sure, you've been on Facebook or My Space, or your kids have, but for all of us Mom Entrepreneurs out there, we're supposed to use social media to help us sell our products. HUH?

So, being the sales side of my partnership with Melissa, I decided to start looking into this phenomenon. My first step was to sign up for LinkedIn. Hey, I'm already ahead because somebody had sent me an invitation to sign up months ago, so I did. And that's all I did, but at least I got started! So...now what? LinkedIn told me to download my Outlook contacts so I can see who I want to invite to be in my "network." Hmmm, are they going to spam my friends? I decided to risk it, and actually found out that several people I know are already on LinkedIn. They have way more people in their networks, so I sent invitations to everyone who was already playing in this game. I figured if I have more folks in my network, I'll look popular and everyone will want to join. Right???? Okay, maybe not, but what I did figure out was that I needed to join "groups" to start getting my name out there, and to learn a thing or two about...well, about whatever these groups are about.

So I joined a bunch of groups that my friends and/or colleagues are in. WOW, I've gotten more emails in the past 24 hours than I think I got all month! Perhaps I joined too many groups! But at least I've gotten started, which is the important thing. I guess I just need to fine-tune everything. Oh, and by the way, you can see my profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/karenbberg.

My next project: Twitter! Wish me luck!

Karen

The Danger in the Adventure

The danger in the adventure of introducing my kids to "Seussical the Musical" and them falling in love with it: They have highjacked my CD and have put the musical on infinite loop. AAAAAAAAAAAACKKKKKKKK! Usually after a show I can let the music get out of my head, but they seem determined to engrave that thing in my memory like that obnoxious, purple dinosaur song. Or the song that never ends. I think I'm going to do a little highjacking of my own as soon as I know they are fast asleep.

Wish me luck!

Yours, hoping to fully decompress tonight,

Melissa

He's a Good Elephant

You all know I'm a musician. One of my current gigs is an Arts School in town and we just finished our production of Seussical the Musical. I somehow managed to talk my husband into bringing the kids last night. We figured it's time for them to be able to start sitting through something besides a TV show or school. And since the musical was a shortened version of the Broadway production (cut down to 1:10 as opposed to 1:45), I thought this might be a good place to start.

I love being a musician and entertainer. At the core of it, I love it because music, theater, art, whatever media you are working with has the inherent ability to move something on the inside of people. And if you are lucky, you might inspire someone or make them stop and think. And if you are really working hard at it, you just might take people on a journey and let them forget life for awhile.

I just didn't expect to get to do that with my OWN kids.

They slipped in last night as the curtain was coming up. From what I gather, Z2 sang along almost the entire time. Apparently she has "relocated" the Seussical CD to her CD player and has learned all the music. And in the scene where Gertrude McFuzz eats the berries from the pillberry bush to grow her tail, Z2 whispered (think soft roar) to everyone around her,"MY mom made that bush! She did! That's her at the piano! See her? That's MY mom!"

Yes, plenty of giggles ensued.

When I got home last night, Z1 was still awake. I asked him what he thought and he said,"Mom, I want to be Horton one day. He's a good man. Well, good elephant."

Yes, the flowers I got last night are beautiful. The applause, I'll admit, I loved it. And it's wonderful to hear how much people liked it and appreciated our hard work. Working with other peoples' kids- mostly rewarding.

But when you make your own kids proud, when you take them on an adventure, when you stop and make them think without a lecture or some form of discipline, when you connect with what's on the inside of them, that's better than anything else I can think of.

Yours, relishing the rewards of such an unexpected adventure,

Melissa

Whack-A-Mole . . . Whack-A-Brother?

The boys headed off to batting practice. My daughter threw her arms around my neck and said,"Okay, Mommy! Let's have some girl time!"
I had way too much work to do, but how could I ignore those big baby blues and toothless grin? After a ruthless game of Sorry! we plunged headlong into a game of Whack-A- Mole. You know the one. . . the little mole with the hard hat. He lights up and says some phrase like,"Yoo-Hoo!" or "Duhhh!" and you give him a good whack on the head and the dinger goes off.

Now, what I want to know is was it a man or a mother that came up with a game that gives you four hammers to whack the snot out of an animal making sassy noises at you? And then let's talk about the kids playing it on their own in the other room without adult supervision. . . the brother does something to provoke the sister and BOOM! Whack-a-Brother has begun. The brother starts running and the (younger) sister is chasing- with ALL FOUR HAMMERS, mind you, letting loose a war cry that would rival Geronimo's at the top of her (ahem-dainty?NOT!) little lungs.

Yep, the B household is ready for Spring. At least I can throw them outside in the yard (yes, them meaning Z1 and Z2) and pretend not to notice the sibling warfare. Thanks, Whack-A-Mole, for arming my little one. I've always told the older child that,"One day, she WILL be big enough to hit you back." Guess she's wanting to make up for lost time.

Yours, knowing I'll be going through the game cabinet tonight and looking at every game piece a little differently,

M