I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve blogged. I realized I better post some stuff fast before my Halloween decorating goes to waste!

Social networking is so important for all of us self-employed people but how do you know which sites are worth investing time in?

Well, I can tell you, it really depends on your target market, but I have found certain sites to be a waste of time for me and others have been extremely beneficial.

For me, Facebook hasn’t done too much, probably because I despise the “new” Facebook and don’t want to login. The only time I use it is to update some of my clients’ profiles and add applications and stuff. For me, I signed up long and ever ago with a personal page and have never really used it for business. (Maybe that’s why it hasn’t worked, brainiac.)

MySpace I’ve never gotten into but rumor has it, it’s a waste of time for business networking. (If you have had good results, please comment and let me know about it!)

Now, Twitter. Oh Twitter, how I love thee!

Twitter is a social networking site that begs the question, “What are you doing right now?”

You might be thinking, “Well, who cares?”

Answer – You’d be surprised!

Each Twitter post or “Tweet” (hence the catchy name of this post) is like a tiny little blog post. Anyone “following” you will be able to read your Tweet.

To totally get the power of this, let’s talk about me for a minute. I’m a virtual assistant and I specialize in writing services. When I ‘Tweet’ I try to always let my followers know what it is that I do. But, see, you’re limited to 140 characters with your Tweets so it’s challenging to come up with smart little updates. In the morning, I’ll usually Tweet about what I’m doing (writing a press release, polishing up an article, working on web content, etc.) so that my followers are kind of subliminally getting a service list that’s updated for them each time I’m working on something different. For example, I might say “Drinking coffee and optimizing a press release for web submission.” That tells my followers something personal (I drink way too much coffee because every other Tweet is about my java) and that I have people who pay me to optimize their press releases to be submitted online.

When my followers need my services, if they have been stalking following me for awhile, they are going to feel like they practically know me (Tweeting is a fine balancing act between personal and business for me, but my followers know that I love to cook, eat good food, play with my kids and watch Grey’s Anatomy on top of the fact that I am really busy with writing projects so I must be good, right?).

Twitter, basically, is the ultimate relationship building tool if you ask me. I’ve hired people after following them, I’ve been hired by people who follow me – it’s one big happy Twitter Universe.

I learned about a really cool Twitter tool yesterday called Tweet Beep. It works like Google Alerts. You type in words or phrases you want to be notified of being used in people’s Tweets. I might have a Twitter Beep with my name, so I know when people are talking about me. Or, I might have one set up for ‘copywriting’ so I can be notified if someone is looking for copywriting services, or if there’s someone cool Tweeting about it so I can follow them.

To learn more about this really fabulous networking site check out the Twitter Handbook.

Phew. That’s enough about Twitter for now. But I could go on and on….

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It’s been a long time since I had a good blog rant…today might be the day.

(I want to preface this by saying that I do not intend to offend any East Labobians. As far as I know, East Labobia is a fictional country.)

I remember when I was a kid, I loved reading Archie comics. It’s as clear to me as if it were yesterday, summer days sitting under a tree reading about Archie’s twisted love triangle. It was then that I learned it sucks to live in Canada when you want to order stuff from magazines or books.

All the little giveaways and freebies throughout the comics were so cool but “Not available in Canada”. Hmph. No Sea Monkeys for me. It was like this big huge celebration if I ever found something that I could order that would be shipped to the Great White North. (Keep in mind here that I’m not 30 yet, this wasn’t the 1800s or anything when it probably would have been easier to get stuff across the border cause I don’t think there was a Customs thing back then. Or a border? Anyway, I digress.)

If you live in Canada (or Hawaii cause that state seems to be excluded from everything that Canada’s excluded from in my experiences) you’ve probably had this frustration tons of times yourself. Old Navy – great stuff on their website! There’s a store ten minutes from me. They have these great online deals all the time, but only within the US. That’s fine I guess. It’s retail. I’ve grown to expect that type of thing.

Here’s what I don’t get – how is it possible that web based stuff limits Canadians? Hello! It’s the Internet. Why does it matter where my IP address is?

I looked into Google Checkout or something or other a month or so ago because a client mentioned they would prefer to pay that way. I’m all about making it easy for people to pay so I looked into it. I couldn’t find a drop down option for Canada. There was the US and the UK, I believe. Funny, I bet if I wanted an AdWords account there wouldn’t be a problem taking my Canadian money.

Then there’s Basecamp. My online collaboration tool of choice. I recommend to everyone. But when I looked into signing up as an affiliate there was nothing there for Canadians. Funny again. They are really accommodating when it comes to taking a couple hundred dollars each month from me even though I’m in Canada but I can’t make some extra money by recommending it to people? Hmmm.

Let’s see…oh yes. Ring Central. The company I use for my Virtual PBX needs (fancy term for telephone system with extensions and stuff.) I had to update my credit card information and their interface doesn’t include the proper fields for a Canadian address. I had to pick up the phone and wait for a representative.

See a pattern here? These places don’t mind doing business with Canadians for certain things, but it seems like there’s a bit of laziness or some huge oversights there.

One time I was creating an online flyer for a real estate agent and the site allowed me to create a flyer for a Canadian address, but they didn’t have Newfoundland on the dropdown list. A whole province was missing. I had to call to see if they could add it and then they put the wrong provincial abbreviation on there and I don’t know if it ever got fixed.

Finally, these final examples boggle my mind the most.

I would love to have the option to watch Grey’s Anatomy or Desperate Housewives (my favoritest shows) online if I were to miss them (don’t know if Canadians can get Tivo yet) but even though we get the big US networks like ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, etc., when I go to the ABC website to watch my shows, it says that I can’t cause I’m in Canada.

The other day I went to check out Pandora which is supposedly the coolest online music thing ever, to see what it’s all about. I wish I could tell you, but oh wait. Since my IP address is in Canada I don’t have the option of getting past the “So sorry, we value your business” crap to see what it’s all about.

Wasn’t there some Free Trade agreement or something signed between the US and Canada? What’s all this about? Really. Everyone buys stuff online – we’re living in a Global Economy. Why do these American companies feel like it’s okay (or smart?) to rule out an entire country and a neighboring-closest-ally country at that!?

Anyway, I’m almost finished of my coffee now and I’m all riled up. Any Canadians who feel my pain? Can you think of other examples?

To my US friends, did you know that we Canadians are living with these frustrations? Have you ever tried to send away for something or sign up for something only to learn it was not available in the US? I really doubt it, but would love to hear if it’s ever happened.

PS: Dear Old Navy, Google, Basecamp, Ring Central, Pandora and ABC.com, I purposely did not include links back to your sites because I don’t believe that Canadians really exist to you people unless they are directly sending you money. So there!

(There, that oghta show ‘em how darn mad I am. )

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My regular readers know that I like to decorate my website with the seasons and for the entire month of October we’re going pink to help raise breast cancer awareness.

A portion of all Mann Made Time’s profits for the month of October will go towards finding a cure.

No matter what your age, girls, start checking yourselves for lumps. I’ve heard of far too many women in their 30s or younger who have been devastated by this disease. And hopefully those of you who need regular mammograms are scheduling those now.

Canadians wishing to donate directly can visit the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

Those south of the border may wish to visit the Susah G. Komen for the Cure website to donate.

We can’t all give to every foundation that needs to raise funds, but breast cancer is an epidemic. I think it’s good karma to give. It has touched so many people that I know. I encourage everyone reading this to do what you can to help find a cure.

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