When Tweets go wrong

When you want to tweet a link to an infographic, don't get so carried away with adding hashtags that you forget to include your link.

Social business news (Infographic). #socbiz #Marketing #jive #adobe #ibm #Oracle #salesforce #hootsuite

— Jim Lundy (@JimLundy) August 3, 2013

When you notice your mistake, delete your old tweet and create a new one instead replying to the botched one with the link. And when you finally include the link, don't forget to add #s in front of your hashtags.

Social business news (Infographic). http://t.co/Rg9b9FzuZ6 #socbiz #Marketing #jive adobe IBM Oracle Salesforce hootsuite

— Jim Lundy (@JimLundy) August 3, 2013

Your Reputation is Priceless, Don't Damage It

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."
--Warren Buffett

Over time, your reputation is the most valuable currency you have in business. It's the invisible key that either opens or closes doors of professional opportunity. Especially in an age where everything is forever recorded and accessible, your reputation has to be guarded like the most sacred treasure. It's the one item that, once lost, you can never get back.

Keep your eye on the prize

Connect what you're doing today, with where you want to be tomorrow. That should be all the incentive you need. If you can't map your future success to your current responsibilities, then it's time to find a new opportunity.

Don't Wait to Be Told What to Do

You'll never get ahead by waiting for someone to tell you what to do. Saying "nobody asked me to do this" is a guaranteed recipe for failure. Err on the side of doing too much, not too little. Don't act like a Millennial.

Free Mind Mapper

Mind maps are an excellent way to record brainstorming sessions. MyndBook is a free to use web service that lets its users create mind maps with ease.

You start by creating an account on the website either by providing your email address or by connecting your Facebook account. You can then create a 'book'. This book can have numerous pages on which you can add your mind maps.

Features:

• User-friendly.
• It's a web service. No need to install additional software on your computer, laptop or tablet.
• Mind maps can be shared with Facebook friends.
• Various nodes and branches can be created for your maps.
• It's free.
• Nodes and branches can be re-sized.
• You can add titles and descriptions for branches.

Advice from Pippa Malmgren

I've been very lucky; a lot of interesting things came my way. I used to be like the old Soviet Union with a rigid Five Year Plan. That worked well but I also learned to make room for surprises outside the original plan; it's a matter of finding a balance between the two.

If you love what you do, you'll be better at it than anybody and the money will follow.

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Cultures that do not accept, let alone celebrate, failure, don't have the capacity to innovate. Failure is needed in order to learn and innovate, and when you've nothing to lose, the opportunities for risk-taking and creativity drastically improve.

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All big businesses started out at the kitchen table or in the garage. Two thirds of the net new jobs are created by firms that employ fewer than 50 people. So SMBs are critical to economic success. They may not have easy access to capital, but this is actually a huge advantage for them. Capital constraints force them to act with immense discipline, and that's how good businesses are founded.

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Nobody tells you that running a small business is a character test. People will tell you your ideas are crazy. This forces you to decide what you really believe and to stand, usually alone, behind your beliefs.

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(Pippa Malmgren is a politics and policy expert who used to be Special Assistant to the President of the United States for Economic Policy on the National Economic Council and former member of the U.S. President's Working Group on Financial Markets.)

How to create the perfect #Tweet

Points to remember:

• avoid capitalizing words, unless you want to look as if you're shouting.
• link your tweet to a source but make sure it's worth a click.
• leave some empty space so people can add a comment when they share your tweet.