This Mother’s Day, I want my daughters growing up to have confidence in them, a trait I don’t always have and it’s more important than anything else for girls today who are our leaders tomorrow.

When you are confident, you are strong enough to

Stand out, not fit in;

Speak up and not being afraid;

Believe you can achieve even others criticize you.

When you are confident, you are comfortable enough to

Do what you believe to be right,

Make smart decision at the right time,

Own and fix the mistake it if it’s wrong.

When you are confident, you are beautiful enough to

Create your own style instead of following others,

Have boys come to you instead of chasing them, and no need to please the guys,

Attract and influence people to join your cause movement.

Confidence makes us strong and comfortable, confidence is beautiful in so many ways in our life.  I really enjoyed Adora Svitak’s inspiring Mashable Connect talk, an amazing youth role model for other girls to look up to, and she maybe the reason I’ll allow my girls to be on Facebook, you can watch the talk here.

Happy Mother’s Day!!!

Over the last 3 months or so, I have been called out at least handful times that, I unfollowed some people and they were not happy so they decided to unfollow me as well.  I have issue with it, not the unfollowing part but the calling out, especially when you and I had barely exchanged conversations, why would you even care?

We all know Twitter does its prank once in a while, like it or not; if you happen to notice that and care enough, why not just re-follow to start the conversation again?   There are several apps and websites out there to help you better manage followers and I absolutely agree them can be effective, again ONLY if you care; but not to tweet out  things like “in the last 7 days, I lost 28 followers and I caught them all with x” or “@InfoSara and some others unfollowed me [checked by fllwrs.com]“. Really? You CAUGHT THEM ALL, or @me just for that??

I have people unfollow me every day, and when I follow someone, I don’t ever expect them to follow me back (I admit it’ll be nice though !  Really what I care about is the time I spend on Twitter,

(1) whether I am able to help peeps with my own experience, professionally or personally;

(2) whether I learn something new and gain knowledge;

(3) whether I have fun talking to my friends or even win prizes from Twitter party

With all that, I just couldn’t understand why you would call someone out when s/he unfollows you?  What is your intention and what are you planning to do??  Oh and a side note, my favourite introduction at conference or networking event is– “Hi, I follow you but you are not following me back.” Yep, THAT.

So please, tell me again why you care?

These days, when you are online you probably spend big chunk of time on social networking sites, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, et al; and you are chatting, engaging, sharing and tagging.  You don’t do this for yourself; you do this with others to help others, right? Are you with me??

Enter Buffer, a wonderful app that lets you schedule tweets and optimize the best time to send to the most followers possible for greatest potential reach.  There has been enough debates about whether it’s appropriate to schedule tweets, my thinking is “ it’s ok to schedule useful information you want to share to people you know will benefit from but never schedule a conversation”; I am sure my friends, Aaron Lee and Danny Brown will agree with me here, I’ve seen and enjoyed their automated tweets, plus they are honest to say so up front in their bios.

So much good information out that your blogging simply can’t keep up with, why not simply share where it’s originated and give credits to the author? I use Buffer when (1) I don’t want to annoy or overwhelmed my followers; (2) I don’t take part in buzz creating campaign.  After all, you are on social media to help others, aren’t you?
Now that’s “all for you” goodies, what about ME then? I link Buffer to both my Twitter account and Facebook business page; I also schedule tweets diligently (See charts below).  One thing to note is, Buffer gives different posting schedule for my Twitter and Facebook page, and you can change it anytime if you feel there are other schedule should be added.

This is how I use Buffer in an “all about me” kind of way
   Reading Maniac – I used to have the articles saved, links bookmarked, page forward to emailed, Google Reader archived for all information I want to read but for whatever reasons was unable to do so at that moment, and it ends up in different places I find it hard to keep up, now it’s all in my Buffer list and I can always go back and read it.

   RT Monster on steroid – I prefer to see RTs with comments so I know whether it’s worth clicking, and yes, Buffer do let you schedule tweets and it also has the option of “post now”, you can add comments to the RTing message before fire away.

   Aalytics smarty —  BufferApp presents a list of your tweets with number of clicks and people who retweeted, you will see which post gets the most clicks and what content people are interested, it’s kind of neat way to find out the “call to action” trigger.

(You can learn more from this TechCrunch post, http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/20/sharing-scheduler-app-buffer-raises-400000-gets-kicked-out-of-us/)

I have been using it for couple months now and absolutely enjoy it, I find it easy, handy and very useful!!

Now with the app hitting iPhone App store (check it out here http://blog.bufferapp.com/the-complete-guide-to-the-brand-new-buffer-iphone-app), I am sure all you iLovers will like it and please share your thoughts with me here.

My older daughter came home the other day and asked me “What’s the B-word? I am the only one in the class know nothing about it”, needless to say she got laughed at.  A little background here, she WILL turn 10 in March 2012 (Yay for two digits!  Big milestone!!) and is the second youngest in her class, everyone else is 10 years old at this point.  Sure there are quite a few things she needs to catch up with but definitely not this one, which also got me thinking.

Why not? You ask. 

Well, my girls do have a list of words – the ones they know not appropriate to say in public; and if you haven’t noticed, we speak Mandarin at home so there’s little chance we’ll use any of those words.  Also, we say shoot instead of the other word, and only once had I dropped F-bomb because this dangerous drivers almost got us killed,

What’s the harm? You argue.

Yes, I understand and fully accept kids today are much more exposed to the world than we were, and they are going to learn and talk those words anyway, sooner or later; this is one thing I am not in the rush for.  I do believe we parents are still the biggest influencers to kids at this age, it’s also a good reminder for us, or for me personally; that the more we say it the more likely it’ll become second nature without realizing it, what’s the plus side of that, really?

My response to this curious, confused 9-year-old is “If it’s a good word your friend will tell you about it, and if not then you probably don’t need to know”.

Sure, you have sympathy for my poor girls, and I may have not prepared them well for the real world; quite possibly I am blindfolded in this issue, or being a b*tch or a b*stard, but what could I have done differently or what would you do if the world they is full of these sh*t?

A little help here please ??

It’s my birthday today, and OMG! I am turning 45!! Normally I won’t make it a big deal nor we celebrate with big feast (is the husband reading??), but half way into my life journey — yes I plan to live to 90 years old so I can see and be entertained by my grandchildren, what do I want for this special day?

Funny enough that sometime last week I got call from a company interested in my background and experience, asked if I would consider to role that has potential to grow, and well, you know those rosy things they tell you before bringing you on board.  It would be great if this happened years ago when I was really looking for jobs, I wrote it here and here; unfortunately the commute plus long hours in the office (minimum required 7am~7pm) plus the “being told what to do” for about $75K turned me off.  There is no way I am willing to trade half of my time just to fit into other people’s schedule, not even for money.

So what do I want? A title may.  Look at friends my age, Managing Director, Partner, or Chief Strategist, all sorts make me feel good.  Well, come to think about it, I do have some of these glamorous titles;

CEO = Control Education Office

I am responsible for my girls’ education, both academically and socially.  I need to know what they learn in regular day school, in Chinese school, in various sports and activities, without over scheduling or write them off because they are not performing well, or not showing talents.  I need to know the causes lead to results to worry less.

CFO = Control Feedings Officer

I am responsible for everything my family eat, I may not go out of my way to buy all organic but I am definitely conscious and pay close attention to what I buy (and hubby cooks) to put on the table.  To keep on top of being healthy, I need to know the nutrients and nutrition well to worry less. 

CMO = Control Media Officer

I am responsible for my girls’ media encounter experiences, including TV shows, movies and internet.  They only watch the shows I approved and my ears are always up for what’s been said in the conversation, I absolutely go to movies with them so we can discuss afterwards, I setup Gmail accounts AND the passwords for them so I can lurk when I sensed odd situations.  When it comes to internet gaming/surfing, we are VERY clear that (1) don’t give out parents email addresses unless you have permissions, (2) no downloading unless one of parents agrees, (3) never ever chat with people you don’t know in real life online, unless ahem, you are on social media.  Some of these rules may seem stringent and certainly will change when the girls get older, but for now I need to get it in their heads early to worry less. 

Yes, I am a Control-Freak, and not ashamed to admit it; I don’t thing there’s anything wrong if all I want to have control is for my family’s well being and protect them in this society.  Without my family, I am nothing.

You think I have it?  Do I have it all?  While I am working on it, I am also buying some cool stuff from Roots Canada, because it’s 25% off + free shipping and the cyber-weekend sale ends on my birthday.

ps–I am not affiliated with Roots Canada (although I wish!), they simply have good stuff!!

Why I say this is a once-in-a-life-time experience is easy to understand with the video below, not only the amazing exhibition was in Taipei just so happened when we were there, we also were able to score some sought after tickets and actually went to see it with our own eyes!!

Well, ok, mom’s brag here too My girls got to be in this short version animated film and it adds another layer of precious experience !

If you want to learn more about the painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival, go here

When it comes to research, a topic close to my heart; it seems these days the majority of us focus on “the activity of getting information about a subject”, where it really should be “careful study that is done to find and report new knowledge about something”

Given my profession, I have been preaching this for as long as I can remember; and even in today’s world we don’t say search or research but say “Google it” when really, quite possibly means doing a research and involves the most if not only of it.  This is one assumption I can not live by: Google equals internet equals search equals research equals free, voila! You have all the information you need.

I was at Social Media Masters Conference few days ago here in Toronto and so glad I attended this top notch social media conference, summary of the conference with links to presentations are available here; you can follow #smm2011 on twitter for conversation and more insights.

One particular session had me wowed and wooed was “The Future of Social Intelligence” by Scott Briggs, who is Sr. Director, Social Strategies and Insights at Alterian.  To me, social intelligence is no difference than business intelligence, it is essentially the management and analysis of customer data from social / business sources, used to activate and recalibrate marketing and business programs, to move business forward.

More and more businesses have come to realize that, having access to the tools or platforms is simply not the answer of it,  the goal is to use the insights they discover from dashboards (tracking) and act on it to reports ( updates) to improve offerings (customer segmentation, product development, potential market), and none of the task can be done via automated systems, or through technology along.

My wise dear friend, Judith Samuels sums up well in 140 characters above.

Few companies start to understand the power and really keen on gathering and forming the intelligence, but until they see it as an ongoing process, not just a stage and are willing to commit to the investment in the resources (talent and time), we still have a long way to go.

Just like search = research.

You want to be influencer, you look up and follow those influencers, so what is you do everyday online that can help increase your own Klout score, eventually be among the rank?

First, for those who is not familiar with Klout or hasn’t joined yet, Klout is a social influencemeter where your interactions on social media space are taken into account to end up with an influence score.  Klout gathers data from all your linked accounts and does this on a daily basis.

A very important feature here is, you score on the topics you are most influential about; so perhaps you tweet or share content about certain issue over and over again, Klout takes this and perceives that you are either an expert or an avid follower of that subject.   As of now, you can connect all your activities on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Blogger and Flicker to Klout, it’s a great way to integrate these social media channels into one place and also great opportunity to build up your own brand.

I’d like to specifically point out Foursquare here, the reason being in a recent Foursqare research report have found–more than 2/3 active Foursquare users post tips and these tips have a ready audience with each tip being done, or average, at least once; 80% of active users have “done” tips.  What this means is that, you can never underestimate the importance of tips for a venue, you may actually alter the consumer buying behaviour !!

I also like Twylah, a content marketing tool that extract maximum value from your tweets and let you own your brand, get discovered beyond Twitter with built-in SEO as well as give your audience what they want.  With Twylah, you can promote your topical tweets all at the same time, this is my Twylah page http://www.twylah.com/infosara and it really tells my twitter brand.

We all know Klout is not the only tool to measure influences nor it is flawless, however it’s the one being used most widely for now.  So, how to get high on Klout?  Retweet and share great content, try to respond to people who have questions for you, and most importantly, always thank people who have helped you in any shape of forms.

All these great speakers are either thought leaders in their respective fields giving inspiring speeches, or telling stories with overwhelmingly heart-pouring, quite often leave my brain dazzling for few days.  For that, I have decided I am not going to write the whole run down of conference I attend, there are many people do excellent job on this with great insights, so instead I will do one takeaway, just ONE that I take away with me.

Have you ever had that A-ha moment, that one thought strikes you like lightening,  one thought that stays inside your brain?  I have, one each from #140confONT and #TEDxToronto, conferences I have been to so far.

 Amber Mac said it at #140conONT, 

The responsibilities are not just to your followers, your fans or your readers in the community, the responsibilities are to people you surrounded by everyday, who has counted on you for helping them dream and achieve.

I also love this at #TEDxToronto, you can watch the video here “Derek Sivers: How to start a movement”

Come to think of it, a leader is not a leader without followers and only the first follower turns the lone nut into a true leader.  So many times you have great ideas and you start to move forward, whoever has the courage to follow you first means trust, for that you have responsibilities to the person because you influenced her/him.

It’s amazing how these two messages seems unrelated and yet they are interdependent.  The questions I would like to ask you are:

(1) Who are you influence to and have you take the steps being responsible?

(2) Do you remember who is your first follower for things you believed in?

(2) What would be your “Just One” takeaway from which conference?

Would love to learn more

Some of you know, this past summer I took my 9-year-old and 7-year-old girls back to Taiwan, we spent 7 weeks there and for the first time ever — away from home not as  whole family.  Now, to say this trip creates stronger bond among us is an understatement, let’s just say I yell less at the girls ever since

Taiwan is where I from so the whole trip felt like going home, not on vacation; I am glad I was able to explain many things in details to the girls should they spot things unusual and unfamiliar.  The following observations are not one time experience, we’ve watched and tested and it has been consistent throughout.

To make fair reasonable comparison, I waited a while so the girls have time to validate what they experienced in both places (here is another excuse for procrastination), also to not compareg apples and oranges, we’ve ruled out things like; Taiwanese Dollars are so small (foreign exchange and currency issue), or Canada should have night markets (regulation issue); true, there’s T&T Waterfront Night Market once a year, however it’s different when you can try and taste hundreds of food stands every. single. day.

The services differences my girls noticed are:

• At check out counter at 7-Eleven, other CVS (Convenient Stores), or any retail stores : The clerk always carefully put our merchandises in shopping bag and if we brought our own reusable ones, they even organize all merchandise to make sure they “sit” nicely; where here in Canada, or at least in Ontario where we live, whether it’s Longo’s, Loblaws or Walmart (which is the worst), they just throw and shuffle stuff in, not paying attention, not taking care of the goods I just paid for.

• Flyer distributors on the street : In Taiwan, quite often you get people handing out flyer or free Kleenex to you while walking on sidewalk, it can get annoying I know, but here is the thing; those distributors still say “Thank You” even when you don’t take what they are handing out.  Now I feel bad, cause it’s their job and probably they can go home ONLY when it’s all gone. Have you seen people handing out stuff or asking you to buy and say thank you when you refuse?  I haven’t, let me know if you see one.

With all the experience, maybe I am biased but people in Taiwan are really really nice, well they are famously known for warm hospitality; but people hold umbrella and accompanied us to our destination even they were heading to opposite direction.

The difference I see?  It’s the attitude, the heart and willingness to help, with respect in mind when doing it, really practice “Giving is more precious than getting”.

Do you have similar experience here to share?  Would love to hear.

Here you can view my tweets while I was in Taiwan if you are interested, thanks to Twylah for creating such powerful content that tells story.

http://www.twylah.com/InfoSara/topics/saraintaiwan