Reciprocity also comes into play in all aspects of networking, professional and personal relationships. Have you ever felt like you didn’t want someone to do something for you as you may feel like you ‘owe’ them? That’s because it is so deeply ingrained in us that we need to give back for any good deeds that have been done for us.

The idea is simple and is essentially based on the old “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” concept. This has never been more relevant as it is today with our use of social media. I believe that there should be one major distinction from this old courtesy and that is to always give more than you receive. Allow me to elaborate…

Engagement Starts With You

I’ve said countless times that engagement is the currency of social media but the most important part of understanding this is to know that you must be the instigator of engagement more often than not. Become an active engager on all topics related to your field by setting up Google Alerts and Twilerts to provide you with notifications via email as those conversations happen.

Listen More Than You Speak

The idea behind social media is being social so don’t forget that you have to care about other people for them to care about you. Take an active interest in other businesses within your local community and reach out to them online whenever possible.

Twitter is an excellent way to network and actively propagate the rewards of the Law of Reciprocity as long as you are holding up your end of the bargain. Retweet other people’s posts, answer/ask questions, click other people’s links, check out their blog posts and leave comments on their blog and social sites. Blog comments are indexed in Google search so any comments you leave with your web site in them (there’s usually an option to fill it in) creates a backlink and can improve your site’s SEO. Now that’s what I call reciprocity!

Warning: When leaving comments on other people’s blogs make sure that you don’t forget the next rule.

Be Genuine

I can’t rant enough times about how important this is. Lack of sincerity and selfishness are easily spotted so don’t even bother with half-hearted attempts to seem interested in others. People can read you like a Facebook!

This ties into “listening more than you speak” but the important difference here is to ensure you are radiating positive energy and not blatantly selling. People want to know they are talking to a real person that cares or they are just going to stop talking to you, stop listening to you and possibly even deleting you altogether.

Be Generous

Give away some of your best content and knowledge for free. The reason for this is that you will immediately begin to attract people within your target market and build the relationships with them that creates excitement and builds your brand in the process.  Plus you’ll leave them wondering how great your paid services and content must be!

Use tools like SocialMention.com and Twitter Advanced Search to find people that are talking about your industry, brand or product and answer any questions you can find. Always be willing to help, be kind, share great content and all that you should ask or expect in return, is that they share it.

A Few Ways to Spread the Love

1. Retweets (Twitter)

2. Sharing someone’s blog post and mentioning them (Twitter)

3. @Mentions (Twitter)
4. Tagging or mentioning someone in a post (Facebook)

5. Simply commenting and “liking” posts (Facebook)
6. Sharing a post on your wall (Facebook)

7. Inviting friends to RSVP to and event or “like” a page (Facebook)

8. Commenting on blog posts

9. Sharing a post on Google +

10. Subscribe to a YouTube channel, comment on videos

11. Liking a post or comment in a LinkedIn group or status update

What are some of the ways you like to get exposure on social media? Likes? +1? Retweets? Let us know in the comments below.

Melonie Dodaro is an entrepreneur and the author of The MindBody FX Lifestyle and 28-Day Fat Blast. She is a regular contributor to several social media and business magazines and speak internationally about social media for business. Her business, Top Dog Social Media, helps businesses and service professionals use social media marketing to grow their visibility and profits.

It’s affirming to know that perennial wisdom endures even the trying times. It embodies what’s true, which is the thruline running through your life, the warp and the woof of everyday moments.

Here are three areas of your life, that will experience the Gratitude Effect:

1. Who You Are.  You come to discover a ‘You’ you never knew before. One of light, love and Life! A capacity to easily let go and lighten up; to enjoy and be in joy. You’ll come to discover the infinite ways in which you gift the world; the difference you make and being YOU shifts everything.

2. How You Relate. You come to know that there is NO separation between you and anything. Everything and everyone will sparkle with aliveness and potential. You discover the infinite expression of Source and relish each and every one. You marvel at the infinite nuances of partnership and how it’s SO much more to play with others who share an aligned intention.

3. What’s True. You come to experience the heart beat of Life, the pulsation of Source as it breathes and brings you into being. You understand that the come and the go are wondrous and exciting to experience, but your Essence rests in the Embrace of the stillness of spaciousness. There is nothing for you to do, nothing to be, you ARE a miracle and your Life is a wondrous experience.

Once you experience the quantum shifts in these 3 areas, EVERY THING in your life changes. As the bandwidth of your understanding and experience evolve. So do you. That’s how shifts happen!

Adela Rubio is a joint venture strategist and expert tribe builder. She has hosted and produced over twelve virtual events, with more than 100+JV partners. She teaches community leaders and creative change agents how to build authority, increase visibility and position their message powerfully online, through the power of joint ventures and experiential online events.

Today is the day that the Women Business Owners Network is being relaunched.

This community has been created and designed and then redesigned with you in mind.  I talked with so many women who expressed to me that the two biggest things that were keeping them from reaching the next level of success in their businesses…

Carol is a frequent radio, television and print media contributor on the topics of business and entrepreneurship, appearing regularly on Fox Business, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and more. Additionally, Carol’s blog at CarolRoth.com was recently named as one of the Top 10 small business blogs online and she was named a 2011 Top 100 Small Business Influencer.  Carol is a contributing blogger to outlets like The Huffington Post and Crain’s Chicago Business/Enterprise City and is the only business strategist with a fashion doll made in her likeness.

Ms. Roth holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania where she graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Just this morning as I was driving my 12-year old son to school, I found myself apologizing to him that I had gone to work out while he was getting ready for school. I knew if I didn’t go work out this morning, I wouldn’t get it in today. I was torn, though. I felt guilty I didn’t stay at home tending to his needs. On the other hand, I want to make sure to stay fit and there is no better way for me to de-stress. Feeling like you need to be in two places at once never allows you to enjoy the place you are. The “back and forth” nature of this guilt thing does serious damage to the soul. And yet… we continue to wrap ourselves in that well-worn blanket. Sometimes familiarity seems to be the best we can do.

I do believe there is another way, though. Deep down the guilt we feel is really fear… fear that we are not enough – especially not “good” enough. It is fear that we are selfish for pursuing what we love. It is fear that we give people (especially family) reason not to love us and be proud of us. Lets face it… as women we have a lot of expectations put on us – how we are supposed to act, look, talk, be, do. It can be exhausting. We have careers, we have commitments, we have projects… All too often, it is easy we choose one of two paths when the exhaustion hits: completely shut down or “grin and bear” it, forcing ourselves to go another round of being everything to everyone.

The key to remember about us is that we define ourselves by our relationships. If our relationships are not okay, then we are not okay. We may have a career, volunteer jobs, and the like, but at the end of the day our relationships take center stage in the realm of our heart.

Knowing this then, we can have hope. Our hope is that we are fully capable (we have the power) of setting reasonable expectations and boundaries for ourselves in our relationships. And the word “reasonable” is really key. Then, we should go about the business of attending to that which fills our heart with joy. That means lots of different things to different women. But first and foremost it means giving ourselves grace to do and be that which stirs our soul. Everything else is a mere shadow to those ends.

We have to own this: we cannot – nor do we want to be — everything to everyone.

In addition, we must own that there is no shame in us wanting to be successful in endeavors that move us inwardly toward joy. The “guilt blanket” we wear doesn’t help us in moving toward joy. When you feel guilt/fear, I want you to ask yourself, “Why am I really feeling this?” Sometimes it can be a good indicator that something is amiss. Sometimes it can be a particular person that makes you feel that way. It might be that you have unrealistic expectations of yourself. Be honest with yourself and then… give yourself grace. You deserve it.

I remember something a much wiser “seasoned veteran” of this womanhood thing once told me when I was young and embarking on my journey: “Remember, honey… it really is okay to ask for help.” I understand that way more now than I did then. I – and you – only have so much to give. Taking care of ourselves MUST head the top of the priorities list. From there, everything else flows that way it should.

Trade that blanket in for something better… something… right. That “right” thing is a healthy belief that you are good enough already, at peace with reasonable expectations, and you are worth it. Those are the convictions worth wrapping your story in.

Kristi has been a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist since 2000 and has worked in private practice, specializing in the areas of marital therapy, parenting, women’s issues and trauma. In addition, she gives community resource support to kids and families at the local Boys & Girls Club and serves on the Board of the Idaho Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. A dynamic speaker and presenter, Kristi brings out in people and groups the ability to see things in a new perspective through her honesty, humor and passionate stories.

How did you start your 2012? I’ve been busy all day purging and cleaning and organizing! Some of it was from the holidays and some of it was “incompletions” and long-standing to do’s I’ve been wanting/meaning to get to. Boy, does it ever feel so good to have a majority of those things taken care of! I’m so happy those things cleared from my energy and not bring the heaviness and disruption of it into 2012.

As a business owner (or aspiring one), I hope you took some time today/this weekend to review 2011 and start planning for 2012. I have been doing this for the past few days and will continue when I meet with my business coach, Pamela Bruner, in a couple of weeks for our MasterMind retreat.

When I finally got smart and hired my first business coach (this should be a priority for you this year if you don’t have one), she taught me one essential planning tool right away that I implemented and has made a huge difference for me in my planning and organizing of my time and events.

I was planning to create a fun video about it, but a cough and laryngits makes that not a great idea, so instead I’m writing and posting pictures.

What is this “magical” planning tool?

A Year-At-A-Glance Wall Calendar.

This is my fresh new one for 2012, which I’ll begin writing on after I finish this blog post.

Below is my one from last year, all marked up, and hanging above my desk for easy glancing and writing.

Here are some tips for purchasing and using it:

1. Purchase from an office supply store like Office Depot, Office Max, Staples (about $24).

2. Get one that looks just like this (you can also find in “landscape” size, if having it horizontal versus vertical works best for your wall space). Make sure it has all 12 months on one side and large squares for writing in. Mine has some planning space on the other side, but since I have it on the wall, I never use that side.

3. Get one that is laminated and erasable. You can either use dry-erase or wet-erase markers.

4. I recommend getting at least 4 different colored markers. I use different colors to code different events.

• Speaking engagements
• Networking events
• Educational events (training, telecalls, calls/meetings with my coach & mastermind partners)
• Marketing/promotional events (like teleclasses you are promoting and running, a product launch and marketing activities, the days your blogs/ezines are due)
• Other (like date taxes or other important bills are due, or other business-related events/activities that don’t fall into the other categories)
• Personal (I put both my business activities and my personal activities on the same calendar to make sure I don’t get into conflicts between the two; remember, you have to have a life outside of your business! [And if you don't you definitely need a coach]).

5. Include a short description, time, and even location

6. Start off by filling in ongoing events, for example, your monthly BNI or other networking meetings. I know all my scheduled times with my coach and mastermind group for the rest of the year so I will fill those in, too. I also like to put important peoples’ birthdays on my calendar. If you plan vacations at certain times, go ahead and fill those in, too.

7. Once you’ve done that, you can hang it on the wall (I use BluTack, which is like sticky putty that you can find in most stationery isles (Target, KMart, office supply stores, etc. Pull about a nickel-size piece off and put on be back of each of the 4 corners.). Make sure it’s someplace easily accessible so you can write on it as you set up new events or projects.

As we go through this coming year, make sure to read my weekly blog posts (Mondays, Wednesdays (sometimes a guest blog), and Fridays) for more tips on ways to plan and run your business to make it profitable and fun! If you’re not on my subscriber list, be sure to sign up for the RSS feed or register to receive my free audio, “The 3 Keys You MUST Master (No Matter What the Economy Is Doing)” which will also put you on my subscriber list to receive them automatically as a weekly digest.

You can also receive and read them by following me on Facebook, Twitter or Linked In. Just click on the icon(s) located in the right-hand column of any page on my website. I look forward to helping you make 2012 your most successful yet!

Your partner in success,

Lisa Smith
Marketing, Mindset & Manifesting Coach
www.MarketingMindsetAndManifesting.com