If you are a regular listener you already know Ken Herron and I do our best to keep you on top of trends, new tools and applications, and marketing tips – all for the purpose of helping you take advantage of digital technologies and social media to grow your business. Today is no exception, but our hottest topic today is a real life scare one of my friends experienced yesterday when his LinkedIn profile was hacked. Imagine if you lost control of your profile and had no way to let your connections know or even be able to communicate with LinkedIn. Tune in to hear what happened and what you can do to avoid the same problem. Another hot topic today that has the twitter-sphere abuzz is #BlindingWhite – notice anything different on your profile today? Something’s missing and Twitter is pretty tight-lipped about why. On a positive note, Twitter introduced their new Twitter Safety Center (LinkedIn, are you paying attention?). Special guest is Ben Towers, CEO and Co-Founder of SocialMarley, the social media companion for small businesses. Hear directly from Ben the vision behind it and reason you may want to jump on board. Our second guest is Marina Krizman, director of social media for Lone Hotel in Croatia. She will share what it’s like to manage social media networks for a hotel, her approach for content creation and more.

It was almost a year ago that I met John Harmata at the APSS Conference in Philadelphia. His wit, wisdom, and personal journey as an entrepreneur and author inspired me and I know will inspire you today on The LinkedIn Lady Show. John Harmata, a.k.a. Mr. Edge, was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Working part-time had allowed him to pay his way through college where he earned a degree and certification as an X-ray technologist. John’s story of how he became a successful entrepreneur started with a friend who introduced him to the skating business. I will let him tell you about how his medical training and passion for the sport of skating led to his techniques resulting in reduced skating injuries and overall improvement in skating performance. John is the author of the award-winning book Anatomy of a Figure Skating Injury. His story will be an inspiration to fledgling as well as experienced entrepreneurs. John will share how and why he got started with his own business, how he overcame obstacles along the way, the road to profitability, and his sage advice for wanna-be business owners and authors.

It’s Wednesday and of course Ken Herron and I have an amazing show lined up for you. If you haven’t caught live-stream video fever, then today’s news will do the trick. Underdog Meerkat made a giant leap ahead of Periscope this week with the announcement of its new relationship with Facebook’s social graph. Plus a neat feature to allow your viewers to ask questions live by giving them the ‘mike’ for up to 60 seconds. Now let’s go back to where we left off last week. New Panel App – Alternative to LinkedIn? Anonymous peer network? So what exactly is Panel? We are thrilled to welcome co-founder and CEO, Brandon Ward to the show. He will share his vision, the details you need to know, and answer all our questions about this cool new App. And to keep the party going, we’ll tell you about Twitter’s new data dashboard, latest benchmark for LinkedIn publishing, and how to kill it with your presentation slides – inspired by SlideShare blog.

Nothing gives me more joy that to bring a guest to my listeners who can share expertise AND solid experience about how they use social media to market their brand. Today is that special guest. He is a friend, but more important to my listeners, he is a LinkedIn ninja and has mastered the management of groups. Steve Porcaro is a Business Coach and Mastermind Group Facilitator for medical device sales leaders and professionals. He works with companies to increase sales, leadership and business performance and productivity by using proven techniques to inspire, engage and enable the entire team. You can find him at SalesPlusMVP and you can hear him live today at 4 ET on All Business Radio Network. In addition to hearing his best tips that lead to his clients’ success, we will go deep on how Steve uses social media – specifically LinkedIn. I’ll be asking questions like how he got started managing his own groups, why LinkedIn is his preferred platform, and how the changes LinkedIn has (and is) making impact the utility and success of his efforts.

Today it is Ken Herron’s and my day to newsjack the headline and a top trending topic on Twitter. The story is about Paula Deen, but our message has less to do with the image that caused yet another firestorm, but the consequences for the social media manager who became the scapegoat. Right or wrong? Tune in to The LinkedIn Lady Show today at 4 ET to listen to our commentary and you make your own decision. Actually there is a ton of news on today’s show. Next question: Does Microsoft even still make smartphones…and if so, why? Twitter is now asking you for your birthday and not just the month and day; they want the year, too. Should you share it and what is the upside and what is the downside? Twitter has introduced new enhancements to their audience insights – makes your job as a marketer easier to reach your intended target market. Do you know why Instagram photos are getting bigger and better? Curious question given that screen sizes are getting smaller. We’ll explain. Next topic is a bit controversial: recent research shows that engagement has fallen in the 1st Quarter of 2015 on the big three sites: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Why, you ask? And what does this mean for the future of the granddaddies of social media?

I honestly don’t know if it makes it smaller, but it certainly brings amazing people a little closer. Today’s guest is a perfect example…I met her through social media and social media is responsible for exploding her career as an author. For over 15 years Maidstone author Miriam McGuirk wrote under the pen name of ‘Josie Maguire.’ On June 15th, at The Irish Writer’s Centre, Irish author Miriam McGuirk launched her first book of three under her own name. Titled Shattered Dreams and Scorpions at Midnight – a search for sanctuary – Volume 1. The Tales from Turkey series is a collection of short stories based on the everyday experiences of this talented and inspirational Irish lady. Incorporating Miriam’s Irish wit and zest for life, this humorous, emotive, honest, informative writing is based on Miriam’s true life adventures – her voyage to the South West Mountains of Turkey to grab the opportunity to turn her life around moving initially near the sea then a move to the mountains, living in an Eastern Culture. Miriam’s career in the restaurant, hospitality, health and fitness service industry ended abruptly with the diagnosis of M.E. eighteen years ago. Miriam took the chance to build a new life spending up to 5 months of the year in the South West Mountains of Turkey. In this healing, peaceful environment, she found her niche – becoming an author. She is living her dream of writing with a lot of heart and passion. In our conversation today, Miriam will share her journey, her inspiration, and her book series. And of course, we will explore how social media brought the world a little closer and is contributing to her success. You won’t want to miss this powerful show.

While I take a few days off, you are in good hands with Ken Herron. His special guest today is no stranger to The LinkedIn Lady Show. Peggy Anne Salz, named a Top 30 Mobile Marketing Influencer, is the chief analyst and founder of MobileGroove, a top 50 ranked destination providing analysis, custom research and strategic content marketing to the global mobile industry, and mentoring and consulting to tech startups. Peggy, is also a frequent Forbes contributor and a guest blogger for a variety of leading media outlets, including TNW, the Guardian and Techcrunch, where she shares her insights on mobile marketing, mobile apps, customer engagement and business innovation. She has written 300+ articles on mobile marketing, mobile search, social media and mobile industry news and developments, and nine books about mobile, both as a lead author and in partnership with global companies including Gemalto, InMobi, SAP Mobile Services and the Mobile Marketing Association. Her most recent book, Apponomics: The Insider’s Guide To A Billion Dollar App Business (InMobi, 2014) provides actionable insights into how companies can market and monetize their apps. Today they are going to share the latest trends for effective mobile marketing. This is no longer an option for businesses, but rather an essential piece of your business strategy. With the explosive growth in mobile device usage, you will be missing a significant market opportunity if you only rely on social media, websites, and traditional marketing channels.

While the majority of my shows are focused on using social media in business, today is a very special exception. I just returned from Blacksburg, VA attending a reunion of my high school Concert Choir. If you’re wondering how many years ago, let’s just say this very elite group of touring singers only existed from 1967 to 1970! Most of us had not seen each other since then. But the magic was extraordinary! Our Choir Director from high school was there with us and in addition to normal reunion events; we actually regrouped as a Choir, practiced music, and put on a mini-concert on Saturday night! Not to brag…but we sounded amazing! That’s not the whole point of today’s LinkedIn Lady Show. I am hopeful some of my classmates will be able to call in to share their own thoughts and experience, but the point of all this circles right back to the power of social media. Tracking 95 people down after so many years was a daunting task! In the end we had close to 40 attend the reunion, which exceeded everyone’s expectations. Without Facebook, it never would have happened, without tenacity, commitment, and good sleuthing skills, it never would have happened. So think about it – you want to have your own ‘reunion’ Maybe it is related to school, or maybe it is a group of former colleagues, clients, customers, or vendors. Whether Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Classmates, or other platforms, the world can truly stay connected.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get better, new live stream video tool, Periscope, ups their game. Today on the LinkedIn Lady Show, co-host Ken Herron and I will take away the last of your excuses for not trying live stream video as a way to market your business. Join us and we’ll tell you specifically how to use it effectively for your business – straight from Persiscope! In addition to live stream video, you are probably considering paid advertising on one or more of your social channels. Well take heart – Twitter and Facebook have been listening and both are offering new options to maximize your investment. More on the news front: Instagram rolls out new search and Explore designed to make discovery on Instagram immediate and effortless and with new Places Search, any place on the globe is within your reach. But we’re not done yet! New research confirms that millennials love video on social mobile channels, but do you know how to take advantage? Still using Facebook and curious about what users (those that remain loyal) are doing now?

Welcome back Ken Herron from your worldly adventures and our listeners can’t wait to hear lessons learned, new insights into global markets, and why social media has been slow to catch on in Singapore. While many US businesses may feel they are woefully behind you may be surprised to find out you are light years ahead of marketers in the Pacific Rim. Ken will explain and also inspire all listeners what you need to do to catch up. In the news this week, Twitter has updated Video Autoplay, sharing block lists and following conversations. May seem minor, but all good tweaks to make the site even better. Pinterest is also in the news – search just got smarter and Buyable Pins are just a couple of weeks away! If you are wondering how much time to spend on social media – it’s less than you think but probably more than you are currently committing. We’ll give you tips on not only how much time, but how to allocate your time to get the biggest benefit from your efforts. You know by now, you can force something to go viral on the Internet, but you can certainly stack the deck in your favor by doing things right and making your posts attractive to encourage sharing, retweeting, favoring, and commenting.