In our youth-obsessed culture, an unlikely hero emerged: Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III, the valiant pilot that safely ditched US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson. It was the ultimate touchdown. In a matter of days the captain scored nearly 305,000 Facebook fans. Rock star status, for sure.

But as tales of his heroism continue to unfold, one thing is obvious. Capt. Sullenberger’s masterful landing comes from 40-plus years of skill sets and experience – attributes that only come with years of experience. At a time when corporations large and small lay off mid to senior level execs, and when people in their fifties, sixties and above, work hard to disguise their age when hitting the job market so that they can continue to support their families, Capt. Sullenberger – graceful and confidence-inspiring in uniform and, yes, with his white hair – presents the best argument against ageism.

Companies today face scores of challenges: Navigating the rising costs of operations, tight credit markets, depreciating real estate and other investments, increasingly expensive health care coverage, to name just a few. At a time when businesses seek to cut costs, talent may be the first to go, especially those with more than a couple of years under their belt who command high salaries.

And yet, there’s the image of Capt. Sullenberger. Experienced, calm, reassuring. He was the last to get off the plane, after confirming there was no one left on board. In uncertain and even downright frightening times, it’s the steady hand of a skilled and practiced veteran righting the ship and ensuring his passengers’ safety that inspires faith and trust.

Lesson learned? Try to bring that poise to your own business world. Attain the help of someone who’s been around the block a couple of times, and you will likely build your own fan base among those who matter most to the survival of your organization: Your colleagues, partners, and customers.

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ADINA GENN is an award-winning journalist recognized with several press club awards for her news and feature work. She is the co-author of “Everything I Know About Business I Learned at McDonald’s: The 7 Leadership Principles that Drive Break Out Success” (McGraw-Hill, http://mcdonaldsbook.mhprofessional.com/apps/ab/)
“So, You Want to Franchise Your Business” (Entrepreneur Press, http://www.entrepreneurpress.com/cgi-bin/books/00360.html) and “The Everything Fundraising Book” (Adams Media, http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Guide-Fundraising-Book-sponsorships/dp/1598698230/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232217154&sr=1-1). In April 2007, she was named the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Journalist of the Year.

Image via WikipediaIt’s amazing how many things can go wrong in one weekend! For starters, on Friday, I find out that my mother was in Panera Bread with my sister in Florida and put her hand under the table. Apparently there was a nail sticking out and her skin was ripped off her hand, exposing the bone. She was rushed to the hospital for stitches. They couldn’t put stitches on it because the skin was too thin so they glued it back on.

Later on that day, I get a call from my doctor. “I think I found the cause of your numbness,” he said. “Your insulin levels are extremely high and you can no longer eat bread or any other carbs!”

But, that’s all I eat, I was thinking…. I decided that I would go to the supermarket on Saturday to buy low carb items.

Then on Saturday at 8 am, I get a call from my sister-in-law, “Mom fell on Thursday on the ice and she is totally bruised up. Her face is all swollen and black and blue!”

Now, I’m really upset. First my mother, then me, then my mother-in-law!

After my son’s baseball lesson in Freeport, we took a ride to some of the local health food stores. My good friend joined my son and I. Each store, I was getting more and more depressed. Did you ever look at the labels of food products and notice the Carbohydrate levels? Everything has carbs, except proteins like meat, fish, poultry, eggs and some veggies! (Now, I’m not going to have a choice but to lose weight!)

I walked away buying very few products.

That night to top it all off, my son and I went to the Islanders/Devils game at the Nassau Coliseum. Not only was it absolutely freezing outside, but the Islanders were playing so bad that all I could do was shake my head! What a weekend!

The clincher was this morning, when I woke up. I looked outside and it was snowing. It looked like a blizzard! My head was pounding and I was supposed to get together with an old friend that I reconnected with on Facebook. I hadn’t seen this woman in more than 15 years and was so looking forward to seeing her today with her sons. I decided to reschedule, so I sent her a message on Facebook. Since she didn’t respond, I called her cell and spoke with a boy who I thought was her son. I told him that I needed to reschedule and to have his mother call me.

When I didn’t hear from her, I wondered if she was mad at me. At about 2 pm (we were supposed to meet at 1:30 pm), she called my cell. “You got my messages? Right???” I asked her.

“No, what message?” she said.

“Don’t tell me you are at our meet up place,” I said.

“Yes, I am….” she said.

Now, I’m feeling awful. I can’t believe that I’m standing up someone who I really wanted to see! She apparently never got my messages. About five minutes later, I called her back and told her that we would meet her there (even though my headache was getting worse and worse and aspirins were not helping!). But, she said she was already gone!

I called my niece and told her what happened. She turned around and told me that when she went into the garage to go out last night, it was totally flooded. “Water was spurting everywhere,” she said. “I had to shut off all the water in the house, I went out, came home and now I’m waiting for the plumber. All I want to do is take a shower!”

Boy, this was some weekend…. It’s amazing how when one thing goes wrong, everything goes wrong….

Yesterday morning, my car was covered in snow. It was 18 degrees out and my son volunteered to take the snow off the windows. He did a really good job and when he got to the back window, he made a smiley face. I started to laugh. It’s little things that make life wonderful!

Here’s a smiley face for you to make you smile today….

Image via CrunchBaseYou’ve heard about Twitter, but do you know how to use it to build brand awareness and visibility for your business?

Twitter is one of the fastest growing micro-blogging tools out there! According to Nielson online, Twitter recorded 2.3 million unique visitors in August (US-only), an increase of 422% from the same period last year. Twitter users spend 55% more time on this site, with an average of 7 minutes per user. Many are using third party clients for their postings like Twhirl and Tweetdeck.

What’s micro-blogging? Micro-blogging is a shortened version of a blog. You have 140 characters in which to write your thoughts. Some people use a micro-blog to express their thoughts at the moment, discuss what they are doing or they promote a concept or idea.

Once you sign up for Twitter, create a profile and build your home page, you can start to follow people around the world.

You would be surprised who is on Twitter — entrepreneurs, large corporations, social media gurus, CNN, Newsday and even LI Business News! The media use Twitter to collect sources and get story ideas.

Large corporations use Twitter for branding their products. Dunkin’ Donuts is a good example. They are on Twitter and throughout the day they micro blog about new muffins, new products and when they have specials. During the Holiday season they “pitched” their gift cards, which sold at record rates.

Zapps.com, another example, is an online shoe retailer, selling discount designer shoes. They went on Twitter in the early years. (Twitter was formed in March 2006.) This was their post on December 25, 2008:

“This morning, Zappos hit $1 billion in gross merchandise sales for the year. Back in 2003, we originally set the goal to do it by 2010. 1:23 PM Dec 25th from web”

How did this happen? Twitter was a big part of it. I use twitter to promote our clients, my blog and other things happening at HJMT COMMUNICATIONS, LLC and have found it to be a useful and vital marketing tool.

The best part about Twitter, is that it’s portable. You can Tweet from anywhere! You punch in a code into your mobile phone and send an SMS or Text Message and the post will appear on your Twitter page!

Once you start to tweet, you will find that you will start to build a network of friends or a community that you can draw upon their expertise and build business relationships.

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This article will be appearing in Long Island Business News January 16th edition. 

Image via WikipediaSince I started using Twitter almost a year ago, I have seen lots of new and creative ways to use it. I have seen companies branding themselves, media seeking sources, strangers with similar interests planning “tweet-ups” and even seen breaking news like earthquakes and terrorist attacks being reported live via this ingenious networking tool. But one thing that was a first to me, was reading “tweets” (what Twitter calls the short messages people post) about a couple getting engaged on Twitter!

After further investigation and immediately adding both parties to my followers, I found out that @Grobertson (Grant Roberston of Download Squad) did indeed ask @film_girl (Christina Warren) to marry him via a twitter post. She was attending the MacWorld convention and he just couldn’t wait to ask her. The tweet read this: “@film_girl i just can’t wait one minute longer to ask you this. Will you marry me? i want to share the rest of our lives together.”

She said yes (obviously) and the rest is history. Although this allegedly wasn’t the first proposal on Twitter, it was the most publicized one by far. The story was “retweeted” (or reposted by different users) and was also written up by dozens of bloggers, tagged on the social bookmarking site Digg ( http://digg.com/tech_news/Twitter_Marriage_Proposal_Bloggers_In_Love) and even written up here ( http://www.examiner.com/x-1782-Philadelphia-Marriage-Examiner~y2009m1d10-Will-You-Marry-Me-Twitter-Proposal-Yes-Yes-Yes-Twitter-Answer) by the Examiners marriage columnist.

The reactions by the blogging community was mixed. Some thought it was romantic, some cheesy, some just plain geeky. Have we become so dependent on internet communication that the notion of getting down on one knee will soon be a thing of the past, or was this just a creative way for two techies to get engaged in a non-traditional way? Personally, I think it’s kind of cute and after reading up on them both it seems like it suits who they are. What do YOU think?