Michele: Think about what you’re most passionate about, what you want your brand to be (if you don’t already have one), and try to come up with a username (and avatar) that you’ll use across the various Social Media sites—a username that will stick in reader’s minds, and represent who you are as a business, and a person. People know me as MicheleT because that’s my name; they quickly came to know me as Raw Juice Girl because I’m always writing, chatting, or blogging about raw juices and how they’ve changed my life. It’s who I am—and you know it. I never dreamed my desire to share my heart openly and honestly, my passion for writing, and my enthusiasm for raw food, juice and its healing benefits would bring me to where I am today.

Michele: Also, I can’t stress enough that you just want to be yourself. You’d be surprised how well others respond to YOU as a person. Be yourself, share your heart, and success follows that—not the other way around, in my opinion. (Of course, I never said I’m always right!)

Michele: Wow. I don’t even know how to answer this question. I mentioned above that some days I write 14-15 hours a day. During a lot of that time, I’ll have several tabs open while I’m researching online and I’ll jump back-and-forth between tabs. I’m not hanging out there all day like some people may assume. I’m actually popping in to share a link or say hi, just to give myself a mental break for a few minutes and then I pop out as quickly as I popped in and I’m back to writing or researching.

Michele: I do think it’s a huge influence and extremely beneficial because (like you mentioned in your intro to this interview), word-of-mouth is key. A lot of people have learned who I am. They know they can email or tweet and ask me something and I’ll answer as soon as I can with an honest opinion. If I don’t know, I say just that. Or, I direct them to someone or a site who does. Social Media and networking also drives a lot more traffic to your site than if you just blogged away all day without ever commenting on another blog or tweeting a link.

Michele: And the key to networking, I’ve found, is in the old saying most of us heard growing up: It’s far better to give than it is to receive. Share relevant links from other blogs or websites and quotes way more often than you share links to your own posts or articles. Throw a ton of your genuine personality into the mix and you’ll have a successful—and very fun—networking adventure, I’m sure. I know I do!

Michele: First, I think you’re totally cruel for asking this question!

Michele: Well, considering I take away different things from different Social Media Networks, this is a very difficult question.

Michele: I guess I could answer it in two parts: one answer for personal reasons; one answer for the business side of things.

Michele: [Personal] If I had only one Social Media site for personal use, I’d choose to keep Plurk. Why? Because, while I enjoy Facebook and Twitter, Plurk has more of a… well, almost small town community feel to it. I love how the drop-down response system works on Plurk. It’s more like mini blog posts with a comment section, and seems more suited for warm conversation you can keep track of, than other sites.

Michele: [Business] I’m torn on this one as well because although I do receive traffic from Facebook and Plurk, it’s Twitter and StumbleUpon that bring in about the same amount of traffic for me—which is quite a bit. Sometimes traffic floods in from both these sites until it amazes me, really. But, since I’m always thinking more with my heart than anything else, I’d have to go with Twitter, even for business. Why? Because I feel like Twitter allows the business person the opportunity to continuously show their personality in the tweets. Like I mentioned above, you can share links in tweets (which will give followers an idea of your interests/what you like to read) and also quotes (which also gives followers a glimpse of who you are), and then you can also share whatever is on your mind. You can mention you’re traveling somewhere and that may result in meeting a new client at the location you mentioned. Twitter allows the business person to promote and represent their business while showing that they’re real human beings. And I have well over 1,000 followers on both my Twitter accounts (@MicheleTune and @RawJuiceGirl), my largest following of any of my Social Media accounts. So, yes, Twitter for business.

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