Date: August 2012

Today is my birthday. I have finally turned 39, a number that I have been using for quite some time, just to get use to it.

I woke up unexpectantly at 3am and have stayed awake ever since. Instead of going back to sleep, I looked out my window and soaked up the view of the parkland. I don't think I have ever seen it at 3am before. It was beautiful, peaceful and the perfect setting to the start of a new year in my life.

Yesterday at a breakfast hosted by Business Chicks, hundreds of women tweeted quotes from guest speaker Ita Buttrose.

The hashtag was #businesschicks and #itabuttrose. It's impact was for all to see, as the event was trending somewhere in the social media sphere and people who had never heard of Ita Buttrose from all over the world, were joining the 'trend' and retweeting tweets related to her speech. Such is the power of a #hashtag and of course, my favourite social media platform, Twitter.

What is a hashtag?

A #hashtag is a symbol or a metadata tag used on microblogging social networking sites Twitter, identi.ca and Google that is followed by a keyword phrase without spaces. It ties the conversations of different users into one stream, which you can find by searching the hashtag in Twitter search or by using a third-party monitoring tool like HootSuite.

All tags are case insensitive and can become trending topics if enough people start using it and virally spending the 'word'.

When trending goes viral

A hashtag can go viral very fast. Take for instance the re-launch of Big Brother. The tweeting went ballistic on Twitter and many popular tweets were displayed during the show. The hashtag #BB trended through the entire episode. Just like when #thevoiceau was on. It trended as did all of the judges. Who didn't tweet something about #joelmadden #keithurban #seal ?

What can small businesses do to get their messages across on Twitter with hashtags

It's hard to judge, but popular hashtags for small businesses are: #smallbusiness #entrepreneur #inspiration #success - make up your own one but make sure it is clever and you never know where it may go.

The reality is that on Twitter or any other medium it is not critical to 'trend' on a topic. What is important is the information that communicate and the story that those 160 characters tell.

Ita Buttrose is not only one of Australia's highest profile businesswomen, she is someone that I think most women would love to sit down and have a coffee with, me included. Starting her career as a coffee girl for Women's Weekly with no grand plan and no real aspirations, Ita Buttrose was the first to do many things other women before her had not done. She was the first woman to be appointed to the News Limited Board and was the Editor for Cleo magazine, the first offshoot for the Packer empire.

This morning she was the keynote speaker at Business Chicks, a networking event founded by entrepreneur Emma Isaacs. As I sat at a table hosted by PWC and next to two inspirational women; Melissa Bridge (founder of GXY Search) and former Jimmy Choo CFO and now an executive at PWC, Chelsie Harris, I was interested in what Ita had to say. Having not watched the telemovie about her life, Paper Giants, I was aptly impressed by her wit, self-depreciating mannerisms and intelligence.

Daunted by the prospect of another year clicking over, yet excited by the adventures ahead of me and what presents itself as opportunities and fulfilment of lifelong dreams. A birthday they say is to be celebrated, yet I am not sure that many feel the same way year after year once we pass our age-old milestones.

Yes, I will be considered a year older in a matter of days and it is reason for reflection.

I am not sure about today. You know, when you wake up and your sleep wasn't particularly restful, then you go to work and for a second, you have to remember why you are actually there.

There is absolutely no rest for the wicked!

An action packed weekend, filled with laughter, good friends, great food and a few bottles of french Bordeaux, it is fair to say, I am ready to get my teeth sunk in to the week ahead.

While it may seem all fun and games, it isn't always and is definately dependent on how you look at it.

Figures released last showed the worst retail growth in fifty years as consumers deserted shops again in the end of financial year sales.

The 1.6 per cent annual rise in spending is the worst result since 1961-62 - an era when there were no credit cards and shoppers used pounds, shillings and pence.

The Bureau of Statistics revealed sales for the normally strong month of June had fallen by 0.1 per cent, following an 0.6 per cent drop in May.

Here's my take...

I am not sure about you, but Jodie Foster is one of my all time favourite actresses. For me, she is an actress with integrity, talent and professionalism. Never has she sold her soul for a role and she is always the first to stand up for her friends. First it was Mel Gibson, then it was Robert Downey Jnr and now it is Kristen Stewart.

It may appear on the outset that Marketing Eye doesn't need a business turnaround specialist, and to some degree we don't. We make money, we continue to grow and enter new markets and we provide a service that small business owners need.

In fact, things are going so good, that this week alone, we achieved $79,480 worth of sales through our use of social media networks linkedin, twitter and the company marketing blog which you are reading right now. Not bad for a 3-hour a week investment!

I don't know about you, but egomaniacs scare the 'b'jesus out of me'. I am terrified of them, but still I find myself sucked into their web of soul destroying destruction.

As much as they are charming, good at 'selling a story' and surrounded by people, they are manipulative, obsessive and bullies.