I was reading an article about people's individual beliefs and it had me thinking...

I'm so opinionated on some topics, but not on others - and I really don't know why. When I grew up, I wasn't entitled to an opinion, and it wasn't part of our household to share our opinions on any topic. In fact, quite the opposite. In many ways, children should be seen and not heard.

Instead, I spent my time listening. Not talking. Not contributing. Just listening. I think that started a foundation where I sway from not saying too much to going over the top and participating too much. Then to now, where I think I have a healthy balance, but tend to say a little more than I would normally, usually under the guise of being a content writer. 

Two years ago, I hired a family member in my business. It was the best decision I ever made, simply because for selfish reasons, I was able to see her more than I would if she didn't work for me.

Ashleigh Cameron started out fresh from high school and while studying a Bachelor in Commerce Majoring in Marketing and Human Resources, she chose to come and work at our Marketing Eye Sydney office in the social media department.

And I totally agree. When I first started Marketing Eye, I built it from a perspective that there was no global player in SMB marketing. While this makes perfect sense, it didn't reach the pit of what I really wanted to achieve as a business person, or a leader for that matter. I also had not thought it through.

"I was doing something from a very real, a very honest place, so I think that's why I was able to build an audience," said Gwyneth Paltrow to Fast Company in a recent interview posted on Facebook.

Last week, I was sitting at the airport awaiting my flight. In the US, you can travel with your dog, so Pippa, my trusted companion, accompanied me to the lounge. As we took our seats there were two young women sitting to our right. They both smiled and I did my usual uneasy smirk and quickly avoided eye contact. It's something that I always do although I know that I shouldn't.

I decided to go and get some water and after much fussing from the staff, who were incredibly dog-friendly, I felt that Pippa would be okay while I walked away. She sat patiently watching my every move and while people were trying to get her attention, her stare remained fixed.

Finally when I arrived back, and she was suitably relieved, one of the young women asked about Pippa and gave her a pat... and then more pats. Pippa couldn't be happier and that opened the door for conversation. 

We discussed where we were from, what we do and all the normal things airport conversations conjure up. 

The young woman was Ellie Goulding. She was travelling with her school friend and personal assistant Hannah, who was equally delightful. 

I am sitting in my hotel room in Atlanta reading the New York Times, as I do most Sunday's.

For me, it's the best newspaper in the world, with no other comparing to the ability of the NY Times to cover intelligent, thought-provoking stories that are based on facts, rather than a publicist's spin or worse, a journalist that is just trying to make headlines.

As I read through the business section I came across this:

While a sex tape is a good way to get media exposure for some; Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton and alike - it's not the right way to get the type of media exposure to escalate your business's chance of being written about.

When I first started doing PR, I used to write a media release and fax it to a media outlet - all with varying results. The headline, like it is today, is worth it's weight in gold, and if you have a strong first paragraph, you may get that call back you have been waiting for.

That was soon followed up with 'pitching' on the telephone and depending on what mood the journalist was in or your ability to 'sell' a story to them, you either walked away with a published article or your press release was thrown in the trash can.

In 1998, the faxing part changed to emailing which was fantastic because it was a much faster and less tedious way of getting a media release out to journalists. It also was a much more environmentally friendly way to operate and allowed for changes to be made to ensure that each email sent out to a journalist was a one-to-one marketing piece rather than an everything to everyone, hit and miss style approach.

UPDATE: There were 70,000 plus views within 48 hours of publishing story.

Who would have thought that a blog titled "Why married women are more successful" would receive 54,256 views in less than 24 hours, 555 likes, 634 comments, 702 Facebook likes, 2,632 shares on LinkedIn and 79 retweets on Twitter? I did. And that's exactly why I wrote it. I am a new author on LinkedIn and I know a thing or two about blogging and going viral. If I just write about marketing, at most, I will get between 1,000 and 10,000 views over a week. If I write about something personal - more. But if I write about something that people have strong opinions on or that hits a raw nerve - the sky is literally the limit.

On Saturday, I received a call from my friend Samantha, that her former colleague had just committed suicide. She was in shock and needed to take stock - and rightfully so. 

Charlotte Dawson's name only became known to me through the media about "trolls" bullying her on Twitter. At the time, the media was reasonably supportive of her plight, but columnists and bloggers including myself were on the fence. If you took time to read the dialogue well before it became public you may have an opinion that some of the things that she had openly said about other people were not so nice either, and as an adult, some of the insults that flew back to the "cyber bullies" were something that you would be horrified about in a school yard. 

Now, that doesn't mean that cyber bullying is acceptable - as it is not. I too have been prone to have a few trolls pass both of my Twitter accounts which combine amount to 41,000 followers, on some topics that I have chosen to write about on this blog, namely the one on how women can help their man be more successful. Apparently, I am stuck in the 50's but the trolls took it a little bit further and threw a few distasteful words my way. I politely replied to some (not all) with "Thank you so much for sharing your opinion. I respect everyone's point of view and perspectives." It stopped within 24 hours, only after my website had more than 100,000 visitors. 

There is not a small business on the planet that hasn't heard of Twitter, yet many are still failing to execute a social media strategy that cleverly integrates Twitter as a social media platform designed to connect and communicate key messages.

Co-founder Jack Dorsey, a 36 year old tech titan, and now CEO of small business payment technology, Square, has built his billions on knowing what small businesses want and need. Square is the fastest growing small business payments technology in the world today, and through his small business meetings in Town Halls throughout the US, Canada and Japan, #letstalk, he is educating small business owners to talk and support each other, rather than work alone.