When you're looking to develop and idea or simply just need advice, sometimes you don't always have to look too far. That person can be right beside you. Take for instance, my wife, Loren Ridinger, the queen of networking.  Not only does she spend a great deal of time blogging, but you can also find her on Twitter (a lot). When she's not connecting with friends and other business associates, she's supporting them by retweeting their content or responding to messages.

Not only has social media helped her to stay connected with a lot of people, but it has also helped her meet new ones by sharing advice with them.  Just recently, she was featured in the New York Post, where she shared her advice on living in New York along with design tips with readers. Not only am I extremely proud of her, but I'm also very supportive. Being supportive can go a long way.

In fact, just by showing your support, it can be a source of happiness, personal happiness that is.  By getting behind someone, not only does it make them feel great, but it gives you a great sense of accomplishment too.

Now in days if you own a business, have a product to promote or want to communicate with your friends social media should be knocking on your door.  It may seem overwhelming, it may seem time-consuming, even a bit worrisome.  But in reality, being available on this medium for your fans, followers and customers doesn't have to be a burden.  With the right tools you will be communicating with friends, prospects, family members and customers on real time and right away and this year will be no different at Market America.   We are hoping to communicate with everyone through various social media strategies and network to keep you in the loop of what is happening in real time. Make sure all of you have your Twitter handles and Facebook set up on your phones, ipads, ipods or labtops.  You will be using them!

Today I will be going live on Bloomberg TV "Street Smart" discussing my company Market America's acquisition with shop.com.  The show captures the day's top market-moving stories, trends and investors news.  Hosts, Carol Massar and Matt Miller turn to the top names in business and finance for behind-the-numbers commentary and insight.  The show features interviews with C-suite executives, analysts and top money managers and strategists.  Bloomberg Television is viewed predominantly by adults interested in daily business news.  34% of Bloomberg's audience has a household income of over $100,000.

Did you know that 8% of the American adults who use the internet are Twitter users and its activity is most popular with young adults, minorities and those who live in cities.  Twitter launched on July 15, 2006 now claims tens of millions of users worldwide, it has become one of the most popular online activities among tech enthusiasts and has become a widely used tool among analysts to study the conversations and interest of users, news, products or services, and announcements by commercial, non-profit and government organizations.

About two weeks ago we held my company Market America held our 2nd Internet Training Seminar to over 300 attendees.  Our field was able to gain first hand experience on how to use Social Networking sites such as Facebook & Twitter, SEO tricks & tips from our experts and learn the power of social media and social shopping from our "tech guru" and Chief Technology Office, Michael Brady.   It is always important that after each seminar you follow up with what you have learned and apply it to your every day routine.  Remember social media is a paradigm shift and we must be prepared to in all aspects when it comes to building your business and future!

~Keep Growing JR

Remember those days when you "googled" people and you often said "google" me?  How many times have you said look me up on Facebook or I will  send you the photos via Facebook or why don't you just recruit on Facebook.  Now in days it seems that Facebook is officially setting out to become your homepage.  What is the first thing you check in the morning, is it your Facebook account or do you log on to Google?  Why search on Google when Facebook can bring you all in one.  Google can't show you what your friends are up to, it can't show what your sister just bought at the mall or how many "like" buttons your Facebook friends clicked.  And, I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. So, why are we taking the time out of our busy daily lives to tell our friends what we are doing and what we want?

Here’s a speed summary of this week’s article <http://www.economist.com/node/16994870>  in the Economist on social commerce, “Online shopping: Selling becomes sociable”.  Good fodder for convincing the CXO that your retail strategy needs to go social.

Social commerce is basically a version of electronic commerce that utilizes social media and online media to create a social interaction with contributions from users, to connect and streamline the buying and selling of products online. Consumer reviews are generally more trusted than reviews that come from manufacturers, as they appear less biased. By coupling consumer viewpoints with e-commerce, a new social network is created, allowing for the consumer to review different viewpoints and present their own on a given commerce website.

According to Tiff News 10 in Singapore Asia are building a stronger presence on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter which have traditionally been dominated by people in the Western world. As reported by AFP, the move is stated to present new marketing opportunities online on a commercial scale. China alone has a over a purported 220 million bloggers.Social media guru Thomas Crampton, Asia-Pacific director of Ogilvy Public Relations’ global social media team, is quoted in the report as stating of the impact on advertising, “Asia is… the most exciting part of the world for what’s going on in social media.”

Blake Chandlee, Facebook’s commercial director for regions outside North America and western Europe, is further quoted as stating, “The Asian market’s a very, very big market for us… It’s an enormous opportunity for us.”  It is also for us at Market America :)

~Keep Growing JR

Congratulations to @aprilbowers23 for winning my first Retweet contest! Thank you all for entering and please check back for future giveaways!  April, please send me your e-mail address so we can send your gift card. E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Retweet JR Contest

As part of our Social media and Social networking iniative I am launching my first Twitter contest.  The rules are simple:

Follow me on Twitter @jrridinger . I will be sending out a special message everyday for a week with code #JRMA .  Just for retweeting me you will enter to win a $200 American Express gift card.

The winner will be selected Thursday August 19th at 1pm via Twitter.

Happy Retweeting! JR

Market America International Convention was a resounding success! I saw a crowd of hungry, open-minded, passionate and ready entrepreneurs eager to learn. The social networks engines were firing and the social media presence was felt like never before!

Over 1500 guests attended the social media breakouts, Twitter was over capacity, AT&T lines were jammed, Google broadband down, the world was buzzing with the #marketamerica hashtag.