Personal Accounts

P90X week 2

Interesting that today is Blue Monday, a day apparently named for the day when most people realized that they have not kept their New Year's Resolutions.

As for me, I finished Week 2 and started week 3 today of the classic P90X. I feel great!

The 2nd week did seem easier. Once I started taking a post workout protein recovery drink, my muscles don't seem to sore any more. I think I pulled an ab muscle so I was nursing it last week, but otherwise, I really do think I do the workout to get to earn the drink! I use chocolate flavored protein powder with banana, skim milk and plain yoghurt.

The program has 6 days on, 1 rest day for the first three weeks.
Chest and Back*
Plyometrics (cardio)
Shoulders & arms*
Yoga
Legs & Back*
Kenpo (karate moves)

* Ab ripper

I still am not strong in my upper body so once I get through day 1 with all those pushups I am good for the rest if the week.
Yoga: actually is pretty hard and particularly challenging when you are trying to see the proper technique when your head is between your knees!

I do enjoy the routine of working out one hour a day (with an extra 16 minutes of the AB ripper on alternating days). The weather outside has not been great so I haven't been able to go out for many runs.

Results: indeed. I have lost 6 pounds and 2.5", mostly from my waist. I haven't been doing the P90X diet; I just have been getting back to better eating after the holidays, so the holiday weight is gone!

It would be great to lose the last 10 pounds of my "happy honeymoon" weight by my 50th birthday in March do I can fit comfortably into all my clothes.

Here's to a successful Week 3 and hope you are also keeping up with your resolution.

If you want to give the program a try and are in reasonable shape I would recommend it. I have tried other programs but really wasn't that challenging. P90X delivers on that promise.
The one question I do have is what type of product Tony uses on his hair. It never moves!

In Praise of the Quickie...Breakfast

Our mothers were right, we really do need to eat breakfast to get a good start to the day.   When we "break" our "fast" overnight, we start to rev our metabolism for the rest of the day.  It can be a struggle to get Big D to eat breakfast in the morning, the trick seems to be getting him as soon as we wake in the morning and is off and running. 

A common complaint is that we don't generally have the time for the sit down breakfast we love to linger over on the weekend.  So we skip it all together or grab the ever so convenient over processed foods which are probably worse for you than skipping breakfast all together.

Planning ahead is key

In our household we tend to be planners so we can enjoy a great breakfast during the week, stocking whole wheat bagels, liquid egg whites and whole wheat bagels, eggs, and nutritious cooked cereals.  Red River Cereal which has flax and whole grains to give you the fiber you need.  It takes 10 minutes to prepare.

Instant Steel Cut Oats

Pictured here is the ultimate oatmeal, steel cut oats, or "Irish Oatmeal".  The less processing the healthier the oatmeal is for you, so you really should take a pass on instant oatmeal and  look for a bit of the Irish.  You should be able to find it in your local grocery store.    I bought my first batch in the can and just refill from our local bulk food store. 

It does takes longer to prepare than  most oatmeals, but to make it "instant", boil 4 cups of water, add 1 cup of oats and let sit in the fridge overnight.  Just reheat for a few minutes on the stove in the morning and you have got fuel for the rest of the day.

In Praise of Muffins

I love to make a fresh batch of muffins on the weekend and freeze for the rest of the week.  Even if I am rushed on the way to work, I have a great breakfast on the run which I can eat on the train along with my favorite travel mug.  I am a fan of applesauce, oats, bran  to make whole grain, low fat muffins to give you great fiber and complex carbohydrates.  Healthier and more cost effective than buying the oversized, oily muffins from your favorite barista. 

A few of my favorites:

1. Pamz Guilt Free Pumpkin Bran Muffins
2. Pamz Guilt Free Oat Berry Muffins
3. Pamz Healthy Cranberry Muffins:  these ones actually have Red River cereal in them.

Non Traditional Quick Breakfasts

I love the daily health advice offered by  Everday Health.  This post has some great ideas on quick and healthy breakfast ideas, healthier waffles, breakfast smoothies, and yes, there is even a version of pizza! http://bit.ly/zMETqO

So now there is no excuse not to eat your breakfast.

Countdown to 50: My P90X Challenge-Week 1

I received the uber trendy P90X set for my last birthday but while I tried a few DVDs on the odd day weather prevented me from taking a run outsite, never really took it seriously.  Every Christmas when my father starts planning our annual salmon fishing trip up around Alaska, I vow to spend the next six months working on increasing my upper body strength to help land the big ones.   So I have popped in the chest and arms DVDs on occasion to try to get in shape.  Now, with my 50th birthday facing me in the next couple of months, I thought now better than ever to get with the program.

I am a runner so am in general good shape, and inherited my mother's strong legs, but weak upper arms.   Having said this some elements of P90X are harder than others and I am sure that  everyone has their own body strengths and weaknesses.  Each session is about an hour long, but every other day you are treated to another 16 minutes of ab training...joy!

I am surprised I survived the first day since there were alot of pushups which is definatly a weakness and I was pretty stiff the rest of the day.   Tony does recommend a recovery drink and while I don't have the p90X drinks did heed the advice to help the muscles recover by digging into my supply of chocolate whey protein powder to mix up a well deserved post workout shake.

So week 1 is now done (6 days on, one day of rest) I am wondered what do to with my day off, go for a run...perhaps to the store to buy more extra strength Advil to help with the risidual muscles aches.

Here is a tip if you have lost your workout schedule or want to start again, a link to a site with free download..it is great to be given a second chance.

Pamz Rocking the Pot: Slow Cooker Apple Cider Beef Stew

I have mentioned this before, but I can't help but love southern cuisine I acquired when I lived in Atlanta.  The Southeners seem to excel in comfort food, often producing wonderful meals with unexpected flavours.   Our regular routine at home is to do "fridge maintenance" to ensure no perishable food goes untouched.  When I saw that I still had half a bottle of apple cider (left from my Christmas stuffing and gravy recipes) which was going to expire in another week, and some stew beef in the freezer, I was thrilled to come across some recipes online for apple cider beef stew.

The Slow Cooker: 

I hadn't pulled out the slow cooker in a while so decided to put together a stew for our Saturday night meal.  I haven't used my slow cooker in some time as I am usually around the house during the day and  prefer my dutch oven and the results that lots of simmer time on the stove or in the oven produce.  Slow cooker meals can turn out to  flavourless or have  too much liquid,  and while I have a few tried and true recipes, just not a fan of the slow cooker for the sake of using a slow cooker. The upside of slow cooker cooking is that you end up with one pot to clean at the end of the day, don't need to touch it all day long, and fill the house with tantalizng smells. 

Rocking the Pot Tip #1: Brown the Meat!  The most successful recipes I have tried over the years started with browning the meat first in a frying pan before putting into the crock pot.  You add a little liquid and flour with spices which help  produce a rich gravy.  I often see recipes where you just toss the meat in and thicken at the end...not quite the same richness in flavour.   Take the extra step.

Rocking the Pot Tip #2: Use what you have:  I started with the premise of finding a use for apple cider.  You can also make a sweet soup with butternut squash.  Be creative in your choice of vegetables, but think of root vegetables to take a while to cook.  We love parsnips so always have them on hand. I chop my potatoes in larger chunks since they tend to break down over the long cooking period.

Pamz Slow Cooker Apple Cider Beef Stew

Ingredients

2 lbs. stew beef, cut into 1 inch cubes

3 tbsp. flour

2 onions cut into small cubes

3 cups fresh apple cider (not juice)

2 cups beef stock

2 carrots cut into 1/2" cubes

3 potatoes (southerners don't peel their potatoes!) cut into quarters

3 sprigs fresh thyme

kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Method

1. Brown your meat in a large frying pan for 10 minutes, rotating so you get a good crust. 
2. Add onions and cook a few minutes to soften.
3. Sprinkle the flour over the beef and let cook for a minute.
4. Pour a 1/2 cup of  cider into the pan to  and cook for another minute to make a paste.  Add more cider to help deglaze and scrap all the bits off the bottom of the pan. 
5. Empty the contents into your crock pot.  If you wanted a head start you can do the first four steps the night before and chop all the vegetables.
6. Add the rest of the ingredients.  If you want a sweeter stew you can omit the beef stock, but I loved the deeper beef flavour.
7. Cook on low for 8 hours.

Pamz Special Occasion Seafood Pasta

I love to cook, and do enjoy the challenge of a complicated recipe, but I am always on the lookout for simple, yet fabulous dishes which combines wow with ease.  We had a busy month of travelling over the holidays so when we returned back home neither Big D or myself had any interest in any more socializing, and wanted New Year's to ourselves in our own home. 

I was looking for a healthy, light and memorable dish to send 2011 on its way (good riddance) and came across this lovely recipe from the  Food Network to add to my repoirtoire.  I made a few adjustments to suit what we had on hand and keep costs under control.  I used frozen seafood since we don't live on the coast and my husband is not a fan of scallops so I only used half.  This meal serves 4, but it worked well for us as  one great meal and a wonderful warm up leftover meal.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil (I happened to have chili infused olive oil)

2 large shallots, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

red pepper flakes

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 (28-ounce can) diced tomatoes

1 -2 pounds thawed frozen seafood* ( I used 1 pound large shrimp and 1/2 pound scallops, but you choose the seafood--i.e. calamari, lobster meat--you like best which cooks quickly)

2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 pound linguini; if you are a purist (Italian) use white; to keep healthy, use whole wheat pasta

Grated Parmesan, for serving

Method

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. 
2. Thaw the seafood and remove tails if you can't find large shrimp with tails off...a small chore, but not fond of having to take the tails off at the dinner table.
3. Add the olive oil to a large high-sided skillet over medium-high heat.
4. Add the shallots and garlic and saute until tender and fragrant, 3 to 4 minutes.
5. Stir in the red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
6. Add the white wine and the diced tomatoes.
7. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Add the shrimp and scallops, cover, and gently simmer for 5 minutes.
8. Drain the pasta and add directly to the skillet and toss with the pasta and seafood. Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley and grated Parmesan cheese.

Serves 4.

*read package directions for thawing, but generally you can thaw in the fridge for a few hours, or place in a colander and run cool water for a few minutes.  Remember you are looking for seafood that has been cooked but not in any other sauces.

 

 

 

A Southern New Year's Day Tradition: Hoppin John (Rice and Beans)

I was forunate to get a corporate transfer to live in Atlanta for a couple of years and thoroughly enjoyed the deep traditions associated with food.  It is no wonder tha Paula Dean is such a popular celebrity chef since Southern hospitality is as wonderful as the food.  With a little bit of work you can strip out alot of fat and sugar from many of these rich dishes, but luckily some are just plain good on their own and the ingredients are pretty cheap to come by.

One tradition I wanted to honor today was  Hoppin' John, which is essentially is a take on rice and beans, high in protein and fiber.  In the south it is served on New Year's Day since it is thought to bring luck and prosperity, and who wouldn't want more of that.   The main ingredient is black eyed peas,   symbolic of pennies or coins.  I understand that in some households, a coin is sometimes added to the pot or left under the dinner bowls.  If you add collard greens, turnip greens, kale or green cabbage, that adds to the wealth (green being the color of money, although in Canada our paper currency runs all sorts of colors).  In some areas you can also serve cornbread to also represent weath, as the color of gold.

Have left overs?  When you serve Hoppin John, the next day it is called, "Skippin' Jenny, and since you are stretching the meal to another day, you shall be rewarded by your frugality with even better chances for prosperity in the New Year. 

There are tons of recipes out there, this one was inspired by The Pioneer Woman Cooks, who lives in the country and not down south, but I am a country gal myself so I am a fan.

As I mentioned the ingredients are pretty inexpensive to come by and I pulled out a few ingredients from my freezer, including a ham bone from a cooked ham I had served around Thanksgiving which I was saving for soup. In the spirit of frugal cooking, you can use whatever you have on hand.  You can substitute chopped ham for the ham bone, canned peas for the dried or fresh black eyed peas.

Dried beans do take a while to soften up and I like to let the pot simmer on the stove and fill the house with wonderful smells, so if you aren't in a hurray, let nature do its work.  The flavours taste even better the next day.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
• 1 whole Large Onion, chopped
• 4 cloves Garlic, minced
• 2 cups of diced peppers (green, yellow, red, whatever you like)
• 2 stalks Celery, Diced
• 4 cups Soaked Black-eyed Peas (or 2 cans of black eyed peas which will shorten your cooking time)
• 1 box of  Chicken Broth (use low sodium if you can find it): about 5 cups
• 1  large can diced tomatoes
• 2 red jalapenos, finely chopped
• 1 whole Ham Hock
• 1 cup of cubed ham (if your family members aren't veggie-saurs)
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• Cayenne Pepper To Taste
• Tabasco sauce to taste
• 2 Tablespoons White Vinegar
• White Or Brown Rice, For Serving

Method

1. If you use dried black eyed peas, you will need to soak them overnight or at least 6 hours in cool water.  Rinse before using.
2. Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, peppers, and celery and stir. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Stir in soaked beans, then add chicken broth, ham hock, salt & pepper, and cayenne to taste.
4. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover the pot for 30 minutes.
5. After 30 minutes, check the liquid level; if it's too soupy, cook with the lid off for another 15 minutes or so. If it's too thick, splash in a little more broth. Leave the pot on the stove for hours if you like...the flavours will just keep blending in.
6. Stir in vinegar, then taste for seasonings. Add more spice if needed.
7. Serve over white or brown rice, making sure to get plenty of the cooking liquid spooned over the top. Or, you may mix the bean mixture with the rice before serving.

What is your Scream Emotion?

I love Tracy Gold's blogs.  Topical and timely.  You may have seen pictures of frightened haunted house patrons that have gone from Flicker to network news.   Timely so close to Halloween and a study in sociology.  Particularly of interest when you see men hiding behind girlfriends and mothers.  As marketers our wheels start spinning, wondering how/if we can also make the same sort of impact.  Tracy helps break down the elements for us to try in our own organizations.

Good luck and Happy Halloween.

How to Be a Frighteningly Brilliant Content Marketer

Content marketers should shiver with jealousy for Nightmares Fear Factory’s recent marketing success. If you missed this, basically, Nightmares Fear Factory is a haunted house in Niagara Falls Canada, and recently, their brilliant marketing strategy paid off big time when their Flickr feed was picked up by new and traditional media and sent around the web—I found out about it thanks to a friend who posted it on Google Buzz.

What’s the trick?
Instead of showing pictures of the haunted house, which without the context of the whole experience would probably look cheesy, Nightmares shows their customers. When they’re really, really scared. These are from their Flickr page:

My first reaction to this was “This can’t be real,” but look at the Flickr feed and that doubt quickly dissipates. These are not cookie cutter models—they’re plain, normal people being scared senseless.

So how do I do this?

“Great,” you might be thinking, “that’s all well and good for a haunted house. But how could that ever work for my business? Terrified customers are the last thing we want!”

It’s true, you might not get content quite like this, but you can certainly learn from this idea. Here’s how:

1. Find your “scream” emotion. Shock and horror might not be your game, but you probably have an equivalent emotion. For example, Will Davis tells a story about our client Reclamere. They specialize in data recovery, data destruction, and computer forensics. Sounds pretty technical and emotionless, right? Think again. Will mentioned Reclamere to a new client and was met with a gasping “They saved us!”

This client’s company had a big computer crash, and Reclamere rescued their data.  Maybe the client didn’t go running around screaming in glee, but they surely shared their happiness.

To pin this down, talk to your salespeople, your client services people, and, most importantly, your clients and customers. Your business may not create an emotion that’s easily photographed, but I’ll bet there’s something that makes your customers or clients want to talk about you. Identifying that moment is the first step in mimicking Nightmares Fear Factory’s content marketing success.

2. Identify how to showcase that emotion. For Nightmares Fear Factory, a quick snap shot in a scary place easily did the trick. Your “scream” emotion may not be easy to photograph, and in fact, it might be slightly different most of the time. Here are some different ways to capture this emotion:

• Testimonials
• Webinars featuring a client
• Case studies
• Visual portfolio
• Videos
• Reviews
• Surveys
• Thank you notes

Many people think of content as blog posts, written by your company, talking about things your company is doing. But telling stories about what your clients or customers are doing is just as important. If you can work those stories into your blog without seeming like you’re bragging, great. If not, set up a section on your website that talks about more than just who your clients and customers are—but how your company makes them feel.

3. Promote and engage. If Nightmare’s Fear Factory had simply sold these photos to customers, or even printed these photographs on a brochure and mailed them out, they never would have caught fire on the large scale they did. Through posting these photographs on Flickr—an entire community based around photographs—Nightmare’s Fear Factory reached an active audience (make sure you read the comments on the photos, they’re pretty hilarious), and made their awesome content extremely easy to share.

There’s a lesson for all content marketers in Nightmare’s Fear Factory’s decision to post their photos on Flickr instead of the company website or Facebook page. Rather than keeping content on your own properties, go out and find other places to spread it around where there’s a ready audience waiting for you. This might be somewhere like Flickr, but it could also be a forum you participate in, or a guest post on a blog you comment on. When you’ve got something great, find a way to get it out to a bigger audience. You’d be amazed at what just asking can get you.

Last, I’ll turn the tables to ask what’s your organization’s scream emotion? Think this Flickr feed is an awful idea? Comment with your thoughts—I’m always glad to continue the conversation.

Photos posted with permission from Nightmare’s Fear Factory

This post originally appeared on the Marketing Trenches Blog. 

Pamz Low Fat Carrot Cake

I often get inspiration from my husband who casually mentions if I had ever cooked a particular dish. Oh course that always tweaks my competitive nature:  not only to prepare the dish, but to find a healthy alternative to what he grew up with.  This week's suggestion was carrot cake. 

I recall making carrot cake  when I was a child under my mom's direction.   Everyone seems to think that carrot cake is healthy because it has carrots in it, and it didn't seem to bother me that you added a cup or so of oil to make it moist. 

When I became more health conscious in my 20s the thought of carrot cake was so repulsive because of all the oil.  When my husband mentioned carrot cake the other day I thought that by now there should have been many cooks who have experimented with my favorite baking ingredient, applesauce.  Sure enough, there are plenty, and I have adopted a few recipes to come up with this version which satisfied my husband's "blue blood" taste buds.  If you don't want to go out and buy crushed pineapple this is a great recipe to try.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons apple butter
• 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup sucralose
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (or sucralose blend)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup unbleached flour*
• 1 cup whole wheat flour*
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3 cups of grated carrots
• 1 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Coat a 9" x 9" baking pan with non-fat cooking spray.  I like silicon pans.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the apple butter, applesauce, eggs, sugar and vanilla until smooth.
4. Next, slowly add flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon to the mixture.
5. Blend until all of the ingredients are moistened.
6. Lightly mix in the grated carrots and raisins
7. Pour into baking pan.
8. Bake in oven for 35-40 minutes.

To keep calories down, go without a topping, or go light.  Use your imagination:  powdered sugared, light icing made of powered sugar and milk, or a low fat cream cheese icing.

*to increase your fiber intake in this recipe, use all whole wheat flour but add a little more applesauce if the batter looks a little dry.

7 Reasons to Eat More Eggs

Eggs are a mainstay in my fridge.  They are multi-taskers, like myself which can be used in every meal and best of all yummy baked desserts.  It is the first thing I ensure I have enough of and one of the first things I pack for the cottage, both raw and soft boiled.  Sometimes I am surprised that I love them so much since I didn't have a great barnyard experience at my cousin's farm when I was a child.  I was too timid to collect the eggs and was chased around the barnyard by a rooster once.  Maybe I love eggs as partial revenge...by I digress.

Eggs pack a lot of nutrition, are low in calories, and don't have as much cholesterol as previously thought. Let's take a fresh look at the egg.

By Kristen Stewart

Medically reviewed by Pat F. Bass III, MD, MPH

Who doesn’t love eggs? Whether scrambled, hard-boiled, poached, or folded into an omelet, eggs are versatile and tasty. Even better, eggs are a powerhouse of nutrition in a healthy diet and a great low-calorie addition to a weight-loss diet. With only 15 calories each, hard-boiled egg whites, for instance, can help you stick to your diet — the protein in them helps you feel full and being low in calories make them a great snack.

The Egg: Diet Facts

It’s time to get reacquainted with the egg, a great food whether you’re on a diet or just looking to manage your weight.

1. The egg is a low-calorie powerhouse. “The egg is a great source of nutrition and especially brain food,” says Susan B. Roberts, PhD, author of The Instinct Diet and professor of nutrition at the USDA Nutrition Center at Tufts University in Boston. “With only 80 calories per large egg and a useful 6 grams of protein, it can be scrambled or even fried with just a dab of butter and still come in at under 100 calories.”
2. Eggs have vitamins and other nutrients. Besides providing protein (making you feel full longer), an egg supplies many essential nutrients including vitamin A, the B vitamins B-12, riboflavin, and folacin, and the minerals iron, phosphorus, and zinc, along with choline and DHA, essential nutrients for brain health.
3. The egg has less cholesterol than we thought. It turns out early tests measured falsely high for the amount of cholesterol in an egg, unfairly giving it a bad rap. According to recent research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one large egg has 213 milligrams of cholesterol. Testing is also under way in the egg industry to see if that amount can be further reduced.
4. Egg whites can be part of your daily menu. It’s best to eat no more than three or four whole eggs per week, but egg whites have only 15 calories per egg, no cholesterol, and no saturated fat, so dieters can eat as many as they want. Not only that, egg whites taste better than store-bought egg substitutes.
5. Eggs make a great weekend breakfast. “One great role eggs can play is in making weekend food seem special without overdosing on calories,” says Dr. Roberts. “For example, scrambled eggs and whole-wheat toast or a fried egg and Canadian bacon on Sunday morning can become a special weekend breakfast without adding anything to calories beyond a regular weekday cereal meal.”
6. Eggs are an inexpensive protein source. Eggs are economical, especially when compared to steak or even a hamburger.
7. Eggs aren’t only for breakfast. “Think like the French and don’t dismiss eggs as a great dinner food,” says Roberts. “It takes a mere couple of minutes to whip up an omelet, so you can keep eggs in the fridge for quick dinners when you get home and are too tired to cook or go out. A two-egg omelet with a slice of whole-wheat toast and an apple or orange is a great weight control meal.”

Now that the egg has been cleared of any wrongdoing, think of it next time for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even a quick healthy snack.

8 free social media listening tools everyone should use

Anyone who knows me or have seen my blogs, my tweets, Linkedin discussions, knows that I love advice and particularly free stuff!  When someone takes the time to provide new tools to keep in your marketing tool kit, that is a great thing for all of us.  Way to pay it forward, Gini.

8 free social media listening tools everyone should use

There are five steps in social media we always recommend to clients who are just beginning to branch out online.

They are: listen, assess, engage, measure, and refine/improve.

Though each step is important, the foundation to any online effort is listening; it’s the one step you can do without any of the others.

Before you begin, think about the historically great communicators. They ask a lot of questions. They really listen to what you have to say. They get you talking about yourself. They inquire deeply into the answers you provide. And then they provide advice, counsel, and coaching — but only after they fully understand your needs.

These master communicators are better at listening than they are at talking.

Social media is no different. It’s another way to communicate through listening and engaging in conversation — online. To be a master at social media communication, you must have a strong foundation of listening.

First things first. If you don’t have Google alerts set up, do that now.

If you don’t know how to do that, this blog post will teach you how to set them up and which terms to use.

Now let’s discuss eight free tools to enhance what Google is sending you.

1. Reputation management. Twendz is a reputation management tool that looks at how people feel about a brand or a topic. It measures Twitter, specifically, on positive, neutral, or negative tweets. Use this tool to measure people’s sentiments in order to set benchmark goals. Pay attention to how people are talking about the company, your leadership, key employees, your products or services, your customers, and even your competition.

2. Blog tracking. The media landscape has changed, and print journalists are no longer the only ones with influence. Some bloggers have immense influence, and you cannot afford to ignore them. Learn which bloggers care about you, your products or services, and your customers. Use tools such as Technorati or Google Blog Search to determine which bloggers already are aware of you, and develop a plan to target them.

3. Social bookmarking. Collect case studies of social media success in your industry, in your category, and from companies and people you admire. Use Delicious or Diigo to bookmark the case studies in one location so you can refer to them while you develop goals and plan your next steps.

4. Twitter search. There is nothing better for real-time search than Twitter. Even if you don’t have a Twitter account, you can still use its search application to find conversations. Although we believe everyone should have a Twitter account in order to fully understand and take advantage of its wide range of services, you can subscribe to the RSS feed without an account.

5. Website optimization. Right now, go to Website grader and bookmark the page. Now type in your URL. What’s your grade? Is it 100 percent? No? It tells you exactly what you need to do to fix the site so the search engines are crawling it and you are competing on the Web.

6. Blog optimization. Do the same thing for your blog, if you have one, but visit Blog Grader instead.

7. Competitive analysis. Now go to Compete. Enter your URL and the URLs of two of your competitors. This site then creates a graph, comparing you against your competition. Though not flawless (it only tracks U.S. traffic, for instance), it gives you a good baseline of understanding where your competition is beating you (or vice versa).

8. Web analytics. Do you look at your Web analytics at least weekly? If not, this is a must. It will help you track where people are visiting from and which accounts are home, corporate websites, or blogs. If you find visitors coming from blogs, add those sites to your RSS feeds, comment on the blog posts, and develop relationships with the bloggers.

Having an insider understanding of your visitor demographics will enable you to easily identify your demographic.

As you listen, monitor, and get smart about your Web properties, as compared with those of competitors, you’ll begin to understand how to create your goals.

Gini Dietrich is founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich. A version of this post originally ran on Spin Sucks.