If you're in business or supporting a cause you have a Web site. You've also got a blog. And you've got a Twitter account. And Facebook and if probably LinkedIn and maybe even Flickr and then there's your choice of online bookmarking sites and of course YouTube (or Vimeo or BlipTV).

Everything is going fine. But then you have something to say or share or sell. Where do you post it? And if you post it on YouTube do you tweet it as well? Then there's your blog and your Facebook status. That sounds like a lot of copying and pasting. It's also a big time waster; and for you time is money.

Posting an update in some places at the expense of the others could mean you miss the chance for your message to get through to part of your audience.

So what do you do?

Enter Hootsuite

Hootsuite will post anything you have to share to any number of social networks you belong to. Here's how it works.

1. Go to hootsuite.com and sign up.
2. Go to your blog and get your RSS feed
3. Back in Hootesuite click the Settings tab
4. Add your blog's feed
5. Choose how often you want to post updates and which social networks you want to post to

And that's it.

Now the next time you have something to share you can:

• Post it on your blog
• Post a tweet directly from Hootsuite

Either way will Hootsuite automatically broadcast your message to all your friends and followers all at once. Cool huh?

Show me that again

I'll post an in depth tutorial on exactly how to do this next week.

Got a question about how to do this? Post a comment and look for the answer in the upcoming tutorial. And while you're thinking: follow me :)

If you're one of those people who always follows the latest trends in something (fashion, technology, fitness, dieting, education, etc.) then you may have experienced this kind of frustration. You know how awesome an idea or a product or a service is but everyone you tell doesn't quite get it or can't quite see how that would be helpful. This is the price of being an early adopter. It is also the power.

You are in a unique position of being able to teach other people what you have discovered about the latest 'thing'. This of course takes time. Don't worry, the media/Internet/colleagues/Oprah and other sources will eventually get the message across that what you discovered all those months and years ago is in fact valuable. So what can you do while you're waiting for your customers to sign up for Twitter or your friends to get a Facebook account or a Flickr account or to get into Zimba, or flat shoes or [insert trend here]? 

Answer: become a guru.

Experts know a lot and want to let everyone know it. Gurus teach and inspire and mentor others. They have usually been there and done that. They give people superpowers (abilities to do awesome stuff)!)

So what do you do? How do you give people superpowers? Start a blog, feed it to Twitter, publish an e-book, publish a real book, create a toolkit with downloads and video tutorials and podcasts and resources, design a course or a workshop and deliver it in person on put it online. Simply: you teach.

When the 'trend' moves from early adopters (people who pre-ordered the iPad) to the middle of the bell curve and the mainstream (people who will buy one in a year's time) get into it they will all be asking, "OK I get how this iPad can help me - how do I use it?" And that's where you come in. You've already been sharing ideas on your blog. Get them to subscribe to your mailing list, let them download your free e-book, offer to sell them a toolkit or a course or workshop showing them how to use the trend to help them in their life and in their business.

Takeaway

Adopt early. When the mainstream catches on then be the guru they look to.

Note: There is a difference between jumping on the bandwagon of anything that is new and finding gold nuggets of new stuff that will help you be happy and successful at work and at home. The first is a time waster, the second is worth it's weight in gold.

Your turn

What's the new idea, service, product, system, technique or tool that you discovered? What are you doing to become the guru people can turn to? How will you give people superpowers? Comments are open.

This stop-motion video by Nate Gillis and Callum Paterson is a great example of how to tell a story and package it. Now your version doesn't have to be as elaborate or well animated or animated at all. This could have easily been a cartoon in the newspaper. The point is that stories spread and stories sell.

You have to use uncommon thinking and uncommon ideas if you want out of the ordinary results for your business or your blog or your fundraiser or political campaign.

Reverse engineer

So what makes this video great? A simple story told in a simple way. Using a fun medium. Tic tacs are an unexpected character doing an unexpected activity. With an unexpected ending. The punchline could be, 'Tic-Tacs: More than you expect in every pack.' Or something like that.

If this was an ad for your 'thing' what punchline could you add? 

Your turn

What's your story? How can you package it? How will you sell the idea to others?