Abraham Lincoln said, “I cannot tell a lie” and although most of us know this is the correct way to behave, we often make excuses and fudge the truth or worse yet, outright lie.  If you think little lies are okay and you often exaggerate, or tell partial truths, you are lying and it is a sign of bad character. 

1.      A person lies, because they lie – it has nothing to do with the lie.

·        Either you lie or you don’t lie.  There is no such thing as a little lying, (just as there is no such thing as a little bit pregnant!).

·        We stop lying when we realize that being truthful is a sign of good character. 

2.      There is no reason to lie unless you want to deceive in some way.

·        Partial truths are lies!  We tell half the truth because we want to hide the rest.  We do not want to be accountable for the part we are holding back.

·        When you deceive another person by telling a partial truth, you break that trust. 

3.      There is always a kind way to speak the truth – find it.

·        How often have you seen people lie and heard them make excuses by saying, “I didn’t want to hurt her feelings?”

·        Just because you have not figured out a kind way to communicate does not mean that one does not exist without you having to lie. 

4.      Exaggeration is momentary gratification – the high does not last.

·        Exaggeration is lying.  We exaggerate because the truth does not gratify our ego. 

·        If something costs $50 we say it costs $60, not because the $10 difference is so much, but because making something more momentarily boosts our ego. 

·        We always KNOW when we have exaggerated and there is a part of us that always feels false because of it.

5.      Honesty has dignity and fosters self-esteem.

·        There is something very attractive and noble about integrity.

·        We you speak the truth you are congruous and your energy is strong and clear.

In a national competition, Chandra Alexander, MSW, was selected by THE OPRAH MAGAZINE as the Life Coach to deliver a series of coaching sessions to the grand prize winner of their prestigious Toyota Moving Forward contest. She also spent five years on NBC/TV “DAYTIME” giving a weekly “Reality Check”. Chandra has been living and teaching authenticity for the last 30 years and is the founder of Coaching for Authenticity, a place to explore and discover the essence of who you really are.

I am not a Techie but I do love technology and more than that, I love to network.  When I can combine the two together I am really happy.  Twitter has allowed me to do that!  One of the keys to nurturing your network is to stay in communication.  Communication also allows you to develop relationships that you can add to your network.  Twitter allows me to  maintain visibility and create credibility with my network.  Recently it has allowed me to create some profitability.

Here are some tips for those of you who want to use Twitter in your networking strategy.  These are a few things that you should know, beyond that have fun.

Important Things to Remember When Using Twitter

• Be Authentic- Be you
• Read Others Profiles and Tweets
• Find Local People to Follow – Use Search for your town or city
• Follow those who follow you – after you read their profile
• Send a Personal Direct Message (DM)  to those who follow you
• Do more than post your Blog or your website to the tweet stream
• Retweet Others- Retweeting is key, when you read a good tweet, RT
• Try to keep your follow/followers about even
• Read and Comment on others Tweets/Blogs
• Recommend others to follow
• Keep it positive
• Engage and again be Authentic
• Go to some Local Tweetups & meet the people you have been tweeting with.
• Follow your Network Members, you are able to communicate more frequently with them.
• Lean more by following links that your followers will often provide.

Most of all, have fun, don’t become addicted, but be consistent in your tweets. You will find that you are starting to build relationships with some of the people you do not know and enriching those that you do.

Hazel M Walker, owns three award winning franchise’s. She is a 10 year owner of two BNI Franchises where she teaches members how to leverage their time and network to build each others businesses. She is also a Referral Institute franchise owner and teaches Business Owners how to harness the Science of Referrals to develop Referrals for Life. Hazel is a published author in New York Times best sellers Masters of Networking and Masters of Sales. As a member of the National Speakers Association she travels the world speaking to businesses and women’s organizations on the topics of networking to create a life you love.