As motivational speaker Mark Victor Hansen says, all of us can come up with excuses for why we can’t (or haven’t) yet succeeded.

I’m not educated.
I’m over educated.
I’m under qualified.
I’m over qualified.
I’m too poor.
I’m too rich.
I’m too fat.
I’m not healthy.
I’m handicapped.
I’m too old.
I’m too young.
I have kids.
I’m not married.
I’m the wrong color.
I’m the wrong ethnicity.

And the biggie — I’m a woman.

That’s the excuse the woman behind the Men With Pens persona used to justify using a male pen name and why she kept her gender a secret from almost everyone, including clients. According to her (him?), she made more money writing as a man than she did as a woman.

When I first read her coming out of the closet post on Copyblogger months ago, my first thought was, “Of course. We all know this.”

My marketing women friends and I acknowledged that yes, it’s still a man’s world. And, yes, you can find lots of data that show women still aren’t filling leadership roles — despite a large pipeline of very smart, very capable women.

Sadly, sexism does still exist, as evidenced by our last national election cycle. No matter what you think of either woman, Senator Hillary Clinton and Governor Sarah Palin took a beating in the media — by conservative AND liberal outlets — and were castigated for their clothes, their looks, their body images, and their motherhood.

Male candidates, on the other hand, rarely went through this type of media bashing gauntlet. John Edwards, for example, managed to keep a mistress on the side without too much trouble or media inquiry.

I hashed out my anger and my confusion about this issue after the Men with Pens post came out with my colleague Mark W. Schaefer, who had originally addressed a related topic on his blog, “‘Social Media Expert’: Women Need Not Apply.”

Mark encouraged me to write about sexism in business, but I held off, not wanting to come across as an “angry woman.”

After much grappling, however, I realized that we are what we make of ourselves.

If you want to use an excuse like gender to explain why you haven’t achieved your goals or why you can’t be successful or why you can’t make as much money as male copywriters, then that excuse will hold you back.

On the other hand, you can say, “Yes, sexism (and other -isms) exist, but I’m not going to use it as an excuse.”

You can claim your power the way many of the women did who headline the Simmons Leadership Conference. At this conference, you’ll find women from all industries and walks of life who are making radical changes in their communities and across the globe.

I’m especially excited to hear Sheryl WuDunn talk about how women in the developing world have lifted themselves and their communities out of repression and poverty.

I’ll be attending the conference, Friday, April 30, 2010. I’m looking forward to meeting other powerful and successful women, celebrating my own successes, and getting inspired to make even bigger changes in the coming years.

Will I see you there?

(A HUGE thank you to Mark who encouraged me to overcome my fear about addressing the topic of sexism and who thoughtfully responded to my lengthy emails. Mark, you’re the best. I hope we’re able to meet face-to-face one day.)

Like many people, I have a computer hard drive crammed with files: documents, audio, video, PowerPoint presentations — you name it, I have it.

When it was time to replace my aging PC a couple of months ago, I got price quotes for a blazing fast Windows 7 machine that came with mega huge storage. “You won’t need another machine for a few years,” said my IT person.

I was all set to buy it when I walked into the Apple store with my son to get the machine he’d been saving for for months . . . and a half hour later, walked out with a 13″ MacBook Pro.

(And let me just digress here a minute to say that I cannot find the words to express the entire Apple experience. From the store displays to the packaging to the product themselves, you just don’t find anything like it — anywhere.)

At first I thought I’d use the machine as my personal laptop. It’s small, it’s portable, but it definitely was not a business computer.

When my aging PC started acting funny, I began migrating my business to the Mac — thinking I’d purchase a larger iMac later in the year.

In the process of moving, however, I discovered having a “small” computer was actually quite freeing.

Based on the “less is more” principal, here’s how having the small MacBook has made me much more productive:

1. I dumped (almost) all of my software — With the exception of the slimmed down version of Microsoft Office for the Mac, all other software is now cloud-based, including:

Basecamp and Highrise from 37signals — I use Basecamp to manage client projects and Highrise to keep track of contacts and tasks. (Highrise is far superior to Google Tasks / Gmail contacts). I can also access both applications through iPhone apps.

Harvest — This nifty application lets me keep track of time and expenses, and it syncs with Basecamp. And, with the handy iPhone app, I can track time while on the go.

Quickbooks Online — Quickbooks desktop software is bloated and hard to use. I hate it with a passion. But most accountants like it, and truth be told, it is easy to send your QB file to your accountant at tax time. QB Online, however, is much easier to use and because it’s online, I can access it from anywhere.

WordPress — Although I made this change before purchasing my Mac, it still counts as part of my overall “become more productive” goal. Instead of two Websites (my DH Communications site and my blog), I now have one site — simplifying everything. And again, I can access my site, and make changes on the fly, from any place that has an Internet connection.

Yield Software — I use this application to help me with SEO and PPC for clients. Don’t know how I lived without it.

2. I cleaned up my hard drive — Last year I spent a week cleaning out my physical office and removed piles and piles of paper. This past month I’ve cleaned out megabytes of unneeded files gathering dust on my hard drive. Cleaning out all this junk has made it much easier to find the files I need on a day-to-day basis.

3. I work glitch-free — With my PC, I was spending increasing amounts of time dealing with technology. Due to anti-spam, anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-pop-ups, anti-scripting, anti-anything software and browser plugins, nothing worked right.

Clients would point out things on Websites that I couldn’t see. Java never worked properly, rendering some applications useless. Then of course, there were the famous Window reboots that would happen right in the middle of a project I was working on. Argh!

Now everything just works. I’m finding I’m much more productive since I don’t have to stop mid-stream to deal with some “small” technological glitch that would leave me pulling out my hair.

In short, having my MacBook has freed me to do what I love: Create.

Have you moved from a PC to Mac? If so, what kind of Mac do you own and what do you find is the biggest benefit?

“Does anyone have a template for social media rules and responsibilities for corporate teams?” is a question posted more than once on the LinkedIn B2B Social Media Group.

Inbound and Social Marketing Manager Barbra Gago of Genius.com published a new e-book on this very topic. “How to Build a Socially Armed Team” covers the details of social media marketing for corporations, including:

• Getting buy-in from senior management
• Leveraging your staff
• Sample policies
• Rules and responsibilities
• Training

Good job, Barbara! This e-book is definitely needed.

The e-book is available via free download — no registration required.

Marketers have definite opinions about Twitter auto-DMs (direct messages): they either hate them with a passion and will even unfollow someone who uses auto-DMs or they use them themselves.

Personally, I hate them and delete all that I receive. I especially dislike the auto-DMs that read like a “real” reply. UGH.

However, because people do use them, I wanted to know why. And, being a results-based marketer, I wanted to know if they saw any real ROI from them.

Unfortunately, the people I wanted to take my survey — those who use auto-DMs — did not. Of the 49 people who took my brief survey, only four souls were brave enough to post that they use auto-DMs.

Not surprisingly, the other 44 respondents posted their dislike of auto-DMs. You can view the full survey results online. Some interesting things to note:

1. Auto-DMs are annoying. Of those who responded that they don’t use auto-DMs, 32% said they were annoying, and 27% saying they were trying to connect with people, not sell them something. Along the same line, 26% said auto-DMs took the “socialness out of social media.”

2. They’re annoying, but not that annoying. Only 10% of respondents said they unfollow people who use auto-DMs.

More interesting, however, is that many people posted in the comment section that they actually saw value in auto-DMs — but only if the person / company sending the DM is offering something, such as a discount or a link to a piece of high-value content (that’s called good old-fashioned marketing, folks).

Moral of the story: Twitter auto-DMs do annoy people but not enough that they’ll unfollow you. Offer them something of value, however, and they’ll change their perception of you.

(Personally, I don’t remember anyone sending me an auto-DM of value. I just know I delete them — the same way I throw junk mail poorly targeted direct mail into the trash.)

I also asked people to post their personal opinions about Twitter auto-DMs. Here is what others had to say:

“The only good auto DM is one that offers something to you — e.g. a magazine that offers a subscription deal as a thanks for following, or a business that offers a code to get 10% off your next online order as a thanks. Anything else is annoying.”

“While I mostly ignore Auto DMs or they have a neg effect on me, I respond to Auto DMs that offer something educational and relevant to the topic that prompted me to follow someone in the first place. But DM has to be worded very casually and professionally (language not sales-y).”

“If you want to show gratitude to your followers by, for example, offering them something useful, they’re OK as they establish a friendly rapport from the start.”

“I think auto DMs do more harm than good, as they irritate instead of building credibility and goodwill. Also, I believe that if people are interested in learning about my services, they’ll click the link in my Twitter profile when they follow me.”

“Totally ineffective. It is old-school, broadcast marketing. Makes me think the people that do it just don’t get it.”

“A DM from an organization or company that offers something I really want/need to know about may get my attention, but so many of them are random hits at uninterested non-prospects who just find them annoying.”

“I think they are annoying, ineffective and one of the worst things about Twitter. Social media is meant to be personalized and thoughtful – not a reason to use antiquated and poor email blast techniques. Which is exactly what an Auto DM is…”

“I feel that they are counter-intuitive. They are more likely to annoy or be ignored. I have not seen any benefit to them. Every Auto DM that I have received is a thank you or a link to their website (which is listed on their profile or I already know about).”

So there you have it. Based on this data, I recommend the following “rules” when it comes to Twitter auto-DMs:

1. Don’t post “junky” messages to everyone who follows you.

2. If you’re posting under your B2B company name or as a service professional / consultant, offer something of value, such as a link to a free report or discount that’s offered just to your Twitter followers. Use a special link so that you can track it.

3. Track response. If you see people unfollowing you, ask why. Track your special link to determine conversion rate (number of new followers each day / week versus how many clicked through to the page).

Thank you to everyone who took my survey!

Adding a PDF, such as a brochure, white paper, or e-book, to a B2B Website makes sense: PDFs are relatively easy to download, they keep highly graphical information intact, and instead of coding a new page of content, you simply link to the file.

However, PDFs do have a few disadvantages. They’re harder to optimize than straight HTML files. And, companies often post links to PDFs without supporting text. This means that PDFs often appear in the SERPs (search engine results pages) lacking proper a Title tag and a nice description that compels people to click the listing.

And, too, people hesitate to click a PDF link within the SERP, says Google’s SEO master Matt Cutts in a March 14, 2010 interview with Eric Enge of StoneTemple.

A few things to note from the Cutts interview with regard to PDFs (and I note these because I often get these questions):

1. Yes, Google does index PDF files.

2. Cutts doesn’t address whether PDFs pass PageRank.

3. PDFs are not treated the same as HTML files. Cutts states that PDFs “are kind of like Flash in that they aren’t a file format that’s inherent and native to the web, but they can be very useful. In the same way that we [Google] try to find useful content within a Flash file, we try to find the useful content within a PDF file.”

He goes on to add that “users don’t always like being sent to a PDF. If you can make your content in a Web-Native format, such as pure HTML, that’s often a little more useful to users than just a pure PDF file” (emphasis mine).

But it makes sense in certain cases to format information as a PDF — especially something like an e-book, replied Enge.

Cutts’ response? “I think of PDF files as the last thing that people encounter, and users find it to be a little more work to open them. People need to be mindful of how that can affect the user experience.”

So how can you improve users’ experience when they encounter PDFs on your B2B Website? Three very simple steps include:

1. Develop a landing page for each high-value PDF. Whether you’re offering an e-book, white paper or report, develop a page for the content that includes a summary of the information people will find — and include a link to this page on your home page, “Resources” page, press releases and blog posts. This will help increase downloads as the summary adds credibility and improves trust in your content.

If you’re offering a number of reports or e-books on one page, the way Marketo does (and the way I do, too), be sure to include a brief blurb with each offering — versus overwhelming people with a page of links.

2. Optimize the landing page. Be sure to include keyword-rich Title and meta tag information, a headline for the page, and your keywords in the summary. (And, don’t forget the call-to-action!)

3. Use the same report name across all platforms. I read a fair number of reports, white papers and e-books and one problem I often run into is that when I search for a piece of content by name, I can’t find it.

When I hear of an interesting piece of content, for example, and a link isn’t included to it, I will cut and paste the title directly into Google — and am always surprised when I can’t find the content. That’s because the company calls the piece of content by one name within a social media context or a print ad and by another name on its Website.

When promoting your content, use the exact title of the piece when posting to social media, during interviews, on press releases, and within your Website. This makes it easy for people to find who search for it.

Here’s an example of a ReachForce e-book landing page that includes a summary about the e-book as well as link to the PDF.

Related Content:

Blog post: A+ Ad Promoting a White Paper: D+ URL

Article: Five Tips for Ensuring Prospects Find Your B2B White Papers

Teleclass transcript / mp3 — SEO for White Papers: How to ensure your white papers rank high on search engines, a teleclass I did with Mike Stelzner in 2007.