No, this is not a paid endorsement. This is a completely willful shameless plug.

It just occurred to me that although I have used first-person references in this blog, I have never really identified myself to this audience. Hi. I'm Amy Fitch. I am a Mom of 4 little redheads (5 if you count their father, 6 if you count our dog--yes, they ALL have red hair). A little more than two years ago, the man in my life had what I now call "The Big Idea." He wanted to help small businesses flourish in an environment that was dominated by "big box" stores. A "former" journalist, I started out doing our Press Releases and writing the text for our website and printed marketing materials. Then, I heard about this thing called Twitter. That's when I discovered Chris Brogan.

Just six months ago, all I knew of Chris Brogan was that his post was the top result when I Googled "ways to use Twitter for business." I started to "follow" him on Twitter. And suddenly, I had a Big Idea. His posts, his daily interaction and his sheer accessibility on Twitter inspired me to make our small Merchant Processing and Customer Loyalty Business into an "all access" show. In an industry synonymous with "credit cards" and "banks," we surely needed a PR boost. What if I attempted to gain the trust of our colleagues and customers and everyone on earth who ever had a question about Merchant Credit Card Processing or Customer Loyalty Programs, by humanizing our business?

Now, I am admittedly new at this. I am still learning and I'm certain that I'm not yet completely "doing it right," but just as with Yoga, I am committed to the practice. I genuinely want to help small businesses. So today, I am giving the best advice I can possibly give: Buy the book Trust Agents. The Authors, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, are the experts at "Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust." In fact, I dare say that their ideas are what makes Twitter at all useful to businesses (of any size).

If you want to know how the web should be used to help your business, Buy the book, you won't be sorry. For good measure, join their discussion on FaceBook. Trust me. You'll be so glad you did.

Want to talk about Trust Agents, or anything else? Find me here @AmySwipeRite