Causing more cancer deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system, today I’m joining a nation-wide initiative this September to promote ovarian cancer awareness.

Ovarian cancer is not as publicized as other female cancers for many reasons, including low survival rates. That’s why it is important to get regular pelvic exams and pay attention to the smallest unusual symptom.

Those who know me well know why I’m very passionate about this cause. One of my family members had a close call with ovarian cancer. Today, she is in her fifth year of remission after being diagnosed with stage four of the deadly disease. We were indeed lucky, but others are not as fortunate.

Often called the “silent killer”, ovarian cancer is almost impossible to detect as symptoms are often disguised as common illnesses.  Symptoms often include bloating of the abdominal area, constant need to urinate, pelvic or abdominal pain, or unusual vaginal discharges.

Women should have rectovaginal pelvic exams on an annual basis and not to confuse it with PAP smears.  “The two are very different exams.  PAP smears only check for cervical abnormalities.

In addition to rectovaginal pelvic exams, there is also a CA-125 blood test that measures the amount of certain protein that is often elevated with ovarian cancer, and a transvaginal ultrasound.

True with any cancer, ovarian cancer survival rates are especially important as nearly 70 percent of women have an advanced stage of the disease when they are diagnosed.

Ovarian cancer is common in older women.  Most patients are older than 60 and post-menopausal.  Studies have also shown that women who have not had children are at higher risk.  Other risks include having a family history of the disease and a history of cancer involving the breast, uterine and colorectal.

There are several treatment options for ovarian cancer including surgery and radiation or chemotherapy.  Gynecologic oncologists, doctors who have special training in cancers of a woman’s reproductive system, can work with each patient for the best treatment option based on age, health and cancer stage.

If you or a loved one have not been screened for ovarian cancer, please contact your physician today.  Don’t fall victim to the “silent killer”. Trust me.

For more information or to learn how you can help break the silence on ovarian cancer, please visit the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition at www.ovarian.org.

Each year, tens of thousands of people in the United States die from a variety of diseases that are preventable with proper vaccinations. This alarming fact from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sheds light on the importance of vaccination schedules for children and adults alike.

Thought of only as a childhood practice, keeping up with your immunization schedule as an adult is just as important as it was when you were in grade school.  Doing so can not only mean a difference between life and death, but it can potentially reduce medical expenses as well.

August is National Immunization Awareness Month and it is the perfect time to remind families and individuals to catch up on their vaccinations.  This is especially important as the new school year begins.

Disease prevention is as simple as getting vaccinated in accordance to the recommended schedule designed to keep the public safe and healthy. This isn’t a matter that just concerns our children; it affects college students and adults as well.

Immunizations helps keep individuals healthier and can reduce medical expenses by preventing illnesses that cause people to miss school and work. State law requires that public school and child-care facilities enforce vaccine requirements as a way to protect the public from preventable diseases.

If you are not sure where you or your children stand in terms of immunizations, it’s recommended that you speak with your physician. They can assess individual cases and recommend the correct vaccines to help keep you and your family safe.

For more information or to view the recommended vaccine schedule, visit www.immunizetexas.com, or contact local hospital.

Too often I meet with small businesses that believe they have a great marketing program.  They’ve got their social media going, a little advertising, a sales person doing their thing, some public relations here and there… sounds peachy right?

When I drill down into the finer details of implementation, I begin to see the real troubles.  I can go on and on, but today I’ll just focus on one simple, but big issue—Facebook.

Many small businesses establish a presence on Facebook under a user profile. Throughout my seminars and speaking engagements, I always tell my audiences that profiles are for people and pages are for brands.  Say it with me now, “Profiles are for people and pages are for brands.”

Setting up a Facebook profile for your business can have several ramifications that you don’t know about.  The major one is running the risk of having Facebook delete it at their own accord, leaving your time and efforts for not.

There are three major items to consider when establishing a presence on Facebook for your brand: connection barriers, analytics, and customized features. Each of these items provides insight into why creating a Facebook page is necessary.

Connection Barriers

How many connections do you hope to establish on Facebook—150 or 150,000? When you incorrectly setup your brand with a presence on Facebook using a profile, you’re immediately limiting your reach to 5,000 friends. With a Facebook page, you have the potential to grow your base to millions and millions of connections (called “likes”).  With that said, don’t place your expectations too low—aim for the best.

Analytics

As a business owner or marketing communications professional, you should be concerned with analytics. Getting information on your marketing initiatives whenever possible is important. With a Facebook page, you have access to all sorts of analytics such as demographics, tends, page views, and more.  When you have a Facebook profile, you have access to zero analytics. Boo… Analytics provide you with all kinds of data that can help you tailor your messages to better match with your audience.

Customized Features

What are your hours of operation? Where are you located? Do you want users to be able to rate and praise your business/product?

The above questions are all valid, and with a Facebook page, you can answer all of them and more for your audience.  You can think of a Facebook page as a type of microsite for your business… on a platform that your audience is already using and is familiar with—kind of like being at the right place at the right time.

Unlike profiles, pages allow you to create special applications, landing pages, and more that allow you to tailor your information as a business. Your presence on Facebook also appears differently in Facebook search results and through other search engines such as Google.

In conclusion, what I’m really trying to get across is simple—profiles are for people and pages are for brands.  I can go on and on as to why it’s important that you set up your presence on social media correctly. It’s an investment in money and time for your business, so it’s important to do it correctly.

“It Only Gets Better” will be the theme of this year’s 2011 Dallas Pride Parade and Festival. The annual festival which will highlight the future of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights, will take place on September 18, 2011. Ben Cohen and Joel Burns are among the luminaries scheduled to appear at the 2011 Dallas Pride celebration.

“Dallas’ rich diversity is evident in its residents, neighborhoods and even visitor attractions,” said Phillip Jones, president and CEO of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau. “In addition to the many LGBT pride events taking place across the city in September, visitors will also enjoy great weather, world class arts, the best shopping in the Southwest, a vibrant culinary scene and exciting nightlife.”

The highlight of Dallas Pride weekend is the annual Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade.  Now in its 28^th year, the parade is expected to draw more than 40,000 spectators from across the nation and around the world. Immediately following the parade will be the Pride Festival at Lee Park.

Like many gay pride celebrations, Dallas Pride can trace its roots back to the late 1970s when up to 300 men and women marched through downtown Dallas waving flags and shouting gay rights slogans.  The Dallas Tavern Guild adopted the parade from volunteers in 1982 and named it the Texas Freedom Parade in 1983. The organization remains committed to making the celebration grow in size and to support its beneficiaries, which consist of local LGBT nonprofit organizations.

This year’s local grand marshals include Chris Bengston of Caven Enterprises, and Gary Miller and Alan Pierce of The Round-up Saloon. Joel Burns, the Fort Worth city councilman who made headlines last year with his public speech to LGBT youth, will be the honorary grand marshal. English rugby star and straight ally, Ben Cohen, will be the special VIP guest.

The parade and festival will take place in Oak Lawn, the epicenter of Dallas’ LGBT community. Beginning at 2 p.m. at the corner of Wycliff Ave. and Cedar Springs Rd., the parade will march down Cedar Springs to Turtle Creek Blvd., concluding at Robert E. Lee Park. The celebration will continue at Lee Park with a festival that will include live entertainment, vendor booths, and much more. Admission to the festival will be $5 per person.

For more information on the parade and festival, and for a schedule of official events, please visit www.dallasprideparade.com. To learn more about Dallas’ LGBT community and to book a trip, please visit www.glbtdallas.com.

Earlier this week, LinkedIn released a new version of their mobile application on both iOS and Android devices. Unlike previous versions of LinkedIn’s mobile app, version 4.0 features a brand new slick interface, improved speed, and improved access to features such as LinkedIn Groups.

For those of you who are like me and are avid LinkedIn users, this new upgrade makes connecting with prospects and business professionals a lot easier while on-the-go. Whether you’re waiting for your next flight, standing in a long line, or simply away from your computer, version 4.0 is well worth the extra minute or two it’ll take to upgrade on your mobile device.

As previously mentioned, the new interface is vastly different. LinkedIn put some time and thought into their mobile app. Previous versions featured nine different menu options, but now they’ve simplified the user experience, focusing solely one updates, profiles, messages, and groups.

LinkedIn also took some time and rolled out a revamped mobile site (touch.linkedin.com). Leveraging the latest in HTML 5 technology, the new mobile site provides the same look and feel as their apps on both the Apple and Google platforms.

I’ve spent some time this morning playing with the new app on my iPhone and I have to say that I like it… a lot. It’s fresh and fun interface makes networking and keeping up with colleagues and prospects much more fun when I’m out and about.

Today, LinkedIn is viewed as the most renowned professional social networking website. CEOs of Fortune 500 companies have their profiles on LinkedIn. Membership spans more than 170 countries and 65 million people. To give depth to the numbers, consider this: A LinkedIn profile is created every two seconds, which is comparative to the number of people dying from cardiovascular disease.

If you haven’t already, try out the new LinkedIn mobile site or app and leave a comment below to let me know what you think about the improvements.

I had a wonderful opportunity this evening to wander on over the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas to see the legendary Diana Ross speak about her fabulous life and career.  It was the last event in the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts 2008-2009 Brinker International Forum.

The Forum gave audiences unique opportunities to hear the inside stories from icons of stage and screen, to get behind the camera with filmmakers who bring powerful stories to life and to gain insights from the brightest minds of our time.

Diana Ross is without a doubt an iconic American recording artist (and actress… and entrepreneur) that helped shaped the music industry as the lead singer of The Supremes during the 1960s and on into her solo career beginning in the 70s.

Like so many stories in life, Ross grew up poor in the projects of Detroit.  Though stereotypical stories are often heard from those who were raised in the projects, Ross shatters them all.  With trade skills in many areas including fashion design, she always had a desire to sing.

Ross has an impressive portfolio that spans music, film, television and Broadway.  She holds awards in almost each genre.  Billboard magazine name her “Female Entertainer of the Century” in 1976 and the Guinness Book Of World Records declared Ross as the most successful female music artist of the 20th century with a total of eighteen American number-one singles.

During the Forum tonight, Ross touched on many of the topics that we’ve all heard and read about.  From Detroit, to The Supremes, to her solo career, and even into her personal life, Ross candidly spoke about her experiences along the way.

One of the most interesting things I walked away remembering was her viewpoint regarding the music industry.  Yes, times have indeed changed from “back in the day”.  Long gone are the records, 8 Tracks, cassette tapes, and everything in between.  Ross noted that no longer can you walk into a Tower Records to browse aisles and aisles of music.  Now you boot up your computer and launch iTunes.

She says that we’re missing out today on the art of music.  Back then you were able to flip over an album cover and read about the artist/band, the performers, the lyricists and composers, photographers, and the stories behind each song.  I guess I never really thought of it that way.

In conclusion, I just wanted to express my appreciation to One Arts Plaza and the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts for the opportunity to see the legendary Diana Ross speak this evening on her life and career.  It was an extreme pleasure.

The Brinker International Forum 2009-2010 season will kick off this fall in the brand spankin’ new Winspear Opera House.  Condoleezza Rice, Hilary Swank and many other notable figures will be featured in candid conversations.  For more information and to purchase your tickets, please visit www.dallasperformingarts.org.