Page 18 - Tonilee & Bobbye Social Media Special Edition Oct Nov 2011 (1)

Social Media Masters

Bobbye & Tonilee Helping Women Succeed

Starting and running a successful business requires many ele- including Bobbye and Tonilee. Tonilee adds, “There is something
ments; a great product or service, great business sense, start-up special that happens when women come together to learn, to grow
capital, and a strong desire to succeed. Even with all of these and to share in each other’s lives. As the women changed, so
areas covered, this new business may never see the light of the did families, communities and homes.” As time passed, the study
day if no one knows it exists. In the old business paradigm, when grew in numbers and Bobbye and Tonilee began to expand into
new businesses promoted themselves with radio spots, print ads, other venues including speaking events, radio, books, videos and

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direct mail campaigns, TV ads, and a lot of hard work, there was retreats. Their message was sincere in their desire to help women
little doubt they would succeed, or at least have a good start. To- but they could not have planned for what was ahead of them. It
day, if this is all an entrepreneur does, it is almost guaranteed they was at this point that Bobbye and Tonilee realized that they had
will fail. The order of the day for making success of a business is brought their group to the place they wanted it to be and yet they
learning the ins and outs of Social Media. felt there was more work for them to do. “We decided that there
At San Diego Woman we were fortunate to meet two of the top were so many women out there who wanted to move forward, but
experts in this field, Bobbye Brooks and Tonilee Adamson of they didn’t know how. We started helping women with start-up com-
Media4Women. They are San Diego’s Gurus of Social Media. panies which we had learned to do ourselves. Before very long,
They understand this important new aspect of marketing and have word traveled quickly and we were not only helping women but
dedicated their business to help business owners take control of men as well, and then it grew to established fortune 500 companies
their success by taking control of their social media programs. who were looking to improve their bottom line through the use of
What they do that is unique is they not only help their clients start online marketing and social media.”
businesses (with a product they call “Business in a Box”) but they
educate their clients on how to continue using these programs to Becoming co-partners of one of the most successful social media
manage and grow their businesses: Highlighting programs such as companies was not the path either lady thought they would be
Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and teaching their clients the ins taking. Tonilee was born in New Jersey and relocated to California
and outs of websites, blogs, digital newsletters and Youtube. when she was seven. She went to school in Fullerton, California
Bobbye and Tonilee did not set out to start a successful business in and when she left high school she headed to Point Loma Nazarene
the social media arena. They started out leading a study group at University in San Diego, where she studied nursing. After gradu-
their church which focused on encouraging women to grow spiritu- ation she obtained a position at Sharp Memorial Hospital in the
ally. It was a powerful time in the lives of everyone who attended, Acute Care Unit.