Investing, Raising Capital, Sales Training, and Recruiting with Social Media
Blogs, social network sites, social software---and how to use all of these tools to become dramatically more successful
OK, I put up with the numerous bugs, the frequent nondescript error messages, and so on, but tonight I tried to just click on the Groups link in MySpace and got this, repeatedly for the past half-hour or so:
Hey Rupert… how about throwing a couple of extra million into fixing the infrastructure!!!
I’ll be appearing on AllTalkRadio Monday tonight on the Growing Your Business with Fred and Lyna show at 8pm EST. I’ll be talking about how entrepreneurs can use online networks to find strategic partners, customers, business partners, and much-needed expertise to help you start and grow your business.
If you miss the live show, don’t worry – it’ll be available in the show archives the next day.
Nitron Advisors is featured on the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal:
Big Investors Turn to Network of Informants
“For professional investors, something akin to what Match.com has done for the nation’s singles…hooking up middle managers from hundreds of companies with professional investors desperate for an investing edge.”
More (requires subscription or two-week trial)
UPDATE: Michael Mayhew posted the article’s text in full, without the graphic which discusses revenue of Nitron and other players in the space.
An interview with Michael Gerber, Author of The E-Myth Revisited:
“If they dont fail outright, most businesses fail to fully achieve their potential. Thats because the person who owns the business doesn’t truly know how to build a company that works without him or her.. which is the key.” – Michael Gerber
Michael Gerber is the founder and CEO of E-Myth Worldwide, and best selling author of The E-Myth Revisited, and E-Myth Mastery. He defines E-Myth as: 1: The entrepreneurial myth: the myth that most people who start a small business are entrepreneurs, 2: the fatal assumption that an individual who understands the technical work of a business can successfully run a business that does technical work.
Since its publication in 1995, this business classic has sold over one million copies, and is published in 16 languages. Michael observes that most small businesses are started by “technicians”, that is, people who are skilled at something and who enjoy doing that thing. When these technicians strike out on their own, they tend to continue doing the work they are skilled at, and ignore the overarching aspects of business. Without clear goals and quantification benchmarks, they soon find themselves overworked, understaffed, and eventually broke. They come to hate the work they do. Rather than owning a business, Gerber writes, “they own a job.”
Click here for the interview.
The creator of BugMeNot.com has launched http://www.retailmenot.com/, which provides coupon codes for retail stores, without the privacy-infringing registration requirements. A very useful tool.
Many online stores allow for a “coupon” or “promotion” code when you order to automatically assign discounts, deals and freebies (kinda like money for nothing). RetailMeNot.com is a place for finding and sharing these coupon codes.
So… when you buy online, check here for discounts first (unless you’re frikkin crazy).
Via GoodExperience
Image via Wikipedia
Our COO, Scott Lichtman, is speaking at this event:
New York County Lawyers’ Association’s Cyberspace Law Committee
presents
Web 2.0: Upgrade Your Web Marketing
The Internet is upgrading to version 2.0 and so should your law firm’s marketing. More and more lawyers are taking their practices to the next level and this forum should help you do the same. Take an evening to familiarize yourself with how blogging, online referral networks, research-sharing wikis and more can expand your firm’s profile and attract prospective clients.
SPEAKERS
Scott Lichtman
COO, Nitron Advisors
Scott Lichtman is COO of Nitron Advisors (www.nitronadvisors.com), a provider of senior industry executives with specialized backgrounds to law firms for testimony and to investment funds for market advice. Nitron Advisors extensively applies Web 2.0 technologies – including blogs, peer referral networks, online expertise acquisition services, specialized professional search engines and live interactions – to acquire clients and experts as well as build awareness for the firm’s capabilities.
Martin Schwimmer, Esq.
Partner, Schwimmer Mitchell Law Firm
Martin Schwimmer is co-founder and Partner at Schwimmer Mitchell. He represents owners of some of the most famous and soon-to-be-famous trademarks in the world. He focuses on international and domestic trademark and domain name counseling, prosecution and litigation. Martin was General Counsel to an ICANN-accredited domain name registrar and continues to represent domain name companies. Martin was a partner at Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu. Managing Intellectual Property Magazine selected Martin as one of the best trademark lawyers in the United States. Martin writes and speaks frequently on trademark and domain name issues and is editor of The Trademark Blog, www.schwimmerlegal.com, one of the most popular blogs on the Internet in this field of law (and generally ranked #1 by Google in this niche).
Creator and Host of AdamSmithEsq.com
Bruce MacEwan is a lawyer as well as a consultant to law firms on strategic and economic issues. He publishes the site “Adam Smith, Esq.” providing insights into the business of law firms, which generates 250,000 page views per month. You can read it at www.AdamSmithEsq.com. In his consulting practice, Bruce provides guidance on how to expand one’s business in the legal world. A recent engagement, for example, was a return-on-investment analysis of a knowledge management initiative at an AmLaw 20 practice. He’s also produced empirical studies of the structure of the profession, working with leading law professors. Most relevant to tonight, he has witnessed fascinating situations in which Web 2.0 technologies are being used to the fullest in law and related professional services. Bruce has written for or been the subject of articles in: The National Law Journal, Law Firm, Inc., Law Technology News as well as the Wall Street Journal and Web 2.0 magazine. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association’s committee on Law Practice Management.
Natalie Sulimani, Event Co-Chair, NYCLA Cyberspace Law Executive Committee;
Ron Katter and Henry Diaz, Event Co-Chairs, Co-Chairs NYCLA Solo and Small Firm Practice Committee
Thursday, November 16, 2006, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
(between Broadway and Church Street)
RSVP: DLAMB(AT)nycla.org, Subject: "November 16 Forum". Entrance and facilities for those with disabilities are available. For wheelchair access, a ramp is provided. Please call 212 267-6646 at least one day in advance to make arrangements.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=3ec8da22-4d75-41aa-a3f6-2b2373318071)
For this blog and for Brain Food, We are looking for an email service that can convert our blog posts into both daily and weekly mailings. Services like Feedburner can automatically convert each blog post into an email. And a company like Constant Contact (and its many competitors) will take our mailing list and send out mailings.
However, Feedburner won’t let us upload our existing mailing list into their system, no doubt because of anti-spam concerns. And Constant Contact does not have a facility to automatically allow us to convert each blog post into a mailing to our whole list there. We’re currently using Mailman to address this problem, but the problem with Mailman is we are running it locally, and that makes our server liable for spam complaints. Also, Mailman usually puts each blog post into an attachment, instead of into the body of an email.
The ideal service would automatically create a weekly newsletter, including the most recent blog posts. It would also allow easy editing for readability say, excerpts from the best 3 recent posts and subject links to the rest of them, plus some heading text. The About.com subject guide newsletters are examples of what we’re looking for. It would also include all of the unsubscribe/other reader functionality that Mailman and Constant Contact offer.
Does anyone have a solution to this dilemma? We’re happy to pay for a service that will work for our needs, which are common among blog publishers.
More social networking humor from Chris Pirillo:
Of course, once I thought about it, I realized that in most of the social networking sites in which I participate, “friendship” is bi-directional, i.e., both people have to consent. Maybe a better definition would be “Someone you actually know who won’t accept your social networking friend request.”
Congratulations to the team at Accolo, which was just named the #1 fastest growing private company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Accolo is the company that acquired Teten Recruiting. For more on their approach to recruiting, see “Use Online Networks to Find Your Star Employee“.
It seems that on many of the networks and lists on which I participate, there’s been an issue with “negativity” lately. Many have had members leave because of the negativity that they perceive.
You know, I would never be one to come out “in defense” of negativity. It frustrates me as much as it does anyone here, and those of you who have been around a while know that I’ve dealt with more than my share of it as a moderator (going on four years as a network leader).
On the one hand, I can understand why people wouldn’t voluntarily choose to be in a place where negativity prevails.
On the other hand, I also recognize that these communities are a microcosm of the rest of the business world. Here, you can learn to deal with difficult people in a low-risk environment. In small doses, it’s almost like a training ring for dealing with difficult people face-to-face. And if you can’t deal with them here — ignore them or confront them, as appropriate — how can you expect to be able to deal with them in the real world?
[Read more...]
