Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve blogged. So busy. I presented at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston last week. They put on some event. Spared no expense. Rock band. Ballmer. 7,500 partners. Impressive.

When I present at big events, I get all geared up to make a good impression, do a great job. Possibly interest new consulting clients. That’s all well and good. But I’m finding it’s those little moments, boarding an airplane, sitting down next to someone at lunch, where I often make the best connections. And I’ve built some long-lasting relationships in those little moments.

I used to travel 150,000-200,000 miles a year and while waiting in the airport and sitting on a plane, I would bury my face in the dozens of trade publications, reports, and books I needed to read. I didn’t like being interrupted.  All those missed opportunities. Gone for good.

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The new online “market me” tool VisualCV is addicting. I keep adding and tweaking. It’s just fantastic. I’ve added the VisualCV badge at the top of my blog sidebar (and copied it below for easy clicking). Take a look. Give me feedback. Start one of your own!

Guy wrote a post pointing to other examples. See here.

Use it as your online resume, a marketing tool for your consulting service, an announcement for an event, or well, anything you can think of.

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Posted in: Cool sites, Marketing fundamentals, News and views, social media
 

The WSJ ran a story today on LoudounExtra.com, a local news website owned by The Washington Post Company covering Loudoun County, Virginia and its 270,000 residents. The site offers hyper-local news, events, and commentary and employs a great deal of new media (blogs, feeds, video, etc.). In fact, it’s exactly what you would expect to be a huge success, but apparently traffic has been abysmal. Russell Adam’s story attempts to dissect the problems.

However, the problem isn’t the people who built the site, or their knowledge of the community. The problem is simple. You can’t just build a site and hope people come. Sure that works sometimes, but that can’t be your marketing plan. LoudonExtra.com is a great site and I think a few marketing ideas might get it going.

1. Do a better job pulling people at real-world events to the site and people on the site to real-world events. You have to be in the community creating buzz, handing out t-shirts (think more like a radio station).

2. Turn your staff writers into personalities. Make sure they blog, quickly return comments from readers, and make themselves visible at local events (think Anderson Cooper/CNN). And post prominent pictures of them on the site. And while you’re at it, do the same thing for local bloggers.

3. Build a little more community into the site so that readers can talk to each other and build databases of information that are valuable to everyone else (comments on local services, local politics, fun for kids). Then run a promotion targeted solely to getting lots of people registered, reading the site, and commenting. American Airlines is currently running a Beijing promotion designed to create community. You can enter to win a free trip if you register on their site and post a travel tip (and every post is an additional contest entry). Good idea.

4. Set up a loyalty program where visitors can earn points towards small gifts (tickets to shows, free restaurant meals, etc.) if they bring others to the site, comment on blogs, or post tips. Make it a little more fun and interactive on the site.

5. Add more video and more pictures. Let people upload their videos and pictures of local events. Let them vote about what they think is the most important or interesting news or pictures.

6. Make it about the PEOPLE not just the events. Hyper-local actually means hyper-personal. Everyone in the community wants to see their name, picture, event or company highlighted. Make it so that people come to the site just to see if they made it in the news because they attended the event or blogged about it or sent in a video clip!

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Looking for business advice online? There are dozens of websites aimed at helping small businesses and entrepreneurs. Some of them answer quick questions, others develop long-lasting mentoring relationships, and a few help entrepreneurs raise capital. Here is a list of sites I found in the WSJ you can check out.

Score.org

IdeaCrossing.org

GoBigNetwork.com

IMantri.com

MicroMentor.org

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Posted in: Cool sites, Social networking, Tools and technology
 

I’ve always considered myself pragmatic, logical, and clearly even-keeled. Then, Ori Brafman sent me his (and brother Rom’s) book Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior. It’s a magnetic read and I zipped through it in 2 quick sittings.

I rather like books that make me think twice about truths I hold self-evident. And Sway certainly made me think. Did I pre-judge my employees based on what others had said about them, or their previous jobs? Do I make rash (and possibly dangerous or stupid) choices when I’m committed to a certain plan of action and feel any diversion would be a loss? I certainly look for fairness in my business and personal transactions. But is fairness the key metric? Maybe not.

The book has opened my eyes and mind to new ways of approaching my business activities and relationships and family interactions. Hopefully I will recognize in advance a moment where I might act rash or choose the wrong — irrational — path and think again about my choices.

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Posted in: News and views, Strategy