Women Grow Business

In my quest to try out new social networks, I signed up for FourSquare last year (image: Richard Schatzberger, Creative Commons). I didn’t start using the service until a couple of months ago, when I got my new Palm Pre and I felt ready to dive into another social network.

FourSquare is a location-based social network.

The idea is that you share your location with your friends and followers by “checking into” locations. For example, every time I go to a restaurant, I pull up the FourSquare app on my phone, let the app determine my GPS coordinates and show me possible options.  I can select one of the venues select and “check-in” or add a new venue.

When I check in, I can write a little message and share out my update on Facebook and/or Twitter.

A few Saturdays ago, I checked into four locations, including three restaurants and I got hilarious comments from friends about how all I did on Saturday was eat!

Here’s what I’m enjoying about FourSquare:

• I don’t feel compelled to check in multiple times a day, every day. My check-ins are usually to restaurants, but increasingly, I’m checking into events. A few nights ago, I checked into the DCWW Content Strategy Workshop held at the Matrix Group office. I check in only a few times a week, if at all.
• I love the gaming aspect of FourSquare.  People who have the most check-ins at a specific get a Mayor badge. So far, I’ve earned a Newbie badge and an Explorer badge. I’m hoping to become Mayor of one of my favorite restaurants sometime soon!
• It’s fun to see where my friends are and what they’re doing.
• FourSquare is not nearly as chatty as Twitter and Facebook.
• I have learned about so many great, local businesses through FourSquare!
• Some enterprising retailers are rewarding frequent customers with discount coupons and other goodies. The retailers are glad for the patronage AND the free advertising from the check-ins!

FourSquare has its detractors, of course.

• Some critics say FourSquare is just another tool for sharing TMI (too much information). Yep, I agree, some people should Just Say No to checking in everywhere they go.  Seriously, do you need to check at Planned Parenthood or the strip club?
• On a more serious note, there are legitimate privacy and security concerns about constantly broadcasting where you are and where you are not. The Web site PleaseRobMe.com used to take FourSquare and Twitter feeds and broadcast location updates of thousands of people.  The founders of PleaseRobMe say the public is now paying attention and they’re now trying to figure out whether to continue the service.

Me? I only update during the day when I’m normally at work and yes, I have an alarm system at home that is always on when nobody is home.

And I never, ever update Twitter, Facebook or FourSquare and broadcast that I’m going to be away for an extended period of time.

As of a couple of weeks ago (June 22) TechCrunch reported that FourSquare had 1.7 M users and that it had added 100,000 users in the last 10 days.

How about you? Are you on FourSquare? What do YOU think about the new location-based social networks?

More from Women Grow Business:

• Tinu Abayomi-Paul on the limits of social networking surrogacy
• Getting smart about e-commerce with Leslie Linevsky

Cross-posted with permission from The Matrix Files.

Founder/CEO and self-proclaimed Chief Troublemaker of Matrix Group International, Joanna Pineda is known for her visionary big-picture thinking and drive for excellence. Combining her broad liberal arts background and passion for technology, she started Matrix Group in 1999, today a leading interactive agency. As a trusted advisor, Joanna inspires and motivates her clients and employees alike to simply, “be better” with her mantra being: Do or Do Not. There is no try!

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When technology works against you

I was arranging lunch with a vendor and suggested Kora, the hip, new Italian restaurant in Crystal City.  I wanted to e-mail my contact Kora’s address, phone number and a link to a Google map.  Alas, the entire Kora site is in Flash, which is beautiful, but it’s not very user-friendly.

The biggest problem?  I can’t copy and paste the contact info to include in an e-mail and  paste into Google Maps.  I know, I know, it’ s not a big deal to retype the address, but I’m a picky consumer. I want to be able to copy and paste easily.  Even better, I’d love a way to share the address page or just click on a map.

This got me to thinking:

What are all the ways, big and little, that we make it difficult for our customers and potential customers to do business with us?

Consider these examples:

1. The lender that gets it

A few years ago, my husband and I were shopping around for a mortgage.  I called three bankers.  One was only available between 7am and 3pm.  Another sent me 20 pages to fill out about our assets.  The third asked me when it would be convenient to call (7pm), asked me to send bank and 401(k) statements so that he could fill out all the paperwork.  Guess who got the business?

2. The vendor who goes above and beyond

During the planning for our office move, I called several vendors about office furniture systems.  One never called back.  One asked me to send her the architect’s drawings and information on what we wanted (I didn’t yet know what we wanted so I didn’t call back.)  The third, Michelle Ferrari from Office Images, offered to come by with catalogs, look at the architect’s drawings with me and discuss our needs.  There was no contest.

Image: William Murphy, Creative Commons

3. “Hello, anyone there?”

I called a company to get a reference for someone applying for a job at Matrix Group.  It took me 3 tries before I could figure out how to leave a message in the general mailbox.  I couldn’t even imagine calling as a prospective customer.

4. Help me cut through the clutter

I’ve had a relationship with Insurance Designers for a very long time.  Every time I have a question, I call or e-mail Neal or Wendy Cohen and they get back to me promptly.  One time, Matrix Group was applying for some new type of insurance and Neal’s office sent over a very long questionnaire, which I could not figure out.  I called Neal and he said, “don’t worry about it, let’s fill it out over the phone.”  I love the guy.

5. No phone, no sale

I was looking for a specific Thomas the Tank Engine train for my son and I found it for less money (than Amazon) on a small retailer site.  I had questions about the train (because a certain 5-year old had a specific request) but, for the life of me, I could not find a phone number on the Web site.  I gave up, ordered the product from Amazon and prayed that I had ordered the right thing.

The lessons for all of us who sell products or services?

• Make it easy for our customers and prospective customers to contact us the way they feel comfortable doing so (phone, fax, e-mail, Web form, smoke signal).
• When a customer calls your office, make it easy to navigate the automated attendant voice mail system.  Better yet, have a human answer the call, find out the caller’s need and route the call to the right person.
• Call people back (yeah, I know, this one’s a no-brainer).
• Don’t put too many any obstacles in the way of you sending a quote and closing the deal. I’m legendary in the office for not being quite human before 9am, but if a customer wants to do a call at 7am, I’ll be on the line at 6:55am.  I’ll be in my PJs, but I’ll be on the line.

As a CEO, I’m always on the lookout for ways to make it easier to say “yes” to Matrix Group.  We sometimes stumble, but for me, the important thing is to constantly look for ways to make life better for Matrix Group clients.

How about you?  What site or retailer do you love to do business with and why?  And who makes it impossible to do business with them?  Got any horror stories?

More from:

• Regular contributor Lori Saitz on making client appreciation a joint venture
• Marketing, the Small Business Success Index, and You, from Grow Smart Business

Cross-posted with minor edits from The Matrix Files.

Founder/CEO and self-proclaimed Chief Troublemaker of Matrix Group International Joanna Pineda is a Women Grow Business enthusiast. She is known for her visionary big-picture thinking and drive for excellence. Combining her broad liberal arts background and passion for technology, she started Matrix Group in 1999, today a leading interactive agency. As a trusted advisor, Joanna inspires and motivates her clients and employees alike to simply, “be better” with her mantra being: Do or Do Not. There is no try!

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When the Olympics become relative

I watched the Women’s Downhill competition during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics a few evenings ago.  I saw several women crash on the course, their Olympics dreams and year of preparation, go up in smoke.

Business books are full of sports analogies, but for my part, I’m glad that the world of business is not really like the Olympics.  Here’s how:

The Olympics are for the Young

Although there are a few 30-something and 40-something athletes, the Olympics are dominated by elite competitors in their teens and 20s. After a dozen years of competing, their careers are over. I’m grateful that after 18 years in the online business, I still have many years ahead of me. Perhaps I’m a late bloomer, but I feel like it’s really only in the last five years that I’ve really hit my stride and seen Matrix Group really thrive and expand.

Although there are a few relay races, the Olympics are dominated by the talents and achievements of individuals. In business, you can’t complete projects of any significant size and scope without a team effort. Take any redesign project at Matrix Group; these projects involve a project manager, an information architect, multiple designers, at least one front-end developer, at least one developer, and at least one tester.

The work of one person affects every other team member and if one team members screws up, the whole project is threatened.

In Business, You Want a Lot of Winners

It’s easy to compare the world of sales with the Olympics: lots of competitors, one winner. But I would argue that the true race or competition begins once the sale has been made and implementation begins. Paradoxically, at this stage, you don’t want any losers. You want the client, the vendor, the third party partners, and the customers to all win with whatever widget, Web site or product you are building.

In Business, I Get to Win Gold Every Week

If Shawn White hadn’t won gold in the Halfpipe competition, he’d have to wait another four years for his next chance. Sure, there are other competitions, but only one Olympics every four years.

Me? I heard from two prospects last week that we didn’t make the final cut. But this week, we landed a new account and heard from another prospect that we made it to the next round.

More important, we get to “win gold” pretty much every week when we launch new Web sites and apps or solve problems for clients.

The Whole World Isn’t Watching

Can you even imagine doing your job while millions of people watch? Imagine how it feels to be a figure skater and take a fall in front of a crowded auditorium and a worldwide TV audience. Thank God that my team and I get to do our work (mostly) without an audience.

I love the Olympics, especially the Winter Olympics. I’m a couch potato for two weeks as I cheer for my favorites, hold my breath and hope nobody takes a spill. When the Olympics end, I’ll be happy for the winners, and glad that I get to be a winner, in my own way, in my day job.

Image: RobMan170′s Flickrstream, Creative Commons

Founder/CEO and self-proclaimed Chief Troublemaker of Matrix Group International Joanna Pineda is a Women Grow Business enthusiast. She is known for her visionary big-picture thinking and drive for excellence. Combining her broad liberal arts background and passion for technology, she started Matrix Group in 1999, today a leading interactive agency. As a trusted advisor, Joanna inspires and motivates her clients and employees alike to simply, “be better” with her mantra being: Do or Do Not. There is no try!

Cross-posted with permission from The Matrix Files

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Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg has gotten a lot of flack lately for his pronouncement (during an interview with TechCrunch) that privacy norms have evolved over the years and privacy is essentially dead.  I watched the interview myself and think the criticism is overdone.  I think that Zuckerberg has correctly described the times and his company is taking advantage of our voyeuristic culture.  Facebook did not create this culture.  I think it started with the first reality show on MTV back in 80s. We watched the teens living together and reveled in their pranks and arguments.

Does the social Web mean the end of privacy?  Are MySpace and Facebook to blame for all the personal revelations we spew out every day?  Or should we blame Google and Bing, which manage to index the Web and let anyone find out gobs and gobs of information about each of us?

When I Google my name (Joanna Pineda), I find lots of information that I WANT the search engines to find and index.  But I also find pages that have my address, my political contributions and address, yada, yada.

I’m not happy that Facebook changed its privacy settings and defaulted some of my information to be available to everyone, but I actually appreciate the more granular control that I now have over my posts, link and photos.

What do you think?  Is privacy dead?  How much do you reveal on social networks?  Are you doing anything to keep out of the search engines?

More from:

• Joanna Pineda: top tips for a great Facebook fan page and whether it’s time to unfriend people in your social networks
• Privacy on Facebook from SocialMediaSEO
• 20 Years of the Web from Social Media Today

Image: Alan Cleaver, Creative Commons

Founder/CEO and self-proclaimed Chief Troublemaker of Matrix Group International Joanna Pineda is a Women Grow Business enthusiast. She is known for her visionary big-picture thinking and drive for excellence. Combining her broad liberal arts background and passion for technology, she started Matrix Group in 1999, today a leading interactive agency. As a trusted advisor, Joanna inspires and motivates her clients and employees alike to simply, “be better” with her mantra being: Do or Do Not. There is no try!

Cross-posted with permission from The Matrix Files.

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Over the past year or so, I’ve seen more and more non-profits and companies create Facebook fan pages for their organizations. Facebook calls fan pages “a customizable presence for an organization, product, or public personality to join the conversation with Facebook users.” Fan pages are great because they are designed for organizations, but they work a lot like personal pages.

Image I’m a Big Fan by Brittany Bush, Creative Commons

You can customize them; you can post status updates, links, photos and videos; and updates show up on fans’ streams.

So, you’ve set-up a Facebook fan page for your company, now what?
Here are some of my favorite Facebook fan pages and reasons I think they’re terrific and effective.

Stanford University – http://www.facebook.com/stanford

• The status updates are a mix of campus news, alumni news, sports updates, research and university news.
• The page has a good mix of updates, links, photos and videos.
• I love the office hours with world-renowned professors. Each week, there is a short video of a professor discussing some important work; the professor takes questions from fans throughout the week.
• I also appreciate the handy list of Stanford Web sites and the photo albums.

Dunkin Donuts – http://www.facebook.com/DunkinDonuts

• When you visit this Facebook fan page, you are not taken to the Wall by default, but rather to a promo.
• This fan page uses a custom Tab for Maurice, the Dunkin Donuts mascot.
• Dunkin Donuts encourages fan posts to the Wall; there are even videos posted by fans.
• To manage fan posts, “DD Facebook Etiquette” is posted right on the front page; this makes it clear that DD welcomes fan interaction, but within specific parameters.

Aquilent – http://www.facebook.com/Aquilent

• It’s clear that Aquilent is targeting potential recruits and existing staff with its Facebook page.
  This government contractor does a great job of showcasing the company’s culture and events.
• The posts are a mix of updates about events at Aquilent that cover technology, health and fun.
• The photos are great and seem to generate lots of great comments from fans.

PBS – http://www.facebook.com/pbs

• I love how the PBS fan page encompasses PBS’ different offerings, including TV, Web site and online store.
• Many of the posts actively solicit fan engagement. A recent post asks “NewsHour correspondents detail their favorite books, films, concerts and plays of the year. What do you think of their picks?”
• Facebook fans were recently offered a 20% off coupon + free shipping. Nice insider post with a custom coupon code that lets PBS track the source of the sale; great e-commerce tie-in!
• PBS sponsors a discussion forum where fans can start discussions about any topic related to PBS and its programs and services.
• The fan page also lists online events that fans can participate in, including live chats.

City of Alexandria – http://www.facebook.com/AlexandriaVAGov

• As a resident of Alexandria, I think the city does a great job of posting the most important city news, updates and events. I get weather advisories, health updates, and highlights of city events.
• I’m still subscribed to the City’s emergency alerts and still get my Alexandria Gazette weekly; the Facebook fan page complements these services really nicely.

Matrix Group International – http://www.facebook.com/MatrixGroup

• Since I run the place, I better like my company’s Facebook fan page.
• But seriously, I think the Matrix Group marketing team is doing a good job of highlighting company culture and events, Web site launches to showcase our work, and individual staff accomplishments.
• We try to post a mixture of updates, links and photos.
• We also promote all of our webinars through Facebook to try and reach a wider audience.

How about you?

What are some of your favorite Facebook fan pages? What do the pages do and feature that make them so effective?

If you want more tips for creating an effective Facebook page, check out these articles on All Facebook and Mashable. There are also great resources directly from Facebook.

Thanks Joanna for your Women Grow Business support from The Matrix Files.

Founder/CEO and self-proclaimed Chief Troublemaker of Matrix Group International Joanna Pineda is a Women Grow Business enthusiast. She is known for her visionary big-picture thinking and drive for excellence. Combining her broad liberal arts background and passion for technology, she started Matrix Group in 1999, today a leading interactive agency. As a trusted advisor, Joanna inspires and motivates her clients and employees alike to simply, “be better” with her mantra being: Do or Do Not. There is no try!

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I was talking to one of the Cat Herders (Project Manager) at Matrix Group today. She said she was trimming her Facebook friend list and unfriending some people. Unfriending. It sounds so… umm…unfriendly.

500 friends online. Really?
Facebook says that the average user has 130 friends but I know people who have hundreds, even thousands of friends. 500 friends? I can’t imagine many people who have that many friends with whom they would willingly share personal updates, photos, even their full birthday. So I asked around and got some good insight into the friending and unfriending business.

These findings don’t represent a large group, just my friends!

• There is a group of Facebook users who will accept friend requests from anyone and who actively try to expand their friend network.
• There is another group that views Facebook as a place where they can communicate freely so they only connect with true friends. For these folks, Facebook is a place for personal communications, often about self, family, kids, friends.
• There was a general consensus that the new Facebook homepage, which splits updates between News Feed and View Live Feed, makes it harder to see updates from your entire network of friends, which makes it more challenging to have a large network.
• Many people have been cleaning up their lists on Facebook, Twitter, and other social network recently. They’re actively unfriending people so they can manage the communications and flood of updates.
• Even if a person has a large network on a platform like Facebook, they are more than likely only interacting with a small subset of friends. Indeed, the Facebook sociologist says no matter how large their friend network:
  

  Facebook users tend to “comment on stuff from only about 5-10% of their Facebook friends.”

So just how does one end up on an unfriend list?

• If you never respond to direct messages.
• If you never update your status.
• If your relationship with a person is tenuous at best.

BTW, if you unfriend someone on Facebook
-the person does not receive a notification, but they can no longer look at your profile and they can’t request to get connected again. If you unfollow someone on Twitter, they don’t receive a notification and chances are, they won’t notice since many people have so many followers and people they are following. It is quite another thing, however, to block someone on Twitter; if you block someone, they can’t follow you.

As for me, on Twitter, I let most people follow me and I follow nearly 700 people back.
On Facebook, however, I only accept friend requests from people I know, people I would gladly have lunch with, and with whom I don’t mind sharing information about my son. So while I’m connected to nearly a thousand people on Twitter, I only have 170 people in my Facebook network.

How about you?
How large is your social network on the different platforms? What criteria do you use to assess friend requests? Are you doing any unfriending lately?

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Image Go Away Eye Pillow by Pillow Head Designs, Creative Commons

Founder/CEO and self-proclaimed Chief Troublemaker of Matrix Group International Joanna Pineda is a Women Grow Business enthusiast. She is known for her visionary big-picture thinking and drive for excellence. Combining her broad liberal arts background and passion for technology, she started Matrix Group in 1999, today a leading interactive agency. As a trusted advisor, Joanna inspires and motivates her clients and employees alike to simply, “be better” with her mantra being: Do or Do Not. There is no try!

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I haven’t watched a Miss Universe pageant in a long time, but a part of the program will stay with me forever: the part where Bob Barker says to the 1st runner up something along the lines of:

In the event that Miss Universe is unable to serve, you will take the crown?

What on earth does the Miss Universe pageant have to do with running a business?

Your business and winning first prize (or not)
Well it turns out if you run a business long enough, no matter how successful you, there are times when you don’t take home the prize. I can remember deals where we came soooo close to winning the account, but ultimately we came in second place – or 1st runner up.

But unlike a Miss Universe pageant
-the 1st runner up in business often has a good chance of taking the prize when: the first choice can’t deliver, the client’s needs outpace the capabilities of the selected vendor, or a change in staffing triggers a review of the account and the contracts.

When Matrix Group comes in second, yes, it totally sucks but here’s what we try and do:

• We ask for a debrief so that we can learn why we didn’t win the account. We learn a lot from these debriefs and the prospects know that we care about their feedback.
• We ask the prospect if they’d like to stay on our list and continue receiving news about our launches and webinars, and sign-up for our RSS feeds, blog or social media pages. This strategy allows us to keep in touch with the prospect with little effort and in a non sales-y way.
• We ask the prospect to please keep us in mind for future projects; this lets the prospect know that we’re not upset (even if we are), that we still want to do business with them, and the door is always open.
• We check back every six months or so and monitor the site to find out when the new site goes online. If we don’t see the site launching according to the scheduled timetable, we drop an e-mail or check-in with a phone call.

Matrix Group has been a proud 1st runner up that ended up – eventually – taking the ‘new account crown’ in many, many instances.

We landed the Catholic Charities account over nine years ago when the first vendor stumbled; we still have the account today. Just this week, I heard from a prospect from 2005 that had selected another firm for their redesign; and the redesign is still not done and they’ve selected Matrix Group to finish the work!

How about you?

Has your company come in second aka 1st runner up and then taken the prize? What strategies do you use to take the prize away from the prospect’s first winner or ‘Miss Universe’?

(And finally, do you ever watch the Miss Universe pageant and would you ever admit to it?!)

Founder/CEO and self-proclaimed Chief Troublemaker of Matrix Group International Joanna Pineda is a Women Grow Business enthusiast. She is known for her visionary big-picture thinking and drive for excellence. Combining her broad liberal arts background and passion for technology, she started Matrix Group in 1999, today a leading interactive agency. As a trusted advisor, Joanna inspires and motivates her clients and employees alike to simply, “be better” with her mantra being: Do or Do Not. There is no try!

Thanks Joanna Pineda for sharing your observations from The Matrix Files.

Image Platinum Tiara by Mauro Luna, Creative Commons.

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Twitter was super smart when they created their API and encouraged developers all over the world to come on in, use their API and develop their own applications using Twitter data. But wait, what’s an API, you say?

API stands for Application Program Interface. Wikipedia defines an API as “an interface that a software programs implements in order to allow other software to interact with it.” In the Web world, APIs allow systems to talk to each other, request each other’s data, write to each other’s systems, etc., within a defined structure. In Twitter’s case, the Twitter API allows software developers to request information from Twitter, especially the tweets by Twitter subscribers. The API allows requests by date range, keyword, usernames, etc.

Why on earth would anyone want to build a program using Twitter data? It turns out that Twitter data can be amazingly interesting once it’s sliced and diced in different ways. There are hundreds (perhaps thousands) of applications that take Twitter streams and do “stuff” with them: sort them, visualize them, analyze them, count them. Here are some of my very favorite Twitter applications. Note that I specifically don’t list applications that help you manage your tweets, replies, direct messages, etc.

• Twisst gets location information from the profiles of its followers, then tweets @ specific persons when the international space station will be in their vicinity
• TwitterCounter lets you get statistics on specific users, including Twitter rank, number of followers, etc.
• Twistori is a real-time visualization of tweets across the entire Twitter universe that mention love, hate, think, believe, feel, wish
• Twitter search lets you conduct real-times searches for keywords and phrases in everyone’s tweets
• TwitterReach lets you see how far your tweets have traveled by typing a specific keyword, phrase or hash tag; you’ll even get the total number of people your message might have reached, based on the followers of the tweeters
• TweetStats lets you enter a Twitter username to see that person’s Twitter stats, including tweets by month, day of week and time; who they most reply to and who they most retweet
• WeFollow is a user-powered directory of Twitter users, tagged by categories
• OneHourTranslation has built a business around translating tweets and sending them back to you in the language of your choice
• HappyTweets lets you enter a Twitter username and get that person’s happiness score; mine is 560 — ridiculously happy
• Twitoaster is a great way to see the threads in your Twitter conversations
• Trendistic is a great way to keep up with trends on Twitter, including trending topics

Can’t get enough of these Twitter applications? Oneforty.com claims to be the best way to find Twitter applications. TechCrunch has its list of the top 21 Twitter applications. Finally, Twitdom is a database of Twitter applications.

How about you? What are your favorite Twitter applications? What’s the coolest or prettiest thing you’ve seen that uses the Twitter API?

More from:

• The Chief Troublemaker on Her Favorite Twitter Visualization Sites
• Top 4 Ways Social Media Connects Your Business Personality with Customer Service
• No Magic Bullet: 5 Ways to Harness Real Time Feedback

Founder/CEO and self-proclaimed Chief Troublemaker of Matrix Group International Joanna Pineda is a Women Grow Business enthusiast. She is known for her visionary big-picture thinking and drive for excellence. Combining her broad liberal arts background and passion for technology, she started Matrix Group in 1999, today a leading interactive agency. As a trusted advisor, Joanna inspires and motivates her clients and employees alike to simply, “be better” with her mantra being: Do or Do Not. There is no try!

Thanks Joanna Pineda for sharing your observations from The Matrix Files.

Image Twitter Badges by Twinklebol, Creative Commons.

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I have a rule when it comes to food:
you have to try it before you render judgment. This is a rule that my husband and I have impressed on our son from the time he was little. My mantra: Don’t tell me you don’t like it; you have to try it first. In fact, I say this a lot when it comes to just about everything: food, places, experiences. So imagine my surprise when CJ turned the tables on me and started saying, “Just try it, mama!”

I had purchased Rock Band for the PS3 a few months ago after borrowing the game from a friend and falling in love with it. Even though I know I’m not good at it, I love to sing, so my natural inclination was to sing. For weeks, I would practice singing and even taught CJ to sing a couple of songs (Eye of the Tiger and Tempted).

One day, CJ said, “Mama, you should try drums.” My immediate reaction was, “No, thanks, I like to sing.” Then CJ said, “Mama, just try it!” And that’s when I realized I was operating in my comfort zone.

I’d never contemplated playing drums in my life, much less on Rock Band. But, wanting to set a good example for my son, I gave it a shot. Guess what? I’m terrible at it, but I love it. I love it so much that I want to get better and now I want to try my hand at guitar.

Imagine that.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. I’m driving back from a weekend trip with my son, with my husband Maki in a separate car. Maki recently got his ham radio license; he’s actually passed all three tests. He gave me and CJ a radio and promised he’d try to transmit messages to us from his car. Since I don’t have my license, I could not transmit back. CJ said, “Mama, I want to get my license so I can talk to daddy. You should get your license, too.” Again, my immediate reaction was “No, thanks, I have enough to do in my life without studying for a ham radio test!”

But over the next week, I got to thinking.
Why not step out of my comfort zone and go for it? How cool would it be for me to pass the test and be able to actually broadcast? It might be kind of cool to learn about amateur radio stations, transponder signals and amperes. And what a great message to send to my son! So, this past weekend, I asked Maki to pull out the flash cards. I’ve mastered 1/4 of the questions and hope to take the test in November. Wish me luck.

How about you? Have you stepped out of your comfort zone lately? What have you always wanted to do or try and just need the excuse to do so? C’mon, if I can study for the ham radio test, you can do something out of the ordinary as well!

EDITOR’S UPDATE:
It’s official! Just over one week ago, the Chief Troublemaker passed the exam to be a Technician class amateur radio operator.

Thanks Joanna for sharing your story from The Matrix Files.

Founder/CEO and self-proclaimed Chief Troublemaker of Matrix Group International Joanna Pineda is a Women Grow Business enthusiast. She is known for her visionary big-picture thinking and drive for excellence. Combining her broad liberal arts background and passion for technology, she started Matrix Group in 1999, today a leading interactive agency. As a trusted advisor, Joanna inspires and motivates her clients and employees alike to simply, “be better” with her mantra being: Do or Do Not. There is no try!

(Image LTZ Rock by JLyon1515, Creative Commons)

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I was a panelist at the Grow Smart Biz conference on Tuesday, September 29th at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, DC. In my opinion, this conference was a must-attend event for small business owners and entrepreneurs (more on that later). This blog post is about how the conference planners are using the crowd to attract a bigger crowd.

Here’s how:
The planners of Grow Smart Biz assembled a powerhouse group of speakers and panelists, which is not unusual for a conference. What is new is this: the planners actively engaged the speakers in promoting the conference through their blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, etc.

In essence, the conference hosts tapped into the vast networks of the speakers to promote the event.

So when Jill Foster, editor of the Women Grow Business blog and social media expert, tweets or blogs, the event is marketed to her over 3,000 followers. So, if you’ve got big names keynoting at your next convention, why not ask them to update their status and give your event a boost?

Online social networks and event planning tactics
I’m also seeing event planners and registration sites encourage attendees to update their status when they purchase tickets. I purchased a ticket to an event recently. On the thank you page, there was a link to “Tweet This” and “Update Your Facebook” status. Since so many of us update our statuses so frequently and share what we’re reading, the movies we’re seeing, the concert we’re attending, etc.,

-it only makes sense that we would want to share with our friends and network that we are attending an upcoming meeting or event.

By doing so, we’re helping to promote the event to our networks and followers.

So, for all you meeting and event planners out there,
-how are you using your attendees and speakers to encourage more attendance and participation in your events? How can you leverage the vast networks of your direct audience to reach new and untapped audiences?

P.S. I hope you caught the Grow Smart Biz conference because it wasn’t just about social media. The speakers and panels were also focused on: how to grow your business in the current economy, tactics to secure financing for your small business, and ways to kick start your marketing activities.

Founder/CEO and self-proclaimed Chief Troublemaker of Matrix Group International Joanna Pineda is a Women Grow Business enthusiast. She is known for her visionary big-picture thinking and drive for excellence. Combining her broad liberal arts background and passion for technology, she started Matrix Group in 1999, today a leading interactive agency. As a trusted advisor, Joanna inspires and motivates her clients and employees alike to simply, “be better” with her mantra being: Do or Do Not. There is no try!

Thanks Joanna Pineda for sharing your observations from The Matrix Files (and the nice shout out to Women Grow Business!).

(Image Ponte Vecchio-Crowd by Tom Stardust, Creative Commons)

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