UPDATE! Bulletin - TNNWC Weekly Newsletter - 08.15.2010 - Bigger, Better, Faster.

UPDATE! Bulletin - TNNWC Weekly Newsletter - 08.15.2010

Bigger, Better, Faster..................The Power Of TNNWC's Cooperative Business Community ("CBC"). The most efficient way to get the word out, to connect, to buzz, to brand, to build connections and to rapidly expand your emerging enterprise - exponentially, collaboratively and (ahhh...) affordably.

We at TNNWC (http://www.tnnwcgroup.com/) are delighted to announce that we have two new organizations which have joined the esteemed ranks of our CBC's Management Committee. You've probably heard of them before:

BNI - Dr. Ivan Misner's worldwide network of business networking groups. The first of its kind, with an enormous membership that encircles the entire globe (perhaps with one notable exception -- would anyone be interested in starting a BNI Chapter in Nauru? One may be available there...). TNNWC welcomes BNI.

CEO Space - A training center, a launching pad, a nexus and a nucleus for business leadership, planning and real-time, real-world dealmaking. CEO Space boasts a blockbuster enrollment of famous and successful members. Their conventions are legendary for bringing the right people together in the right setting. TNNWC welcomes CEO Space.

For those of you who might not be intimately familiar with TNNWC's Cooperative Business Community, or the concept of exponentiality (Bonnie Ross-Parker of The Joy Of Connecting has truly come to fancy that term), please simply click on:
http://www.thenationalnetworker.com/cbcommittee.shtml, and come right back here to re-join us, or, you can read the following synopsis and then click on that same link later:

*The Exponential Power of Large Numbers*
Combination + Cooperation + Collaboration + Organization = STRENGTH

If you are the entrepreneurial leader of an emerging enterprise or growing business with 1) products or services to sell, or if you are 2) the publisher, producer or owner of an e-zine, newsletter, newsgroup, forum or special membership organization, you face several major challenges:

• Marketing your membership, services and products to a larger audience;
• Building your subscriber list or client base rapidly;
• Attracting media buyers’ and advertisers’ attention and dollars – admittedly a wonderful source of ancillary income – to a subscribership list which may be too small;
• Finding other like-minded organizations who will cross-sell your products or services to their clients and increase your distribution and revenues;
• Finding other like-minded organizations which have exceptional products or services of their own which you can market to your clients to generate additional diversified sources of revenue;
• Getting your brand, site location and value proposition properly buzzed through the social media channels – the ever-increasing noise-to-signal ratio makes it hard for you to stand out;
• Saving money by getting the best terms from service providers, vendors, and contractors by acting as part of a large, powerful, organized group… think of the example set by collective bargaining organizations, purchasing cooperatives, political action committees or by organizations such as AARP – they are negotiating powerhouses because they are LARGE.

Going it alone is not the answer. Competition is fierce, and resources are scarce for smaller businesses. You need help. We offer it through providing you with the opportunity to become a Member of our CB Community™. It may sound trite, but it is unquestionably true: “In Unity There Is Strength.”

TNNWC’s Cooperative Business Committee™ (our CBC™), headed by The Joy Of Connecting Founder and CEO, Bonnie Ross-Parker, lets your company or group be a part of something enormous, united and powerful in order to get more of everything your business needs to increase profits and that your organization needs to grow more rapidly.

Bonnie, along with 8 other specially-selected delegates of certain organizations will comprise the CBC™, which will be the Active Governing Board (and dynamic nucleus) for the larger group, the CB Community™), which will be the infinitely-expandable.

Our Members don’t compete – we profit and grow together using the cooperative and coordinated leverage of large numbers and a unified focus.

What’s more, you do not have to give your mailing list to anyone – it remains yours, and it remains proprietary for your use. This keeps us abuse-proof and spam-free for the integrity and benefit of all. Any “Supergroup” mailings are done by each of the individual CBC Members, each through his or her own email list management and mail handling program.

We are a growing powerhouse of product and service providers, member-based organizations, publications, special opt-in email networks and other concerns who have agreed to combine, cooperate, collaborate and join forces in order to accomplish amazing things:

• Cross-sell (to an ever-increasing prospect list) and endorse each other’s memberships, services and products in a non-competitive, informative way – no direct ads or sales literature is distributed – not ever;
• Give our respective lists of subscribers special discounted access to TNNWC™’s Unique Suite of Service Offerings to produce additional “look-at-me” subscriber benefits and additional streams of income for all CBC Members and their individual list members;
• Use TNNW BUZZWORKS™ in combination with each CBC™ Member’s own social media, publicity efforts and regular mailings in order to create bigger, longer-lasting and more magnetic social media blitzes and publicity campaigns for each Member;
• Attract the attention of, and negotiate the most lucrative deals with media buyers and advertisers;
• Get the best pricing and terms from all outside service providers, vendors and contractors for each other, and for our respective constituents.

Want to be considered for a position on Our CBC™?
Want to join us and become a Member of our CB Community™?

Question: Would you like your message to get out to millions of pre-qualified prospective viewers and prospects instead of several thousand?

You must first become a 1) member of TNNWC (which is free) and; you must be 2) running a member-based or subscriber-based organization (i.e., an organization or enterprise with a loyal list of at least 2,500 followers, and; you must 3) complete our simple CBC Application Form (which is exactly the same for both the CBC™ and the CB Community™), which follows.

Most importantly, you must agree to our Terms of Cooperation, which are set forth in a downloadable .pdf document which you may print out.

Simply click on http://bit.ly/TermsOfCooperation and review the TERMS OF COOPERATION document carefully.

Click here for the CBC Application Form

Read more about TNNWC Group™ - Community - Cooperative Business Committee™ by www.thenationalnetworker.com

With Our Very Best Wishes (and Actionable Plans!),

Adam J. Kovitz and Douglas Castle

TNNWC Group, LLC

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Capital, Traffic Building, International Customers and unique SERVICES.
The National Networker Publications™ produced by TNNWC Group, LLC
“Empowering Emerging Enterprises”

Someone Out There Wants Exactly What You Have To Offer.

"Someone Out There Wants Exactly What You Have To Offer." - Douglas Castle

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Curiosity-Seekers:

I believe that the world abounds with possibilities, and that there is a demand for virtually every person, product or service -- just as there is a person or a provider for virtually every product or service. The odds of making that match can be reduced tremendously by 1) networking (i.e., expanding your sphere of contacts); 2) just being there - at the right place at the right moment - when someone needs what you have to offer, or when someone has what you need; and 3) following up on the inquiry (Rhonda Sher, an amazing creator of slogans, catchphrases and taglines, abbreviates "follow-up" with "FU" ....it's briefer and very memorable).

Any method or tool which helps you to accomplish all three of the above objectives can be a game-changer or star-maker. I am a cantankerous, skeptical and tactless type of fellow, but I have come to believe (reluctantly, kicking and screaming, all the way) that Rick Itzkowich has a service offering that can accomplish at least 66.66% of these objectives. I am posting a copy of a letter which I received earlier today which caught my interest - and it will be of interest to you.

Note: By the way, I did that calculation (the 66.66% one) in my head!

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com

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Dear Douglas,
If you are looking for help in achieving your goals and dreams, there may be a person out there that is the perfect fit to assist you.  What goes around comes around...good karma...givers gain...all of these concepts support the belief that when you help others, you help yourself.  I have written an article that addresses this premise, and I hope you will find it valuable for both your personal and business life.
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You Are Only One Person Removed from Getting Everything You Want
By
Rick Itzkowich
Co-founder and Vice President
Productive Learning & Leisure

One of the most powerful concepts I have been toying with is the idea that you are only one person away from having someone support you in achieving your dreams.  What would happen to your business if someone who is highly influential decided to back you and promote you?  Let's say Oprah or Bill Gates, or maybe the president of an association with thousands of members.  Get the picture?

A number of years ago PL&L launched a product called QuoteActions.  It is a system that allows the small business owner stay in touch and open conversations with their contacts and prospects.  We set a goal of selling hundreds of subscriptions the first year - we felt we had a good chance of achieving our goal.
However, based on this article's title, the truth is - there was no reason why this couldn't have happened a lot sooner.  All that would need to happen is to attract one highly influential person.  If they were to endorse PL&L and QuoteActions to their clients, the time frame would be significantly reduced.

Now, here is the interesting turn of events.  At one of my networking organizations I sat next to a visitor.  We chatted for a few minutes, and he told me that my business sounded interesting to him.  We exchanged cards and decided to explore how we could work together in the future.

As it turned out he contacted me that very afternoon.  After reviewing my website and my blog, he made the call to let me know that we had something he and his company were looking for.  As a business development leader of a successful sales training firm in Southern California, they had been looking for a company that does experiential learning to help their clients.  They have a database of over 100,000 members - all are small business owners, entrepreneurs and service providers.  Imagine what would happen if his company decides to promote and become an affiliate provider of our product?  When you combine the contact numbers with the credibility this person enjoys with his clients, we could possibly reach our 1,000 within weeks.  Think about it - if only 1% of their contacts respond positively, it's a win-win for both companies.  I'm not saying this will ever happen, however, it is now a very real possibility.

It is human nature to project the future based on what has happened in the past.  We often extrapolate numbers based on averages from previous months or years.  While this approach seems logical, it doesn't have to be so.  Just remember, you are only one person away from blowing those predictions away.
So who is that person and how do you find him/her?  Well, in the immortal words of Jack Palance to Billy Crystal in the movie City Slickers P: "You know, the secret of life boils down to one thing." C : "What is that one thing?"  P: "Well, that's what you have to figure out."

I don't know who that person is or where I will meet them, although sites like LinkedIn, Biznik and The National Networker greatly increase my chances.  I do know one thing, the odds that I will find them - or them find me - are greater the more I believe and trust this process.  The mind works like a missile.  Once it locks into a target; it finds a way to get there.

In fact, I wonder if YOU reading this article could be an influential person for PL&L or someone else!
Have an extraordinary day!

Warm Regards,

Rick Itzkowich


P.S. For more articles like this one, click here to subscribe to PL&L's Xtraordinary Living blog or The National Networker where I am a featured columnist.

Productive Learning and Leisure
34700 Pacific Coast Highway #202
Capistrano Beach, CA 92624
United States
(949) 234-0625


Rick Itzkowich
Creator of QuoteActions
Co-founder and Vice President of Productive Learning & Leisure

The Road Ahead : Networking at the beginning of a new Decade

by Andy Lopata

In an article at the end of 2008 I talked about how we were on the verge of a new age of networking in the UK, with the move away from referral networks, a more considered approach to networking by businesses and in particular, the growth of choice for businesses using social networks. Little did I know the extent of the changes to come so quickly.

Just one month after writing the article I joined Twitter. Founded in 2006, 2009 really has been the year of Twitter. According to Jason Keath of socialfresh.com, Twitter membership has grown from between two and four million users at the beginning of the year to forty million now. With the increased popularity of Blackberries, iPhones and other Smartphone technology, people can ‘tweet’ on the move…and they like it.

Although I could see big changes in networking to come at the beginning of 2009, the popularity of Twitter and other online networks has moved networking on at a pace I certainly didn’t predict. The worldwide economic climate has also had a big impact on the way businesses and individuals network and its importance to them.

So what can we expect in the year ahead? I want to look at the impact the recession has had and continues to have, on business networking; what we can expect from both online and face to face networks and also the changing importance networking will have for larger businesses.

Social Media

Given the impact that Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have had on business networking this year, the online world seems the obvious place to start.

The most popular social networks, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, are not ‘business networks’ in the true sense of the term, having been created for social use. However businesses are increasingly embracing all of them.

MySpace is the home for bands, artists and others in the entertainment industry. Other businesses have been more comfortable using Facebook and Twitter, but many of them slowly and reluctantly. I still find that most of my clients, particularly those working for larger organisations, are unsure about using Facebook despite the growth of business pages, ‘fan’ pages and pay per click advertising. Those that do use it prefer to focus purely on using it for social purposes.

There are, however, a growing number of people using Facebook for business. The big brands are making sure they have a presence on the site but it’s mainly smaller businesses, particularly micro-businesses, who use it actively.

In my previous article I said that we needed to move away from people simply looking to connect with as many people as possible across all social networks. This is still a problem. It seems to me that many of the people using Facebook for business still try to build as big a network as possible without worrying about building the relationships. That goes for both large and small businesses. People need to start realizing that networking is about engagement not numbers.

If we can get back to real engagement across Facebook and people become comfortable with who they allow to cross the ‘business/friends’ threshold and what they share with them, we may well see more people working in larger businesses open up their Facebook network to work contacts. There is still a lot of understandable nervousness about doing this so it will be a gradual process.

The growth of Twitter has had an impact on Facebook however.

Twitter has an unfair reputation of being a waste of time, with the common put down being “why would you be interested if someone’s having a coffee?” Many businesses are using Twitter very effectively though, with Dell Computers attributing $3 million worth of revenue to their Dell Outlet Twitter account*.

Savvy business people are raising their profile through Twitter, using the network to share their blogs, build their reputation, ask key questions and more. It’s a great way of keeping your finger on the pulse of business and world affairs and to continually engage with your network. Not only that, it’s also incredibly viral, with your followers happy to share your wisdom with their network with just the click of a button.

The quick hit of a 140 character Tweet makes the site more appealing to many time-poor business networkers than other social networks and this is perhaps where Facebook has taken a hit. Maintaining interest and engagement in a Facebook Group set up for your business can be quite time consuming, while you can dip in and out of Twitter quite quickly and painlessly. Some people who have started to develop a Facebook strategy have quickly left it behind and focused their attention on Twitter.

I anticipate that Facebook will continue to grow over the coming year and I do think that there will be more business use. Twitter’s popularity will, however, restrict that use and many people will prefer to simply post on Twitter and let that feed through to their Facebook page.

I believe that simply feeding one social network with your content from another is a mistake. Wherever possible we should treat each social network individually, based on what we are looking to achieve from it. Why use multiple networks for one purpose?

The language used on Twitter looks out of place on a Facebook page and automated feeding of updates doesn’t discriminate. As a result, some people’s Facebook pages have become meaningless lists of one side of various conversations and couldn’t be less likely to engage visitors. I’d love to see this habit die out. Yet we will still see more applications making it easy for us to update multiple social networks at one time, leaving less differentiation between networks and less reason for people to visit each one of the networks of which they are a member.

Many major marketing agencies now have specialists focusing on social media strategy. I do have a concern that the more the bigger brands embrace Facebook and Twitter, the more smaller businesses could disengage from the sites. Whatever size the business, we need to use these sites to speak with our networks, our customers and our prospects. It’s important to have a two-way process and listen as much as broadcast if the networks are going to maintain their popularity.

As well as the social networks, there are specific business online networks, with LinkedIn enjoying the most successful 2009. Based on the principle of six degrees of separation, LinkedIn is, in my opinion, the site that offers the clearest and potentially best rewards from online networking sites. The trouble is that most people don’t know how to use it effectively.

An article in the Wall Street Journal on December 30th reported how LinkedIn have been opening up to third party developers who want to create applications for the site, much as Facebook have. This is on the basis that LinkedIn users spend much less time on the site than users of other social networks, such as Facebook. (Visitors spent about 13 minutes on average at LinkedIn during October, while Facebook users logged about 213 minutes and MySpace users spent 87 minutes.)

While the right third party applications will help to enhance the LinkedIn experience for some, I think that the focus is in the wrong place. Offering users more applications risks confusing many members, as other sites have found. LinkedIn should focus instead on educating their members on how to make the most of the site. The fact is that you should be able to spend less time on LinkedIn than on other sites and still get greater rewards if you use the site effectively and target the right return.

Now more people have become aware of the potential of LinkedIn, I’d like to see it coming into its own as a referral generation site over the next year and I’m already seeing signs of that happening, I’ve certainly received more requests for connections through LinkedIn in the last few months than ever before.


Face to face networks

So where does this leave the face-to-face networks? There have been fears expressed that the growth of online networks and their convenience will make people less likely to want to attend physical events. Although some people have taken that approach, I think the opposite is true.

While online networks help to broaden our connections and raise our profile, I remain a great believer that you cannot build the same depth of relationship online that you can when you see the whites of people’s eyes. The growth in popularity certainly affects the development of face-to-face networking though.

There has already been a move by a number of face-to-face networks to develop a strong online arm to complement their offering. From alliances with existing social networks to the development of their own online networks (as demonstrated by 4Networking’s 4Community in the UK), traditional networks recognise that they can’t be left behind by the online revolution.

The challenge for them is the reticence of some members of traditional networks to get involved online, together with the growth in the number of social networks. People don’t want to be members of too many. With that in mind, they need to get enough members involved to develop a strong enough discussion to make it worth people’s time visiting and to keep them there. If they can achieve that, they can offer their members a much deeper service, connecting them with each other in person and online and bringing groups around the country, or the World, together.

The growth of online networking has also impacted on face to face networking through more meetings stemming from online groups. The Meetup site has spawned a number of such groups, many stemming from LinkedIn, while Tweetups have grown in popularity too.

This has led to a greater diversity of choice of events; with the growth of niche networks predicted in my previous article. There are networking events for people looking for investment, those interested in property, people in fashion, the arts, the media, bloggers, politics, women’s networks… the list is endless.

The choice of events available to businesses wanting to network means that traditional groups, from Chambers of Commerce to referral networks such as BNI, will have to keep on their toes, keep thinking creatively and perhaps look for ways to enhance their offering and continue to innovate if they are to maintain their relevance to their existing membership and attract new members.

The abundance of networking options also affects the membership fees traditionally charged by networking organisations. With a host of events available for free, members of networking groups will want to see higher fees fully justified. The upside of this is that more businesses are looking to see what the return on their networking investment is, and thinking through how they spend their time. It will be a struggle for some larger organisations though, who rely on such fees to stay in business.

The Wider World

The economic crisis over the last two years will provide one source of consolation to traditional networks. While there is far greater choice than ever for people looking to network, there are also many more people who want and need to do so. The sheer number of redundancies will have led to a surge in consultants and micro businesses, people choosing to take their chances and go it alone rather than risk trying to find another job in a tough and uncertain market. The first piece of advice they are likely to have received when setting up their business in many cases will have been, “go out and network”.

Additionally, I expect to see more networking activity from corporate sales teams in the coming years. The budget cuts forced by the recession, together with the rise in popularity of LinkedIn among staff nervous about their jobs, has raised the profile of networking as a route to market. Sales teams are beginning to recognise the need to work smarter and attend more events. Budget holders are also demanding greater results from staff who previously just ticked the box by attending events. Now they feel more pressure to show a return on the investment.

My only concern is the perceived need to show short-term results. Traditionally sales people from large organisations have followed their instincts and looked to sell at events. When they have inevitably failed, they’ve written off networking as a route to market. For corporates to realise the potential from networks, they have to take a much more strategic, long-term view and give their teams the confidence and freedom to build relationships, help others in their network and generate referrals over time.

Similarly, away from networking events, sales teams have a wealth of potential new business introducers within their existing networks if they embrace a strong referral strategy. It’s time for them to move away from looking at referrals as an afterthought at the end of a client meeting and hone a more focused approach. Marketing teams have shown that they recognise the power of word of mouth marketing through viral and buzz marketing, as well as social media. The next step is to develop this into the referral arena. This will take time and I’m not sure that we will see this on a wide scale in the immediate future.


Networking Internally

Of course, networking is not just about sales and perhaps its key role currently in corporate life is in personal career development. This is a trend that I expect to see continuing and perhaps even accelerating.

With less job security and flatter management structures providing fewer opportunities to progress, people need to network to develop their career. There is less of a culture of ‘a job for life’ than even ten years ago and people’s networks both internally and externally play an ever-stronger role in their career planning.

If you work in a large organisation you need to have a strong profile across departments if you want to progress your career. Internal networks play an important part in helping people make the connections and have the conversations they need. Most major organisations have women’s networks and an increasing number of similar opportunities will present themselves. I believe that the ability to network effectively will increasingly become a skill that employers look for when recruiting for new positions.


The Future of Networking

Relationship-building and strong networks are becoming more vital as the nature of business and employment changes. These qualities have grown in importance over the last decade but the combination of social media technology and the economic climate over recent years has accelerated that growth.

We are entering a period where those with weak networks and poor interpersonal skills will find life increasingly difficult. And it will be the same whether you run your own business, are employed by someone else or you are a student looking at your plans for the future.

In a connected society, those people who have the wherewithal to build and leverage a strong and diverse network are going to have the advantage. We now hear more talk about ‘relationship capital’ and ‘social capital’, further evidence that human connections are becoming recognised for their role in business and career building.

The tools are now in place to help people who want to take their relationships to another level. A clear strategy for doing so, together with a strong focus on why, will help make the difference.




*Direct2Dell blog June 2009








Published by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter. All rights reserved. Subscribe Free, and get your BLUE TUESDAY REPORT, too. - Click HERE.
The National Networker Companies

21st Century Business Networking [Important Article Download]

Dear Readers:

Ivan R. Misner, Ph.D, has just released an article which he has co-authored with two distinguished individuals from the United Kingdom, titled, "21st Century Business Networking."

Dr. Misner is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world's largest and best-known business networking organization, and is also a Contributing Columnist to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER. He is regarded by many as the Father Of Modern Business Networking.

The article can be accessed and downloaded in a .pdf format by clicking on:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/zoiimtx1iyf/21st Century Business Networking - by Alan Rae, Lisa Harris and Ivan Misner.pdf .

Enjoy this article.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

DO BUSINESS WITH ME! - A Wonderful Direct Sales Appeal

Dear Readers:

Member LuAnn Beuchler send the following letter to me. I was thoroughly impressed with its directness, its value proposition, and its format. It is a simple, but compelling piece of writing. Please read it for both its content (LuAnn has a travel agency and arranges events, as well), and its refreshing style. LuAnn is also a very active member of BNI, an organization with which TNNW has a very close association and a deep friendship. Ah....but I digress. Read on:
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Given the choice, people do business with other people they know, like and trust. That is one of the core values BNI is based on and you all know I am active in that organization.

Given the choice, do you want your friends, family, and trusted associates to do business with your company? Of course you do!

I have a business (actually several now) that I am very proud of. I am asking you as some one in my database, because you obviously know, like and trust me… to do business with me.

In 2009 I am focused on growing my travel business. Here’s how you can do business with me:

Go to my travel site http://www.unbelievabletravel.biz/ or http://www.pmceventsandtravel.com/ simply register to be a “Preferred Customer”.

START HERE
It's a free service that provides the online traveler with a lot of value. By becoming a preferred customer, you receive:
· Match or Beat competitors' published prices
· Exclusive Access to last-minute Deals
· $200,000 airline accident insurance per ticket
· 30 minutes of toll-free concierge service (my favorite)
· Bargains on travel to your favorite destinations
· Specials customized to your preferences
· Latest News on travel industry updates and alerts
· Save your travel preferences and searches
· Record frequent flyer / rewards accounts
· Free Travel alert / flight change notification
· Secure, Password protected profile page

Book mark one of my website links above and book your travel through my site when & wherever you travel. If you’re booking online anyway, our technology searches the same sites you do – with Just One Click. Saving you all the time it takes to search multiple sites to find the best deal.

Next, provide me with feedback. If you are having trouble using the site, because it is new to you - Call Me…let me guide you through it step by step. Once you have booked, share with me your experience, so I can share it with others and learn from your experiences.

If you want to understand the full scope of my business go to http://www.luannb.worldventures.biz/ and view the presentation (Click 1-2-3). It will help you understand the company, so you too will come to know, like and trust them as I do.

Last but certainly not least….as you know, I live on referrals. Please refer my site to others; it is the best travel site in the industry today. We save people, time and money, People are still traveling and always will. Share with them this unbelievable way to book travel!!

Thank you for being a part of my network and helping me to succeed!!


LuAnn Buechler, CMP
Professional Meeting Consultant * http://www.professionalmeetingconsultant.com/
Leisure Travel Consultant, World Ventures * http://www.pmceventsandtravel.com/
Assistant Director, Southern Minnesota BNI * http://www.bni-mn.com/
507-951-1468
Save Time & Money on Unbelievable Travel Opportunities at http://www.unbelievabletravel.biz/

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Faithfully,

Douglas Castle
p.s. Congratulations on a terrific letter, LuAnn!