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Gartner names Gist a "Cool Vendor"

Great to see Gartner Group analyst Matt Cain include Gist in the "Cool Vendors in the High Performance Workplace" for 2009.  Here's the post on it over on the Gist blog.

Here's my favorite quote from the Gist write up:

“On a more practical basis, we expect sales personnel to flock to Gist, since the output provides a much richer portrait of contacts and companies than could be gleaned otherwise (without a significant investment) — supplying users with a ready excuse to stay in touch with customers and prospects.”

Profiles in Arrogance

Great post on an article in Entrepreneur Magazine written by Brad Feld - A VC's Biggest Flaw:  Arrogance.  Brad is an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist and I appreciate the candor of the article. 

I have definitely met a few of these types of people over the years and have many friends and acquaintances that are VCs.  I tend to gravitate towards those not described below but have had my share of exposure to these types of folks as well. 

The investors you choose are as critical if not more so than the executive team around you.  The money is important but so is the man or woman behind it that will be with you every step of the way. 

Read the article and learn more about these VC personas (the descriptions are mine):

1. Mr. 'Know-It-All':  need I say more?
   
2. Young VC:  a freshly minted MBA with no experience or operating knowledge who has never made a cold call, asked for an order, or gotten an ear full from a customer about a buggy product.
   
3. Experienced Entrepreneur:  can't keep their hands out of the operating details because that is where their passion and knowledge resides.

Venture capital provides fuel for innovation and entrepreneurship and I believe it is one of the foundational layers of our economy and society.  It not only has the appetite for risk but the stated purpose of taking on high levels of it for the chance of a high return and there are lots of exceptional people putting it to work everyday...and, like any industry, a few less so.

A great time in St. Simons Island, GA

Apologies for the slow posting the past week or so.  I have been mostly off the grid on St. Simons Island with my parents and brother's family.  It was a great week and if you've never been there, I definitely suggest putting St. Simons on your list of places to visit.

We successfully ate Wild Georgia Shrimp pretty much every day and visited some of our favorite restaurants including the Crab Trap, Gnat's Landing, Mullet Bay, and new favorite Southern Soul BBQ.  Lots of bike riding and time on the beach with the little ones.  Although it was a bit chilly for a few days, it definitely beats Seattle weather in March.

Light posting

Busy wrapping up a project so posting will be (has been) a bit light for the next couple days.

The $1000 Startup Marketing Budget

Is it really possible to effectively market a business by spending around $1000 per year?  Yes.  Use a blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and email marketing outreach and you've got the ingredients for a real marketing plan.  This won't, of course, allow you to sponsor a PGA tournament but it will allow you to target your customers, project your expertise, and methodically reach your market over time.

What about events?  Save your dough.  If you are recognized as a subject matter expert you will be invited to speak.  This is a much better use of your time anyway as most conferences corral the exhibitors into another room and try to force interaction by positioning food or booze nearby.

This creates a dynamic where attendees avoid eye contact, move quickly, and retreat to safer areas with their food or drink.  It is much better to be on the attendee side of things versus standing helplessly in your pen waiting for anyone to come to you and want more than the logo golf balls you have on the table.  But I digress..

Here's your working budget.  It does not factor in your time, travel or infrastructure, so my number is more a marketing spend number than fully loaded.

• Blogging service - $5-20 per month (Typepad or Wordpress); don't use a free service - you're not that cheap.
• Twitter - no charge
• Facebook page - no charge
• Linkedin group - no charge
• Email marketing service (like Vertical Response, Constant Contact, or Emma) - you can send ~10k emails for around a hundred bucks with reporting, unsubscribe monitoring, and list management.
  
• Survey - ask your targets/users questions and learn more about them.  SurveyMonkey is free at its basic level and most email marketing services also have survey capabilities.

No print ads, no adwords, no phone calls, no list purchases, no Super Bowl ads.  Why?  You don't need them to get the word out.

Sit down and make a list of all the on-line influencers that cover your space or that your target customers pay attention to.  See what they are writing about, comment (intelligently) on their stories and posts, link back to them often, and expand upon what they are saying with your own expertise.  If you know what you are talking about, people will find you.  They will then reference you, link to you, or even interview you. 

Collect email addresses on your website and add all these people to an email nurture program.  DO NOT SPAM THEM.  People hate email so sending something useful and meaningful about every 6-8 weeks is about the right interval.  Always point to where you can be found - Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, your blog, etc. and share stories about your users, their success, and your expertise on the problem/problems you solve.

Speaking at upcoming "Market to the Max" conference in Seattle

I'm excited to be part of this event next Wednesday here in Seattle.  The agenda is packed with great speakers and is being put on by the Seattle Direct Marketing Association.

I'm on a panel discussion on blogging: "Winning in the Blogosphere:  Successful Posting and Engagement Strategies"

We've been doing a lot of interesting things at Gist related to blogging, Twitter, and other on-line ways to engage and I look forward to sharing my thoughts.

Will Facebook come back to haunt me?

Or this blog, or Twitter, or an email I send, or, or?

One thing about all of the new forms of communication, publishing, and sharing available to anyone at pretty much any time is that there is a need for a new consciousness about what you share and how.  This is a pretty tall order regardless of age because what may have seemed appropriate at one moment in time may be less so at another.  As it has become easier and easier to share status or text quick thoughts, there needs to be an equal increase in consciousness about what is shared as some things are best kept to yourself.  The trick is to know what they are.

The concept of the personal brand is an important one.  Through our electronic sharing, we are promoting and positioning ourselves to our friends, our contacts, even the world.  Like all products, you highlight the positives and (mostly) avoid the negatives.  Regardless of whether you have ever thought about it in this way or not, I would recommend a bit of a filter between your brain and your keyboard.  Not everything that crosses your mind needs to be (or should be) shared.  This doesn't mean you shouldn't be authentic but you should think about what you are making part of the permanent electronic narrative about yourself.

Blogging drives this awareness in me and I attempt to share all I can but I don't share everything.  My litmus test for a post or a status update is to fast forward to a time when my daughters are old enough to read and care what I had to say (not the same age, I suppose) and think about their reaction.  This blog serves as a journal of sorts that documents my (ad)ventures, thoughts, and musings and I am excited about having it for them.  I am still learning and understanding my parent's life stories and I have known them for a very long time so hopefully this will be a bit of a primer for my girls.

As Seth Godin points out, Google never forgets.  Indeed, Google never forgets...