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First College Visit Series

Yesterday, I announced the launch of SmartCollegeVisit, a college visit portal with tools and resources for planning campus visit travel, college visit advice from parents to parents, not-to-be missed focal points on college campus sites.

Today, I'm announcing that SmartCollegeVisit is proud to sponsor First College Visit on Handshake 2.0., a series of first college visit stories by business professionals.

Two wonderful stories are included the series so far:

• A Tale of Two Visitors by Tom Field, publisher of Valley Business Front, a regional business magazine serving the Roanoke and New River Valley communities.
• Age Regression Via the College Tour by Robert Geller, executive vice president of Fusion PR, a public relations firm headquartered in New York City.

It's delightful to visit and re-visit college campuses through the eyes of these parents. There's more to come--tune into Handshake 2.0 throughout the week for more from the series. A digest of these will also appear on SmartCollegeVisit.

How I Survived Blogchat with Amy Africa

The Twitter expedition known as #blochat and led by Amy Africa (pictured left) last night (July 26, 2009) was driven with Amy's Google phone. This woman has been called many things in her life, but I'm sticking with "Amazing!"

There I was sitting at my laptop with multiple tabs open and notepad beside me.

 She had a cell phone.

Pre-chat Prep

Before the chat got underway, I saw this tweet from Mack Collier (host and genius who thought this up):

MackCollier: RT @avasiare: Tuning in to tonights #blogchat in Tweetgrid http://tweetgrid.com/

Curious, I explored Tweetgrid knowing that keeping up with the chatter would be challenging. I picked up on the "party" tip from another tweet by @avasiare. I appreciated the fact that Tweetgrid includes the #blogchat hashtag when you tweet. That's a good idea, and I could have used that feature as I forgot to the hashtag twice while posting, but still I went with the familiar: Tweetdeck. I flat out love their dashboard.

I set up my Tweetdeck windows with those I knew would be key players. I added others as the chat progressed. I also kept Twitter and the blogchat tab open so I could go to the raw data and refresh when needed. Bottom line, I did not want to miss a thing.

Knowing I'd write a post the next day, I also opened a blank word processing page (Open Office) and begin to paste in the what I considered to be the best posts in the on-going conversation. Copying and pasting was easier for me than writing. I actually made only three notes on paper.

I also opened Snagit to have it on hand in case something appeared that I would want to use a visual later. I did not end up using Snagit, but I'm glad it was available. I will do the same in future chats.

I was like a first-timer on a safari, loaded with gear, while our fearless guide, Amy, forged ahead with only a cell phone. Again. Amazing.

If you could not join us on last night's incredible journey, then I highly recommend following @amyafrica and @mackcollier on Twitter.

• Complete transcript of the blogchat, click here now!
  
  
• Mack's top 10 take-aways: #Blogchat 7-26 Recap; How to Use Your Blog to Generate Sales and Leads With @AmyAfrica
  
  
• My 11 take-aways, posted on Handshake 2.0: Drink Up - The Morning After Blogchat with Amy Africa
  
  
• Update: Here's Stuart Feigley's (@stuartfeigley) great post with link to PDF of #blogchat: http://stuartfeigley.wordpress.com/

My Two Favs From A to Z: Amazon and Zappos

My Amazon DVD order arrived today just as Amazon said it would. Last month, my son's new shoes, which I ordered from Zappos, arrived right on time. I knew that if they did not fit I could return them without any hassle. What keeps customers coming back to shop again and again? A positive shopping experience and when it comes to that, both Amazon and Zappos deliver.

 

So, how did I feel when I learned of the acquisition of Zappos by Amazon? Excited? Happy? Try ecstatic! Ecstatic over the union of two reputable companies focused on the customer experience.

I agree with Pat Matthews, founder of Mailtrust which was recently aquired by Rackspace, who shared his perspective on Amazon and Zappos in his blog that the "biggest successes are still ahead." When great minds/great companies come together, great things happen. The best is yet to come.

Goodbye, Billy Mays--May your lessons live on

Billy Mays died Sunday at the age of 50. While I seriously doubt television networks, even those dedicated to selling such as QVC or HSN, will run a tribute to the ultimate “pitch man.” Most likely, he won't even receive even a hundredth of the fanfare the passing of Michael Jackson, also 50, has received, however, Billy's presence will still be greatly missed. Television will be void of his charismatic personality, his booming voice and the infamous infomercial catch phrase, “But, wait...”

As someone who grew up in a family of sales professionals, I always saw Billy as someone I could learn from. And, while neither my present, or my future, is likely to include becoming a TV personality or front-man (woman), I understand that as long as I'm in business, I'm in sales.

Just recently, a new-to-market entrepreneur asked me if I thought someone would enjoy selling his product. I immediately felt the weight of the question. What good is a good product if you can't sell it or find the right person to sell it? Billy Mays knew how to do just that and he did so with passion, and integrity. He may be gone, but wait...we can still study his technique and learn from his example.

From Business Cards to the Blackberry

When I read Fortune editor at large Patricia Sellers' post "Blackberry and me: a tipping point" I felt an instant connection to her as she reported her realization that certain tools of the trade are simply must-haves in business.

For Sellers, it was the Blackberry and the reason she needed one became painfully obvious when schedules for the people she was covering at the White House shifted and there was no way for them to reach her.

She wrote in her post: "It dawned on me that these people are working their butts off to save America from swine flu — which was the crisis of the day that I visited — and financial meltdown, and I’m inconveniencing them by resisting basic technology. How rude of me."

I recently reached my tipping point with respect to business cards. I kept putting off ordering cards, though as a freelance writer, I was doing my share of in-person interviews and networking. As someone with a passion for technology, I really thought the time had come when business cards were no longer necessary. Not so. I, like Sellers, was inconveniencing the people I met. 

Matt Singly, social media consultant and blogger, outlines the complete set of tools he finds necessary to do business in today's world in his post: How To: Run A Mobile Office.

In addition to "old school" items such as business cards, a notebook and pen, some things on his list also include: a cell phone with QWERTY keyboard, a good laptop, and online services such as Dropbox, a file-sharing service that allows you to access your proposals from any computer, and SpinVox, a tool that converts voice-mail to an SMS (text) message sent to your cell phone which means important message will not get missed.

Like Summers, I don't want to inconvenience the people I want to work with and, like Singly, I don't want to be ill-prepared or lacking in the tools that will make me successful no matter where I'm working. I've already come to the conclusion that I'm a Blackberry (as is my editor, see her post: I Drive a Honda. I'm a Blackberry, Too) and, just last month, I ordered business cards.

My next steps, then, are to review Singly's list and using my pen, write down on my notepad everything else I'm missing to be better prepared to do business anywhere and everywhere.

Shaking Hands are Helping Hands in Virginia

I thrive on learning about new technologies and how they impact our lives. I love success stories and the people who create them. You know how you read articles and posts on the web that contain text linking to other relevant information? Well, my writing life is exactly like that. While researching one article, ideas and connections for others are revealed. A recent thread went something like this:

Anne Giles Clelland, president of Handshake 2.0 asked me to write a retrospective on the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV).

During my interview with Bill Sanders, director of the BEV, he mentioned the impact broadband has had on education in Virginia and how schools in Mecklenburg County are making great strides in implementing Google Apps for education county-wide.

Chad Wollenburg, technology director for Mecklenburg schools, shared his story about meeting Virginia's Secretary of Technology, Aneesh Chopra, which resulted in Chad submitting an application for a grant from Virginia’s Productivity Investment Fund. The grant award led to hiring Sheila Beck as a Google Application Specialist to train teachers and students on how to implement and use Google in the classroom. ("Schoogle - teaching and learning in Mecklenburg" appeared in March 23, 2009 issue of the Blue Ridge Business Journal.)

Sheila connected me with a spokesperson for Google who connected me with Sallie Harris, of Madison County, Virginia, who last year became the state's only Google Certified Teacher.

When I think back over how in just one month all of this came to be, it comes as no surprise to me that in January, 2009,  U.S. News and World Report ranked Virginia second in the top seven best states in which to start a business. While I doubt their analysis included the thoughtfulness of citizens willing to help one another make connections between ideas and each other, this type of support surely contributes to the foundation upon which many entrepreneurs and businesses, including freelance writers, get their start. The tag line of Handshake 2.0 is appropriately stated: "It's still who you know." Doing business in Virginia is exactly that, followed by "It's also who I'll help you get to know."