Investment portfolios.



Airline seats.



Chocolate fudge cakes.



What do these three things have in common with the size of your online network? Big is good, bigger is better, and biggest is where you want to be.



As marketers, we have stuff to do, and failing to reach our objectives is not an option. Our brands and businesses require us to make things happen. Customers, sales, revenues… it’s up to us. Having large online social networks gives us the juice we need to make things happen.



Over the past few months, I have seen a surprising number of articles attempting to convince me that whether I’m a B2B or a B2C marketer, the focus for my portfolio of friend, follower, and connection-based online networks should be “engagement.” Hogwash.



Size matters. Size gives you power. Size gives you control. Size gives you leverage.



Everyone is an expert in something, but no one is an expert in everything. One of the reasons to be active on social media is to learn how to use cutting-edge and proven marketing strategies and tactics. If you follow one marketing professor on Twitter, you learn his/her approaches. How much better if you follow all of the top marketing professors on Twitter in the areas of B2B marketing, B2C marketing, public relations, corporate branding, and marketing research? The larger your network, the smarter you can be.



In the concept of six degrees of separation, all of us are, at most, six steps away from any other person. This is the heart of LinkedIn’s business model. If I have one connection on LinkedIn, I’m two degrees away from everyone my connection knows. Whether I need to buy or sell, I have a personal introduction to everyone in my connection’s network. As a marketer whose livelihood depends on your ability to get things done, would you rather have one connection on LinkedIn or 1,000?



What if you had a large mailing list of people who want to receive your communications because they’re interested in what you have to say? Each of your messages can reach more target customers. The larger your online network, the more people you can sell, real-time, 24×7×365.



As marketers, part of our value is to persuade our target audience to take action. If you’re Ashton Kutcher and develop the largest online network, you’re not just in the media, you are the media. You can directly broadcast to your five million-plus member audience anytime. That’s marketing. You want each and every one of your communications to command a level of credibility so high that other media outlets are forced to report on them.



As my boss likes to say, “Your message can only go as far as the size of your network.” Besides, as any five year old will loudly and unashamedly tell you when you’re standing in line with him at the bakery, “Who wouldn’t want the biggest chocolate fudge cake?”



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Additional Reading



“It all starts with having the largest possible audience.”

-Dan Zarrella, Hierarchy of Contagiousness



“Marketers must connect on social networks with people they don’t know, namely their customers.”

-Charlene Li, Groundswell



“I have always admired the way successful entrepreneurs put themselves in a position to ‘get luck’ by developing relationships with relevant people and taking advantage of promising opportunities.”

-Jeff Bussgang, Mastering the VC Game



I am writing this blog post to share with all of you a little bit about the competition itself (including the fabulous prizes which will help Microsoft BizSpark SocialGrow to succeed!), SocialGrow’s entry (as only entrants’ one-sentence “elevator pitches” and videos are publicly visible), and instructions for how to register and vote on the MassChallenge website.



How do we register, and then how do we vote five stars for SocialGrow on the MassChallenge website?



To view SocialGrow’s elevator pitch and video, and to vote five stars for SocialGrow in the MassChallenge, you will need to first register as a “Supporter” on the MassChallenge website, and then go to the voting page to vote five stars for SocialGrow.



Step 1:

Register as a “Supporter” on the MassChallenge website at: http://www.masschallenge.org/competition/get-involved/. Note that no password is required, and you do not need to fill in all of the fields, just the required fields marked with red asterisks: username, e-mail address, first name, last name, and Captcha.



Step 2:

Complete MassChallenge’s registration process by clicking on the activation link in your confirmation e-mail to validate your e-mail address, and then vote five stars for SocialGrow at: http://www.masschallenge.org/competition/team-pitches/socialgrow-inc by clicking on the fifth star (i.e., the last star on the right). Note that you will be able to vote only once for each team.



What IS the MassChallenge?



Sponsored by the state of Massachusetts, and designed to give a significant economic boost to the state of Massachusetts, the city of Boston, and its redeveloping waterfront, MassChallenge is “the largest-ever global startup competition to accelerate the launch and success of high-growth, high-impact new businesses”. MassChallenge (video) is “designed to help entrepreneurs transform great ideas into great companies”.



There will be 300 semi-finalists, 100 finalists, and 20 ultimate awardees. Finalists will receive Massachusetts resources including mentorship, work space, strategic advice, and networking opportunities to further their businesses. Ultimate awardees will receive cash awards, business guidance, and PR and marketing exposure from winning the competition. The objective of all of the awards is to help each startup to grow into a successful Boston-based business, creating new jobs and tax revenues.



Ending July 11, the first round of judging will determine the semi-finalists. Judging will be based on the teams’ submission entries, endorsements, and public voting (which is why we need you!). Ending July 20, the second round of judging will determine the finalists. Judging for this round will be based on the teams’ in-person pitches. Ending October 15, the third and final round of judging determines the ultimate awardees. Judging will be based on teams’ in-person pitches, with the winners being announced at a formal awards ceremony.



What kind of information was SocialGrow asked to submit for their entry?



Along with sharing detailed information on our founders (Marsh, Ken, and Gary) and advisors (Dean, Raju, Charbel, and Mike), we were asked what customer “pain” we were addressing, and how we were solving it. We answered: It is time-consuming today for individuals and organizations to manually invite people to join their social networks. The SocialGrow application scans their emails and allows them to invite others to connect across multiple networks. Additionally, Social media marketers are challenged with finding ways to quickly and cost-effectively build their audiences. SocialGrow’s application helps marketers to exponentially increase the reach and impact of their brands’ messaging by growing their social media audiences. Note that every answer had a strict character limit to keep everyone crisp and to the point.



We were also asked how people currently overcome the problem SocialGrow’s solution will address. We answered: They don’t. Today you have to manually invite people, one-by-one, to connect with you on your different social networks.



And finally, were were asked why we thought SocialGrow would succeed. We answered: We are going to succeed because our vision is to realize the human side of what our technology enables — new connections between people that might not have otherwise happened. Each new connection truly has the potential to be life-changing. Our application enables growth, not just the number of people one has in their multiple online networks, but the value received from the richness of having a large, diverse network.



To view all of the MassChallenge teams’ submissions, click here; to view SocialGrow’s submission, click here; and to view the entry form with all of the questions MassChallenge asked entrants, click here.



If you have not yet already done so, please take a minute now to register on the MassChallenge site, and give SocialGrow a five-star vote to help us win the mentorship, advice, guidance, networking, and free office space!



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At the March Web Innovators Group meeting here in Boston, it really hit me how our engaging people on social networks, by sharing what we know and what we are doing in social media, has had an incredibly positive impact for SocialGrow’s brand awareness and recognition in the real-world.



I felt like everyone at the event had seen Jennie White’s “5 Startups Who Are Killing it on Twitter” article she had published earlier that day, so immediately recognized SocialGrow on my nametag and knew who I was. I can’t say I’ve ever experienced that before at an event. Everyone wanted to know more about our software application, and how we’re using Twitter to reach out to potential users. We all know how much easier it is to talk about your company, your brand, and your products with someone when they have read something about you online. Especially with a product that does something which hasn’t been done before, social media gives you real-time feedback to help you explain the unique value of your product in a way that traditional advertising cannot.



Jennie’s article was not our first online recognition, however, we’ve also been named one of MassHighTech’s “5 Startups You Should Follow”, and Microsoft’s global BizSpark Startup of the Day. SocialGrow’s participation in Microsoft’s BizSpark Startup program, has further enabled us to connect and engage with our potential users online.



So how can a tech startup, and for that matter, ANY new company use social networks and online social media marketing “introduce” themselves to their target customers and help those customers to understand their brand’s unique value?



1. Hire a great CMO, who is both strategic and hands-on. You need someone who deeply understands not just marketing in general, but social media marketing in particular. SocialGrow’s CMO Ken Herron started engaging potential users online months before we launched our Alpha release, and has steadily worked his way up Kent Huffman’s Systemic Marketing’s “Top CMOs on Twitter” list.



2. Freely and generously share your expertise in your blog posts, Twitter streams, Facebook Fan pages, comments on others peoples’ blog posts, and MeetUp groups. Don’t forget to take advantage of any PR opportunities you see at Peter Shankman’s HARO.



3. Share your content so as to maximize its SEO and potential for virality, by being sure to include keywords which will help people to find what you’ve written. Required reading for all of us how to increase the effectiveness of our inbound marketing efforts are: HubSpot, David Meerman Scott, and Dan Zarrella.



4. Share “link love” with the people who you believe to be the best in your field (as I did in tip number 3 above), and they may share it back with you through their tweets and posts.



5. Continually create and share quality content. On Twitter, post at least 3 times a day, and on your blog, post at least once a week.



6. Actively participate in in-person networking events, proactively seeking out and introducing yourself to the other participants. At the last LaunchCamp Boston event, I made it a point to seek out Jeff Cutler, Joselin Mane, and Jason Evanish. Don’t be afraid to sit in the front row, as I did in Scott Kirsner and Wade Roush’s session on PR.



7. Hire a great designer to visualize your brand’s identity. SocialGrow’s logo was designed to communicate the concept of healthy, positive growth, and we use it everywhere so people will instantly know when it’s us talking.



8. Finally, pay it forward. All new companies need help. If you can help a fellow startup with introductions, feedback, or simply being a good beta tester to help them to improve their product, then do it. You will not only make new friends, but learn things which will help your business along the way. Then when you need help yourself, and you will, you’ll have these people in your network. We all want to be successful!



Learn more about SocialGrow, and our milestones to date on our Crunchbase profile.



How have YOU used online social networking to increase your company’s brand awareness? I look forward to your comments!



Last night, people were talking about Twitter (people always seem to be talking about Twitter around me…), and a friend asked, “You have over 15,000 followers. Can you share the ’secret’ so I can do the same for my [start-up] company?”



He seemed a little disappointed when I told him there really isn’t a secret to engaging with people on Twitter. As many smart people have already said, you listen, you create, and you communicate. I took a look at his Twitter account, and gave him a list of steps I recommended he take to better engage with his target audience. Looking at the list again this morning, I wanted to write it up and share it with you [below].



Ken’s List of 10 Steps to Engaging Your Target Audience on Twitter



1. Look Hard at Your Twitter Handle

While you want your Twitter handle to be as short as possible [so it doesn't eat into the 140 characters when people retweet your posts], be sure that it strongly relates to the name you use in your marketing communications so that it not only helps your SEO, but immediately identifies your Twitter account for both existing and new customers.



2. Use Your Own Photo

While many people are more comfortable using their company’s logo than their own photo, keep in mind that on Twitter people are still engaging with other people, even if they are representing brands.



3. Design a FANTASTIC “Tweetback”

Your Twitter background is the place to showcase not only your company’s logo, but to clearly articulate your brand’s unique value, story, and contact information. Design (or have designed) a compelling, brand-appropriate background. Check out http://twitterbackgroundsgallery.com/ for ideas and inspiration. And don’t forget to include the specific call to action you want people to take!



4. Share, Don’t Spam

People seem to forget that Twitter is inbound marketing (http://blog.hubspot.com/), and not outbound marketing. Why would anyone want to follow a never-ending stream of sales pitches? Focus on tweeting valuable [preferably your own original] content which shares your brand-appropriate expertise of greatest interest to your target audience. Think about the 1 in 10 rule — limit your direct marketing pitches to no more than 1 out of every 10 of your tweets.



5. Think 120

Limit the length of your tweets to no more than 120 characters (less is obviously better). While Twitter’s limit is 140 characters, if you use all of them, you make it harder for people to retweet your posts with their comments. You should also be retweeting your followers’ best tweets, and ALWAYS thanking them by name when they retweet your tweets.



6. Tweet at Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Tweet 3-5 times a day, throughout the day, minimally in the morning, at mid-day, and in the evening.



7. Use Multimedia

Think multimedia when you tweet. A mix of brand-appropriate photos, audio, and videos are more interesting for your followers than all text tweets.



8. Create Twitter Lists

Create brand-appropriate Twitter Lists to recognize and promote your followers.



9. Follow Great People

While you should obviously be following everyone who is talking about your company, your brands, and your products; you also want to follow people who are talking about your competitors, and the problems, needs, and wants your product or service solves. I have heard differing views on this, but as a company, I choose to follow back everyone [who's not a spammer, bot, or in a business inappropriate to my brand] who expresses an interest in SocialGrow.



10. Use the SocialGrow Application!

Following my own 1 in 10 rule, sign up now for the SocialGrow application at http://socialgrow.com! Launching soon, SocialGrow makes it easier to connect with people you don’t know, and faster to connect with people you do. Note that SocialGrow has a great consulting division should you need more help with using Twitter, effectively using other social networks, or creating an integrated social-media-inclusive marketing and communications strategy for your business or organization. Please feel free to contact me directly with your questions on ken.herron [@] socialgrow.com.

Regardless of the state of the economy in general, or your local job market in particular, “the larger your network, the faster you will find a job.”  We have all heard this truism before, but did you know that the same rule also applies to your professional online social networks?  The more people you have in your professional online social networks, the faster you will find your next job.



Whether you’re a beginner just sitting down to create your profile on http://linkedin.com for the very first time, or a seasoned veteran with a dozen profiles on different mainstream and niche sites, here are six things you should do to leverage your professional online social networks to more quickly find your next job:



1.  Ask your http://linkedin.com connections who work for each of your target companies to write a recommendation for you.  Your connections may respond to your requests more quickly, if you first write a recommendation for them.



2.  When you submit your cover letter and resume on an internet job posting, send messages to your connections within the company to help you identify the hiring manager or HR contact.  Job postings on http://simplyhired.com and http://linkedin.com have this feature built-in, but you can do this for a job ad on any website where the company is named.



3.  Write a brief note introducing yourself to the hiring manager or HR contact letting them know you submitted for the job, and ask one of your connections within the company to forward it to him/her for you.



4.  If you are not able to reach out directly to the hiring manager or HR contact through one of your connections on http://linkedin.com, check to see which groups they belong to and join that particular group.  Most group members allow other members of the group to message them directly.  Also, joining relevant professional groups on http://linkedin.com, such as http://WebExecutives.org, is one more opportunity for you to expand your professional network.  Alternately, you can send the hiring manager or HR contact a LinkedIn InMail(TM).



5.  A heads up that if a contingency recruiter or their agency has already submitted you to the company as a candidate *or* if you submitted for the job on a recruiting agency’s own website, you should NOT contact the company’s hiring manager or HR contact directly, as it creates a serious conflict of interest which could get you ejected from the candidate review process.  Don’t miss out on job opportunities, or alienate recruiters and their agencies.



6.  Finally, be sure to use the SocialGrow web and mobile phone software application when it is released, to easily grow your connections on all of your professional and personal online social networks!



The “new normal” is that most of us will have more employers in our lifetime than did our parents, which means your next employer will likely not be your last employer.  Continuing to nurture and grow your online professional social networks, even after you have found your dream job, will accelerate your career growth for years to come!



- Marsh (President)

Azure will also have the ability to increase, on demand, the processing power during peak times. This will enable the SocialGrow web and mobile phone software application to be fast, *really* fast, no matter how many members are online.



Finally, Azure will offer us the ability to dynamically increase the storage space we need to scale the application to accommodate new users.



Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform will enable us to deliver a reliable, fast, and scalable application that SocialGrow’s members around the world can depend on to grow their online social networks.



- Charbel (CTO)

Boston’s Largest Network of Technology Investors, named after the city’s historic public meeting grounds, CommonAngels is a group of 75 leading private investors and several dozen limited partners in two co-investment funds. They have rich expertise in over 58 specific sectors and finance the region’s most innovative high-tech ventures with a focus on capital efficiency: Series A rounds of $500K-$5M with total capital less than $20M.



- Marsh (President)

Let us know which logos you love, which logos you hate, and which logos just make you scratch your head.



99designs is a disruptive startup which connects passionate designers from around the globe with savvy clients who need design projects completed in a timely fashion without the usual risk or cost associated with professional design.



Read what the media  has to say about about them.



- Ken (CMO)

In advance of the launch of our new company’s website, and, as you can see, in advance of our even having a logo, welcome to the SocialGrow™ company blog!



SocialGrow™ helps individuals and organizations around the world realize the benefits of social networks.



SocialGrow’s flagship product, the SocialGrow™ Web and Mobile Phone Software Application, enables people of all technical levels to quickly and easily grow their professional and/or personal online social networks. The SocialGrow™ Web and Mobile Phone Software Application also enables both small and large social networks around the world to rapidly grow their memberships.



SocialGrow’s Consulting division, SocialGrow™ Consulting, researches, analyzes, and makes recommendations on social networking strategies.



SocialGrow’s Professional Services division, SocialGrow™ Professional Services, manages social networks.



SocialGrow’s vision is to realize the human side of what our technology enables — new connections between people that might not have otherwise happened. Finding a new job after a year of unemployment. Finding the love of your life after a break-up that left you thinking you’d never meet anyone. Finding a huge customer when you didn’t know whether your business would survive. Each new connection truly has the potential to be life-changing. Our application enables growth, not just the number of people one has in their multiple online networks, but the value received from the richness of having a large, diverse network.



SocialGrow™ was founded in 2009 by industry veterans Marsh Sutherland, Ken Herron, and Charbel Elkhoury.