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?”



Tweet this blog post now by clicking here: EZ-TWEET.

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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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My friends all know this of course. It’s not like it’s something you can hide really, especially when you help people to grow their social networks and to make better use of social media.



I received an e-mail this week from my friend Tim out in Phoenix. Wave “Hi” Tim, you’re about to be internet-famous. Tim and I went to B-school together, and he is in the process of closing down an e-commerce website. Knowing many of you have similar questions about social media, I asked Tim if he’d let me share my response back to him with you by blogging it. He said “yes” by the way. I always knew he wanted to be internet-famous.



Ken,



-Tim



Hey Tim,



You will no doubt be thrilled to hear that you do *not* have to relocate your family from sunny Phoenix to rural Montana. Most people have now heard the buzz about social media, and many have tried it for themselves, but are not (yet!) seeing the results they want.



Results are the right place to start. As a form of communications, the first question to ask — if you are using social media for anything other than entertainment — is “What do I want to achieve?” Take the time to identify what it is, specifically, that you want to achieve. Increase your revenues? Reduce your costs? Get new customers? Find a date for your sister’s wedding?



I read five questions (cries for help?) in your e-mail Tim. I will address each of them in order:



1. Why is social media important?

Social media is important — and I am defining “important” here as an effective strategy for individuals and organizations to achieve their objectives — because it makes it fast, easy, and [in most cases] FREE for you to create and share content.



For example, with traditional (”paid”) media, you purchase print, website, radio, TV, and/or billboard space, and then you pay someone else to articulate the value of your particular product/service in a compelling way to catch peoples’ attention — all in the hopes of persuading people to buy. With social (”earned”) media, you are no longer in direct sales (”BUY MY STUFF!”) mode. Instead, you are engaging your target audience by freely sharing the value of your expertise with people who are interested in it. And yes, along the way, you are letting it be known that your products and services are available for purchase. Earned media is not a magic cure-all, but an effective addition, and booster, to your existing marketing mix of paid and owned media.



2. What is the value of Twitter?

One of the values of Twitter is that it is a powerful lead generator. Each and every 140-character SEO-rich tweet is indexed by Google in almost real-time, getting you and your content on the first page of Google’s search results.



3. What is the value of Fousquare?

One of the values of Foursquare is that it enables you connect more frequently with your network live and in-person. When I worked for Realogy, our building had a central staircase between the first and second floors that everyone used. Arguably, more business was done on that staircase than in the rest of the building combined, because it facilitated people running into each other. Likewise, Foursquare exponentially increases the opportunities for you to “run into” the people you know.



4. What is the value of Facebook?

One of the values of Facebook is that it enables you to reconnect with people from your different schools, companies, and organizations. The personal and professional possibilities multiply when you are able to more easily stay in touch with the people you know.



5. What is the value of LinkedIn?

One of the values of LinkedIn is the ability to identify and connect with people you want to reach through “friends of friends”. Because of its near ubiquity among business professionals, it also enables real-time access to first-hand information about your customers, suppliers, employers, and employees.



You’re already following me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/socialgrow), connected with me on Foursquare (http://foursquare.com/user/kenherron), have friended me on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/kenherron.fb), and connected with me on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/kenherron). So what is it that YOU want to achieve with social media?



-Ken



SocialGrow Blog Readers: Do *you* have social media advice that you would like to share with Tim? Please feel free to include your recommendations in the comments section below, both on the importance of social media, and how he should be using Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, and LinkedIn.



1. Find that one thing that you do well, and OWN it!

Disney’s thing, like Zappos’, is delivering happiness. Disney’s theme parks around the world (currently Anaheim, Florida, Tokyo, Paris, and Hong Kong, with Shanghai coming soon) are branded the “Happiest Places on Earth”, and they excel at creating happy family memories.



2. Create a company culture that inspires ALL of your employees.

Without exception, each and every Disney cast member I met was happy, upbeat, and genuinely interested in what they could do personally to make my family and me happy, regardless of their actual job description. Disney may excel at hiring and training, but I believe it’s the company culture that Walt Disney created that continues to inspire employees to today.



3. Be ubiquitous in your customers’ lives.

I realize being a two-toddler household places me in the center of Disney’s marketing crosshairs, but take a look around you at how many instances of Disneyana you encounter in an average day. When I go to the Post Office, I’m greeted by Toy Story’s Buzz and Woody. Sorry Martha, but the term omnimedia applies to no one better than the world’s largest media and entertainment conglomerate with: animation and live-action film production, television, travel, theatre, radio, publishing, and online media. Every Disney hit, of which there are many, is aggressively licensed, bringing in not only substantial additional revenue, but helping to market the source material.



4. Empower your employees to satisfy customers, and give them the tools they need to do so.

Over the course of the week, I was never once told “let me speak with my manager”. No matter how small or large, the help I received was always immediate, facilitated by support systems which never appeared to be offline.



5. Engage your customers to continually improve your products.

I had been to Disney before, but was surprised by the large number of “new” attractions. Yes, the characters from my own childhood were still there, but they all of the latest characters were also front and center.



6. Give back to the communities in which you operate.

The city of Orlando is as much the house that Walt built as the Walt Disney World theme park itself. Arguably, Disney put Orlando on the map, creating an “anchor store” which supports thousands of other businesses. Disney is also an active supporter of Orlando-area charities, and gives free passes to children whose families cannot afford the admission fees.



To me, Disney is the most successful company on earth. Not in terms of the highest revenues or earnings, but in their ability to make the world a better place through their mission of delivering happiness on a daily basis to such large numbers of people around the world.



What’s next for Disney? I have no doubt Disney’s Imagineers are already testing ways to leverage social networking and geolocation to further engage their customers. I can see both kids and adults earning Foursquare badges for every ride and attraction (”Mayor (or should that be ‘Captain’) of the Pirates of the Caribbean!”), and knowing real-time where their friends are in the parks. On the last day of our trip, we ended up sitting next to my daughter’s dentist on the train. Had all of us been using Foursquare, we would have known the day we arrived that both families were visiting Disney at the same time.



As we continue to build SocialGrow, I will keep in mind what I learned from Walt, and an iconic little mouse.

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!



Boston, MA. — February 26, 2010 — SocialGrow Inc., a Microsoft BizSpark program member, today announced that it has launched the alpha release of its patents-pending SocialGrow Application at http://socialgrow.com. The SocialGrow Application automates the search and connection processes across multiple professional and personal social networks. The SocialGrow Application also helps social networks around the world to accelerate their membership growth. At launch, the SocialGrow Application is compatible with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and MySpace, with additional global and regional social networks being added throughout the month of March.



“By automating the process of inviting people to join users’ social networks, SocialGrow makes it easier to connect with people you don’t know and faster to connect with people you do,” said Marsh Sutherland, President of SocialGrow. “Facebook and LinkedIn users know the larger their relevant networks, the more people their professional and personal messages will reach.”



“SocialGrow simply allows Rec.fm to grow our customer base faster,” said John Appler, President of social recommendations website and 2010 SXSW Web Awards Finalist Rec.fm (http://rec.fm/video). “By quickly expanding the number of users creating and using our ‘high fidelity’ product recommendations, SocialGrow has also accelerated our revenue growth. We are very fortunate to be their first business customer.”



SocialGrow was recently named Microsoft BizSpark’s most promising “Start-Up of the Day”, and selected by MassHighTech (The Journal of New England Technology) as one of their “Five Start-Ups To Watch.” Additionally, SocialGrow’s Chief Marketing Officer Ken Herron was named one of the “Top 5 Chief Marketing Officers on Twitter” by Systemic Marketing for his use of Twitter on @SocialGrow (http://twitter.com/socialgrow).



Twitter-Friendly Quotes



Microsoft BizSpark @SocialGrow today announced the launch of the Alpha release of its software application at http://socialgrow.com.



“We make it easier to connect w/people you don’t know & faster to connect w/people you do” – @SocialGrow President @marshsutherland.



“@SocialGrow allows @recfm to grow our customer base faster” – @SocialGrow business customer and @recfm President @johnappler.



About SocialGrow



SocialGrow Inc. is a global social networking software, consulting, and professional services company. SocialGrow’s flagship software application helps individuals, small businesses, corporate enterprises, government agencies, academic organizations, and non-profit associations around the world to more quickly and easily grow their social networks. SocialGrow was founded in July 2009 by Marsh Sutherland, Ken Herron, and Charbel Elkhoury. SocialGrow’s mission is to help people realize the value of social networks. For more information, please visit the SocialGrow website at: http://socialgrow.com, and follow SocialGrow on Twitter at @SocialGrow (http://twitter.com/socialgrow).

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.

Between now and February 1, we will share selected mainstream and niche social networks with which SocialGrow will be compatible:



Note: Specific compatible social networks are subject to change without notice.



December 14: LinkedIn

With over 53 million members representing 170 industries in over 200 countries and territories, LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world.



December 17: hi5

With over 50 million monthly visitors, hi5 is the world’s largest social entertainment destination.



December 21: Facebook

Millions of people use Facebook everyday to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.



December 28: Twitter

Twitter is a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices. In countries around the world, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking world news to updates from friends.



January 4: MySpace

MySpace empowers its global community to experience the internet through a social lens by integrating personal profiles, photos, videos, mobile, messaging, games, and the world’s largest music community.



January 11: Avatars United

Avatars United (AU) is a community for your virtual avatars. Register your avatar, upload your profile picture, write your biography and share some of your exploits in virtual worlds through pictures, videos, blogs, and more.



January 14: Orkut

Orkut’s social network can help you maintain existing relationships with pictures and messages, and establish new ones by reaching out to people you’ve never met before.



Los Angeles, CA. — November 17, 2009 — SocialGrow, a Microsoft BizSpark program member, today announced that it has opened registration for alpha users to test its first release of the SocialGrow Web and Mobile Phone Software Application. Developed on Windows Azure, SocialGrow’s Web and Mobile Phone Software Application will enable users to search for and connect with people online, both professionally and personally. Participants will be limited to the first 500 users who register on the SocialGrow website at: http://socialgrow.com.



“By leveraging Windows Azure and exciting new features in Windows 7 through the Microsoft BizSpark program, Social Grow was able to develop an application that automates the process of inviting people to join users’ online social networks,” said Marsh Sutherland, President of SocialGrow. “This makes it faster and easier for users to grow their connections across profile-based social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, and for users running Windows 7, sending an invitation to connect can be as quick and easy as highlighting the person’s e-mail address and right-clicking.”



“Windows Azure allows SocialGrow to be flexible and rapidly scale as it starts to build its customer base,” said Prashant Ketkar, senior director of product marketing for Windows Azure at Microsoft Corp. “Combined with reduced upfront hardware costs, Windows Azure lets SocialGrow developers focus their time on building innovative solutions instead of managing the underlying hardware infrastructure provisioning and scaling.”



SocialGrow was recently named the Microsoft BizSpark most promising “Start-Up of the Day”, and selected by MassHighTech (The Journal of New England Technology) as one of their “Five Start-Ups You Should Follow”. Additionally, SocialGrow’s Chief Marketing Officer Ken Herron was named one of the “Top 10 Chief Marketing Officers in North America” by Systemic Marketing for SocialGrow’s use of Twitter on @SocialGrow (http://twitter.com/socialgrow).

We, SocialGrow’s three co-founders, wanted to share with you our perspectives on an exciting and productive week.



Ken’s take (Ken is SocialGrow’s CMO):


“As a new company, you of course want as many potential users of your product to know about, and get excited about it. From the marketing perspective, participating was a great way for us to share with people who use online social networks that our new software automating the process of adding new connections to their networks is under development. Our participation allowed us to tap into the exciting new features of Windows 7, while reminding people who use Macs, Linux, and older versions of Windows that SocialGrow will work for them, too, just as it will on their iPhones, BlackBerries, Android phones, and other mobile phones which can access the internet. In short, our participation in Incubation Week was not only a great opportunity for our company to make our new product even better by leveraging Windows 7’s key features, but an opportunity to further share our story with people who otherwise might not have heard about us.”



Charbel’s take (Charbel is SocialGrow’s CTO):


“The Windows 7 development training at Microsoft was an incredible learning experience. We spent time on Windows 7’s key features, including: federated search, jump lists, accelerators, multi-touch support, and taskbar management as well as developing with SilverLight. SocialGrow users running WIndows 7 will be able to send an invitation to connect with someone simply by highlighting their e-mail address. Having the opportunity to work side-by-side with the very same software architects and developers who support Microsoft’s biggest enterprise customers enabled us to achieve unthinkable results in just a few days’ (and nights’!) time.”



Marsh’s take (Marsh is SocialGrow’s President):


“My expectation going into Microsoft BizSpark Incubation Week for Windows 7 was that we would have a few hours on the first day with a Microsoft advisor to help us architect the SocialGrow software to take advantage of Windows 7’s new features, who would then check in on our progress over the remainder of the week. I had no idea that our “advisor” would be one of Microsoft’s premier enterprise software architects, Rich Crane. Not only did Rich code our product alongside Charbel until one in the morning two nights in a row, but he also brought in two additional Microsoft software architects to do the same! Add in the Proteans offshore development team who coded around the clock, and it was an amazing team effort. I want to thank Rich and the MTC’s incredibly generous architects, developers, staff, and of course Microsoft itself for giving SocialGrow such an incredible jump start with our application development effort. And yes, my inner geek loved Silverlight’s cool-front end, just wait till you see it!”



Sign up now to receive SocialGrow’s blog updates via RSS and to follow SocialGrow on Twitter. Follow our story as we develop and roll out the first release of SocialGrow’s web and mobile phone software application to help you grow your professional and personal connections — faster and easier — on your online social networks.