M & A Rainmaker

The Sunday Times Social List told me yesterday that I was 790th ( and rising ) in their list of the U.K.’s social business networkers and I was pleased to be able to say that I am based in Lichfield which is quietly becoming the ” Silicon Crossroads ” of the U.K.

The Sunday Times actually said ” Congratulations Titan! You tower over the world of social networking like a colossus. Even the most opulent Oligarch envies your standing ” which I thought was nice but a little weird  😉

Titans – 12 Gods that ran the Universe.

It also got me to wondering that if was described in this manner how were some of the people described who were above me in the Sunday Times list ?????

For example Paul Steele – a travel blogger from Oldham who heads the Social List and Thomas Power ( co-founder of ecademy.com ) who is the top friend that I have and 6th on the Social List. If I am ” towering over the world like a Colossus ”  what are they doing ??

The Colossus of Rhodes

I do know that they have enormous ( global ) networks. Thomas is certainly up there with the leaders in the world so Paul must be aswell.

How they manage their networks is another interesting question. ( I happen to know that Thomas has multiple phones in his bag and goodness only knows how many email addresses he is managing ).

According to the Sunday Times to get higher in the List there are a number of things that I can do ( and in Italics what I think of them ):

1. Follow lots of people because then they may follow me.

This is great except that I have max’d out the number of people I can follow on most networks 😉

2. Make connections with everyone I work with.

This is very important – the people that I work with is a very extended, global network of people.

3. Be the first to share new things

I agree with this but it is actually difficult to be the first to ” break the news ” as I guess journalists know !

4. Make use of all four networks ( Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Foursquare )

Hmm !! There is little chance of me using those networks like Foursquare that tell everyone where I am – no thanks. ( I do however have extensive networks that they do not monitor e.g. Google + ).

5. Update often

People tell me that I do that too much already !!

6. Get into pictures and then  get tagged in them

Oh! Like jump into people’s way when they are taking photo’s and ask them to tag me ???

7. Tweet big, Tweet often

Well now – using Twylah.com I can Tweet bigger than most and often !!

8. Accept event invitations

Oh !! Goodness me – some of them look pretty boring !!

I am going to be working on my tips for myself ( and others ) to not only get higher in the Sunday Times Social List but also to become more effective at social business networking – stay tuned !!

Hootsuite is one of a number of applications that now exist for people to monitor relevant activity on a number of social media networks simultaneously like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google +. Competitors to Hootsuite include TweetDeck, PeopleBrowser and CoTweet. One of the major concerns for investors considering investing in HootSuite was it’s location in Vancouver, Canada.

You may know that Vancouver is  the home of many start-ups lots of which are ” high Tech. ” including HootSuite. HootSuite was ranked in the top 10 at the time of this survey.

Vancouver is a beautiful City located on the West Coast of Canada and a 100 or so miles away from Seattle, U.S. – the home of Microsoft and the original home of Starbucks Coffee . I have been to Vancouver a number of times – mainly to ski in Whistler. I sent my son David there to learn about Internet Marketing and I will also always remember it as the home of ” those otters “. You know the cute ones that float around holding hands and have over 17 Million hits on YouTube !! We tried to get David to visit the otters in Vancouver Aquarium but he never quite made it. He did however fly out to Vancouver and back on his own.

Anyway – back to HootSuite. One of the downsides identified with HootSuite by the venture capitalists, as mentioned earlier, was that it was based in Vancouver.  You can’t really believe that Vancouver is viewed ( by some ) as a backwater but it is. It’s vibrant start-up community is a drop in the ocean when compared with e.g. San Francisco, New York and Boston.

The biggest problem perceived ??? How would they get the talent needed ??

In fact this “disadvantage” turned out to be an advantage ….

“Up there, surrounded by quality dev talent with limited competition, HootSuite has been able to attract A+ people at a fraction of the cost of its competitors. This advantage has only grown as HootSuite now is one of the top tech companies to work for in Canada and can pull from across the entire country. ”

Similarly a ” Silicon Crossroads ” in Lichfield would be perceived as ” nowhere ” by the High Tech. community but it has major advantages in the talent pool, the location, access to transport and many other areas.

2007 article about Vancouver’s High Tech. start-up’s:

http://montrealtechwatch.com/2007/08/07/vancouver-canadas-greatest-start-up-city/