Marketing Me! Plaxo Pulse

I have been getting deluged with emails like this..

John Smith wants to add you as a business connection on Plaxo Pulse.

To accept this connection request, go to:
http://pulse.plaxo.com/pulse/connections/confirm/xxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxx

If you use Plaxo I am sure you have as well.

I have used Plaxo since about 2003 when a friend sent me a link to join. Since then, I have successfully used Plaxo to maintain and organize my email addresses and contact information for hundreds of contacts.

It has worked great for that purpose and now Plaxo wants to take advantage of all of those users (15 million as off 2006 according to the Plaxo website).

So, following the Web 2.0 social network craze, Plaxo Pulse was born. A Facebook meets Linked In "let's get to know each other and network" platform.

I am always a fan of new social media sites so I updated my profile on Plaxo Pulse. The first thing I noticed is that current Plaxo members are not obligated to use PP. They can only use the address book version.

Next, you will start getting more invites from other Plaxo members to join networks.

Also, there are groups to join with shared, networking interests. I have joined a couple already.

Finally, Plaxo Pulse is just another way to network and meet others. This tool is only as good as the amount of work you put into it and the interaction you have with members of your network.

Hot new 25 Web 2.0 Companies

My latest issue of Business 2.0 arrived yesterday in the mail. Oh boy.

This month's cover story features "The Next Net" - 25 hot start ups to watch.


We all know Stumble Upon, I have the widget on my Firefox browser (net surfing app for the channel surfer in your house - highly addictive).

Some of the others were new to me. Some were interesting. Some were shoe-ins.

You can read the reviews online or in Business 2.0 if you subscribe to the tree-killer like I do.

Here at MarketingMe, you get my very own Miss Web 2.0 beauty pageant!


Best New Company * - JanRain. I have wanted this for about ten years. Now, add a universal, profile fill feature and I am sold.
* Best New Company has to be one year old or less.

Most Likely To Succeed - Joost. From the founders of Kazaa and Skype. Billions in their pocket and a proven track record which will attract every major sponsor, investor and channel. Please.

The Stretch Award - FON - Home and small business consumers buy a FON wireless router and allow anyone to use their WiFi network for a small fee they determine of which FON gets a cut. Besides the name having been used before and might be confusing to US subscribers, how is this business plan going to work? Especially in a day and age of free WiFi networks popping up everywhere? Further, I have a T-Mobile HotSpot account which pays for itself on one trip out of the house.

The "Duh'O!" Award (For Why Didn't I Think Of That?) - Simulscribe - Voice mails to text messages or emails. Would like to see the back end system which interoperates with different phone systems. Simple and useful.

The Neat, I Have To Try That Award - Meebo. Portable IM client for your blog or web page which supports all of your current IM logins. Neato.

Brick and Mortar Disruptor Award - 2 won this top spot - LogoWorks and SuccessFactors.

The Yes, When You Sell This You Are Going To Be A Billionaire Award - AdMob.

We Can Hope This Works Award, Because Competition Is Good - Turn.










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LinkedIn Wish List

I was just looking at my cluttered LinkedIn homepage. Which actually is not a home page because I cannot modify it to my liking. I get what they give me. For free so who is complaining.

Which brings up my real quick LinkedIn Wish List for this afternoon.

1) I want to modify my landing page. Arrange the widgets, customize them, choose another background, font type.

2) I want an IM client with other people in my network.

3) I want pictures in my profile. A head shot for instance.

4) I want a blog space available in my profile.

5) I want down loadable business cards. Wait, I think that is available.

6) I want IM with customer support at LinkedIn.

7) I want to remove people from my network because their information is not longer current and they don't bother to login and update it.

8) I want some of the ad revenue from my profile page.

9) I would like to see some a reward program related to LinkedIn usage - like how come contacts are not like frequent flier miles? The more I use LinkedIn and add contacts the more valuable the application becomes and I become to the application.

10) I would like Customer Support to please answer my email and fix my ability to send emails and answer/ask questions!

Time: 7 minutes to post!

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Mashable roundup

Mashable tracks current and new social networks as well as stories related to the industry.
Once a week or so, they publish a list of new social networks - my favorite post of the week.

Today's is out and available here.

Social Network

I saw this on Mashable this morning and wonder if it is something I have been looking for.

I belong to several social networking sites with a particular emphasis on business networking (MySpace just does not do it for me).

Everyday I look at my gmail inbox and see the updates from Ryze and Ecademy and realize I have not updated my profile, or in some cases, have not added anything to them since I joined.

I want to take my LinkedIn profile and export it to Ryze and the others with one or two clicks. There must be a way to do this because everyone must hate copying and creating new profiles!

So I checked out socialnetwork.in and no, it does not do what I want it to do.

Firefox has an Autofill widget on the toolbar for filling in online forms. There must be something like this for SN sites as well.

Any ideas? (Great Web 2.0 service, hint hint).

LinkedIn profile views

I commented on LinkedIn profile views on Friday. This morning I received a notice from Ecademy that someone had viewed my profile.

The email read:
- the name of the person (with a hyperlink to their profile).
- who else has viewed my profile to date.
- the option to turn off these alerts in the future.

I am not a big user of Ecademy, but this feature alone is worth the price of maintaining an active profile.

Most social networking sites have this feature. LinkedIn probably does, but with the paid for service only. Which is annoying because my LinkedIn profile is providing the content LinkedIn needs in order to be successful.

LinkedIn is not successful because of their great service; LinkedIn is great because so many use the product and spread the benefits virally.