Hi everyone, Max and I will be on Requisite Video’s Live Show next week, please tune in.
Please check out the following links -
Blog: http://requisitevideoknowthis.blogspot.com/
Facebook Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126413544039607
Livestream Channel for day of show: http://www.livestream.com/requisitevideohq
For the umpteenth time I was asked by someone today why he should use GoBuzz instead of Google Alerts. This is a great question and one I love to answer.
Me ”do you currently track all of your customers and prospects with Google Alerts?”
Other Person “No”
Me “why not?”
Other Person “It would take too much time”
Me “You can set up GoBuzz in a minute and be tracking your contacts in the news in 2 minutes. Also, we work with Outlook, Gmail, and Linkedin to track additional relationships as the arise”
Other Person “Wow, that’s convenient”
Me “Does anyone at Google know your business and look for articles you might be interested in? Have you ever actually spoken with anyone at Google? Is anyone there interested in providing you intelligence to help your business grow?”
Other Person “No”
Me “Does Google look for alternative spellings of people and companies in alerts (JPMorgan Chase vs. Chase)?
Other Person “I’m not sure”
Me “They don’t”
This isn’t exactly how the conversation went but you get the idea. I’m not trying to pick a fight, Google Alerts is an amazing tool for tracking keywords but if you have a large contact list, are a busy service professional and are looking for a networking edge, GoBuzz is your tool.
Congratulations are in order to Max Lynch and Zack Krejci for taking 2nd place in the first annual NEST Software Competition at UW-Madison! The award winning product which they introduced is called BigNote and can be found at bignote.com (Now Accepting Users). BigNote is an evolution in group communication, information organization and process management.
There have been murmurs of a new product coming from mendotasoft in the coming weeks. We will not confirm or deny these rumors. There have been murmurs of super secret alpha testers who have been using said product. There have been murmurs that clients are already paying for said product. There have been murmurs of a patent being filed. That have been murmurs that one user said “This could revolutionize my industry” in a murmurish tone. Again we can not confirm or deny any of these murmurs. We would like to respect the right to remain silent as the finishing touches are being made. Stay tuned…..
I have been trying to figure out why relationship bankers have found our software especially useful. I came across this job description for a commercial banker:
- implementing the delivery of sales strategies and targets and motivating employees to meet and surpass these;
- establishing and maintaining effective relationships with new and existing customers, establishing their needs and advising on the suitability of services;
- visiting business customers and attending meetings and conferences with them and other professionals;
- managing and supporting staff and facilitating appropriate continuing professional development (CPD);
- communicating, implementing and monitoring compliance with corporate standards and procedures;
- processing data to produce accurate facts, figures and reports;
- evaluating new and renewal lending proposals, negotiating terms with customers and, where appropriate, submitting proposals to the credit department for approval;
- checking accounts and initiating action if they are overdrawn without arrangement or are in excess of agreed arrangements;
- assuming overall accountability for products and services, such as consumer lending, current account transactions, unsecured loans, overdrafts, credit cards and personal loans;
- networking with appropriate professionals;
- representing the bank within the wider community.
Roughly 50% of the job tasks of a commercial banker relate to networking and the ability of a commercial banker to deal with customers and internal colleagues. We are slaving away (We call it fun time) on GoBuzz and we hope to become a leader on the relationship side of banking software. We want our customers to be better than their competitors (much much better). If we can help you do your job better, just let us know how we can help.
GoBuzz recently rolled out an enhanced media monitoring service for time-deprived executives. We understand the value of Google Alerts for news, media, and blog monitoring and we think it is a wonderful tool for finding every piece of information available on a given topic but what if you don’t have the time to read through all of those alerts? What if you are looking for alerts for your specific customer and your customer’s name is Bob Smith? What if you are looking for new customers or qualified actionable opportunities to reach out to prospects you weren’t looking for? GoBuzz is working closely with busy executives using a combination of our proprietary search algorithms and personalized article curation to find valuable, actionable information. You read that correctly, we will actually use human beings to read through article matches to assure you that the information you receive does not become spam, you will only receive information that you want, at a point when you can easily act on it.
The next time you lose out on a major sale and wonder when your competitor started a relationship with your prospect/client, you might want to check if they are a GoBuzz customer.
If interested in testing out this service, please contact dan@gobuzz.com, that’s right, you can email Dan directly it’s not a generic email address.
I will be speaking about Social CRM at a WTA meeting this week Thursday http://www.runmyclub.com/WTA/eventcalendar.asp?id=205840 and speaking about student entrepreneurship and starting up GoBuzz while Max and myself were in school at the BizStarts Milwaukee Student Conference on April 16th: http://www.bizstartsmilwaukee.com/StudentConference.htm
Hope to see you there!
Dan
As the unemployment rate hovers at 9.7% I wanted to interject my view of the economic outlook from a stoop in the small town of Watertown, Wisconsin. When I was working as a Graduate Assistant for the Marquette Golden Angels we had Jon Fisher come in and speak at the Marquette Business Plan Competition Banquet in mid April, 2008. During the speech, Jon made reference to this chart:
Jon had the thesis that we were heading toward unemployment of 9% by April of 2009. At the time, unemployment was hovering around 5%. His assertion intreagued me enough that I passed the statistics along to my Econ Stats professor who supported Jon’s findings. As unemployment raced upwards over the next year, Jon ended up within .1% of the actual unemployment number 1 year later, a very impressive prediction. A report published by Ben Bernanke on April 2, 2008 pointed to a “somewhat higher” unemployment, not quite the findings that could have helped us prepare for such a massive unemployment spike.
Where to next?
In August of last year, Jon said we would top out 10.4% unemployment and start heading back down. In October we peaked at 10.2% and since have come down to 9.7%. I don’t deny that unemployment will continue to decline, but I do believe it is going to be a long downhill road to recovery. In larger cities it is easy to be optimistic about unemployment turning around because you can see people gaining jobs. As larger cities begin to see points of optimism I would like to direct attention to the small county where I am working, Jefferson County, Wisconsin. A county of 9,700 that recently lost a Briggs and Stratton Plant (530 jobs) and quite a few more jobs at a furniture manufacturer amid smaller job losses across the board. In a county like this it is easy to see where jobs have gone and where new jobs are going to come from. The manufacturing jobs have gone abroad and are not coming back in the immediate future. If housing starts pick up this could get Jefferson back to a sustainable level. Without a pickup in the housing market the only way jobs will come back are if manufacturing labor becomes affordable enough for someone to start a plant in Watertown which will take a change in mindset by the previously gainfully employed manufacturers. This isn’t a problem unique to Watertown, it is echoed in small towns throughout the country. I don’t have any stark opinions but I am patiently optimistic and I am interested to see what Jon predicts next.
Today Google launched a brand new extension to Gmail. It is called Google Buzz which is not to be confused with GoBuzz. It actually looks like a really cool product and one we will be testing out as soon as it is available (I signed up this morning but haven’t seen it show up yet). I have to imagine Twitter is a little worried today especially as growth has slowed in recent months. Chatter and Yammer seem to be safe for the time being as they are more geared towards private business groups. Come Buzz with us:
http://www.youtube.com/feb0910googleevent
GoBuzz and Google Buzz that is.
This video doesn’t relate to GoBuzz but it is powerful enough to share. Below is the information shared on Youtube:
The lovely and amazing performance poet Gabrielle Bouliane performs for the audience at the Austin Poetry Slam.
This would be her last public performance.
Gabrielle was diagnosed with Stage Four Cancer shortly before this video was filmed. Our dear sister fought hard, but she ended her fight January 29, 2010. She was surrounded by family and friends, and her passing was in a very quiet, peaceful room full of love and affection. She was so brave.
Please share this video with everyone you know. I am sure it would tickle her to no end to have this video get as viral as a video can be. Tell the world.
