In January 2007, Guy Kawasaki wrote about “The 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn” on his blog. In it, he described how most people use LinkedIn to “get to someone” in order to make a sale, form a partnership, or get a job. At the time, the online network included an estimated 8 ½ million experienced professionals from 130 industries. (By the way, today LinkedIn is approaching 17 million users in 170 industries.)

It is interesting that his Top 10 list to increase the value of LinkedIn holds true a year later. As a recap, here are Guy’s Top 10 (with a few updated additions):

1. Increase your visibility.
2. Improve your connectability.
3. Improve your Google PageRank.
4. Enhance your search engine results.
5. Perform blind and “reverse” company reference checks.
6. Increase the relevancy of your job search.
7. Make your interview go smoother.
8. Gage the health of a company.
9. Gage the health of an industry.
10. Track start-ups.
11. Ask for advice.
12. Integrate into a new job.
13. Scope out the competition, customers and partners.

Here is our Top 10 list for 2008 (well, Top 14):

Read the rest of this entry »

It has been a busy holiday season.

• Total number of cards we received this year: 412.
• Number of those that were impersonal (a standard message and company name pre-printed inside with a name printed on an address label): 337.
• Cards received from people we don’t know: 146.
• Duplicate cards from the same person/company: 8.
• Cards that included life dissertations about second cousins, twice removed: 10.
• Last minute e-cards sent by those who just didn’t quite make it to the mailbox (or who claimed they were being “green” by not sending cards this year): 52.
• Value of the effort from many companies? Totally useless. Again.

Last January, I wrote an article about the self-imposed pressure to clog the U.S. mail system with what many believe is simply a nice gesture. Yet as you look around our office, as stacks of cards pile up on various desks, you have to wonder about their effectiveness. Read the rest of this entry »

From BNet Intercom by Jessica Stillman…

In business, as in life, the people who are the best at it are constantly learning. To this end, we here at BNET try and keep you up to date on the big ideas in business and point out worthy books that’ll keep you informed. And because it’s the start of a new year, some top management minds are offering their lists of best business books of 2007.Here’s Tammy Erickson’s list of must-reads from yesterday’s Huffington Post:

1.  “Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything” by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, explores what the changing world of Internet-based technologies mean for business.

2. “Hot Spots: Why Some Companies Buzz with Energy and Innovation – and Others Don’t” by Lynda Gratton digs deeply into the human side of organizations

3. In “Beyond HR: The New Science of Human Capital,” John Boudreau and Peter Ramstad tackle… how do we measure success?

4. “Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success” by Sylvia Ann Hewlett, builds on our body of knowledge about the preferences of the changing workforce by focusing on one important group in detail — professional women.

Erickson also suggests an oldie but goodie: 2004’s “The Future of Work: How the New Order of Business Will Shape Your Organization, Your Management Style, and Your Life,” by Thomas W. Malone, which “lays out an inspiring argument for re-thinking how corporations get work done.”For more ideas check out strategy + business’s Best Business Books 2007 or Business Week’s list of 10 titles not to miss from the year past.

Don’t forget to mark your calendar for the Create A WOW Virtual Conference held online at www.CreateAWOW.com the week of January 8, 2008. A stellar group of experts will share insider knowledge and wisdom to help kick-start any business and create a WOW online. Classes include:

• How to Get The Most out of the Create a Wow Conference – Rory Cohen
• Create a WOW with Article Marketing – Marnie Pehrson
• Writing Successful PPC Ads – Karon Thackston
• You Name It! How to Create a Successful Brand – Phillip Davis
• SEO Copywriting Strategies: Writing With Keywords – Karon Thackston
• How to Use Press Releases to Get Visitors to Your Web Site (and get some publicity to boot – Michele PW
• How to Make Your Web Site Go Ka-ching! – Michele PW
• How to Use Joint Ventures and Alliances to Grow Your Small Business – Janis Petit
• Shopping Cart Basics – Christina Hills, aka The   Shopping Cart Queen
• Is Blogging the Best Darn Marketing Tool on the Planet? – The Blog Squad(tm)
• Relationship Marketing Using LinkedIn – David Nour
• Discover How to Make Tens of Thousands of Dollars by Hosting Teleseminars – Kathleen Gage
• Zap Negativity – Turn Yesterday’s Doubts into Tomorrow’s Success – Hazel Palache, MFC, MCCht, CNLP
• Insider Secrets to Self-Publishing – Marnie Pehrson

Hope you’ll log on and invest in your personal and professional development.  Best, David

Interesting quote I saw today:

“Dress is the outward expression of a man’s state of mind, and it is his attire that tells the world what he thinks of himself.” ~ Pearl Binder

The gurus who make the Excellence 100 list today possess a rare combination of traits and abilities. Here are the eight criteria:

1. Preparation: academic and professional.
2. Character: values, ethics, beliefs, purpose, mission, integrity, walk the talk.
3. Principles: big message, point of view, tenets, main points.
4. Personality: charisma, style, originality, authenticity, one of a kind.
5. Performance: inspiring action, real-world performance, work ethic.
6. Experience: beyond local and regional, more national and international.
7. Expression: substance and style in writing, speaking, coaching, consulting, mentoring, training, or teaching.
8. Influence: difference, results, change, transformation.

The 2007 – 2008 Excellence 100

Top 20

1. Gary Hamel
2. Dave Ulrich
3. James Collins
4. Warren Bennis
5. Tom Peters
6. Barbara Kellerman
7. James Kouzes
8. John P. Kotter
9. Marshall Goldsmith
10. Noel Tichy
11. Clayton Christensen
12. Peter Block
13. Kevin Cashman
14. Jack Zenger
15. Ram Charan
16. Peter Senge
17. James Loehr
18. Michael Porter
19. Marcus Buckingham
20. Meg Wheatley

21-40

21. Norm Smallwood
22. Bill George
23. James O’Toole
24. Max Bazerman
25. Jay Conger
26. C.K. Prahalad
27. Ichak Adizes
28. William C. Miller
29. Rosabeth Kanter
30. Gifford Pinchot
31. Carly Fiorina
32. Bill Isaacs
33. Nicholas Negraponte
34. Morgan McCall, Jr.
35. Jay Conrad Levinson
36. Michael Treacy
37. Kevin & Jackie Freiberg
38. Jack Welch
39. James Champy
40. Rob Lebow

41-60

41. Chip Bell
42. Dan Goleman
43. Renee Mauborgne
44. Beverly Kaye
45. Jeff Snipes
46. Ken Blanchard
47. Eileen McDargh
48. Nathaniel Branden
49. David Allen
50. Judith Glaser
51. David Nadler
52. Phil Geldart
53. Libby Sartain
54. Barry Conchie
55. Nigel Nicholson
56. Bill Byham
57. Edward E. Lawler III
58. Charles Garfield
59. Josh Bersin
60. Joseph Grenny

61-80

61. Jon Katzenbach
62. Richard Chang
63. Michael G. Winston
64. Joel Barker
65. Frances Hesselbein
66. Karl Albrecht
67. Malcolm Gladwell
68. Patrick Lencioni
69. Andre Martin
70. Michael Hammer
71. Edgar Schein
72. Lois Zachary
73. Spencer Johnson
74. Christopher Rice
75. Barry Posner
76. Michael Feiner
77. Ira Chaleff
78. Jeff Sonnenfeld
79. Anne Mulcahy
80. Tom Crum

81-100

81. James Cabrera
82. Michael Quigley
83. Vijay Govindarajan
84. Dianna Booher
85. Larry Bossidy
86. Lance Secretan
87. Robert Kaplan
88. Dede Henley
89. Ian Mitroff
90. Bill Adams
91. Stephen R. Covey
92. Phil Harkins
93. Terry Bacon
94. Joseph Jaworski
95. Rudy Giuliani
96. Richard Leider
97. Richard Whiteley
98. Steven Smith
99. Brian Tracy
100. Ken Shelton