S&MM SoundOff

A Virtual Handshake

Social networking Web sites, such as MySpace, Jigsaw, and Meetup, are creating a buzz in the business world as more professionals use them as an effective way to make valuable connections. They can be a virtual gold mine for cultivating sales leads and generating interest about a new product or service. Not sure which one to try? Here are a few of my personal favorites:

• Meetup.com puts a strong focus on building communities offline. From their Web site, you’ll find lots of groups for every interest under the sun, whether it’s business-related (the Atlanta Network Marketing Meetup) or more geared toward personal hobbies.
• Now here's a social networking site that means business. LinkedIn.com offers its more than five million subscribers an opportunity to share industry contacts and find jobs within their network of professionals.
• There’s nothing puzzling about Jigsaw.com. Actually, it’s fairly easy to understand and use. You can browse Fortune 500 companies, take advantage of their sales leads newsletters, and create business mailing lists. 
• At Ryze.com, the goal is to help others "rise up" through networking links. They offer online visitors access to networks related to specific career interests, industry events, and a classified section for jobs.

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Sink or Swim?

Dreading your travel plans to the next company business meeting?  Your opinion might change if your boss has caught the new wave in meeting planning—corporate cruises. 

Up until now, corporate cruises have almost exclusively been reserved for incentive programs.  However, executives are finding more benefits to meetings on the high seas, such as unique venues for product introductions and demonstrations, cost-effectiveness, relationship-building programs, and an enclosed environment with upfront costs. 

Although a meeting aboard a cruise ship sounds almost as good as, well, a vacation, is there potential that your employees might check out mentality, and lower productivity or focus?  Or can you argue the opposite, that a relaxed venue will boost effectiveness and motivation?  Will this trend sink or swim?