It's Great to Be (a) LIVE...

The new Fast Pitch! is up!

Take a look: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/

In fact, we're sending out announcements to all of our members as we speak - giving them the opportunity to be the first to experience the new look and feel of the site, as well as some of the enhancements we've made to our industry leading networking and marketing features.


Here's a brief look at what we've done so far (with more to come!):

• More Dynamic Profile
• Better Integration with Social Media
• Ability to Send Messages to your Entire Network
• Improved Match-Making
• Ability to Create a Watch List for Hot Leads
• Send Direct Mail to Your Network
• Simple to Use Interface
• Enahnced Search Capabilities

One of the first things you'll notice is just how easy it is to navigate the network. In short, we've reduced the number of clicks it takes to get things done. Whether you're updating your profile, looking for ideal people to network with, chat live, send email newsletters, or post and share content... you're most likely only one click away!

For those of you who are uncomfortable with change... we will be offering a series of 'How To' webinars in the coming weeks to help everyone become more familiar with how to maximize your time on the network and how it can help you grow your business. Keep an eye out for those dates and times.

In the meantime, login and 'kick the tires'... Update your profile, make a few connections, add some content about your business and more. Start making your 'pitch' to the world... faster than ever!

Bill

It's The Final Countdown...

For those of you who read my post from a few weeks ago (A Sneak Peak...), you'll be happy to know that our development team is in the final stages of officially launching the new and improved Fast Pitch! - which will add even more new networking and marketing features than we originally anticipated.

The process of updating our layout and functionality have spawned a host of new ideas that will lead to a more meaningful networking experience with a host of tools designed to help you manage the way you communicate to your network and the overall network at-large. In short, the slight delay is well worth the wait...

Thanks to everyone for your patience. Now... let the countdown begin...

Bill

Hot Off The Press!

Over the past few weeks, many of you have received a gift in your mailbox courtesy of Fast Pitch! That gift, for those of you who may not have received one just yet, is a 50+ page Fast Pitch! Pocket Guide. The Pocket Guide is a clear, concise paperback book designed to educate our users on using social media to market their business more effectively.

The idea for the Fast Pitch! Pocket Guide came about for two primary reasons:

1. We're the first social network in the world to do it.
Ask yourself, when is the last time an Internet company took the time to send you something tangible (and of value), while asking nothing in return? My guess is never.

2. We're giving our users an alternative way to learn about social media.
Call me old-fashioned but, there's still something about reading an actual book that has it's appeal. Having the ability to flip through pages on my own terms without being bombarded by millions of pixels is actually becoming more of an attractive option these days. My guess is our typical user (average age 40), shares that same feeling.

As of today, over 5,000 Pocket Guides have been mailed out to some of our more recent and active users. Additionally, we're partnering with speakers, and business organizations who are interested in using the Pocket Guides at upcoming events.

• If you haven't received your Free Fast Pitch! Pocket Guide or would like to request Multiple Pocket Guides CLICK HERE >>


• If you are an advertiser and have an interest in gaining additional exposure to Fast Pitch! members by advertising in the Pocket Guide CLICK HERE >>

Best,

Bill

A Sneak Peak...

Over the past three years, despite all of the features we have added to Fast Pitch!, we've been reluctant to make any major changes to the overall user experience. Part of the reason has been the fear of alienating some of our most loyal members who have become so famliar with how to navigate our network. The downside to not making changes however, is a fragmented user experience that has the potential to confuse many of our newest members who are coming to us with certain expectations. In recent weeks, it's become obvious to many of us here at Fast Pitch! that now is the time to make some changes and 'raise the bar' for ourselves and the overall industry.

Our development team has been working around the clock in recent days to overhaul the entire network in order to bring add more (and new) technology to Fast Pitch! The hope is that the overall user experience becomes more intuitive and effective for our members. Without getting into details about how we plan to do this... I can say, I'm excited about what has been developed so far. After talking briefly with my dev team this morning, many of you can expect to see some major changes in the coming days.

Stay Tuned.

Bill

Approaching 1,000 Fans on Facebook.

We launched a Facebook Fan Page for Fast Pitch! a few weeks ago. Within a few weeks we've already had almost 1,000 members become Fans. In fact, at the time of writing this, we're sitting on 999! Become Fan #1,000 and win a one-year Platinum Membership valued at $168 per year.

Quick... Add yourself! http://www.facebook.com/fastpitchnetworking

Currently, we are using the Fan Page to highlight some (not all) of our latest Platinum Members who join Fast Pitch! on a daily basis. Being featured on this Fan Page is a great way to make an introduction to the Fast Pitch! community and bring your business instant exposure. In fact, your featured listing is also posted on our Twitter page which currently has about 7,000 Followers and growing.

Note: in order to be considered for a listing on our Fan Page Wall you must become a Platinum Member, complete your profile AND have a professional headshot.

On a completely separate note... We've been working overtime these past few weeks and plan to unveil some new features, etc. We're excited.

Stay Tuned!

Bill

UPDATE: That didn't take long (less than 1 minute after this blog post)!
Congratulations Mike Grandelli of Rose & Womble Realty in Virginia Beach, VA for becoming the 1,000th Fan! Mike just won an annual Platinum Membership to Fast Pitch!

Help us reach our goal of 2,000 Fans before September 30th. Spread the Word!

Fast Pitch! Turned 3!

Happy belated birthday Fast Pitch!

I woke up this morning in cold sweats realizing that we forgot to celebrate our 3rd birthday in June. Funny thing is, nobody here at the office managed to remember it either.

This reminds me of that 80's movie Sixteen Candles where everyone forgets Molly Ringwald's 16th birthday because they are preocupied with her sisters wedding. In our case it's been a series of summer events happening in our own office that led to the distraction.

Fast Pitch! is the anchor tenant of the new HuB Incubator here in Sarasota, FL. The HuB is a destination for entrepreneurs, artists and professionals to connect and share ideas.
Founded by a group of entrepreneurs the goal of The HuB is to bring a new energy to the creative-class here locally to help transform our city socially, economically and politically.

Over the past three months, The HuB and Fast Pitch! have been involved in launching a new music festival (Vinyl Music Festival), two events aimed at promoting local artists (s/ART/q), the launch of three new technology companies, an exciting new amateur basketball league (Gulf Coast ABA), and a series of non-profit initiatives as well. All this, combined with the continued growth of Fast Pitch! and the demands placed on all of us to service hundreds of thousands of professionals worldwide (we've seen our new member growth continue to increase despite the summer months and a lagging economy)... and I think I understand why the birthday came and went.

In 10 more months, we'll be turning 4! Something tells me it will be here before we know it...

Bill

Virtual Tradeshows... Coming to a City Near You!

Over a year ago we launched our popular Live Chat feature to give our members the ability to have real-time conversations with other members. Up until recently however, the feature has been somewhat void of structure causing some chat requests to go unnoticed or simply ignored oftentimes due to a perceived lack of relevance by the recipient of the message.

In an effort to create more context for our members we've now created individual event pages (Virtual Tradeshows) based around fifteen larger metropolitan areas where Fast Pitch! has a significant following (view a sample here). The goal is to have Fast Pitch members login at a specified day and time with the primary intent of networking with everyone else logging into the event page (not too dissimilar from an in-person tradeshow). All of these initial events are scheduled at various times on July 29th and can be found in our events section.

Unbeknownst to most of you, we tested the Virtual Tradeshow event concept a few months ago (May and June) here locally (Tampa Bay). For each event, we created a customized Live Chat page which featured only those members from around the Bay Area who RSVP'd to the event and logged in to Fast Pitch! that morning. Both events proved to be quite successful. Here are some interesting statistics we were able to capture:

April 29, 2009
Total Attendees = 102
Highest # Concurrent Conversations = 71
Average # Concurrent Conversations = 34

May 28, 2009
Total Attendees = 87
Highest # Concurrent Conversations = 58
Average # Concurrent Conversations = 26

The advantages to these Virtual Tradeshow events compared to in-person networking events are pretty obvious: 1) Less Time 2) No Driving 3) No Event Fee 4) No Traffic 5) No Gas Expense 6) No Parking Fees 7) No Marketing Expenses, 8) No Need to Leave the Office, and so on...

Initially, these events will last about one-hour and will be FREE to all Fast Pitch! members. Additionally, each event page will provide unique visibility for sponsoring companies who wish to promote themselves in a variety of ways including: banner advertising, a live streaming video header with chat functionality, pre-recorded videos and more. For a short demonstration about what it means to sponsor these Virtual Tradeshow events, email us at: info@fastpitchnetworking.comor call 888-327-8025.

For more information about all of the upcoming events on July 29th visit: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/events

To watch a short video tutorial on how to take part in a Virtual Tradeshow visit: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/flash/popup_livechat.cfm


Bill