Rpitch2U

0.000675%

2011-09-22T08:32:00.000-07:00

Back in January 2011 I wrote a follow-up to my original post in August 2010 describing how anemic LinkedIn's Facebook Fan Page 'Likes' stats were, especially given their claim of 75 Million members. At the time, only 30,000 people (out of 75 Million) took the time (1 second) to 'Like' the company on the world's largest social network. A statistical improbability given the nature of their business (social media) and the industry standard ratio of 4-10% (Likes vs. Users). LinkedIn's ratio is currently .000675%. That's 6 ten-thousandths of one percent...

Is it me, or is something not adding up?

Fast forward 9 months, the company continues to claim ridiculous growth rates (1 million new members per week) for a total of 120 Million users worldwide. Yet, months after the pre and post IPO hype machine and 50 million new users, LinkedIn's total 'Like's' increased by only 50,000 for a total of 81,000. To put this number in perspective, LinkedIn's Likeability rests somewhere between that asshole Spencer Pratt (voted one of the top 5 most hated people in America) and British Petroleum.

To me, this can only mean one of two things.

LinkedIn isn't giving their users anything to 'Like'
LinkedIn isn't being honest about how many users they really have.

Check out these comparisons of LinkedIn vs. other leading Internet properties:

LinkedIn = 81,000 'Likes' (0.000675% 'Like' ratio)

Google = 4 Million Likes
Twitter = 4 Million Likes (200 Million users = 2% 'Like' ratio)
Foursquare = 700,000 Likes (10 Million users = 7% 'Like' ratio)
Google+ = 200,000 Likes already (launched in July 2011)
Groupon = 1.5 Million Likes

Believe what you want... but one things for certain... there's apparently not much to 'Like' about LInKEdIn. :)

Bill

Playin' Hooky

2011-09-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

Today I kept my oldest son home from school to give him a little break from his daily grind. Between the everyday football and baseball practices in 90 degree heat and hours of homework... I could see it in his eyes when he woke up this morning that it was as good a time as any to play some hooky. So, like any other concerned parent I did what was best for him. I brought him into the Fast Pitch office and put him to work!

Armed with a Canon Eos and a laptop, his job this morning was to take pictures of our office and share them with the world via our blog. S0 here it is... Fast Pitch headquarters at 9AM as seen through the lense of an 11-year old.

Bill

A Change Is Gonna Come

2011-09-08T11:27:00.001-07:00

Thank you to everyone who took part in our customer feedback survey last week. Your voice has been heard! Here's a sneak peak at some of the changes we're making to Fast Pitch in the coming days.

Stay tuned...

Bill

Pro's vs. Joe's

2011-08-25T06:38:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I decided to change the name of our upgraded membership level from Platinum to PRO+. Over the years, I've always wanted to integrate more sports themes into our marketing. With a name like Fast Pitch there are literally hundreds of directions we can go with sports themed marketing. However, I've always been hesitant for fear of confusing our members (not everyone watches baseball or softball and knows the lingo). Plus, it's hard enough educating our members on all of the new social media / web 2.0 phrases being tossed around anyway. There's no sense in adding another layer of confusion to the thought process, right?

The decision to use a sports theme for our upgraded level of membership is two-fold:

PRO is about as powerful a term as there is to describe someone's role in a profession. Whether it's describing a career in sports or a person selling insurance, we all want to be considered a pro, right?
The opposite of being a Pro is being an Average 'Joe'. This is a perfect yet subtle way to differentiate between members who are serious about Fast Pitch and those who perhaps aren't.

So, PRO+ it is...

For those of you not familiar, the PRO+ membership is now our only upgraded level of membership. If you're not a PRO+ member, you are what we call a 'Basic' member. Basic members cannot access any of our premium features and they receive minimal exposure across the network.

About 25% of our total membership population have become PRO+ members at one time or another. PRO+ members typically spend far more time using the network (obviously) and connecting to one another. So much so that they've become their own community within the community... reaping all of the benefits of the increased exposure and opportunity provided with PRO+ membership.

There's competition happening on our network. It's Pro's vs. Joe's... and much like the t.v. show, the Pro's are winning.

Bill

The Evolution of Fast Pitch

2011-07-27T11:41:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in a prior post, Fast Pitch is celebrating its 5th birthday this month. Technically however, what most people don't realize is that Fast Pitch is also closing in on it's 8th birthday in September. Wait... What?

Prior to becoming an online social network, Fast Pitch was a sole-proprietorship (owned by yours truly). For nearly three years I hosted and promoted networking events around the country from 2003 - 2006. Then, after becoming burned out with the event business and facilitating events for close to 10,000 people from Miami to Los Angeles and everywhere in between, Fast Pitch changed directions and became what it is today... an online social network for small business professionals.

On behalf of the 5th (and upcoming 8th) birthdays, I thought I'd take a stroll back in time and post some screen shots that demonstrate the evolution of the Fast Pitch homepage over these eight years. Enjoy.

(October 2003 - Fast Pitch announces the first of 200+ networking events from 2003-2005. Unfortunately, many of the images on the archived page no longer exist)

(January 2006 - Fast Pitch begins offering online networking events using a proprietary web based system to host and manage events remotely. These events spawn the birth of the Fast Pitch Profile).

(March 2006 - Fast Pitch begins to use the profile to help people be found on Google)

(June 2006 - The Fast Pitch Online Business Network goes Live! Members can now connect to one another and post a variety of content to their profile.)

(December 2006 - A newer version of our logo makes it's first appearance)

(June 2007 - We're growing and adding more features)

(June 2008 - A new logo and a more serious layout)

(December 2008 - The homepage begins to take the shape of today's Fast Pitch)

(January 2010 - Present)

Bill

LinkedOut?

2011-07-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

BREAKING NEWS: CEO at over-valued social network attacks competitors social network.

Did anyone else see the comment made by LinkedIn CEO, Jeffrey Weiner earlier this week when asked about the potential of Google+? If you missed it, here was his answer:

"Nobody has any free time. Unlike social platforms and TV, which can coexist, you don't see people using Twitter while they're using Facebook, or using Facebook while they're using LinkedIn. Now you introduce Google+... where am I going to spend that next minute or hour of my discretionary time? I have no more time."

Wow. Sounds like someone struck a nerve! I'm guessing this is why...

Google+ is about to put a serious dent in LinkedIn's over-valued, under-used professional network.

LinkedIn has bet its future on eyeballs (i.e. selling ads). If impressions and engagement time per user on LinkedIn decline as a result of people becoming more interested in Google+ (regardless of whether that interest is social or business)... LinkedIn's ad revenues will decline... followed eventually by their overpriced stock. The potential stickiness of Google+ directly impacts LinkedIn's ad supported business model by becoming a one-stop-shop (which already includes business tools such as Gmail, Google Docs, Calendar, Maps, Places, Picassa, etc...).

Now, in Weiner's defense what he did say is factually correct. People's discretionary time is becoming more and more limited when it comes to using social networks. Additionally, from a business perspective I personally believe that people are beginning to question the value of networks that over promise and under-deliver (How many of you have actually gotten results from using LinkedIn? What about Facebook Ads?). Bottom line, in the world of professional (social) networking... if you can't deliver tangible results, people will move on. LinkedIn in my opinion, has made the mistake of failing to add value to their platform for the average user.

I personally think Google+ has Facebook in its cross-hairs... but does anyone think that LinkedIn isn't in that scope as well? How long will it take for Google+ to add a simple resume feature, making LinkedIn all but irrelevant at some point. My guess is about 10 minutes of coding time. That's how long it took us. :)

Don't get me wrong, as the owner of a professional network myself, I understand where Weiner is coming from. The success of Google+ can also be seen as an indictment of Fast Pitch. However, I can honestly say I'm not nearly as insecure about the prospects of Google+ becoming a Fast Pitch killer. For one, I'm already battle tested. We've been fighting this 'discretionary time' fight with Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace for nearly five years now. And guess what... "I'm still standing, huh!" (in my best Tony Montana voice). Come to think of it, didn't we outlast Myspace?

Part of the reason I'm confident in Fast Pitch is that we've always positioned ourselves differently than other networks. Rather than trying to be everything to everyone... We're a tool that focuses on a niche market that compliments those other networks. For example:

1. People You Know vs. People You Don't Know

By tapping into their existing user base of 300M Gmail users, the majority of the connections being made on Google+ are with people you already know (people you've already communicated with inside of Gmail). This is a clear difference from the Fast Pitch approach where the focus is all about connecting you to people you do not already know. For small business owners who are interested in generating targeted, localized leads by connecting to other small business owners in specific industries, etc... Fast Pitch is the 'community' for doing this.

2. Creating Content vs. Sharing Content

Google+ does a nice job of allowing you to quickly share content from other sources. However, Google+ doesn't necessarily give you a platform for creating original content. One of the ways Fast Pitch will continue to attract users is with our intuitive press release feature - that allows you to create your own highly professional press release (for free) which can then be shared with other audiences on platforms like Google+!

3. Spam vs. Email Marketing

Have you ever tried to send more than 500 messages per day using Gmail? You can't. I'm guessing Google+ will be no different. Fast Pitch provides an alternative option (Fast Pitch MAIL) - a tool that allows our members to do large scale email marketing. Email Marketing is critical for small businesses. Google could care less.

4. One Size Fits All vs. Niche

Have you ever tried using LinkedIn, Google+ or Facebook to search for other small business owners in your area who are interested in networking? It's not easy. Fast Pitch is a niche professional network designed by small business owners for small business owners. For most small business owners, one size doesn't fit all.

4. Professional SEO

We're very good at getting ALL of your professional content (profile, press, etc.) ranked high on Google... and we do it entirely in a business context. When people come across your press release, it links to your professional profile on Fast Pitch, which links to your blog, your other press, etc... People have no other choice than to form a more serious opinion about you. With Google+, my guess is that your public profile will be what it is... a combination of social vs. business. Which isn't always a good thing.

In short, LinkedIn's problem going forward is that they took their eye off the ball and stopped innovating around 2008. Beyond the functionality they offer for recruitment (who's hiring?), they've given the average user very little reason to spend significant time on their network. Particularly the amount of time it takes to convince major advertisers to spend the kind of dollars LinkedIn investors require for the stock price to continue to go up.

When you add it all up, Weiner has plenty of reason to be insecure. Or maybe he's just having a bad week because one of his underwriters just downgraded his stock.

Bill

1 Million Emails!

2011-07-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

Today, our new Fast Pitch MAIL tool delivered it's 1 millionth email. That's an impressive milestone considering we just went live with the feature a little over 1 month ago. Currently Fast Pitch MAIL has a few hundred Fast Pitch members actively using the tool - which allows you to Create, Send and Track your own email marketing campaigns for free as part of your Platinum Membership on Fast Pitch.

The response to the product from members has been nothing short of positive. Below are some of the testimonials we've already received:

"Fast Pitch MAIL is a very intuitive product even for new email marketers like myself."
"Fast Pitch MAIL is free with my membership? Time to cancel my account with ____Contact!"
"The support team did a great job helping me create my first campaign. Everything from importing my lists to creating my newsletter template."

Now what will be really cool is... 1 Billion Emails!

Muahahahahahah!

Bill

NEWsletters

2011-07-19T07:47:00.001-07:00

This week many of you should begin receiving at least one (if not more) micro newsletters from Fast Pitch. The new micro newsletters focus on a specific feature offered on the Fast Pitch network. Which newsletter(s) you receive is largely dependent upon what you have been doing on our network over the past few months. For example, if you've signed up to use our Fast Pitch MAIL tool, you should be receiving an e-newsletter that currently offers some basic tips for how to create an effective email marketing newsletter for your business.

Unlike the more general newsletter you have been receiving over the years, these micro newsletters are meant to be concise and informational in nature. We're tapping into our collective experience here at Fast Pitch headquarters each week and passing that knowledge on to you free of charge!

In addition to these new micro newsletters, we will continue to send out our traditional weekly newsletter which provides you with the typical headline announcing a new feature or promotion as well as localized content highlighting new members in your region, relevant press releases, events, and more.

Lastly, if you are a Platinum Member and have an interest in becoming a 'Guest Author' on any of our newsletters, email us at info@fastpitchnetworking.com. We're always interested in providing quality content in return for the exposure it can bring you!

Bill

Survey Says...

2011-07-13T08:02:00.001-07:00

Earlier this week we ran an informal survey to many of our newest members (as of May 2010) to learn more about their business as well as their initial impression of Fast Pitch. Surprisingly, over 300 of you responded... giving us a large enough sample size to report our findings. Below are some of the highlights from the survey (with more to follow).

Summary: In short, most of you are small business owners with limited marketing budgets who rely primarily on word-of-mouth marketing. As a result, you tend to have a strong interest in using Fast Pitch to make new connections (i.e. network) with other members. Additionally, it appears that we (Fast Pitch) may need to take a closer look at our overall navigation to improve your level of engagement with our network.

1. I recently created a profile on Fast Pitch because...

37% I am interested in Networking
25% I was referred by a trusted colleague
22% I am interested in using the Marketing tools
10% I am not sure why I joined

2. Since creating my profile I have logged into Fast Pitch ___ times.

31% < 3 times
29% 4-10 times
11% 11-20 times
29% 20+ times

3. Navigating Fast Pitch is...

40% Very Simple
44% A Little Confusing
15% Very Confusing

4. Which is your favorite feature?

17% Free Email Marketing Tool
23% Free Press Release Service
31% Unlimited Networking
5% Higher Ranking on Fast Pitch
10% Higher Ranking on Google
14% Other

5. What is the primary way you market your business?

37% Word of Mouth
22% Email Marketing
3% Direct Mail
11% Other Social Media (i.e. Facebook)
8% Direct Sales (call center)
19% Other

6. What is your monthly marketing budget?

65% < $500
12% $500 - $1,000
13% $1,000 - $5,000
10% $5,000+

Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to the survey request. As always, we appreciate your feedback.

Bill

Fast Pitch Turns 5!

2011-07-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

This month, Fast Pitch officially turns five years old.

Unlike years past, this particular 'birthday' is bittersweet as many small businesses (our primary clientele) have struggled to stay afloat during some challenging economic times. Although we're excited to have made it to year five (most small businesses fail within the first two years) we're conscious of the fact that many of you are trying to figure out how to make it to month five.

Much like many large businesses and governments around the world, you too are looking for ways to cut costs and 'keep the lights on'. We're aware of this... which is why we've decided to extend our $49 Annual Platinum Membership Special for another month. Although it's our birthday, we've decided to extend the gift to you!

Consider what a $49 Annual Membership means:

For less than $5 per month (there's that number '5' again)... we've estimated that you will save your business $500+ per month ($6,000 per year). For example, did you know that prior to joining Fast Pitch, most Fast Pitch Platinum members used to spend...

$50 per month on email marketing (e.g. Constant Contact)
$300 per month on SEO with a local SEO firm
$200 per month on press distribution (e.g. PR Web)
$50 per month for online networking (e.g. LinkedIn)

Now, with a Fast Pitch Platinum Membership thousands of businesses around the world are saving hundreds of dollars each month by using our one-stop-shop to do all of these things (and more) for less than $5.

Help us... Help your business... reach its next birthday!
Become a Platinum Member and start saving.

Visit: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com

Oh, and congratulations to the Fast Pitch staff... and to all of our members who have been with us since 2006! Here's to the next five years...

Bill

We're in Florida Trend! (again)

2011-07-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Florida Trend Magazine for giving Fast Pitch a nice little plug in the July 2011 issue.

Now, put us on the cover and I'll tell you everything you want to know! :)

Bill

Special 'Guest' Post: Why The HuB Works

2011-06-15T06:21:00.001-07:00

As mentioned in prior posts, Fast Pitch, Inc. has its headquarters located at The HuB - a creative incubator located in the Rosemary District of downtown Sarasota. The HuB was launched by Fast Pitch Co-Founder, Rich Swier about two years ago in an effort to bring together what he calls 'the creative class' of Sarasota.

Rich recently posted to his own blog - which I've decided to copy/paste below for your own reading pleasure. This particular post does a nice job of not only giving you some insight into the culture in which Fast Pitch operates, but also some of the philosophy I share with Rich about how to start and manage a business. Enjoy.

----------------------------------------------------------

A little over two years ago I came up with the idea of the HuB. At the time - it was more of a philosophy than an idea. I certainly did not have a plan - in fact that was the "plan" - NOT to have one. For years, as an entrepreneur and also as an angel investor it seemed like I spent 80% of my time writing a plan or reviewing a plan. And as much I would like to believe you can plan your way to success... I am almost certain that the time we spend on planning is not just overrated, but completely a waste of time.

Before I go into the basic principles of my argument, let me give you some background into the HuB. Before I started the HuB, I spent a lot of time with entrepreneurs developing their ideas, businesses and eventually watching them succeed or fail. I started to see a trend forming over the years. The trend is not scientific, but it is certainly recognizable (perhaps more in a gut feeling) when working with entrepreneurs. I use the word "momentum" a lot when describing why a venture is successful, but more important than momentum is the creativity of the entrepreneur. It was this aspect that I decided to focus on when starting the HuB - CREATIVITY.

I wanted to build a community that embraced creativity over and above any other aspect to building businesses (or for that matter building communities). In order to do this - I knew we have to embrace the creative process when developing the HuB - which meant embracing these basic principles:

1. GROW ORGANICALLY - This principal is a difficult one to explain to an entrepreneur (and especially an investor). Essentially, what we demand is that a business grow organically without the assistance of unnecessary (manufactured) capital. We realize every venture requires capital to start and grow, but we believe it can destroy a business quicker than any other factor. It is critical for anything to grow at it's own natural pace, and only leverage capital when it is based on demand (e.g. new customers, need new product designs, etc) and NOT on some manufactured plan and spreadsheet projecting growth on no real factual data. Many people call this bootstrapping or starting out of your "garage", which I tend to agree with - but its also speaks to the idea that "plans are useless".

2. BE CREATIVE - This is the core principal of the HuB. Too many entrepreneurs focus on the wrong aspects of their business, and instead of being creative on how they can get a product to market - they tend to find themselves in a holding pattern waiting on an investor or taking too long to develop the perfect version of their product. Anytime we look at a business opportunity, we ask the question - "How can we make this idea happen with the resources we have right now?". If the answer is "We can't" - then it forces us to be creative. We find new paths to make the idea happen. Sometimes we can't and we abandon the idea... but many times we do find alternate paths. Entrepreneurs who are creative will succeed. Unfortunately when we demand entrepreneurs spend countless hours developing a plan - they feel like they can't be creative once the plan is written down - and thus - this typically leads to failure. Don't plan. Be Creative.

3. EVERYONE IS AN ENTREPRENEUR - What makes the HuB different than a tech-incubator, a university or even a start up company - is that we want to create entrepreneurs. We don't want employees. This is a challenge, because most people are programmed to look for a "job" - not to create one. Every person who works at the HuB is an entrepreneur. This is not an easy thing to accept if they have had a job all their life. There is a big difference between having a paycheck and manager - to being 100% responsible for the success of your venture each and every day.

It is these three principles that have been the reason I feel the HuB has been so successful. We embrace the chaos knowing that it is part of the process. Everytime a new creative entrepreneur joins the HuB we expect things to change and we hope it adds another element of energy and excitement for everyone else.

The great thing about NOT having a plan.... is every day is unexpected. And that is the way it should be for an entrepreneur

Rich

Just Released! Fast Pitch MAIL

2011-06-09T06:51:00.000-07:00

After just two weeks of coding, our development team has done it again! We've integrated a faster, more intuitive email marketing tool into our laundry list of features available to our Platinum members.

Fast Pitch MAIL is an email marketing tool designed specifically for Fast Pitch Members (small business owners, marketers, sales executives) that allows them to easily Create, Send, and Track thousands of email newsletters and announcements each month (for free) as part of their Platinum Membership. Platinum Members can upload up to 2,000 contacts and send up to 20,000 messages per month. Additionally, there are further upgrade options available to power users in need of a larger plan. Rates range from $20 - $60 per month (less than 50% of the cost of other leading email marketing tools).

To Get Started Set Up a Free TRIAL at: http://www.fastpitchmail.com

Not already a Platinum Member? No problem. Upgrade your Fast Pitch Account for as low as $6 per month, and get instant access to Fast Pitch MAIL... AND... all of the other advanced features that come with being a Platinum Member (unlimited connections, post and distribute press, get your company listed all over Google, advanced ranking on all Fast Pitch searches, and more).

It's time to start communicating to your clients more... for less!

Bill

Press Distribution Pricing: How It Works

2011-05-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

One of the more common questions asked about Fast Pitch is how our press distribution pricing works. It's real simple:

Basic Members - Can post unlimited press releases to your profile ONLY.
Basic Membership is Free.
Platinum Members - Have all of your press releases promoted throughout the network and optimized for Google. Post unlimited releases and see who visits your press release. Add video to your press release.
Platinum Membership costs $10 per month and includes all of the other benefits including: unlimited networking, SEO boost for profile and content, free email marketing, and more.
Distributed Press - All of the advantages of Platinum Membership AND Have each press release sent to 20 media outlets, 50,000 members, and have it featured on our Facebook and Twitter Pages for a day.
Cost is $35 per press release.

Now, compare those pricing options to what you would spend posting a single press release on a press distribution website such as PR Web (click here). As you'll see, with PR Web you pay over $100 per press release and receive less benefit than what you receive for posting unlimited press releases on Fast Pitch each month.

Best of all, as a social (professional) network, Fast Pitch provides you with an actual audience of readers who are guaranteed to view your press release (isn't that the point???). PR Web is a 'wire' service whose press releases quite frankly get ignored by 99.999% of the media outlets they supposedly 'wire' your release to.

If you don't believe me, post a release on PR Web, pay the $100 and let me know how that works out for you. :)

Good Luck!

Bill

Putting On The Breaks

2011-04-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

Below is a timely re-post of a blog I wrote almost three years ago to the day. As gas prices continue to rise with no end in sight, the value of social networks like Fast Pitch! are becoming more obvious each passing day. It's now time to reconsider your approach to networking.

(from May 6, 2008)
Hybrid Networking

Gas prices in the United States recently reached $4 per gallon in most parts of the country. For many small business professionals, the rapid increase in gas prices has become a serious business concern, particularly for companies whose sales and support staff rely on face-to-face interaction with customers. Many companies are now evaluating the ROI of each type of 'trip' being made by employees to determine their cost-effectiveness. Daily commutes, individual sales calls and networking functions are all being scrutinized, and in many cases removed from budgets as the speculation of increased fuel costs continue.

For many professionals living in the suburbs the cost of driving their SUV (at least until they purchase a more fuel efficient car) has become a rude awakening as gas costs can often exceed $1,000 per month. Because of this, many people are beginning to take a closer look at more efficient ways of doing business. For many, working at home has become an obvious way to curb monthly fuel costs.

Additionally, many companies are beginning to rely more and more on web conferencing software tools to facilitate sales meetings. Look no further than a 3-month stock chart of Citrix (maker of GoTo Meeting) to see where this is headed. (Update: check out the chart since 2009). In fact, recent studies suggest that less people are attending networking events, tradeshows, expos and conferences as the cost of travel (gas) continues to rise.

From my vantage point, I think what we're now witnessing is the beginning (Update: resurgence) of what I call HYBRID NETWORKING - a blending of two forms of networking (online and offline). Much like a Hybrid Car, most of us aren't ready to completely abandon gas (offline networking) altogether, however we realize we need to become more efficient by using technology (online networking). Similarly, for many of us in business, we cannot completely ignore the importance of offline (face to face) networking, yet we also realize that as the ROI of traveling continues to decrease, the need to discover alternative ways to communicate (online networking) will increase.

Fast Pitch! is clearly in a position to benefit from Hybrid Networking as we continue to offer more features than any other online network in the world. As I mention time and time again, we've designed Fast Pitch! to allow people (particularly small business owners) the ability to network and market their business in a more open and cost-effective way.

So, the next time you hop in your car to drive 30 miles to a networking event, consider the cost of that trip. Chances are, your costs are exceeding the $40 you'll spend on your entry fee and bar tab... It will also include another $5 in gas. And for those of you who attend multiple events each week... well... do the math.

The attractive alternative of course, is to take part in more online networking - which allows you to network on your own terms, with more people, at less cost. Speaking of cost...

A monthly membership to Fast Pitch!
costs less than 2 gallons of gas.

Maybe it's time to put the breaks on all of those networking events and try a different approach?

Bill

Two and a Half Men

2011-03-25T08:36:00.000-07:00

Let me start by saying in full disclosure that I have never watched a single episode of Two and a Half Men... but that doesn't mean I'm not willing to ride the coat tails of Charlie Sheen to get Fast Pitch! some nice SEO pop from this blog title... :)

For these next few blog posts, I plan to shed some long overdue insight into what makes Fast Pitch! tick. Everything from the history of the company to our corporate make-up, our day to day operations (i.e. who does what), our office culture, our business processes (i.e. how we do what we do), and more. We may even throw in some video for a change. My hope is that many of you involved in start-ups will find motivation through our David vs. Goliath story.

For example, many of you will be surprised to hear that Fast Pitch! has been around since 2006, has hundreds of thousands of members worldwide, and is owned and operated by just two and a half men (that's about 997.5 less people than our largest competitor employs).

What you may also be surprised to know is that we've been profitable for over five years now and are 100% self-funded (that's exactly $103 Million less funding than our largest competitor). Or, that we operate out of a creative / technology incubator called The Hub which is not located in Silicon Valley but rather Sarasota, FL (that's exactly 2,917 miles from our largest competitor).

Wait a minute. Back up. Did I just say, "Fast Pitch! is owned and operated by only Two and a Half Men?"

Yes. That's not a typo. Fast Pitch! is owned and operated by just two full time people and one part-time contractor (he's the half- man). The Two Men include co-founders Bill Jula (that's me) and Rich Swier (he's the guy with the amazing hair in the picture above). Between the two of us, we're responsible for every line of code you see (or don't see), every marketing campaign, every demonstration, every financial transaction... you name it. We do it.

The half man is part-time contractor Bob Poole (pictured center) who primarily serves on the front-line for Fast Pitch!, helping thousands of members worldwide learn how to use social media to grow their business while also managing customer support issues related to the network. Bob is also proficient in all aspects of our industry leading press distribution service, email marketing tool, search optimization features, and more. In reality, Bob is anything but a 'half-man' (interpret that how you would like Bob :)

So there you have it. As the 3rd largest online business network in the world, Fast Pitch! is #Winning with just two and a half men.

Bill

Up Next: Fast Pitch! On Auto Pilot - A look at what's behind the curtain and how we do what we do with so little...

Be A Big Fish In A Smaller Pond

2011-02-17T11:17:00.000-08:00

There's a 17 year old kid in my neighborhood who stands 6'3" and weighs around 185 pounds. He's athletic and attends a very large and competitive high school in Florida (over 2,500 students). He just finished his senior season as a back-up tight-end on a powerhouse team. Needless to say, he has managed to slip under the recruiting radar... and within a few weeks his athletic career will officially come to an end. I can't help but wonder if it's over before it ever really had a chance to get started.

What if he were to have played in a smaller market where 6'3" 185 lb. players were less of a commodity? Or to put it another way... what if he could have been a big fish in a small pond? Might his opportunities to succeed have increased as a result of being in the game more, resulting in more confidence, more success... and ultimately more exposure? Instead of hanging up his cleats, would he be taking his game to the next level?

Okay, here's my point...

Your professional presence on social networks is much like being a fish in a pond. You can either choose to participate as a small fish in a big pond (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn)... where you are constantly competing against millions of other fish for attention. Or, you can participate in a smaller pond (i.e. Fast Pitch), and have a much better chance of becoming the big fish that eventually dominates the pond. Think about it.

Login and start connecting: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com

Bill

SEcOnd to none

2011-02-16T07:56:00.001-08:00

While I'm on the topic of SEO (see my prior post 'Badge of Honor'), I thought it might be as good a time as any to show-off our Search Engine Optimization skills for getting profiles ranked on Google for member names and company names. For the sake of argument, I decided to do a quick search for myself (Bill Jula) and my company name (Fast Pitch).

You'll see that for my name, other than my personal URL (www.billjula.com), my Fast Pitch! Profile ranks as the 2nd highest search result - outranking my profiles on Facebook, Tech Crunch and YouTube! Kudos to our SEO team (of 1 person) for beating the collective engineering teams of probably hundreds of Stanford grads at three of the largest Internet properties in the world! Rich - you are obviously way underpaid. :)

As for my company name (Fast Pitch)... this is where things gets even better.

Type 'fast pitch' into Google and you'll discover that the century old phrase is no longer associated with softball or baseball, but rather, 'online business networking'. In fact, we rank #1 for the phrase, having single handedly outranked the SEO efforts of every softball and baseball reference across the Internet. Keep in mind, softball is the most popular participant sport in the United States with over 40 million people playing at least one game annually (source: Wikipedia - whose entry by the way - we also outrank!).

Now if we can just find a way to get all 40 million of them to put down the gloves and create a profile.

Bill

A Badge of Honor

2011-02-16T06:11:00.000-08:00

We're honored!

Publicly traded Vocus, Inc. (VOCS - Nasdaq) with a market cap of over $500 million dollars, appears to be advertising their online press distribution company PR Web by purchasing the keywords, "Fast Pitch Networking" on Google.

The ROI on that advertisement is probably pretty good. PR Web charges people upwards of $300 to post a single press release on the Internet. By comparison, Fast Pitch! lets you post unlimited press releases and does everything (and more) PR Web does, for less than $9 per month.
Check out the yellow shaded area above. Or, do your own search.

I encourage all of you to click their ad and see what they have to offer.

Bill

Business Networking: It's About Who You Don't Know...

2011-02-11T09:11:00.000-08:00

I'm always amazed at how many people join Fast Pitch! with what I would call the 'Facebook' or 'LinkedIn' mentality - which is to connect only with people they already know. Isn't that counterproductive to what it takes to generate new business? I mean, imagine a retailer not allowing new people to enter their store. They wouldn't be in business very long would they? The same can be said for your Fast Pitch! profile. By not embracing new connections, you may as well close up shop on Fast Pitch!

Unlike other networks, Fast Pitch! is all about 'OPEN NETWORKING'. In other words, connect to as many people you do not know... as often as you want! We're here to encourage networking and to help you generate new business.

Much like the doors to a retail store, your profile gives people a doorway into your business. The more new people you get to enter those virtual doors (i.e. connect to you), the more opportunity you have to sell them. Remember, the larger your network on Fast Pitch!, the more real estate you capture on their Wall when they login... where they will be forced to view your latest press, blogs, connection updates, tweets, and more.

Login and start connecting: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com

Bill

0.0003555888%

2011-01-11T07:06:00.000-08:00

Back in August I wrote a blog about how unusual I thought it was that LinkedIn had 75 million members worldwide, but only 16,506 Fans on Facebook. In other words, less than 2 ten thousandths of a percent of their members claim to have 'Liked' the company (0.00022008%).

To put those numbers in perspective, I compared LinkedIn's Facebook Fan Base to some other popular Internet websites. For example, at the time... YouTube, Google, and Bing all had over 1.5 Million Fans. Twitter and Wikipedia both had over 400,000 Fans. Even BP (a non-tech company with a whole lot of negative press) had more Fans than LinkedIn with over 40,000. Again, LinkedIn (a social network) had only 16,506 Fans...

So after five months, surely things have improved, right?

After tons of press about enormous growth (15 million members added since August), billion dollar valuations and talk of going public... I'm excited to announce that LinkedIn has added a whopping 15,598 new Fans since August... for a total of 32,003.

Yep, that's 3 ten thousandths of a percent of LinkedIn members now 'Like' them on Facebook (0.0003555888%). Coincidentally, I did notice they added about 10,000 of those 15,598 Fans within two weeks of my previous blog. I guess if all thousand of their employees got the memo and asked 10 friends... :)

Now, to remain fair to LinkedIn, we should also re-visit our comparison chart to see how those other companies are doing.

YouTube = 23.5 million new Fans added since August (25 million)
Google = 1 million new Fans added since August (2.5 million)
Twitter = 1.2 million Fans added since August (1.6 million)
Wikipedia = 160,000 Fans added since August (560,000)

So, while LinkedIn is to be commended for doubling its fan base... it still managed to add 1,184,000 less Fans than Twitter... and 23,484,000 less Fans than YouTube.

Is it me or is something not adding up?

Bill

A Snowball Effect

2010-12-28T05:04:00.000-08:00

Let me begin by saying that although the entire Northeast corridor of the United States is on lock down due to severe blizzards in recent days... this blog has nothing to do with the weather. :)

Sitting atop my virtual perch as CEO of Fast Pitch!, I have a unique perspective of the ebb and flow of business activity (particularly small business) happening around the world.With hundreds of thousands of professionals logging into Fast Pitch! on any given day to perform a wide variety of business processes including: networking, writing press releases, creating email marketing campaigns, etc... we're a pretty good barometer for gauging the world's work ethic. Right now, our barometer is showing a disturbing trend - people are working less each passing week.

When we first launched Fast Pitch! a little over four years ago, we were burning the candle at both ends. We worked really hard, all hours of the day, everyday, regardless of whether it was a late Friday afternoon, or the weekend before a major holiday... every waking moment was viewed as an opportunity to attract a new member and capture market share. Looking back, I would say we were a bit naive in those early months as it became apparent that certain days brought diminishing returns.

For example, in 2007 it was safe to assume that the attentiveness of our market (small business professionals), declined by 75% as soon as lunchtime on a Friday rolled around. Remember, in 2007, the recession had not hit yet... credit was plentiful, etc... who could argue with people 'checking out' early on a Friday to start their weekend? As a hungry entrepreneur starving for new business I didn't like the fact that my work week was being forced to end at noon on a Friday, but I understood why it was happening.

Now fast forward to 2010... the recession is in full swing. Small business owners are getting pinched harder than perhaps any other identifiable group. Credit has dried up, people aren't spending, people aren't buying... Heck, people aren't working! The days of long weekends are officially over, right?

Think again...

Not only are people working less... there are some days when they are not showing up at all! Fridays are now the new Saturdays. Mondays... are the new Sundays. The weekend now officially begins on Thursday afternoon. I'm not making this up... Here's my evidence.

Fast Pitch! has a very sophisticated marketing process which includes everything from highly targeted (and timely) email marketing, telemarketing, internal messaging and more. After having marketed to millions of people worldwide for nearly five years now, we know within a few percentage points what our return on any given campaign will be. Everything from how many people will typically open a message, answer a phone, call us back, etc.... all of which are pretty good indicators of how attentive the business world might be at any given moment.

We've sent marketing messages on every imaginable day and time to every conceivable type of person on all four corners of the globe. In other words, we try to capture your attention both when you expect it and when you least expect it.

The results of all of this marketing activity have produced one consistent trend. The work week is now officially fifteen hours long. In other words, the 'window' to capture people's attention lasts for a total of 15 hours and they are Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday between 9AM and 2PM. Efforts to market outside of those times result in diminishing returns the more you deviate from that five hour window on those three days. Planning to send an email newsletter on Friday afternoon... and you're not in the hospitality industry? Don't waste your time.

So why, despite the worst economic downturn since The Great Depression, is the work week continuing to shrink? My theory is that we're witnessing a 'snowball effect'.

Snowball effect is a figurative term for a process that starts from an initial state of small significance and builds upon itself, becoming larger (graver, more serious), and perhaps potentially dangerous or disastrous (a vicious circle, a "spiral of decline").

In other words, the lackadaisical work ethic many people developed when times were good are still in motion - causing everyone else (whether they like it or not) to internalize those same work habits. "If I work 12 hours on a Friday and see no return, I might as well start my weekend at 5PM on Thursday like everyone else"... and so on. This has the formula for disaster written all over it, when those people who want to work more, become frustrated and they themselves essentially 'give up' and conform to those same work habits.

So... what will be the catalyst that changes this trend. Or will our collective work ethic just continue to deteriorate? Time will tell.

One thing I do know... the larger a snowball gets, the harder it is to move.

Bill

An interesting graph showing the decline of the average work week in the United States. Obviously, a 10% unemployment rate (probably closer to 15% if you count under employment) affect the numbers during our current recession. However, during 'good times' the numbers have declined as well.

Make Your Pitch in 140 Characters

2010-12-13T06:54:00.000-08:00

Fast Pitch! just added a cool new feature to our profile. It's called the TwitPitch! - and it's a great way for our members to send out a concise message about what makes their business great. Similar in concept to Twitter, the TwitPitch! sits along the top of the profile and allows members to quickly tell the world about their business in 140 characters or less. Additionally, the TwitPitch! can be easily shared across each members Facebook and Twitter accounts - allowing them to quickly tell followers and friends about their business. Each members TwitPitch! can also be changed or updated at any time.

Creating a TwitPitch! is also a great exercise in helping members formulate their 'pitch' and forces them to think creatively about how to grab people's attention. TheTwitPitch! also provides members with another way to add keywords to their profile which will ultimately get indexed and become searchable on Google. This is particularly useful for our Platinum Members who receive our industry leading search optimization service as part of their membership.

To create your TwitPitch! simply login to your profile.

Bill

Fast Pitch! Takes It's First Bite of the Apple

2010-11-18T07:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we went live with our first version of the Fast Pitch! iPhone application. For now, the application is fairly basic - allowing you to showcase your latest press releases (Platinum Members), and providing you with direct access the latest announcements coming from Fast Pitch! We've also made it easy for you to access your account via the website with the click of a button.

Version 1 gave us an opportunity to learn more about developing for the iPhone and the process of getting things approved. Moving forward, we will continue to add more functionality to the application such as the ability to access your current network, managing your inbox, and updating your profile. Much like our current Android application, we will make it simple to communicate with the people you are already connected to. Beyond that, look for some effective location based networking functionality to reach the application in 2011.

To download the application, search the App Store for 'Fast Pitch Network'

Good Luck!

Bill

Location, Location, Location

2010-11-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took some time to look over some of our newest members profiles. A few years ago when we first launched Fast Pitch! I made it a habit of doing this regularly as a way of understanding who was joining us. However finding the time to do this these days has became more and more difficult as we continue to grow at a faster pace. Also, we eventually got smart and built some nice reporting features that give me pretty good snapshot of who our newest members are at any given moment.

In any event, as I went through a few new member profiles yesterday, I was surprised to see how many people were failing to include their physical location of their place of business (i.e. address) to their profile. By default, we force everyone who joins the network to provide us with their zipcode, but we make completing their address optional. We do this in order to make the initial sign-up process as painless as possible.

That being said, all of our members should take the extra few seconds to type in their street address. Not only does it help other members inside of Fast Pitch! have an easier time searching for your business, but as people outside of Fast Pitch! come across your profile from Google, they too have an easier time locating your business (particularly if they are actually typing in your address) Think about it - your address is a set of very important keywords!

Good Luck!

Bill

Fast Pitch! Vanity URL's - Get Them While They're Hot

2010-11-05T05:52:00.000-07:00

Now you can secure your own personal URL for your Fast Pitch! profile. Every member of Fast Pitch! can choose at least one URL extension for their profile such as their name (e.g. http://www.fastpit.ch/billjula), company name, or a variation of both. Premium and Platinum Members can also choose a second URL as part of their membership - which gives them an extra opportunity improve their SEO (Search Rankings). Vanity URL's are a great way to improve SEO for your business because they include the exact wording that most people might type when searching for you or your business.

As people search either your name, company name, or variations of keywords describing your business - there is a better chance of your profile being ranked higher if those words are listed as the extension to your Vanity URL. Also, having a concise Vanity URL such as fastpit.ch, is a great link to add to your Facebook Profile, email signature, blogs and more. Login now and secure your Vanity URL before someone else does... and watch as your Google Rankings improve each week. Login Now >>

Bill

Learn The Tools

2010-11-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

After taking a brief hiatus from our live web demonstrations, we've recently scheduled four new webinars in November and December. As always, the webinars will last about 30 minutes and provide attendees with a fairly exhaustive overview of all of the tools and features that have helped hundreds of thousands of professionals worldwide grow their network and market their business.

Sit back in your office and listen as our CEO & Co-Founder, Bill Jula offers up his very own tips and tactics for how to not only use Fast Pitch! but also how to leverage other social media tools such as Foursquare, Facebook and others.

To sign-up for an upcoming event visit: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/learn_webinars.cfm

The Business Network (Official Trailer)

2010-10-12T08:23:00.001-07:00

If you haven't seen The Social Network by now... go see it. On so many levels, the story parallels our lives here at Fast Pitch! (minus the women, the drugs, the success, the money... :) There are especially strong comparisons to Facebook's early days of Mark Zuckerberg writing code in a 200 sq. foot dorm room to our first year (2006) housed in a cramped 200 sq. foot office.

Man, I wish we would have video recorded those early days. The excitement we all felt when we went live, when our first member joined, when we rolled out a new feature, or when our first member actually paid us to join! What were we selling again? :)

Yesterday I thought I'd have a little fun and create our own Fast Pitch! movie trailer titled, 'The Business Network'. Unfortunately I couldn't convince Justin Timberlake to play the role of me on short notice (he needs more time to gain about 100 pounds)... So, I decided to keep the trailer simple and use screenshots of some of the features that make Fast Pitch! unique (similar to what The Social Network does in their own trailer).

You'll notice that my trailer ends a bit different than The Social Network. Instead of in-fighting and lawsuits between the founders of Facebook, the founders of The Business Network are happy and seen working closely together (see picture of myself and Rich Swier Jr. below).

If you look close enough, you'll see a bunch of paper hanging on the wall behind us. Those papers are print outs of our first paid members' orders (our goal was to fill all four walls of that 200 sq. foot office with orders before considering a move to bigger and better digs). Pretty cool, huh?

Not much has changed since. Rich and I still work about 5 feet away from each other and have yet to issue one another a subpoena. In many ways, I like our version of the movie trailer better.

Although, the billion dollar valuation wouldn't hurt. :)

Enjoy.

Bill

Draw a Line In The Sand

2010-09-30T12:01:00.000-07:00

I remember when I first started using Facebook, I quickly came to the realization that my profile wasn't going to be used for business purposes. I came to this conclusion not because I happen to own and operate a 'competing' product (Fast Pitch!), but simply because I never felt comfortable opening up my personal life to the professional world. And quite frankly, Facebook has never really established a perfect way to separate those two worlds.

The way I communicate to close friends and family on Facebook is very different from the way I communicate and present myself to the business world. The things I share, the comments I make, they belong on different platforms. I mean, do my friends and family really care about my opinion of the latest Internet technology? Do my colleagues in France even know who the Florida Gators are and that they're playing 'Bama this weekend?

During a presentation the other day, I likened the way many of you are combining your personal life with your professional life on Facebook to a law firm allowing a playpen to exist in the lobby. Imagine walking into their 'storefront' for an important meeting about a merger and seeing kids playing Farmville everywhere. My guess is you would begin to lose confidence in the firm and walk out.

Well guess what... if you've allowed a playpen or strong religious and political views to enter your virtual storefront on Facebook, chances are you've already alienated potential clients who will never do business with you. And even worse, how many of those people have shared their opinion of you with others? Worst of all, most of you have no idea it's even happening... do you?

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying abandon Facebook as a place to do business by any means. But there's a way to go about it the right way. Here's my solution:

Create a Fan Page for yourself
Here's mine: (http://www.facebook.com/bjula)

The next time a colleague Friend Requests you on Facebook, simply forward them to your personal fan page and explain to them that you keep your personal life separate from your professional life. Does it come across a little arrogant? Sure. But from my experience, 99% of the people will understand. In fact, the light bulb will probably go off in their heads, and they'll create their own.

Once they become a fan of your page, make sure you keep the conversation professional. Offer insight into your industry. Show them your expertise. Tell them about events you are attending... Use it to promote your Fast Pitch! Profile and share your press releases, blog articles, etc.

From what I've seen, it's time for many of you to draw a line in the sand when it comes to how you're using Facebook.

Bill

It's Time To Grow Up

2010-09-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I was in Jacksonville hosting an after-hours mixer of about 60+ business professionals at a nice restaurant (The Capital Grille). The mixer was scheduled in conjunction with another project I am working on called Top 1000 Professionals. The goal of Top 1000 is pretty simple: Create professional groups inside of Facebook in cities across the U.S. to help people use their Facebook profile to meet other professionals both online and offline.

The project launched just a few months ago (April 2010) in 30 cities around the United States. Since April, the groups have already grown collectively to over 20,000 members. We've also hosted over 50 events which have been attended by over 2,000 of those members in 18 different cities including Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Seattle, San Diego, Kansas City and Orlando to name a few. The events have proven so popular that we've officially 'partnered' Top 1000 with Fast Pitch! to allow Fast Pitch! Platinum Members the ability to attend the events for free!

Although the events are usually held in nice locations (i.e. Capital Grille, Ruths Chris Steakhouse, Morton's, etc.), I promote them as being very casual. By casual I mean, a 'no-pressure' style environment where you can come and go as you please... no lengthy presentations, no gatekeeper questioning whether you you've crashed the event, etc. It's pretty straightforward. You go there to grab a drink and hopefully spend your energy focused on networking.

For the most part, everyone 'gets it', and leaves complimenting us on the refreshing change to the usual 'drop your business card in a fishbowl and win a 50/50 raffle' style event. If you've been to those type of events, you know what I mean... those events (and organizations) that seem to be stuck in a time warp.

However, despite our success, there's always a handful of people (almost always in their mid 50's) who seem to struggle with the idea that a networking event doesn't have to be structured like an elementary school classroom. Rather than focus on the opportunities directly in front of them, they spend the bulk of their time complaining about the size of the room, the type of food provided, the lack of structure, the caliber of people not being what they expected (coming from most of these people, this is laughable), etc. There's no pleasing them and quite frankly, they act like children.

So now I'm forced to draw a line in the sand.

If you're a person who fits the above description (i.e. you tend to complain) or you're looking for a 50/50 raffle... please stay away... or be prepared to be asked to leave. Our events are for mature audiences only.

Bill

0.000220008%

2010-08-09T07:46:00.001-07:00

Is it me, or does anyone else find it strange that LinkedIn claims to have 75 million members worldwide but has managed to attract only 16,506 Fans on Facebook? In other words, the percentage of their users who claim to 'Like' LinkedIn is 0.00022008%. Yep... That reads as 2 ten thousandths of a percent.

To put this number in some perspective, that's the equivalent of having 100,000 University of Florida students and alumni pack Florida Field (a.k.a. 'The Swamp') on a college football Saturday against heated rival and defending national champion University of Alabama, and seeing only 20 of those people cheer for the Gators while the other 99,980 take a nap.

Okay, maybe not an apples to apples comparison, but you get my point. Given the nature of their business and it's relevance to Facebook, it seems mathematically impossible for LinkedIn to have such a low fan base. Even Fast Pitch!, which pales in comparison to LinkedIn's supposed size, has organically grown our Facebook Fan Page to 3,000 with almost zero effort.

So what's the deal here?

When you compare LinkedIn to other Top 50 trafficked Internet sites worldwide (LinkedIn currently ranks #26), you can see why this is so perplexing. For example:

YouTube has 1.5 Million Fans
Google has 1.5 Million Fans
Twitter has 400,000 Fans
Bing has 1.5 Million Fans
Wikipedia has 400,000 Fans
Mashable has 250,000 Fans

Heck, even BP has 40,000 Fans!

For a company who claims not to be in competition with Facebook, who employs close to 1,000 people (all of whom are probably Fans, making their actual % of Fans even worse) and whose founder is also an early investor in Facebook... to have only 16,000 people cheering for LinkedIn defies all logic.

Dare I say it but, could it be that LinkedIn just isn't giving people anything to cheer about?

Bill

Slow and Steady...

2010-08-05T13:00:00.000-07:00

During a recent meeting with a colleague the topic of Alexa rankings came up. Alexa estimates the popularity of websites and over the years has become a resource for quickly gauging the success of most websites around the world.

To be honest, I had not looked at the Fast Pitch! Alexa rankings in over a year. Here's why:

Alexa's data gathering process is flawed and based on an extremely limited sampling of people who have downloaded the Alexa Toolbar (for the record, I do not know a single person who has downloaded the Alexa Toolbar. Do you?).
We measure our own traffic internally anyway, and know exactly how we're doing, where the traffic is coming from, etc.
We don't rely on advertising for business, so perceived traffic to the outside world isn't all that critical to our business. Most of our growth happens through referrals.
Alexa rankings can be easily manipulated. I won't say names, but it's happening more than advertisers realize.
DHTML style click thru's aren't recognized by Alexa. That's at least 50% of our traffic.

Nonetheless, after the conversation, I figured it was time to re-visit Alexa and see how they had us ranked these days. It had been almost a year to the day that we rolled out the latest version to our website (which now includes lots of DHTML).

As expected, most of the page view data was off which subsequently affects our overall rankings in the world (currently 14,000th in the U.S.). But as I mentioned that's not really important to us.

On a positive note, what was nice to see was the gradual upward trending of our graph - which does reflect our own internal numbers. I'm still not sold on Alexa as true measure of a website, but I am pleased to see that they are capturing the essence of our overall growth. It's a good trend. Remember, slow and steady wins the race... :)

Bill

The Women in the Arena

2010-07-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I stumbled upon KeyArena - former home to the NBA's Seattle Supersonics, and current home to the WNBA's Seattle Storm and Seattle University Redhawks . When I say 'stumbled' upon the arena, I mean it literally. The facility is the most unassuming professional arena I have ever seen. It's really hard to imagine that as recent as 14 years ago, the Sonics were hosting Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the 1996 NBA Finals... and that Kevin Durant played his first season in that arena only three years ago.

Opened in 1962, the structure sits in the middle of a residential neighborhood, lined with trees and not a parking lot in sight. The court itself sits some 35 feet below ground level, making the top of the facility appear to be only about 30 feet above ground. I'm not kidding when I say I've been to high school gymnasiums with a larger physical footprint.

Needless to say, in an era where 'bigger is better' the inevitable happened when the Sonics franchise moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 after the state of Washington refused to support public funding of the much needed expansion of the 17,000 seat arena.

Standing there in amazement at the facility, my friend and I decided to buy some tickets to the evenings WNBA game between the Storm and the Tulsa Shock. Honestly, our interest in purchasing the tickets had nothing to do with watching the game in an empty arena, but more to do with wanting to see the inside of the facility. Boy were we in for a surprise.

Although the arena was small, the atmosphere inside was electric. Our late arrival (two minutes after tip-off) was met by 8,000 local residents standing on their feet cheering on their league leading Storm. Within seconds, the unassuming facade of the arena became a distant memory as the noise level inside the arena matched any large arena I've ever been to.

More than the noise, there was also a feeling of community within that arena that I've never felt at a professional sporting event (and I've been to a lot). The teams ability to integrate the fans into the game, combined with the intimacy of the arena made for a winning combination. I can only imagine how loud that place got when the Sonics played there. It's really a shame that there's only a few of these old-time facilities still around.

Okay, now to my point...

Fast Pitch! is the KeyArena of Social Networking

Much like KeyArena, Fast Pitch! caters to a smaller, hyper-local community interested in a cost-effective, yet highly valuable and personable experience. Similar to the Storm fans, the size of our arena (network) is irrelevant as long as what's happening inside our virtual doors offers value.

Much like a large 50,000 seat arena doesn't always guarantee an exciting experience... a 500 million member social network doesn't always guarantee new business.

Check us out (http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com)

The ball's in your court...

Bill

Sleepless in Seattle

2010-07-26T08:42:00.001-07:00

I know. Not a very original blog title. But after going hard in Vancouver for the past five days, it's the best I could come up with. And, since I'm on my 5th cup of coffee (from 5 different locations, all not named Starbucks) in the past 24 hours, it's actually appropriate. In fact, at this very moment, Fast Pitch! is headquartered at a Caffe Ladro. I'm wired.

Having never been to Seattle before, I'm really looking forward to getting to know the city this week. So far, I really like what I see. I can already tell, it's on my short list of places to live someday. Admittedly, the weather has been ridiculously good, so I'm sure there's some deception at play here.

The rest of the week will involve a couple of meetings, an event I'm hosting, typical tourist stuff, and yes... lots of coffee.

I can always sleep on the plane Friday.

Bill

Fast Pitch! Now Headquartered In Canada

2010-07-22T08:42:00.001-07:00

Just kidding...

For the rest of this week, I'm vacationing (and working) in Vancouver, Canada en route to Seattle, WA. This is my first time to either city and I'm really looking forward to the next 10 days. I've been joking with everyone back in Florida that I may not come back. After my first 24 hours here (in Vancouver), that's closer to being true. I've already got my eye on a condo in the Coal Harbour area (see Update below). Just don't tell my wife that to make it happen we'll be living in 200 sq ft. :)

What a cool city (literally). The weather here right now is nothing short of amazing. Coming from the constant steam bath that is Florida, I'm blown away by seeing white caps on the surrounding mountains (although I'm sure I'd also be blown away in February when it's 20 degrees).

Right now I'm working across the street from our hotel at a Blenz Coffee. I swear the average age of the people walking by is 30. Or maybe they're all 50 and I'm just used to being around senior citizens in Florida. In any case, it's definitely a nice change of pace.

That's all for now. I only have a short window of opportunity to get some work done, and then it's off to more sightseeing. More to come...

Best,

Bill

Update: Yaletown is giving Coal Harbour a run for it's money. I guess whichever area has the best deal on a massively reduced short-sale wins. :)

Happy 4th Fast Pitch!

2010-07-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

This year, the 4th of July week meant something different for Fast Pitch! It was also our 4th birthday!

For the first time in four years, a few of us took the opportunity to celebrate the accomplishment by taking a long overdue vacation to the U.S. Virgin Islands (St. John) for, well... 4 days! Needless to say, it was a great time. We stayed at the new Grande Bay Resort near the port of St. John and literally spent 96 hours doing nothing but boating, eating, drinking and sleeping (in that order). If you've never been to that part of the world, I highly recommend it. The beaches and hospitality are unlike any place I have ever seen. Google it. As amazing as the pictures are, they don't even do it justice.

Back to reality.

As I sit here playing 'catch-up' on countless emails and overdue marketing campaigns, it amazes me how much we missed while being away from 'civilization' and social media for less than one week. Look no further than our own network to see how much happens when you're not looking. During those 96 hours here's what we missed:

Over 600 new members joined Fast Pitch!
Over 1000 new connections were made on Fast Pitch!
Over 300 press releases were created on Fast Pitch!
Over 50 members became Fans of Fast Pitch! on Facebook
Nearly 1000 members logged into their profile
Over 100 events were posted to Fast Pitch!
Nearly 200 people synced their Fast Pitch! Profile to Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare
Over 500 people received the Fast Pitch! 50-page Pocket Guide in the mail

Not a bad week... and for that matter, an even better year!

As a self-funded Internet company facing BIG competition, the fact that we continue to grow, is a testament to our product, staff and loyal members. Also, considering that over 56% of business fail within their first four years of operation (some say 95%) we're really excited to be heading into our fifth year.

I guess we're officially 'over the hump'? I can't wait for next years 5-day trip.

:)

Bill

Video 6 of 9: Using Fast Pitch! for Email Marketing

2010-07-05T08:50:00.001-07:00

Joey P. discussed how Fast Pitch! members use our 3 Step Contact email marketing tool to create, send and track thousands of emails each month. Learn how by becoming a member of Fast Pitch! you'll save hundreds (event thousands) of dollars per year by using 3 Step in place of those 'other' pricey alternatives.

Video 5 of 9: Using Fast Pitch! To Improve Your Search Rankings

2010-06-29T16:07:00.000-07:00

Let our tour guide Joey P. explain how Fast Pitch! can help you grow your footprint across the world's largest search engine. Instantly get your company and your professional identity top ranking on Google by becoming a member. Also, learn how our industry leading PR distribution service can get you instant syndication on Google News.

Video 4 of 9: Marketing Your Business on Fast Pitch!

2010-06-28T07:17:00.001-07:00

On Fast Pitch!, social networking isn't just about networking... it's about marketing your business. Let Joey P. walk you through some of the more popular marketing tools available to you such as email marketing, search engine optimization, press distribution, blog promotion and more.

Video 3 of 9: Networking on Fast Pitch!

2010-06-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

Let Joey P. teach you how to effectively network on Fast Pitch! Unlike other social networks that place an emphasis on "degrees of separation" (i.e. warm referral) in order to make a new connection, Fast Pitch! is about allowing you to introduce yourself to people you don't already know without forcing you to get permission. For those of us trying to attract new business, isn't that the point?

Fast Pitch making Connections from Rich Swier on Vimeo.

Video 2 of 9: Completing Your Profile

2010-06-24T04:39:00.000-07:00

In this video, your tour guide Joey P. explains why it is important to complete your Fast Pitch! Profile.

Just don't leave it blank!

Video 1 of 9: Fast Pitch! Overview

2010-06-17T06:31:00.000-07:00

As you know, last week we announced our first series of short video tutorials - designed to provide you with a quick overview of some important Fast Pitch! features and concepts. Throughout the week, we've been posting each of the videos to our Facebook Fan Page, which is followed by over 3,000 professionals worldwide. We've also obviously embedded the videos throughout Fast Pitch!

Now, to ensure no stone is left un-turned, we are going to post each of these 9 videos to our blog for the next 9 days. This will be especially useful for all of our prospective members who want to have a better understanding of Fast Pitch! prior to creating a profile. So here goes...

Video 1 of 9: Fast Pitch! Overview

Enjoy!

Bill

Introducing Joey

2010-06-03T10:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we uploaded nine (9) short videos throughout the Fast Pitch! website, all designed to help you understand what makes us different than any other online business network in the world. In short, each 60 second video is straight-forward and personable. We accomplished this by keeping the theme simple: a white background and a local actor (Joey Panek) serving as your 'tour guide'.

Each video can be found in the right-hand corner of each major section of the website and provides you with a brief overview of each feature. These videos are particularly useful for anyone who is brand new to the network and perhaps doesn't completely understand what makes Fast Pitch! different.

The videos also allow us to free up some much needed space on each page by allowing us to remove some un-sightly (and wordy) instructions. The videos are definitely more engaging and personable... and by all accounts so far, proving to be more effective.

We produced the videos just last week here at our headquarters located at The Hub - a technology incubator which houses some of the most talented and creative minds in the region (which obviously includes Joey). All totaled, the videos took less than 3 hours to produce, due in large part to Joey's tremendous talent. Within minutes of learning that we needed him to do some filming, the guy literally transformed himself from a Ninja* to a Fast Pitch! Tour Guide in a matter of seconds. The transformation was impressive to watch to say the least.

The first series of videos we produced include:

Fast Pitch! Overview (FP vs. Facebook vs. LinkedIn)
Completing Your Profile
Making Connections
Marketing Feature Overview
Posting & Distributing Press
Email Marketing on Fast Pitch!
Getting Ranked on Google
Learning Social Media
Advantages to Upgrading

So take a moment and familiarize yourself with the videos and Joey. Something tells me you'll be seeing more and more of him in the coming months.

Bill

*Over the past few months, Joey (and other employees here at The Hub) have been doing "Ninja Training" with a local personal trainer. I'm not completely familiar with their workouts and don't think Joey will become an actual Ninja per se... but, I could be wrong.

3,000 Hits, Fans, Likes (whatever they are calling them these days)

2010-05-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

We just reached 3,000 Fans on Facebook. Pretty cool.

In the spirit of 'fast pitching', did you know that only 27 players in the history of Major League baseball have reached the 3,000 hit milestone?

Unlike in baseball however, our Fans have the ability to participate in the 'game' by posting their information on our billboard (Fan Page wall) anytime they want. In fact, we'll even make the announcement for our Premium and Platinum Members to guarantee they capture the attention of every member.

So now the questions is... how long before we reach 4,000? Better yet, when will we pass Pete Rose's all-time hit record of 4,256?

Become a Fan: http://www.facebook.com/fastpitchnetworking
Become an Upgraded Member: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com

Bill

Question of the Week

2010-04-30T17:20:00.000-07:00

Each week our support team fields hundreds of questions from members asking how to use our network. Questions typically range from the very basic (i.e. how to change a password) to something more complex such as how to import a custom HTML template into our 3Step Contact email marketing tool. Regardless of the nature of the question, our guys (and girls) always take the time to reply with a customized answer for each member.

To take some of the burden off our staff and offer a more proactive way to educate our members, we will begin featuring a "Question of the Week" on each members homepage. The featured question (and answer) will be determined by our support team and posted each Friday. Our hope is that by placing some of these more common questions front and center (as opposed to having them buried within an FAQ section or our Fast Pitch! Manual), we will make it even easier for our members to learn and benefit from our services.

We're also in the process of creating a series of 30-second videos designed to answer many of these same questions. Each of these videos will be embedded throughout Fast Pitch! to make learning even more convenient. The videos will feature Fast Pitch! employees and undoubtedly make learning Fast Pitch! even more enjoyable.

Bill

Pay To Play

2010-04-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

Any of you who have been reading my blog over the past few years will know, it's been rare that I ever link to other content. I usually try to do my best to come up with my own words, advice, updates, etc... Even though I'm probably not the most articulate person to be writing a blog - at least I try.

In doing so, I've developed a pet peeve of sorts. I find myself getting annoyed by people who almost exclusively re-post other people's content and rarely ever come up with an original thought. Lately, it seems like re-posts have become 30% of my Facebook feed (the other 60% is equally divided among Farmville updates and housewives letting me know little Johnny has a fever - no offense, I know they're not meant for me :)

Well, I'm about to become one of those 30% (at least for 1 post).

In light of today's announcement by Ning to end their free social networking service in favor of a Fast Pitch-esque 'pay to play' business model (it only took $120 million in VC money and 220 employees for Ning to figure out what we've known for 4 years :)... I've decided to re-post someone else's relevant content in order to get my own point across.

The content I'm 'stealing' is a presentation from a year ago by Ruby on Rails creator David Heinmeir Hansson. In my opinion, the 30 minute presentation is a must watch for anyone trying to build a realistic and profitable business. In particular, for those of us involved in the Internet / Social Media industry, David does an amazing job of telling it like it is... and quite frankly, describes Fast Pitch! almost to a 'T'.

In short, 'pay-to-play' on the Internet is here to stay - which is a good thing (see my 'original' post on this topic here >>) First Fast Pitch... now Ning... Up Next: Facebook. Get ready...

Bill

Drop It Like It's Hot

2010-03-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

Last week Fast Pitch! was mentioned on both CNN and Bloomberg TV during interviews with Sarasota, FL mayor Dick Clapp. The mayor, who recently swam with sharks in order to get Google's attention to bring their 1 Gigabit fiber network to the city, also referred to Fast Pitch! as one of the reasons why Google should consider Sarasota, FL for its high-speed network.

Many thanks to mayor Clapp for recognizing Fast Pitch! as an asset to the city and dropping our name!

In addition to mayor Clapp's interviews, Fast Pitch!'s own Rich Swier (co-founder) did a media tour of his own with interviews on CNBC, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal and about 100 other media outlets around the world. Although he will never admit it, Rich brought more attention to Sarasota, FL (and indirect attention to Fast Pitch!) in three weeks than has been done in years.

It's not even summertime yet, and Sarasota, FL is hot!

Bill

Ride Our Coattails

2010-03-11T10:59:00.000-08:00

Despite very little promotion on our part, Fast Pitch! has already amassed almost 2,500 Facebook Fans and over 6,000 Twitter Followers in less than 9 months. Although this is less than 1% of our total membership base, the fact that we’ve reached these numbers in a short amount of time (with literally no marketing), is intriguing. So much so, that I’m now committed to dedicating additional resources to our Facebook campaign, in the hopes that we will reach 5,000 Facebook Fans by June (I’m less concerned about Twitter – for our purposes, I'm still not a big fan :).

So what does this mean for you? More Visibility. Let me explain.

Unlike most company Fan pages that lock down communication among their Fans, ours is an open forum designed to help our Fans promote their business. We allow you to post information about your business, make comments to others, share videos, photos and more. In other words, rather than us using our Fan Page as a propaganda machine for our own benefit, we view the Fan Page as another place where our members can do business.

Here’s where it gets better… Fast Pitch! not only lets you promote your business, but we will do it for you! Here’s how it works:

Each time we (Fast Pitch!) post something to the Fast Pitch! Fan Page Wall on Facebook, the post is automatically added to the feed of all of our Fans (when you post yourself, it is only added to the Wall, not the feed). By having us do it for you, your content automatically shows up on the homepage of each Fan’s feed when they login. As of now, that’s 2,500 people potentially viewing your profile, reading your press and more. Also, we’ve integrated our Facebook feed to our Twitter account – which sends these updates to our 6,000 Twitter Followers too. This gives you another added ‘boost’ in visibility.

So what type of content will we post on your behalf?

Your Profile. When you become a Platinum Member of Fast Pitch! we automatically post a link to your profile and introduce you to our Facebook Fans. I liken this to being introduced on stage at a very large conference.

Your Press Releases. When you choose our $55 Total Press Package, we will now post a link to the press release on our Facebook Fan Page. This is in addition to the direct distribution to all of our members Fast Pitch! Inboxes, the 20 media outlets you can send to, submission to Google News, Inclusion of photo and video, and more… Don’t expect to find this on PR Web :)

Your Blog Articles. Similar to our press package, with this $45 blog package we will post a link to your blog article on our Facebook Fan Page. Again, this is in addition to all of the other distribution benefits already offered with our Blog Distribution Package.

Your Facebook Fan Page. For $45 we will promote your Facebook Fan Page to our Fans. What makes this a great option is that 100% of the people learning about your Fan Page are obviously already on Facebook – making it real easy for them to become a Fan of yours! In addition to highlighting your Fan Page on our Fan Page, we also distribute a link to your Fan Page directly to Fast Pitch! members.

Your Twitter Page. For $25 we will promote your Twitter Page to our Fans. Again, this is in addition to distributing your Twitter Page internally to our Fast Pitch! members on Fast Pitch!

Join our Fan Page today
Upgrade your content

. . . and come along for the ride!

Bill

Our Own Minor League Ballpark

2010-03-09T09:44:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of Spring Training having just started here along Florida’s Gulf Coast – with small, minor league ballparks buzzing with enthusiasm… I’m excited to announce that Fast Pitch! has opened the doors to its own minor league ballpark (i.e. a new satellite office) in Bradenton, FL!

The new Fast Pitch! office is designed to accommodate a few of our employees who live in north Manatee County (just south of St. Petersburg and Tampa). For these employees, the new office collectively shaves off about 3 hours worth of drive time each day. Our hope is that in addition to making life less hectic for these employees, we can turn these 3 hours into more productivity for Fast Pitch! as well. Do the math… that’s potentially 700 more hours of brainstorming, creativity, customer support, and marketing per year! Not a bad investment.

The new office is different than our larger Sarasota, FL based office located at The Hub. Whereas The Hub is more of a technology ‘commune’ – a warehouse inhabited by 5-10 different companies, sound studios, green screens and more… the new office has more of a corporate feel to it – yet very unique in it’s own right. Located along Old Main Street in downtown Bradenton in Jennings Arcade – the new office is housed in a refurbished retail space couched between a coffee shop and an Italian restaurant (two of my favorite things).

Old Main Street has a poor man’s Ybor City feel to it (for those of you not from Tampa Bay… Ybor City is a lot like Bourbon Street). We’re also sandwiched between a Cigar Bar, an Irish Bar, and a large Pub that is a favorite among the locals. Directly across from us is another coffee shop, a fish market and two cafes. Needless to say, we’ll always be alert (caffeine) and will never go hungry. There’s also something about watching the foot traffic happening outside of our windows that brings a degree of energy into the office.

Although the primary intent of the new space is to house Fast Pitch!, like the Hub, the new space will also be used to grow additional projects (mostly tech-related). In fact, the space is already being used by 2 other aspiring social media companies, and an amateur basketball league. Based on the demand for this type of synergy among entrepreneurs in the region (I’ve already had discussions with other local entrepreneurs about collaborating within the space), my guess is we’ll be leasing a larger office upstairs in the coming months.

To watch the development of our new Minor League office you can watch a live play-by-play on our new office cam (Click Here - then look to the right-hand side of our blog layout)

Bill

Facebook Fans From Fast Pitch!

2010-03-08T07:23:00.001-08:00

Say that (Blog Title) 3x...

Facebook Fan Pages are one way in which Facebook can help your business (and brand) have a business related 'conversation' within their social network. For large established brands with huge marketing budgets, Fan Pages can have a real impact on their ability to mobilize people to take action (i.e. purchase, refer, etc...).

However, the current frenzy surrounding Facebook Fan Pages among small businesses reminds me of the early days of blogging... in which everyone spent countless hours creating an account and updating... but failed to pay attention to the most important step along the way - marketing. Just like a blog needs readers... for your Fan Page to have an impact, it needs, well... Fans.

With nearly 400 million members, the opportunity for word of mouth to spread across the platform is obviously intriguing. However, because Facebook is such a 'social' environment, getting people to mobilize around your small business can be difficult unless the Fan base already has a business mindset. Just try getting your old college drinking buddies excited about talking about your insurance business and you will see what I mean.

To help our members attract more professionals to their Fan Page(s) and less 'friends', we've created a new Facebook Inbox Promotion. The service is designed to create awareness among Fast Pitch! members about your Fan Page. To make this happen, we send out a link to your Fan Page to targeted members on your behalf inviting them to view your page. Once they click your Fan Page link, it's up to you to convince them to become a Fan. We can lead a horse to water...

The advantage to having more Fans is obvious... it gives you the ability to communicate your message to more people - which hopefully gets them to take some action with you (i.e. purchase, refer, etc...).

If you're looking to leverage Fast Pitch! to boost your Fan Page, consider the new Facebook Inbox Promo. For a 1x cost of $45, it's a lot less expensive (and more targeted) than running ads on Facebook. To learn more visit: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/upgrade_facebook.cfm

Bill

Some Ink in Inc.

2010-02-06T16:43:00.001-08:00

Fast Pitch! got mentioned in the latest issue of Inc. Magazine. It's an article titled, "How To Use Social Networking Sites To Drive Business". Click Here to Read >>

Bill

Open All Night

2010-02-04T07:04:00.001-08:00

This month, Fast Pitch! is allowing all of our members (regardless of their membership level) the ability to make UNLIMITED CONNECTIONS for FREE! No membership is required. To my knowledge, during this month we'll be the only online business network in the world that will allow members to make connections for free.

Our hope is that by opening up our system, we're able to help our members grow their network faster, ultimately resulting in more new business happening around the world. Think of this as our version of a stimulus package :)

Normally, in order to begin making connections to people you do not already know, we require you to be a Premium or Platinum Member. Premium Members can make 10 new connections each month while Platinum Members have free reign to make an unlimited number of connection attempts. In additon to being able to make connections, our upgraded members are provided with a number of additional marketing features including: 1) highest ranking on all searches 2) top ranking on Google 3) the ability to post press and get featured on Google News 4) see who visits your profile 5) ability to create, send and track email newsletters, and more... In other words, there's still reason to upgrade!

Take advantage of this unique opportunity and start searching for other members to do business with. To begin, we suggest the following:

1). Search for your 'MATCHES'. These are people Fast Pitch! has identified as likely to do business with you based on what you (and they) buy and sell. Note: In order for this feature to work, you must complete your profile in its entirety.

2). Search LOCALLY. Most people do business with people in their own backyard. Visit our Search Local page - where we've taken the work out of searching and automatically bring these people to you.

3). Search by INDUSTRY. Look for people who do business in the industries you typically sell into.

4). Search for people with COMMON ASSOCIATIONS. Most people don't realize that Fast Pitch! has built the largest directory of associations in the world (i.e. chambers, non-profits, leads groups, etc.) into our system. Quickly locate other people who are part of the same organizations as you!

Start Connecting!

Bill

That Didn't Take Long...

2010-01-25T13:02:00.001-08:00

A few minutes ago we eclipsed the 2,000 Fan milestone on Facebook. A special thank you to all of our Fans! In the coming weeks and months, we'll be using the Facebook Fan Page to communicate special offers, new features and as always... introduce some of our newest Platinum Members.

In the meantime, feel free to use our Fan Page to promote your business, share ideas and provide us with feedback.

Bill

Network + Market + Learn

2010-01-25T08:43:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I wrote about a new project I'm involved with called SOCIAL WEBinars. SOCIAL WEBinars is a group of social media experts (spearheaded by yours truly) whose aim is to provide low-cost, no-nonsense web-based training for professionals interested in learning how to leverage social media for their business. The webinars are priced competiviely at $20 - $40 per person with topics ranging from 'How to Email Market Effectively', to 'Using Social Media to Improve Your SEO', to 'Using Facebook for Business'. The combined nine topics have already attracted nearly 2,500 people to it's first 30 events since August 2009. Not bad...

Today I'm pleased to announce that we're making these webinars even more accessible by offering them for FREE as part of our Platinum Membership within Fast Pitch! What this means is that all of our current and future Platinum Members have the ability to sign-up for every webinar offered by SOCIAL WEBinars for the life of the membership.

Do the math...

Sign up for each webinar as a non-Fast Pitch! member = $400. 00
Become a Platinum Member and access every webinar = $16.00*

Keep in mind, SOCIAL WEBinars will also continue to add value to the Platinum Membership by adding new, trending topics each month. This ensures our members continue to reap the benefits of the membership and stay current with the latest technology happening in social media. The more educated you are... the more advanced, cool stuff Fast Pitch! can offer.

Platinum Members interested in accessing their free account with SOCIAL WEBinars should visit: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/learn_webinars.cfm

I'm excited about bringing this free learning opportunity to Fast Pitch! members. As you know, we position ourselves as a 'one-stop-shop'.

Networking + Marketing + Learning = Fast Pitch!

Good Luck!

Bill

*This also includes all other Platinum Membership features such as: unlimited connections, unlimited use of 3Step Contact email marketing, Post Press, Get Ranked on Google, See Who Visits Your Profile, and more...

Can Your Business Come Out And Play?

2010-01-13T07:07:00.001-08:00

Today we officially went live with our initial version of location-based networking for businesses using the popular Foursquare API. To my knowledge, Fast Pitch! is the first online business network in the world to integrate a geo-location feature into its platform - allowing professionals the ability to showcase their whereabouts to others within their professional network. Being able to update and display location statuses on the Fast Pitch! profile creates more opportunity for our members to get out from behind their computers and meet-up offline...

As most of you know, I've discussed the idea of location-based networking within a business context as a great way to extend your online network into the 'real' world. However until very recently, the idea of displaying ones location has been limited to early adopters. Many of us still think that the idea of showing our location to the world to be a little 'too' transparent.

However, in recent weeks the geo-location space has really begun to heat up as millions of people have started using GPS technology on their smart phones to reveal to their friends where they are at any moment in time. It's become so popular that Foursquare recently reported that they are now receiving at least one location status update every second. In other words, location has offically become the next extension to Facebook status updates and micro-blogging on Twitter. It truly localizes everything you do.

For now, the Fast Pitch! entrance into this space is fairly simple. For those of you who are already using Foursquare as your location based network, we'll allow you to sync your account to Fast Pitch! - which will reveal your recent 'check-ins' on your profile viewable by members of your professional network. For those of you who are not already Foursquare users, you'll need to create a Foursquare account and download the application to your smart phone (iPhone, Android, Blackberry). All of this takes less than 5 minutes if you know what you're doing.

For many of you, location based networking using your mobile phone will allow you to encourage members of your network to want to meet with you offline when they are nearby. Additionally, by checking into the venues you attend and having them post to your Fast Pitch! profile you'll essentially be making a recommendation about that venue. This is a simple, yet extremely powerful way to create awareness about places you visit and events you attend. In fact, if you're business is a venue, it's imperative that you add your location to Foursquare... now!

For those of you who do not already have a Foursquare account (which is probably most at this point), Setting up an account is simple. After syncing the two accounts, all of your future 'check-ins' will be automatically submitted from Foursquare to your Fast Pitch! profile. In other words, "Set it and forget it!"

For those of you not quite ready to dive into this new technology... it's understandable. But, keep an eye on what we're doing... and be careful not get too far behind the curve. We will undoubedtly continue to add new functionality around this exciting feature in the coming months as more Fast Pitch! members continue to sync up their accounts. As more and more of our members begin using this feature, our ability to create some powerful mash-ups using Fast Pitch! data will bring an entirely new dimension to your networking experience.

Lastly, don't let the 'gaming' element of Foursquare fool you. Foursquare is a serious player in the world of social media with huge upside for business. Combined with data provided by Fast Pitch! the technology has unlimited potential to help many of you get connected in a more proactive manner. Imagine your phone alerting you to a potential business opportunity sitting right next to you at the movie theater... and you reviewing their profile and educating yourself about that person and their business... prior to engaging in conversation. Pretty powerful stuff. We're not that far off.

So, it's no longer a question of whether the world is ready for location based networking, but rather... Are you ready to play?

Bill

I Feel Like Rocky

2010-01-11T10:58:00.000-08:00

Since April 2009, we've run Fast Pitch! out of The Hub - a technology and creative incubator located in the Rosemary District in downtown Sarasota, FL. Since opening its doors, The Hub has been the home to about 10 different companies and projects all of which have brought new energy and creativity to the area. The building that houses The Hub is a 5,000 square foot warehouse that now has moveable walls, a cyc wall (green screen video studio), a sound studio, and a number of work stations. On any given day there's about 15 people in The Hub brainstorming ideas, sharing resources and well... making things happen. That is until today.

Despite the heater running for 6 hours, the temperature inside The Hub hasn't cracked 52 degrees - making it feel like a meat locker. You see, The Hub has no insulation. With concrete floors and brick walls, there's little chance for the heat to gain any momentum. Seven hours after arriving this morning, most of us have decided to call it quits and seek out a warmer environment. Keep in mind, The Hub doesn't have this problem 360 days out of the year. Florida rarely gets this cold.

I'll be honest, I'm trying to tough it out. Wrapped in three layers of clothes, with frozen hands and frost coming off my mouth, it's become a personal challenge to see whether I can withstand these conditions. I mean really? Have I become so "soft" over the years that I can't sit in front of a computer for a few hours and type? Sure my hands are frozen, my nose dripping and teeth chattering... but things could be worse. As CEO of the largest company housed here in The Hub, what kind of example am I setting if I get up and leave?

As I take pause to think about the point I'm trying to make with this blog post (I'm not exactly sure yet), I realize that The Hub is empty. I'm the last man standing. The cold conditions have completely thwarted all energy and creativity this place once had. Everyone has left for warmer pastures - namely a local coffee shop down the road with warm coffee and free Wi-Fi.

Fast Forward 15 minutes...

I caved. I'm no Rocky. Sitting here in a warm coffee shop with everyone else is what I should have been doing since 8:00 AM this morning. Which brings me to my point (it just hit me).

Sometimes in business it makes more sense to adapt to the conditions around you rather than trying to fight them. For those of you refusing to embrace social media as a way to market your business... you'll soon find yourself alone in a world full of connected people doing business in warm coffee shops. :)

And come to think of it, didn't Rocky lose that first fight anyway?

Bill

Is Your Business Weatherproof?

2009-12-19T11:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, my family and I packed up our things and set out on our own version of a "Griswold Style" Christmas Vacation. Over the next two weeks we will be driving across 15 states beginning with Florida, in an attempt to visit most of our relatives on both sides of the family and do a little business along the way. Stops will include Washington D.C., New York City, Pittsburgh, PA, Lexington, KY, and Jackson, MS (in that order).

Little did we know when we scheduled our hotels, tours, etc... that we would be greeted on Day 1 with the largest blizzard to hit the northeast (particularly Washington D.C.) in nearly a century! As we approached the North Carolina / Virginia border this morning en route to DC, we made the decision to check into a hotel near Roanoke Rapids, NC around 3:30 AM and ride the storm out for the next 36 hours. The decision was obviously a wise one, as I sit here and type from the comfort of a nice, warm hotel room while I-95 from Richmond to D.C. has officially become a closed "parking lot".

If you've ever lived in a cold climate, you'll know just how debilitating the winter months can be. Whether you're commuting to work, making sales calls, taking the kids to school or shopping for groceries... everything moves at a snails pace and in some cases comes to a grinding halt. In particular, for those businesses that still rely on traditional forms of marketing to generate sales, poor weather conditions like today can be disastrous. Just ask any retail business relying on foot traffic.

However, for those of you who have embraced social media, the impact of poor weather has less of a negative effect. In fact, for some of us, poor weather can have a positive effect- as it forces more and more people to embrace social networks as their primary way to network and generate new leads. Is it any coincidence that some of our (Fast Pitch!) best months for new membership have typically come during the winter?

So, as we continue to watch the highways throughout the Northeast remain closed for the next few days... just remember, the highways of communication inside the Fast Pitch! community are alway open with thousands of professionals ready to do business. Login and start making your business weatherproof!

Best,

Bill

I Never Know What You're Doing...

2009-12-11T10:39:00.000-08:00

There's a five-minute exchange in the 2005 movie Wedding Crashers where John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) visits the legendary Chazz Reinhold (Will Ferrell) to talk about the 'business' of crashing weddings. John is desperately in need of some advice after his best friend and fellow crasher, Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) decides to leave the lifestyle behind and get married. The scene is best known for the seemingly immature Chazz yelling to his live-in mom, "Ma... the Meatloaf... ####! ". By the second attempt, Chazz is bewidlered and says to John, "What is she doooooing?... I never know what she's doooooing... back there."

Needless to say, John is having a difficult time understanding how Chazz can possibly be the legendary mentor described by Jeremy. Given the surroundings (Chazz is 40-ish, lives with his mom, watches cartoons, rides a skateboard, etc.), John is obviously unimpressed and eager to leave. But then a funny thing happens (literally), as an attractive girl makes her way into the scene and the brilliance of Chazz is realized (see clip).

He met her at a funeral!

In a split second, Chazz goes from being a loser to becoming an "innovator". You see, much like in business, success in Chazz's world involves a simple formula: Low Overhead + Out of the Box Thinking = Positive Results. For many of you trying to market your small business during tough economic times, the need to be creative and resourceful is greater than ever.

So the question is...

"What are you doing?"

With the New Year fastly approaching... Maybe now is as good a time as ever to start thinking like Chazz?

Happy Holidays!

Bill

Making Sense of the Social Web for Business

2009-11-23T13:03:00.000-08:00

I am excited to announce my involvement in a new project called, 'Social Webinars' - which is comprised of a group of social media experts who have come together to offer a series of web demonstrations designed to provide insight into using social media to promote a business. Throughout the month of December I will be facilitating a variety of webinars across a number of subjects including:

How To Email Market Effectively
How To Use Social Networks to Market a Business
How To Use Live Streaming Video To Promote a Business
How To Leverage Facebook to Market a Business
How Social Media Can Help Your SEO
How to Facilitate Your Own Webinar
And More...

What I really like about the webinars is their lack of 'fluff' and how much practical information is offered within a short amount of time (typically less than 45 minutes). Also, the cost to attend each webinar is competitively priced at only $20 per event. To put this pricing in perspective, I've seen webinars of this caliber (or less) offered for as much as $300+ per event.

The team at Social Webinars plans to offer at least 15 webinars each month - with the first series of webinars beginning next month (December 3rd to be exact). Additionally, Social Webinars has created a certification process that will certify anyone who successfully attends a minium of 5 events. Certified experts are provided with a customized certification badge and a listing in the 'expert' directory on the website.

For more information about signing up for an upcoming webinar visit: http://www.socialwebinars.com

Bill

New 'How To' Webinars

2009-11-10T09:00:00.001-08:00

With the launch of a new website, we've been working tirelessly behind the scenes to enhance all of our support and training videos and documentation. In fact, just last week we began promoting a new series of 'How To Use Fast Pitch!' Webinars. These webinars are designed to teach you everything you need to know about using Fast Pitch! to make connections and promote your business. The webinars are offered at various times and pack a ton of information into a 45 minute online presentation.

To learn more about the upcoming webinars visit:

http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/learn_webinars.cfm

For those of you who may have attended a 'How To' Webinar in the past, you'll want to re-visit these events. The navigation, and dissemination of content across the network has changed significantly and will be explained in great detail.

In the coming weeks you will also begin to see a series of new 'How To' training videos and presentations from our staff added to the network... in addition to an updated Fast Pitch! User Manual and Pocket Guide.

Best of all...

All of this is FREE!

Bill

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

2009-10-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-10-19T07:52:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-10-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-09-23T08:02:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-09-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-09T13:55:00.001-07:00

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

Putting Twitter Into Context

2009-06-08T00:35:00.000-07:00

Twitter, the micro-blogging platform that allows you to update your status and tell people what you are doing at a moment in time, is all the rave these days. Millions of people are setting up 'profiles' and blurting out announcements to anyone who will listen. In fact, the Twitter platform has witnessed the largest growth in traffic of any Internet property in recent months due to the simplicity of the concept... and mainstream media coverage.

As with most social media tools, Twitter in its current form seems to offer large companies the best opportunity for marketing by allowing them to leverage their existing customers (fans, viewers, etc.) to drive word of mouth. In some cases, these larger companies are also using Twitter as customer support to diffuse negative situations as they arise.

On a micro level, Twitter may offer a similar opportunity for smaller businesses who are looking for an inexpensive way to market virally as well. The difference however, is that most smaller businesses lack the marketing budget to attract a qualified following. In fact...

The average Twitter account has less than 10 Followers.

Fast Pitch! hopes to change all that. Much like with our Blog Promotion feature, we recently launched a Twitter Directory promoting our members business related Tweets. In fact, in just a few short days, over 1,000 Fast Pitch! members have already linked their Twitter accounts to their Fast Pitch! Profiles, quite possibly making the Fast Pitch! Twitter Directory...

one of the largest 'Twitter for Business' applications on the Internet!

What makes our Twitter integration feature so powerful is that it puts your Twitter account into context by helping to drive a business audience to Follow your updates. These are people with real spending power who can act on your messages. Additionally, our Twitter Directory essentially filters much of the 'noise' happening on Twitter.com by allowing you to search for Tweets in a business context.

Linking your Twitter account is dead simple. Enter your Twitter login credentials into Fast Pitch! and hit 'Save'. Once completed, all of your future Tweets will automatically populate your profile and our Twitter Directory. Additionally, other Fast Pitch! members are only one click away from being able to Follow your account. Lastly, any status update you add to Fast Pitch! will automatically be added to your Twitter feed... proving once again, Fast Pitch! is a one-stop-shop for business networking and marketing!

Finally, for those members who are interested in maximizing the Fast Pitch! audience to grow their Twitter Following, we offer a Twitter Inbox Promotion for $25. With this inbox promotion we will send your Twitter Account to the inbox of our most active 50,000 members encouraging them to Follow you.

For more information visit: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/twitter/twitter_link.cfm

You can't Tweet that!

Bill

Don't forget to Follow Us >>

Freemium?

2009-05-28T12:05:00.001-07:00

As most of you know, the Fast Pitch! business model is different than most social networks who rely almost entirely on advertisers to support their operations. In fact, advertising on our network (although quite effective for the few advertisers we've decided to work with) accounts for less than .001% of our annual sales.

Instead, we have decided to run our business as a 'Freemium' business, which gives our users a free account to get started... and the option to upgrade to a higher level of service for a monthly fee. Since launching in July 2006, we've stayed the course and refused to give in to the notion that people will not pay to belong to an online network. Despite pressure from hundreds of 'fly by night' ad supported, free networks popping up everyday, our Freemium model has continued to be successful. Here's a few reasons why:

Paid membership levels create a HEIRARCHY within the community - Paid members have the largest footprint across the network by virtue of a higher ranking across all searches and the ability to make the most connections and grow their network. Combined, these two factors bring more attention to the paid members who eventually become viewed by the network as experts. Over time, members with such an elevated status are presented with more opportunities... and obviously more business.

We Offer VALUE. Quite frankly, we offer a better product that helps you grow your network, market your business... and best of all... saves you money! In many cases, we've commoditized other services you may be paying for a la carte from third-party vendors. For example, to post a press release on other PR websites it can cost as much as $300 per press release... whereas, for as little as $7 per month Fast Pitch! members can post an unlimited number of press releases each month... and do many things with that press release that are not possible without a network (i.e. audience).

Another example is our email marketing service (3Step Contact) which as part of a $7 per month membership our memebrs receive a full-featured email marketing tool that allows you to create, send and track email newsletters to your existing contacts. For a similar service, many people spend $25 - $200 per month with third-party platforms.

Membership creates ACCOUNTABILITY. People who pay even a nominal amount of money for a service are more likely to use it. Overtime, more paying members creates a more vibrant network which generates a higher response rate for everyone on the network... which leads to a larger, tighter network, and so on. The converse of this is a very large network with millions of inactive profiles and no paying members with no accountability, where messaging among members falls on deaf ears (Twitter anyone?)

Since the summer of 2006, we've stayed true to this Freemium philosophy as the number of paid members on our network continues to grow every month since we launched. Our Freemium model has been so successful that we have turned away countless numbers of advertisers whose product or service had little relevance to our community. In other words,

if your product is not business-related and does not help our members save money and become more efficient, do not bother contacting us about advertising

Bill

Answers 2.0

2009-05-15T04:10:00.001-07:00

Last night we completely overhauled our Forums feature and re-launched it as Fast Pitch! Answers. It's something we've talked about doing for about a year... but have continued to put on the back burner until we came up with a way to add a more valuable 'twist' to what the market (and other networks) already offer. We think we've come up with the, well... Answer.

One of the things that has always made Fast Pitch! unique is our layer of intelligence that leverages our users content to make reccomendations about who should be connecting to whom. For example, on our profile our users have the ability to tell the world who they are trying to connect to (ideal customers, ideal partners, etc). Our system uses that information to make an educated recommendation to each member about who they should be connecting to. This maximizes each users time on the network when looking to make new connections.

Similarly, our new Answers feature allows our users to ask business-related questions on the network to capitalize on the collective intelligence of the entire community in order to make more educated decisions involving topics such as technology, finance, law, marketing & sales and more.

What takes our Answers feature to the next level is (once again) our ability to leverage the information found on profiles across the entire network to make recommendations about who might provide you with an Answer... faster. To accomplish this, the network leverages information found on each profile such as location, industry type, company position and more. More importantly, the network examines all of the Tags (Keywords) found on the profiles and within the question being asked. The more Tags added by members... and the more specific the Tags... the more exact the matches will be.

Another really powerful feature is our members ability to see which recommended professionals are online at the very moment the question is being asked. This allows the person asking the question to possibly find an answer in real-time. Or, the person posting the question can take a more passive approach and wait to receive email alerts from Fast Pitch! each time a question gets answered.

Additionally, our algorithm (ranking system) gives our paid subscribers additional visibility by ranking their profiles higher than non-members throughout the section. Ultimately the community will also have the ability to determine which Platinum Members are providing the best Answers overtime through our rating system... which will highlight those members as 'Experts' throughout the system.

For now, every member can ask and answer a question. To gain more visibility within the recommendation box it's a good idea to become a member... and obviously the more time you take answering questions, the more visibility you will receive throughout this section of the network.

To begin leveraging the intelligence of the Fast Pitch! community and/or showcasing your expertise, visit: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/forums2

If you have questions... well... visit Answers!

Bill

Fast Pitch! Featured in the Bible

2009-05-14T09:03:00.001-07:00

The Social Networking Bible that is...

Yesterday, a UPS driver showed up at our office with a package from publishing company John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Inside the package was a book titled, "The Social Media Bible" which consists of over 800 pages of 'Tactics, Tools & Strategies for Business Success'. In short, the book is an amazing compilation of everything happening in the world of social media and social networking.

Nine months earlier...

I received a call from a gentleman named Lon Safko requesting to interview me for a 'little' project he was working on involving social media. Despite having never heard of Lon, I agreed to the interview. My initial understanding was that he was creating a poor man's 'Social Media for Dummies' type of book, complete with transcribed interviews highlighting various 'experts' within the social media industry. I was to be one of those 'experts'.

At the time, I remember Lon doing an outstanding job with the interview. His ability to convey a genuine interest in my responses made for a thought-provoking conversation that gave me the freedom to offer additional insights that went way beyond the originial question.

Fast-Forward nine months, 40 interviews and thousands of hours of writing later... The Social Media Bible is now a reality. Boy was my perception way off... It's 'Social Media for Dummies' on steroids.

Now that I've seen the finished product, I can't thank Lon enough for including Fast Pitch! in the project. It's truly an honor to be one of only 11 other social networks Lon and his team profiled throughout the 800 pages of information. Additionally, I'm personally appreciative for the opportunity to be one of 40 'Experts' featured alongside some 'heavy hitters' in the industry including: Vint Cerf (Founding Father of the Inernet), Jimmy Wales (Founder, Wikipedia), Biz Stone (Founder, Twitter), Robert Scoble, and others...

It's also great to see Fast Pitch! take center stage alongside billion dollar media darlings like Facebook, Myspace and Bebo.

For anyone interested in learning more about this evolving, fast-paced industry, I strongly recommend picking up a copy of the book online or at your local Barnes and Noble or Borders. The book is incredibly thorough, very well-organized and loaded with tips and tactics everyone in business should be aware of. Your ROI on your investment in this book (it's only $29.95) is guaranteed to be high.

Oh... and be sure to check out the 12 pages featuring Fast Pitch!

Bill

A Virtual Success

2009-04-29T10:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we held the first LOCAL Virtual Tradeshow Event on Fast Pitch! as business people from around the Tampa Bay area (specifically Sarasota, FL) were provided with a custom tradeshow link that showcased only local members. The idea for the event was to create some structure around the popular Virtual Tradeshow feature by encouraging people to login at a specified day and time... and to really focus on making connections locally. Prior to this, the Virtual Tradeshow feature has been somewhat of a 'free for all' as people login all hours of the day from all over the world without a specific agenda.

By all accounts, the first localized event was a big success as over 100 people logged in to the customized Sarasota, FL Virtual Tradeshow page between 9:30 - 10:30 AM. At one point, there were over 70 concurrent conversations happening at once. Some power networkers later informed me that they had up to 5 conversations at the same time Try doing that at an in-person tradeshow! When it was all said and done...

We estimated that nearly 500 conversations took place in 1 hour

As most of you know, the intent of our Virtual Tradeshow feature is to give our users a more instantaneous way to communicate (i.e. network) with one another. Each members' profile serves as their 'tradeshow booth' by allowing other members the ability to quickly learn about what they have to offer. In many respects, a completed Fast Pitch! profile is a far more effective marketing piece than anything that might be placed on a traditional tradeshow table. Especially if the profile includes social media such as video, podcasts, press releases, blog articles, photos, and more...

Once someone has reviewed your profile and has an interest in communicating, they can initiate a CHAT using Instant Message or Two-Way Video (assuming they have a camera and microphone installed). Oftentimes, the initial conversation serves as an easy introduction which can ultimately lead to an in-person meeting in the future.

The advantages to the Virtual Tradeshow should be 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...

Needless to say, we'll be organizing additional Local Virtual Tradeshows in the coming months in select test markets where Fast Pitch! has significant market penetration to ensure a quality turnout. In the meantime, make yourself more familiar with the power of the Virtual Tradeshow feature here: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/my_chat.cfm

Stay Tuned...

Bill

Awesome Turnout!

2009-04-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

Each month we like to host a free 'How To Use Fast Pitch!' webinar designed to help our members become more educated on the ins and outs of using Fast Pitch! The 30-minute demonstration walks everyone through navigating the site, popular features, best online networking practices, and more.

Over the past year we have facilitated about twenty of these webinars which on average, are attended by anywhere from 20 - 50 people at a time.

Yesterday, we tripled our average with a turnout of 100+ attendees!

By all accounts the webinar was a huge success as evidenced by the numerous comments we received via email following the event (below) and the large percentage of attendees who upgraded their membership shortly after the webinar.

To view upcoming webinars visit our 'How To' page: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/howto.cfm

Testimonials:

"The webinar was very worthwhile and eye opening. I look forward to reaping all of the benefits you described. Thanks!" - Barry Roberts, Speaker (Pennsylvania, USA)
"The webinar was very informative and I plan to use more of the features in the near future." - Holly Littlefield, Teltronics (Florida, USA)
"Thank you for a very insightful webinar. Very well done. It was informative and not boring which is unusual." - Donald Haines, Safety Video Warehouse (California)
"Today’s webinar was one of best I’ve sat through: clear, concise, highly relevant. The volume and technology were seamless." -Kathy Cabrera, Carabiner Communications (California, USA)
"Amazing webinar. I've been a member of Fast Pitch! for six months and was amazed at how much I did not know." -Pepe Mesones - Sun Trust Bank (Florida, USA)
"I enjoyed the event. Very well done. One of the best, actually." -Darcie Davis, Zephyr Strategy, Inc. (Virginia, USA)
"I have signed up with Fast Pitch! because of the presentation. I have also recommended friends and colleges to do the same." -Chris Wachowiak, Gemini Sun Records (California, USA)
"I really did not fully understand all of the features prior to the webinar. 30 minutes later I upgraded my membership. This was a great seminar." -Tricia Hoekwater, Ease and Grace Consulting (California, USA)
"Thank you for all the information. Boy it blew my mind. This account will never be cancelled." -Marge Carter, Carters Global (North Carolina, USA)

Good Luck!

Bill

Just For Kicks...

2009-04-08T12:35:00.001-07:00

Today I read a blog post about Facebook reaching 200 million users worldwide. As part of the news, Facebook also released a 'heat map' showing their growth across various countries during the past 6 years. The growth rate is impressive to say the least.

The heat map prompted me to run a quick query of our database to illustrate the current geographic breakdown of Fast Pitch! members across the United States (note: about 20% of our members reside outside the U.S. but I was too lazy to run the query globally :). Maybe next time...

Nothing groundbreaking here. As you can see, many of the most populated states are very well represented. California and Florida are neck and neck at #1 and #2 which both lead New York by a few percentage points. Second tier includes Texas, Illinois, Ohio, etc. To be honest, I was excited to see Arizona and Georgia so well represented... while a little surprised to see North Carolina and Missouri trailing others.

If nothing else, this map (illustration) gives our members a better understanding of the scope of our network. Because a majority of our members are small business owners in service oriented industries (probably around 85%), my guess is this is very reflective of the nature of business happening in each of those states.

Needless to say, we have a lot of data about our users and can expand upon this map to include industy types, gender, company size, login frequency, the breadth of networking happening among each member across state lines, and more. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, ff you're doing business in one of the lightly shaded states... Spread the Word!

Good Luck.

Bill

At Least Make Eye Contact

2009-04-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

Last week I took a much needed vacation with the family to San Francisco, CA. As it turned out, the O'Reilly / Techweb Web 2.0 Expo was happening on the final day we were in SF, and because we were taking a red-eye back to Florida that evening at 11:00 PM, it gave me a chance to crash the party and spend all morning and afternoon to attend the Expo Hall, listen to Keynote Speakers, and well... network with thousands of people in attendance.

The event seemed very well organized and turnout seemed good given the current economic situation happening around the world (I just read a report that said the tech industry has seen a 45% drop in hiring... Ouch!). As is with the case of most conferences, the speakers were in my opinion average... always talking at 35,000 feet about slick technology, platform interoperability, etc... but never really giving people what they need (i.e. specifics on how to make money). But hey, this is a conference... and most of the people attending are there to get out of the office and have a good time. So, it is what it is.

What was shocking to me... and maybe this is a sign of the times, maybe it's a West Coast thing, maybe it's the tech industry in general (i.e. introverts)... or a combination of... but, during the 'down time' when people had an opportunity to really sell themselves and their company (i.e. NETWORK)... they chose not to. As I walked around trying to network with people it seemed as if almost everyone at the conference had their head down in their laptop, iPhone or Blackberry... Texting, Twittering, Emailing... rarely ever taking the time to look up and make eye contact with other people around them (let alone actually having a conversation). The experience seemed so 'empty'...

I was so taken aback by this that at one time I scanned the lobby just outside of the Expo Hall where there were about 1,000 people sitting at round tables furnished by the conference for the purpose of networking... and I estimated that maybe 10% were having conversations... while the other 90% were in their own world, pecking away. That's 900 people who in my opinion, missed a huge opportunity to put their company and themselves on the map by simply looking up once in awhile and having a conversation or two which could lead to new business.

What was happening on that little LCD screen that was so important that it couldn't wait until later that night or the next day?

Now, I understand that for many, the need to deal with day-to-day operations while out of the office is important (particularly small business owners who are juggling multiple tasks and managing people back at headquarters). I'm one of them! I also understand the instant gratification that comes with communicating using technology... the feeling of accomplishment that comes with firing off email after email... and how it feels when someone wants to connect to you. Heck, my entire business is at the forefront of this. I get it.

But, I also understand that relying almost entirely on technology, social networks, and social media in general to communicate your message and form relationships is a direct path to failure. Nothing can replace human interaction when it comes to being able to explain what you do, answering questions, and most importantly establishing trust. Your goal should be to find a happy medium and combine the use of technology with good old fashioned networking.

Let technology get you to the starting line. Use your personality to get you across the finish line.

In fact, part of the reason why Fast Pitch! has succeeded where thousands of other networks have failed is not so much because of our technology but because of the real-world networking events we did during the years leading up to our tansformation into an online business network. Nearly 10,000 people around the country had interacted with company founders... shook our hands... had conversations, etc... All of which helped us establish trust, which in turned made these same people comfortable with referring us to their friends and so on...

So, the next time you attend a conference, make sure you look up once in a while... or at least make eye contact. Your next customer might be trying to talk to you.

Good Luck!

Bill

1,000 Twitter Followers and Counting...

2009-03-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

About two weeks ago I realized that we had never really made a push to generate a following on Twitter. Although we have given our members the ability to sync all of their Fast Pitch! activity with their existing Twitter account (which is pretty cool)... we have never done much in the way of promoting our own Twitter account. In fact, I'll be honest... we haven't paid much attention to Twitter at all.

Two weeks ago I added a small box on our side navigation that allows our members to Follow Us on Twitter. At the time I think we had about 200 followers - mostly people that I would imagine had stumbled upon our account by chance while searching Twitter.

Yesterday we reached a milestone of sorts, having surpassed the 1,000 Follower mark. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to follow us. Hopefully we can provide everyone with some useful insights into the world social media and a behind the scenes look at what's happening here at Fast Pitch!

If you haven't Followed Us yet, click here to start!

Okay... Now I have to go Tweet this.

Bill

UPDATE (May 18, 2009)

We now have over 3,200 Followers. That's almost 1,500 new followers since March 30th (30 new followers added per day)!

We're Looking for a Few Good Interns

2009-03-13T11:38:00.000-07:00

The team at Fast Pitch! is playing a lead role in the development of a local technology incubator here in Sarasota, FL. The goal of the incubator is to pool together some of the areas best entrepreneurial talent in one location to help drive innovation and ultimately diversify the local economy through success and job creation.

Yesterday we took some initial steps towards making it a reality by securing a large office location near downtown Sarasota in what is called the 'Rosemary District'. As of today, we have 5 technology companies commited to the space, with room for many more (in addition to a variety of walk-in services available to anyone looking for a daily place to 'plug in' - more about that later).

In conjunction with the new space, we (Fast Pitch!) plan to expand on our summer internship program (launched in 2008) to create a more formalized opportunity for entrepreneurial-minded students who have a strong desire to learn more about the startup / technology experience. More than anything, we will be looking for creative self-starter types. Leave your report card at the door :)

Unlike a traditional internship, where you might spend a few months working for one company, the Fast Pitch! internship will guarantee that each intern have the opportunity to be indirectly involved with multiple companies within the incubator - each of whom are at different stages in their business and are involved in a variety of industries including technology, legal, design, multi-media, venture creation, Internet, graphic design and more. In other words, the depth of the Fast Pitch! internship will go well beyond the day to day operations of an online social network.

We will begin reviewing candidates in the coming weeks. To apply, send us a 500 word email explaining to us why this opportunity is right for you (no resumes please). Send to: info@fastpitchnetworking.com

Bill

A Handful of new 'How To' Videos Just Added...

2009-03-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

Last week we added 5 new 'How To' videos to our tutorial library bringing our total videos to 15. The video tutorials are meant to provide a brief 1-2 minute overview for members to learn how to use specific features on the network including:

Overview of Fast Pitch!
How to Navigate
Why Post Press
How To Post Press
Distributing Press
Create & Embed Video
Search Optimization (SEO)
Importing Your Blog
Distributing Your Blog
Creating and RSS Feed

New Videos...
Why Upgrade?
Virtual Tradeshow
Adding Networks
Email Marketing
How To Use 3Step

In addition to hosting these videos on our 'How To' page, we have scattered them throughout the network on each of the individual Feature page(s). Our hope is that these videos will help you become more familiar with not only HOW to use these features, but more importantly, WHY you should be using them.

Stay tuned as we continue to add more features (and videos) in the coming weeks.

Bill

A Double-Header

2009-02-25T09:10:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I'll be training about 100 business professionals on 'How To Use Fast Pitch!' during two separate, one-hour sessions at the Manatee Community College Center for Innovation and Technology in Lakewood Ranch, FL (near Tampa). Similar to our webinar style training, I'll provide a brief overview of social networking and social media as it applies to business, as well as a general discussion about Fast Pitch! and what makes us unique. From there, we will dive right into a demonstration about the Fast Pitch! network including:

Navigation
Creating a Profile
Making Connections
Posting Content
Distributing Content
Increasing Your Internet Footprint
Personal Branding
Benefits of Membership
And More...

The actual demonstration should last about 40 minutes... followed by 20 minutes of Q & A.

The expected turnout is encouraging, given this is our first live traning session here locally. We now expect to offer these events on a monthly basis in conjunction with the Regional Business Resource Center and the Center for Innovation and Technology who will provide us with an incredible venue for teaching.

That being said... We're also now interested in working with professionals in other markets around the world who have an interest in hosting Fast Pitch! training sessions in their respective regions. Beyond offering materials and instruction, we can also assist with marketing your events to ensure good turnout as well as provide deep discounts on membership and various marketing features we offer. Those interested in working with Fast Pitch! should call 888-327-8025

Bill

Event Management

2009-02-19T09:01:00.000-08:00

Last week we added a new twist to our Event Marketing feature that allows attendees who are Fast Pitch! members to indicate to the event host whether they will be attending an event. Nothing groundbreaking... but a cool feature nevertheless for those of us who promote events and want to have an idea about turnout... as well as potential attendees who might be lured into attending an event by being able to see who else is going. Additionally, the feature sends alerts to the event host each time someone RSVP's... and allows them (as usual) to quickly learn more about the person by viewing their FP profile.

For now, payments for events will continue to be managed by the event hosts themselves using their own RSVP link that serves as a gateway into their payment option (online credit card, pay at the door, etc...). Ultimately I can forsee a time when Fast Pitch! plays a roll in handling payment for our members... however, until we figure out the best way to manage such a feature we will leave it in the hands of our members.

While I'm on the topic of events... I can't help but reiterate the power of our Event Inbox Promotion Package as a way to drive turnout. For those of you unaware of the package... for $29.95 per event can send an event announcement directly to the Fast Pitch! Inbox of thousands of other members based on geography, inudstry type and more.

For the price, I honestly can't think of a better way to promote an event to increase turnout... especially with people you may not already know. To take advantage of this feature, simply post your event and follow the instructions during the checkout process.

Good Luck!

Bill

Mobile Networking Phase I

2009-02-16T07:06:00.000-08:00

Last week we rolled out our Fast Pitch! application for the Google Android G1 phone. The application has already been pretty well received as hundreds of people have already downloaded Fast Pitch! to their phone. For now, the application serves some basic purposes such as having the ability to quickly access your connections on Fast Pitch! (including their phone number) as well as your Fast Pitch! inbox and a variety of different types of messages from within the Fast Pitch! community. Additionally, you can manage your business related status updates on the go, which can also be tied directly to your Twitter account.

You can find the application in the Google Marketplace (under Applications > Social). Or you can download it directly by visiting http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/android/ on your mobile phone web browser.

Stay tuned as we continue to add more and more functionality to the app.

Good Luck!

Bill

The Votes Are In...

2009-02-04T07:41:00.001-08:00

Today I am excited to announce our Winners for the First Annual Fast Pitch! Business of the Year Awards. Winners were chosen across nine different categories during a 45+ day voting process that began with over 1,000 nominations. Winners were determined by a combination of open voting and our expert panel of judges.

All winners will be prominently featured on the Fast Pitch! homepage at various times throughout the year which will ultimately drive a lot of traffic to their respective businesses. Additionally, a special 'badge' has been added to the upper right corner of each winners profile for added recognition. Lastly, all winners will receive a special plaque in the coming weeks (internally dubbed a 'Willy' by our staff). And the Winners Are...

Business of the Year Five Star Mortgage

Top Green Business CityRyde LLC

Top Startup Company Vertical Insight

Best New Technology samplesecure.com

Best New Product GizmoVideo Hosting

Best Networker Ricardo Randorinho

Top Non-Profit The Apogee Foundation

Top Business Blog Suite Minute

Top Video Leashes and Lovers

Thank you to all of our participants for making the First Annual Fast Pitch! Business of the Year Awards a success. Undoubtedly we'll be adding more to the experience in the coming years, perhaps even one day announcing winners at the Annual Fast Pitch! Conference (coming soon).

Until next year...

Bill

Sarasota Valley?

2009-01-30T07:34:00.001-08:00

This morning I had the privilege of announcing the unveiling of an exciting new project to over 500 of Sarasota County's top business leaders and politicians. The project (called the Regional Business Resource Center of the Florida Gulf Coast) involves a 3-part technology initiative spearheaded by the regions 10 local chambers of commerce and funded by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice. The goal of the RBRC is to offer every business in the area unlimited access to a localized, co-branded Fast Pitch! community to encourage local buying and selling.

To say I'm proud of this region for taking these bold steps in bringing Fast Pitch! to the masses is an understatement. The support of the areas top brass coupled with backing from the local media will put Sarasota County on the map as the first metropolitan area of it's size to leverage an existing social networking community to encourage local buying and selling. Simply stated, Sarasota County has the potential to become the most hyper-connected region in the world. The goal in many ways is to make this one of the 'flattest' places to do business by allowing everyone to connect and market their business online without restriction.

Not even Silicon Valley has a vision as bold!

Officially launched this morning, the co-branded online community powered by Fast Pitch! can be found at http://www.energizemybiz.com/. The current URL serves as a local gateway into the much larger Fast Pitch! platform comprised of existing professionals from around the globe who are already actively networking and marketing their business in a variety of ways including virtual tradeshows, press distribution, blog promotion, email marketing and search optimization all built within the package offered to area businesses.

As local businesses login to the RBRC branded community, the experience is localized and relevant to the region and includes local connection recommendations, local press, local events, blog articles, videos and more. As the RBRC continues to integrate content from a variety of resources and business leaders, the ability to communicate to the masses everything from political discussions to economic agendas to public service announcements should also begin to weave itself into the fabric of conversation within the overall network... making the RBRC / Fast Pitch! community the ultimate audience for generating word of mouth.

Sarasota County... where new business opportunities are now only 1 degree away.

Bill

People You Should Know

2009-01-22T08:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we added a somewhat new feature to our platform that makes a recommendation about who you should be connecting with. I say 'somewhat' new feature because it's something we offered in email format about a year ago but decided to remove after realizing people were being inundated and overwhelmed with ironically enough, too many opportunities.

Our new format is a more passive approach that allows you to manage these 'leads' on your own terms. Now, when you login to your account you are presented with up to six other professionals our system has determined to be good connections for your business. You have the ability to quickly reach out to these people, or simply ignore them until new opportunities come along.

Each of these recommended profiles are served up with a degree of artificial intelligence by revealing only those profiles that meet most of the following criteria:

The member has stated in their profile that they plan to purchase from your industry.
The member works in an industry that you typically sell into or partner with.
The member lives in close proximity to you.
The member is active and logs into their account frequently.
The member shares common connections with you.

Fast Pitch! analyzes every profile in our system and makes these recommendations according to how closely they match of these criteria. Profiles presented to you are then organized according to the strength of their relevance to your business as well as their membership level (Premium and Platinum Members are guaranteed more visibility on everyone elses's listings).

Our goal with this feature is to streamline your networking efforts by quickly presenting you with new opportunities each and every time you login to your account. Time is money... being able to make intelligent connections, FAST, can help keep your sales pipeline full of new opportunities forever.

Good Luck!

Bill

Get Out The Vote: Round 2

2009-01-21T06:39:00.001-08:00

After hundreds of nominations and of thousands of votes, Fast Pitch! recently announced our finalists for the First Annual Business of the Year Awards. These 70 finalists were chosen by a combination of open voting and our expert panel of judges across nine categories including: Top Startup, Top Green Business, Best Technology, Top Non-Profit, and more.

A second and final round of open voting will take place for the remainder of January, with winners to be announced on February 2nd. Winners will once again be determined by open voting and our expert panel of judges who will take an even closer look at each business.

Take a moment to review our finalists below.

If you are a finalist... grab your widget and Get Out The Vote!

BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
Branded J Collections Vote
Pikes Peak Placement Vote
Hansa Center for Optimum Health Vote
Five Stars Mortgage, LLC Vote
International College Counselors Vote
Sakiro Skin & Body Vote
Online Security Authority, LLC. Vote
Engel & Voelkers Florida Vote
BMD Media Website Design Vote
Window Washing System Vote

TOP STARTUP COMPANY
P & L Translations Vote
Vantage BioTrials Inc. Vote
http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/buyprofile.cfm?ContactID=52347122 Vote
EQmentor Vote
Vertical Insight Vote
Probook.ca Vote
eLearningZoom Vote
Webbed Marketing Vote
Business Expert Webinars Vote
Vell Group LLC Vote

BEST NEW TECHNOLOGY
samplesecure.com Vote
EQmentor Vote
MetrixApps Vote
Next2Friends Vote
ARAM Total Health Management of America Vote
SponsorDaddy Vote
UPC Hungary Vote
BizHarmony, LLC Vote

BEST NEW PRODUCT
UltraLuster Wash Vote
GizmoVideo Hosting Vote
Scandle Body Massage Candle LLC Vote
Window Washing System Vote
Charters Beach Cottage Vote
Dress The Drink Vote
ReviewSNAP Vote
Sunless Beauty, Ltd. Vote
So. Likasit IT Services Ltd., Part. Vote
Startup Florida Vote

BEST NETWORKER
MBUintelligence Vote
The Heart Link Network Vote
Raandesk Gallery of Art Vote
STREETSD RADIO Vote
TwittGroups.com Vote
Kaposlogisztika Vote
K & E Bridal Consultants Vote
The 5 Second Commute Vote

TOP GREEN BUSINESS
Astralux Environmental Solutions Vote
UltraLuster Wash Vote
Sakiro Skin & Body Vote
CityRyde LLC Vote
EQmentor Vote
BuddhiWear Organic Apparel Vote
Green Economic Solutions Vote
EGM Green Vote
Jeanettes Patisserie Vote

TOP NON-PROFIT
The Apogee Foundation Vote
Coastal Pet Rescue, Inc. Vote
FAAVM Canada Vote
Bumbo International Vote
Avalanche Center Vote
Project Community, Inc. Vote
RBI-Responsible Business Initiative Pakistan Vote
WITS Vote

TOP BUSINESS BLOG
http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/buyprofile.cfm?ContactID=52347122 Vote
Personal Productivity Expert Vote
Brewster & Scott - Tax Law Services Vote
Arch & Company Fine Arts Vote
Catriceology Enterprises Vote
MB Private Equity Capital,LLC Vote

TOP BUSINESS VIDEO
GizmoVideo Hosting Vote
Left Brain/Right Brain Productions, LLC Vote
Beyond Video Vote
Leashes and Lovers Vote
Design Shoji Vote

Good Luck!

Bill

Stay Warm

2009-01-15T12:35:00.000-08:00

This week saw extremely cold weather cripple many businesses across the Midwest and Northeast. Many professionals were either unable or unwilling to venture outside their home or the office (assuming they even made it in to work!). For those who rely on meetings, networking events and leads groups to keep their sales pipeline full with new opportunities, the harsh weather conditions felt during the Winter months can have a direct effect on how warm their sales pipelines are in Spring and Summer.

Fortunately, for members of Fast Pitch, the Winter months aren't quite as debilitating. Our members keep their sales pipeline warm by constantly logging into their account and connecting with thousands of professionals locally, regionally and worldwide.

So, the next time you're about to fight the elements stop and ask yourself, 'Is it worth it?' Chances are, in the amount of time it takes you to put on 3 layers of clothes, scrape the ice off of your car and drive through sleet and snow... you could could have created a Fast Pitch! profile, grown your network ten-fold and added some warm leads to your sales pipeline... all from the comfort of your office (or home office).

Stay Warm!

Bill

Year In Review

2008-12-22T09:04:00.001-08:00

As 2009 quickly approaches and 2008 washes away (at least here in sunny Florida), I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the past 365 days. Below are some of the highlights:

Member Growth: Fast Pitch! has continued to experience significant year over year growth in profile creation and membership conversions. Throughout 2008 Fast Pitch! has ranked anywhere between 2nd and 4th globally and nationally for overall website traffic among popular online business networks - making us one of the most visibile Internet properties in the world and clearly an established front-runner in the world of online business networking.

New Features: Fast Pitch! picked up where we left off in 2007 by continuing to add more features (and value) to our members. On average, Fast Pitch! successfully launched a new feautre or application every two weeks! Some of the features we added in 2008 included:

Live Chat (Virtual Tradeshows) - used weekly by over 55,000 professionals worldwide to interact in real-time.
Record & Embed Video - create videos and embed them directly to your profile and content such as press, events, etc...

Email Marketing - Create, Send and Track up to 50,000 emails per month for free.

Status Updates (w/ Twitter integration) - tell the community what you're up to. Integrate with your Twitter community.

Facebook Application - allow your friends on Facebook the ability to quickly access your professional identity - without compromising the social elements of your Facebook profile.

Translation (7 languages) - Quickly translate Fast Pitch! into other languages including all our user generated content!

Bookmarking & Sharing - share your Fast Pitch! content across other networks and media platforms including Facebook, Digg and others.

Affiliation Directory - the largest searchable online professional directory in the world built within Fast Pitch! - segmenting members among over 5,000 worldwide organizations amd allowing all of them to quickly connect.

College Directory - add colleges to your profile, get exposure to other alumni, search for alumni. Over 3,000 colleges added!

Localized User Experience - have content delivered to you based on location. Content includes video, press, blog articles, events and more.

Inbox Distribution - send content directly to the inbox of thousands of other members at one time based on industry type, location and more.

Profile Enhancements (keywords, updates, network, etc...) - real-time updates and summaries of each profile provided to your visitors.
New Public Profile - a designated link to your own public profile void of any third party advertising.
Invite Contacts - quickly upload and invite existing contacts from Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook and more.

Customer Support: Fast Pitch! added additional ways for our users to communicate with us and learn more about how to use the network. Here's how:

'How To Use Fast Pitch!Manual' - downloaded over 10,000 times. Over 75 pages of detailed instruction for how to maximize your experience on Fast Pitch!. Updated quarterly.
'How To Use Fast Pitch! Webinars' - attended by over 1,000 people - These 100 webinars lasted 30-45 minutes and offered insight online business network. Look for more in 2009!

'How To Use Fast Pitch! Video Series' - 15 videos added throughout the Fast Pitch! website providing users with simple, intuitive demonstrations of features including: creating a profile, posting & distributing press, and more.

Toll-Free Phone Number

Interactive Chat - get real-time help from a Fast Pitch! expert anytime, anywhere.

Recognition: Throughout 2008 Fast Pitch! was honored as a top network from the following media outlets: MSNBC's Your Business, 6 Star Reviews, Mashable Open Web Awards, All Things Web 2.0 and more...

Miscellaneous: During 2008 we changed our logo, re-designed much of our website, added less expensive quarterly payment options, expanded our office (new location), partnerered with some excellent organizations including GotVMail and PhoneVite, Chambers of Commerce, etc... and launched our First Annual Business of the Year Awards.

A sepcial thanks to the team here at Fast Pitch! and to all of our members around the world for helping make Fast Pitch! one of most active online business commuitites in the world. Look for continued growth and enhanced functionality throughout 2009.

Best,

Bill

Where's Bill and Rich?

2008-12-15T11:41:00.000-08:00

When my business partner Rich and I first launched Fast Pitch! a couple of years ago, we ran the company out of a 'subsidized' 10' x 10' windowless room. Although the space worked great for us at the time (it was perfect for constant brainstorming sessions, etc), we knew early on that we were destined for bigger and better things. It was only a matter of time.

Before we could pack up and move, there were a few milestones we needed to reach like, um... a little thing called revenue. However, rather than focusing exclusively on money as the primary motivating factor for leaving, we decided to make a game of it. Instead, we did something unusual.

We printed every order and taped them to our walls. We would not leave that office until every square inch of it was covered with paper.

Needless to say, the decor was unique. Imagine thousands of of 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper greeting you each day as you walked in the door to your office. No windows, no paintings... just paper... everywhere... with black and white print. It was enough to motivate us and make us lose our mind all at once.

Fortunately the former came first. Just when it felt like the walls were closing in on us (literally), we posted our final order to the bottom corner of the back wall in early 2007. Moments after our final order was posted, the now 'infamous founders' picture of our big accomplishment was taken using a Blackberry Pearl.

To commemorate the 2 1/2 year anniverary of that big day (and a recent birthday), I received one of the coolest gifts from Rich, who had the founders picture rendered into a

30" x 24" mosaic comprised of over 15,000
Fast Pitch! member headshots and logos.

What makes this mosaic so great is that many of our member headshots that make up this rendering were a part of the original picture (albeit as pieces of paper hanging behind us on our walls!).

Take a moment to click and enlarge the image (right) and begin looking for your headshot or logo. If you find it, send us an email with approximate coordinates of where to find you and we will enter you to win an Apple iPhone. Also, the first person to locate myself and Rich will automatically receive a $100 gift card to Office Depot!

Good Luck!

Bill

Get Out The Vote

2008-12-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

The Mashable Open Web Awards experience recently got us thinking... why not host our own award? As one of the largest online business networks in the world our abilty to discover some amazing companies and people across many different categories will make for an intiguing 'event'.

So...

Fast Pitch! just announced the First Annual Fast Pitch! Business of the Year Awards. The winners will be determined by a combination of open voting and an expert panel of judges. Finalists will receive increased visibility across the Fast Pitch! website over the next few weeks, in addition to considerable recognition and media exposure for the winners to be named in early 2009. Additionally, prizes will be awarded to the nine winners chosen in February 2009 among the following categories:

Business of the Year
Top Startup
Best New Technology
Best New Product
Best Networker
Top Green Business
Top Non-Profit
Top Business Blog
Top Business Video

To nominate your business, visit our awards page and select a category for your business. Then begin gathering votes from friends and colleagues by a). Embedding our voting widget on your blog, website, newsletters and more... Or, 2). Forwarding people your custom voting link which will take them to a page to vote for you.

The timeline for voting is as follows:

Open Voting / Nominations - Dec. 6, 2008 - Jan. 5, 2009
Top 10 Finalists Named - Jan. 9, 2009
Final Round Voting - Jan. 10, 2009 - Jan. 30, 2009
Winners Announced - Feb. 2, 2009

Rules for voting are as follows:

A user may only cast One Vote per Category Per Day. Fast Pitch! tracks IP Address and Email Address to ensure fair voting.

A nominee can promote their nomination by using the Widget or sending the direct link to any person (voters do NOT have to be members of Fast Pitch).

A nominee can enter into multiple categories.

The winners will be chosen by number of votes and a panel of expert judges will facilitate each round of voting.

Fast Pitch! Members - Get out the vote. Visit: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/awards.cfm

Good Luck!

Bill

Vote For Us!

2008-11-25T11:14:00.000-08:00

We just found out Fast Pitch! has been nominated as one of the Finalists for the 2nd Annual Open Web Awards "Top Mainstream Social Network". With your help, we think we can win this thing!

To refresh your memory, here's why we think we deserve to win :)
http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/compare.cfm

Thanks in advance!

Bill

We've Moved... Again!

2008-11-24T19:43:00.001-08:00

After spending over 1 1/2 years at our 'new' office uptown on Main Street in Sarasota, the team here at Fast Pitch! has decided to move on to bigger and better space downtown at 1350 Main.

The new office is not only less expensive, but more importantly provides us with much needed square footage and privacy compared to the executive suite environment offered by our former landlord - Regus Business Centers. Additionally, our new office comes equipped with a plush conference room, valet parking, a fully stocked weight room, whirlpool, steam room, lap pool... and a scenic view of Main Street within walking distance to Sarasota Bay.

Are you jealous Google? :)

Bill

Serious Value-Add

2008-11-07T08:52:00.000-08:00

I'm excited to announce a new partnership with 3-Step Contact that will give all of our Premium and Platinum Members instant access to essentially, FREE email marketing. Yes, you heard it right... Free Email Marketing.

Through our relationship with 3-Step Contact all of our members now receive the following benefit:

Premium Members - send 5,000 messages per mo.
Platinum Members - send 50,000 messages per mo.

For our current members using other email marketing services to send weekly newsletters or announcements, the free membership to 3-Step Contact will help to reduce marketing expenses by as much as $2,000 per year! (see below).

For Fast Pitch! members who do not currently do email marketing, the free membership to 3-Step Contact is a great way to 'test the waters' and begin sending a few messages to existing customers - without having to make a financial commitment to a third party service.

For Fast Pitch! users who are not currently Premium or Platinum members, our membership packages just became that much more attractive by providing instant access to a premiere email marketing system (in addition t0 50 other Fast Pitch! features to help make connections and market a business) for as little as $7 per month!

Consider the cost savings over the course of a year compared to other leading email marketing platforms:

5,000 Emails Per Month
Largest Competitor - $360*
Largest Competitor 2 - $168
Fast Pitch! - FREE

50,000 Emails Per Month
Largest Competitor - $1,800*
Largest Competitor 2 - $888
Fast Pitch! - FREE

In addition to this being the most cost-effective email marketing package on the planet, the partnership with 3-Step Contact provides our members with all of the features you would find on other leading email marketing platforms including: professionally designed templates, reporting, list management, dedicated support and more.

I'm excited. This new email marketing feature brings Fast Pitch! that much closer to truly becoming a one-stop-shop for all of your online business networking and marketing needs. Our members have access to the best of what social media has to offer: send press, promote your blog, make connections, chat live, promote events, promote your personal brand, create video and more... all for less than 2 cups of coffee per month.

Are you serious?

Good Luck!

Bill

*This service bases pricing on the number of emails you upload into their system. We assume most people would send an average of 4 messages per month.

Timely Headline

2008-10-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

Last night the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox for the right to represent the American League in the 2008 World Series. The year has truly been a cinderella story for the Rays who have risen from the depths of their division (arguably the toughest in all of sports) despite having the second lowest payroll in baseball (Yankees $210 million / Rays $43 million). It's truly a 'David vs. Goliath' story.

Needless to say, the headlines of every major paper in the Tampa Bay Area this morning were devoted almost entirely to the Rays except for one - the Sarasota Herald Tribune - who had the forsight to also run a feature article about Fast Pitch! alongside a picture of the Rays flame throwing (fast pitcher) rookie closer David Price.

The parallels between the story of the Rays and Fast Pitch! are eerily similar. Both can be described as scrappy, resourceful, underdogs with unorthodox managers who face longshot odds in markets dominated by goliaths (i.e. Red Sox = LinkedIn). The story of the Rays gives hope to every team (or company) fighting an uphill battle against unlimited resources.

Whether the Herald timed the Fast Pitch! article to coincide with the Rays historical win is anyone's guess. One thing is for sure. The added exposure we're receiving in the Bay Area as everyone grabs up a copy of the historical newspaper is a home run!

Nice job guys. Go Rays.

Read The Article

Good Luck!

Bill

Who Is The Best Pitcher on Fast Pitch?

2008-10-10T08:28:00.000-07:00

This week we launched a new video feature that brings Fast Pitch! full circle by allowing our members the ability to quickly create and embed video to their profile without ever having to leave Fast Pitch! In other words, you can now literally make your 'pitch' on Fast Pitch!

Communicating with video on our network brings a new layer of interactivity to the Fast Pitch! experience by giving our users the opportunity to add more personality to their profile as well as other forms of content added to their account.

Creating a video on Fast Pitch! is simple and requires only a camera and microphone (most laptops now come integrated with these). Users then click the 'Record' button and start talking. Once completed, the user clicks 'Save' and can preview the video. All videos are automatically added to the profile itself and can also be quickly embedded within other forms of content including Press, Classifieds, Events and Group Pages.

Adding video to a Press Release is a powerful way to convey excitement around your announcement

Amateur video is a huge phenomenon and has quickly become one of the fastest growing forms of social media on the web. Look no further than the success of You Tube and the millions of videos that have been created in recent years. Yet surprisingly, the majority of business professionals have yet to embrace video as a tool to convey their message.

Anyone who sells... must create a video

To encourage our users to embrace video, Fast Pitch! is running an 'Elevator Pitch! Contest' throughout the month of October. The contest will determine who on our network gives the best 'pitch' about their business. Our panel of judges plan to review thousands of videos over the next few weeks to come up with the Top 5 videos based on effectiveness, creativity, and clarity, The Top 5 videos will be posted on our network for an additional week and will be rated by our users to determine a winner.

The winning "pitcher" will receive a Lifetime Platinum Membership to Fast Pitch! valued at nearly $500.00 AND more imporantly, will have their video prominently featured on our video page as an example for how to make an effective 'pitch'. The added exposure promises to be quite significant for the winner.

The world is watching... It's time to throw out your first pitch!

Good Luck!

Bill

Town Hall Webinars

2008-10-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of this election season, Fast Pitch! is re-launching our 'How To Use Fast Pitch!' webinar series this October as a 'Town Hall' style event designed to be less formal and more conversational than in previous months. The goal of these intimate webinars (less than 15 attendees at a time) is to give users the freedom to ask a Fast Pitch! expert specific questions about any topic related to not only Fast Pitch! but how social networking can help their business.

As of today, we've posted about twenty events at various dates and times (mornings, afternoons and evenings) to accomodate our users living in various time zones. We also plan to launch additional events for our overseas users by leveraging Skype's Conference capabilities.

The agenda of these 30-minute town hall style events include the following:

Social Networking Overview (5 minutes)
Fast Pitch! Overview (5 minutes)
Questions & Answers (20 minutes)

Our hope is that users come prepared to ask specific questions about not only features within Fast Pitch! but also general questions about how social networking can help them grow their business. In addition to our current users, we look forward to discussions with people who are brand new to social networking for business or who may have experience with other networks and are interested in learning about the advantages of Fast Pitch!

To sign-up for an upcoming webinar visit: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/webdemo.cfm

Let the conversation begin...

Bill

Facebook Doesn't Want You To Network

2008-09-15T05:37:00.000-07:00

For most of us in the adult world, meeting people (i.e. networking) is the life-blood to generating new opportunities for our business and advancing our careers. Yet, it has become quite clear that some of the larger networks are making it very difficult for people to use these platforms to meet new people. Case in point, a recent Facebook response to a user who they deleted because he was, well... networking!

Dear Sir,

Please note that Facebook accounts are meant for authentic usage only. This means that we expect accounts to reflect mainly “real-world” contacts (i.e. your family, schoolmates, co-workers, etc.), rather than mainly “internet-only” contacts. As stated on our home page, Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you, not a “social networking site”. It is meant to help reinforce pre-existing social connections, not build large groups of new ones. If this is in direct contrast to what you expected as legitimate Facebook usage, I apologize for any confusion. This is simply the intention behind the site.

Thanks for your understanding,

Lauren
User Operations
Facebook

As many of you who have read my blog know, I've been fairly critical of Facebook as a platform for doing business. My criticism to this point has been two-fold: 1) The network is inherently too 'social', 2) There are very few features (if any) that help you market your business.

Well, now it's time to add a third reason:

Facebook doesn't allow you to network!

By Facebook's own admission, it is okay for Facebook to use your profile to make money (advertising)... but god forbid you use your own profile to try to sell something to anyone other than the people you already know.

Good Luck!

Bill

Talking Points Memo...

2008-09-05T07:53:00.000-07:00

Last week it seemed I spent a majority of my time on the phone and at events talking to an array of reporters, thought leaders and top networkers from around the world. The increased interest in Fast Pitch! was noticeably significant from weeks past and is an obvious result of the success people are having with our network to help them grow their business.

When speaking to people, it's rare that I ever use notes or visuals. Part of the reason for this is that I like to feed off of the audience (or an indivduals) verbal and non-verbal reaction to what I am saying. This tactic helps make presentations more conversational and quite frankly more interesting for me. More importantly, it allows me to treat each conversation as a focus group which ultimately helps us at Fast Pitch! better craft our own internal messaging within our network.

Despite my intent to make each of my 20+ conversations unique last week, there were a few common themes that were repeated which I feel are always worth reiterating. Some of the major talking points included:

We COMPLIMENT other networks. Our approach to social/business networking is completely different from some of the more well-known networks like LinkedIn and Facebook. Yet, at the same time we compliment both very well by filling a void between socializing (FB) and job seeking (LI) by giving professionals who are looking to grow their business the ability to promote that business.

Fast Pitch! is not in the NUMBERS business. One of the dirty little secrets amongst the larger networks is that a very large percentage of their users don't really exist. For example, how many of us have created an abbreviated profile on a network to see what's behind the curtain, only to never return? Do these larger networks delete the profile? No. Why? Because there's advertising value in those millions of abandoned / useless pages as people spend their valuable time searching and attempting to connect with people that do not really exist. Impressions = Money

Unlike most of the larger networks, Fast Pitch! is not in the advertising business and therefore we are not interested in attracting faceless users and traffic for the sake of traffic. Our business model is based on subscriptions in return for the ability to connect with a far more engaged and qualified audience in addition to the 30+ features we offer to help you do marketing. To ensure our members are engaged, we regularly remind them to login and remain active. Those members who are not active are ultimately purged from our system, which in some cases may decrease our overall userbase from time to time. Ultimately, our goal with purging useless profiles is to elevate the overall experience people have when using our system.

More FEATURES and INNOVATION. I've spoken at length about all of our features in the past... yet, it's worth repeating even to this day. No other network in the world offers as much value to it's users as Fast Pitch! Given our small size, lack of beuracracy and the talented team we've assembled, we're confident that we will remain at the forefront of technology.

We're RECEPTIVE, NIMBLE and HUNGRY. Compared to larger networks, we're still a relatively small company and ALL of our employees have a stake in the success of our business. Additionally, we're privately funded and not beholden to investors or board members that have the potential to cripple our progress. In other words, we can turn on a dime and continue to innovate faster than most to ensure our members are receiving the most opportunity imaginable to promote their business.

We truly CARE about your experience. Going back to talking point #4 (all of our employees have a stake in the success of our business) - EVERYONE here at Fast Pitch! (including management, development, etc...) look forward to spending time discussing your business. Most of our best features have come as a result of thousands of one-on-one conversations with users all over the world. Our motto: If your business grows, so will ours.

That's today's talking points memo...

Good Luck!

Bill

Networks Within a Network

2008-07-24T06:27:00.000-07:00

I'm becoming more and more excited about our 'Search By Networks' directory every passing day.

In case you don't already know, 'Networks' is something we built within Fast Pitch! a few months ago with the intent of it becoming the largest searchable online directory of associations in the world. The initial benefit of building this comprehensive directory of chambers of commerce, leads groups, and non-profits within our social network are two-fold:

The directory allows our members the ability to showcase their membership within other networks on both their profile and the respective organizations page.

The directory gives other networks the ability to promote their organization directly to Fast Pitch! members within our network.

I'll explain these benefits in more detail...

Benefit #1: Our Members

As members update their profile, they now have the ability to quickly add over 5,000 different business organizations, chambers of commerce, networks, leads groups, non-profits, etc... to their profile (note: members can also manually add organizations to their profile not found in our directory - which will eventually be added to the directory for others to choose from).

So for example, I can now quickly showcase my membership within say, LinkedIn, The Orlando Chamber of Commerce, BNI, and The United Way with a few simple clicks. As people visit my profile, they will quickly become aware of my involvement with these organizations which in turn, may become the catalyst for conversation... and ultimately doing business.

Organizations added to profiles are then hyperlinked directly to their respective network page within the overall directory. These individual network pages showcase all of the Fast Pitch! members who have added the organization to their profile, as well as a brief description of the organization, the URL, and in some cases an RSS feed that displays all of the organizations latest news.

Adding affiliations to profiles is another great opportunity for Fast Pitch! members to grow their footprint across the Internet by showcasing themselves not only within Fast Pitch!, but more importantly to anyone outside of Fast Pitch! who comes across the directory when searching Google, Yahoo! and other search engines. By adding affiliations to their profiles, Fast Pitch! members create yet another opportunity for people to find them. Again, it's all about content.

Lastly, the directory allows Fast Pitch! members who are part of very large organizations an opportunity to quickly interact with members who they otherwise may have never become aware of. Many leads groups for example, are locally based. Many people within these groups who do business beyond their region often find it beneficial to be able to network with other people who are part of the same leads groups, but reside elsewhere. The network directory enhances the line of communication by showcasing everyone within that particular organization.

Benefit #2: The Networks

The directory is an awesome recruiting & marketing tool for the associations themselves. Most networking organizations and non-profits are in constant 'recruitment mode', always looking for a cost-effective way to increase membership. The directory offers each of them a free opportunity for visibility to a highly engaged audience of professionals AND people who are searching for their type of organization on Google, Yahoo!, etc.

Within the directory, the 'cream rises to the top'. Those organizations that have the most Fast Pitch! members are featured within our search results and therefore receive more exposure and subsequently receive more traffic and more opportunity to promote their organization. It's a win-win for everyone involved.

As 'Networks' continues to grow and evolve, look for us to make the directory even more interactive by giving members within each organization the ability to communicate with one another in a variety of ways.

Stay tuned!

Bill

Fastbook?

2008-07-10T07:37:00.000-07:00

Last week we rolled out our Facebook Application. The app allows our members the ability to promote their business and professional connections within the Facebook website without interfering with the inherently social theme of their Facebook profile. The decision to create the application was two-fold: 1). There has never been an easy way to promote your business on Facebook 2). None of the other online business networks quite frankly, have made the effort.

The Fast Pitch! - Facebook application gives our members the ability to not only link directly to their Fast Pitch! Profile, but also showcases all of their Fast Pitch! connections, press releases, micro blog feeds (i.e. Twitter) and more... all without having to leave the Facebook website. The primary obective of this initial version of the application is to give our members an effective way to...

leverage their personal network to help them grow their professional network

As most of you who read my blog on a regular basis know, I've been skeptical of using Facebook for promoting business. From day one, the Facebook experience has been designed as a social utility as evidenced by 99.99% of the successful applications being used throughout the network (bumper stickers, poking, photo sharing, etc...). Professionals need to be extra careful about who they connect to, what type of dialogue they are having, and what type of applications they download. The slightest mistake can have far reaching consequences for your business and your overall brand.

Because of this, the Fast Pitch! application has been designed (to this point), as a "one-way street". By this I mean, members of Fast Pitch! who have a Facebook Profile can promote their Fast Pitch! Profile on Facebook. However, Fast Pitch! will not highlight a members Facebook profile on their Fast Pitch! Profile. Our assumption is that most people in business will want to continue to shield their social life from their business life, but not neccessarily vice versa. In the future, we will most likely give our members the option.

Without an official launch or announcement (this is the announcement)... The Fast Pitch! - Facebook application has already been declared a success.

The application has already been installed by nearly 500 members in less than one week!

... and it was quickly accepted by Facebook as a featured application within 72 hours.

Our hope is to continue to grow the application and explore additional ways in which we can leverage the Facebook community and offer non-Fast Pitch! members an outlet to express their professional side without abandoning all of the fun!

Good Luck!

Bill