In our post, Media Fragmentation - What's a Company To Do?, we posed a version of this question:

In an age of media fragmentation, when the marketplace no longer congregates conveniently in the Roman Forum or in front of a broadcast television show to receive the information we want it to have about our company's products and services, but, instead, travels to distant "lands" both online and off, whenever and wherever it wants,  how do we let our potential customers know about what we're offering in case they might want to buy it?

We offered this answer:

Be everywhere.

Be everywhere?

Can a company really "Be everywhere" consistently and effectively? if we're talking about high-impact companies - small companies with extraordinary revenue growth plus expanding employment - possibly.  For start-ups or small companies on the way to high-impact status?  Probably not.

And yet...

We can offer a one-year case study on a start-up company's efforts to address media fragmentation and "Be everywhere" - or as close as it could get - to reach its target market.

The case study subject?  Handshake 2.0.

This site launched in July, 2008.  As a business news and public relations site, it serves as an information distribution channel for the clients of its founding company, Handshake Media, Incorporated, and an information source for its audience.  (Handshake 2.0 could be added as #31 on Ken Ray's list of 30 consumers' choices for media.)

From a theater full of empty seats, the site now has an audience of thousands. 

How did we do that?  Where we "everywhere"?  No.  But when a fundamental business principle is "It's who you know," and a fundamental online business principle is "It's still who you know," we did our best to be as many places as possible, reaching out a handshake of greeting to those who might want to know us and to whom we wanted to know.

Here's where we extend a handshake from Handshake 2.0.

Blogs

Handshake 2.0
Anne Giles Clelland's founder's/CEO blog

Social Media / Digital Media

Handshake 2.0 on Facebook
Handshake 2.0 on Twitter
Handshake 2.0 on TwitPic
Handshake 2.0 on FriendFeed
Handshake 2.0 on YouTube
Handshake 2.0 on SlideShare
Handshake 2.0's RSS feed subscription
Handshake 2.0's AddThis link

Print

Founder Anne Giles Clelland writes a monthly workplace advice column, "Getting a Grip," for the business news publication Valley Business FRONT.  After the column appears in print, it's posted on Handshake 2.0.

Distribution Services

We used the online news and press release distribution service PRWeb for Business News and Public Relations Site Handshake 2.0 Turns 1.0, 7/23/09, and Rackspace Tech Showcase to be featured on Handshake 2.0, 7/23/09.

Sponsorships

Handshake 2.0 is a sponsor of client VT KnowledgeWorks and an organizer and sponsor of the New River Valley Triathlon.  Our logo appears on those sites, and our brand name appears with links in electronic publications and print publications.