Triathlete's House for Sale

I've written a lot about triathlete Hunter Kemper, but, no, it's not his house for sale.  I'm a big fan of the triathlete whose house is for sale - Coach Jim McGehee! 

Here's triathlon coach Jim McGehee's profile on Handshake 2.0 and the profile of his house for sale is right here:

• 180 Woods Lane, Newport, Virginia
• $217,900
• 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1.7 acres
• New kitchen and 4th bedroom added in 2007
• New roof in 2006
• New geothermal heat pump in 2005
• Wood stove in finished basement
• Large garage with built in workbench and storage
• Lots of privacy and natural surroundings, yet only 12 minutes to Virginia Tech and Blacksburg, Virginia
• Clean contemporary exterior, lots of windows, French doors connect dining and master bedroom to deck
• Great outdoor space for entertaining: screened room added in 2005, very large, three-tiered deck spans the length of the house
• 4-minute drive to Pandapas Pond in the George Washington National Forest

For runners and triathletes, the home's location offers unlimited running routes, including Pandapas Pond to Brown's Farm, an out-and-back of about 10 miles.  For cyclists?  The house is 1/4 mile off the 104-mile Mountains of Misery course. 

Please call Jim McGehee at 540-357-2920 and tell him you'd like to shake hands with a triathlete!

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One-on-One Endurance, led by Coach Jim McGehee, offers coaching and training for endurance athletes.  One-on-One Endurance is a client of Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0.

Handshake 2.0's New Speciality - Triathlete Autographs

When I posted links to Hunter Kemper's autograph on the Wheaties Fuel box and to triathlete and StellarOne banker Gretchen Weinnig's Valley Business FRONT photograph to the Roanoke Valley Triathlon Club, (Virginia) listserv, a triathlete named Mike replied to Gretchen, "May I have your autograph?"

Here's Gretchen's answer!

What's "S-B-R!"? Swim, Bike, Run - the three sports of triathlon!

Thank you, Gretchen, for being such a great sport! 

I speak from personal experience of your sportswomanship.  When we've been in triathlons together and  you've passed me - which would be in every single triathlon in which we've been together - you've always called me by name and cheered me on.  I respect and appreciate that.

In the Moment with Attimo Winery

We were delighted to learn of Attimo Winery's new name.  In Italian, "attimo" means "a moment," and we look forward to many exciting moments ahead to share with Rik and Melissa Obiso - particularly that first sip of wine from the very first vintage!  Congratulations!  A toast to Attimo Winery!

All are invited to join the Attimo Winery Planting Party, April 17-18, 2010.

Eclipse Winery changes name to Attimo Winery

Christiansburg, VA – Eclipse Winery, LLC announced that the Company’s members approved a name change to Attimo Winery, LLC at the annual meeting on January 31, 2010.

Attimo Winery, a farm-winery in Montgomery County, Virginia is beginning its third year of vineyard operations this spring.  The company expects to move forward with TTB bonding and its first grape harvest in 2010.

Attimo, which means “a moment” in Italian, expresses how its owners, Rik and Melissa Obiso feel about their venture. 

"We’ve been working hard on this project for a number of years, and now we're poised at the edge of a new beginning for Attimo Winery.  We are truly starting to see the fruits of our labor, and the hopes of what is yet to come.  We know that it is the beginning of many memorable moments for us and for customers of our wines," said Melissa Obiso about the winery and the recent name change.

Attimo expects to harvest Cabernet Franc, Viognier and Raspberries this year to produce its first year’s vintage. Attimo Winery, LLC, formerly Eclipse Winery, LLC, was founded in 2007 and is privately held. The Company is located in Christiansburg, Virginia.

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Rik and Melissa Obiso, co-owners of Attimo Winery, a new winery located in the New River Valley of Virginia, write a weekly wine recommendation for Handshake 2.0. Attimo Winery plans to open to the public as early as 2012.  Attimo Winery (formely Eclipse Winery) was featured in  Couple hope grapes will yield dream business and Wine business budding in Montgomery County in The Roanoke Times.  You're invited to read all the recommendations, more about Attimo Winery on Handshake 2.0, to follow Attimo Winery on Twitter @attimowinery.

Attimo Winery, a Virginia winery, is a client of Blacksburg, Virginia-based social media and public relations company Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0.

Green Building For Love

Remember Mr. Big's wedding gift to Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City, the 2008 film?

I do.  I bet a lot of women remember.

It was a closet.

Ed Tuchler of Shelter Alternatives and Mr. Handshake 2.0 talk about engaging in green building by finishing an unfinished room in an energy-efficient way.

 Handshake 2.0's cat and closet-to-be

I'm a fan of green building.  I'm a fan of Shelter Alternatives.  With a closet on the way?  I am very much a fan of Mr. Handshake 2.0.

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Shelter Alternatives is a green builder in Blacksburg, Virginia.  Shelter Alternatives creates custom homes, designs additions, and remodels existing homes using energy efficient building materials and systems.

Energy Check - energy audits specialist and a division of Shelter Alternatives - is a client of Blacksburg, Virginia social media and public relations company Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0.

Measuring Social Media ROI: How Did You Hear About Us?

A major challenge of measuring the ROI of social media PR and marketing is that companies don't know the answers to these questions:

“What is the ROI of our current marketing? From the x dollars we spend on marketing, how many y customers do we get?”

“What’s our contact-to-conversion ratio? How many site visitors/phone calls/emails/handshakes does it take for us to get a customer?”

“When we asked our customers, ‘How did you hear about us?’, what did they answer?” (Oops, we forgot to ask.)

While we've found that intending the business use of social media to result in direct sales results in direct disappointment, social media PR and marketing - as does traditional PR and marketing - ultimately must result in ROI.

Companies who don't know answers to questions about the results of their marketing efforts can start to measure them now.  They can do it themselves, without the help of a social media consultancy - although we're here to serve should a company want assistance! - by simply going online and doing a before-and-after measurement using two simple benchmarks.

Two Simple Benchmarks

1. Site Traffic
2. Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

Site Traffic as a Benchmark

1. How much traffic does our company’s site have now?
2. How much does it have after the implementation of a social media strategy?
3. Is a change in site traffic correlated with a change in the number of leads/prospects/customers in our sales funnel?

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) as a Benchmark

1. When we use keywords related to our products and services in search engines, where is our company listed? First page? No? 68% click a search result within the first page of results… (iProspect).
2. When we use our company as a search query, what comes up? “It’s who you know” – Is what’s listed good information about us that we created to manage our brand? Is it extraneous stuff about something or someone else? Worse, is it a bad review?
3. After implementing a social media strategy, where do our company’s products and services show in search engine results? What sites are listed when we use our company as a search term?

"How did you hear about us?"  Realistically speaking, busy companies are going to continue to forget to ask that question.  Making the phone call, composing and sending out the email, creating the survey, keeping track of the answers - all that takes time.

Using these two simple benchmarks in a before-and-after fashion will still not answer "How did you hear about us?" But it will begin to answer how many have heard and how they're finding a company and its products and services - or not finding them.

What’s the ROI of social media marketing?  Using these two simple benchmarks, companies can start to measure results and answer that question for themselves.

Shaking Hands at The Mixer

We think Handshake 2.0 is the world's first blog with a theme song and music video.

When I review the 18-month history of Handshake Media, parent company of Handshake 2.0, the pinnacle with the most exquisitely scenic overlook was the world premiere of The Handshake Video.

When Kerri Taylor from Mix 100.7 called me yesterday to tell me I had won the very first $100 gift certificate for the first Mix 100.7 Friday Night Mixer at Bull & Bones, I was ecstatic!  She asked, "Are you a fan of Bull and Bones?" The scene selected - and kindly offered - for our world premiere?!  You bet! 

 
The Handshake Video premiered in public on the big screen at Bull & Bones Brewhaus and Grill in Blacksburg, Virginia at a Tweetup on Tuesday, December 1, 2009, from 6:00 PM to 6:03 PM, EST. 

Let's have another Tweetup! 

Mix 100.7 Friday Night Mixer
Bull and Bones
Friday, February 26, 2010
5:00 - 7:00 PM

Here are directions to Bull & Bones, located at First & Main on South Main Street in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

Hey, aren't those hands clapping in the Mix 100.7 ad?!  Please join me!  Let's clap hands and shake hands at Bull and Bones!

"Now join your hands, and with your hands your hearts..."
- William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act 4, Scene 6

Who's in FRONT? Gretchen Weinnig

 
Gretchen Weinnig of StellarOne in Roanoke, Virginia, is featured in the February 2010 issue of issue of Valley Business FRONT, the monthly magazine for in-depth business news in the Roanoke Valley and the New River Valley of Virginia. She discusses a small business loan program of broad interest.

Note from Handshake 2.0:  Gretchen Weinnig is a triathlete and placed first in her division in the Virginia Triathlon Series.

You're invited to read moreFRONT and to follow Valley Business FRONT on Twitter, @vbFRONT.

Photo credit:  Dan Smith, Valley Business FRONT

Social Media ROI - Expectations and Possibilities

I once heard a PR guy say he was a “manager of expectations” which appalled me for its reductionism since, as a PR gal, I consider myself an “opener of possibilities.”  Still, as more companies turn to social media to generate business, I find myself filling both roles.

We’re delighted James Ball found our social media sales funnel illustration of value and used it to deepen the conversation about social media R.O.I.  As a social media PR and marketing agency, we use social media on behalf of our clients and our own company.  In our work in both areas, we have found:

The 1) use of social media and 2) sales are not causal and conditional, i.e. if a company uses social media, then a new sale will result. 

The use of social media can bring potential clients and customers to the "top" of the sales funnel, beginning the sales process.  As James Ball writes in Visualizing Social Media ROI on Social Media Today, “Social media channels are ‘touch-points’ whereby you can effectively convert conversations into leads.” 

From the “manager of expectations”: 

That potential customers come closer to the top of a company’s sales funnel because of the value of the information and conversation they find in the company's use of social media is a fine and reasonable expectation to have.  Expecting immediate use of social media to result in immediate sales will result in immediate disappointment.

From the “opener of possibilities”:

No more profound truth about how business is ultimately done exists than this: 

“It’s who you know” fosters the trust that results in word-of-mouth referrals that result in handshakes on deals.  Especially online, "It's still who you know."

The optimal use of social media is to share the "who" of a company, what products and services it offers, and to engage in conversations - just like at a dinner party or in a grocery store line - that foster mutual “It’s who you know" on those subjects and others that serendipitously arise. Demanding a
one-to-one correspondence between the use of social media and direct sales limits the opening of possibilities.

We want to thank James Ball for using our illustration for Social Media Today.  He expanded an online conversation, cited us as the source, and linked back to the original post.  First class.

You're welcome to share this graphic by Kelsey Sarles for Handshake Media, Incorporated, a social media public relations and marketing agency and parent company of Handshake 2.0. We only ask that if you quote it or use it, please cite its source and include a link.  Here is a .pdf version of  Populating the Top of the Sales Funnel Through Social Media.

The Art of SEO - E. T. Said It, Too

Dear Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, and Jessie C. Stricchiola (equal percentage of Handshake 2.0's PageRank for each), authors of The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization (Theory in Practice):

After reading over 250 pages of your 556-page text, not including the foreward, index, and About the Authors section - and I intend to read every page (wow, cool, I haven't seen f(x) in years) - I think I can summarize your thesis and intent in two words, immortalized by E. T., the Extra-Terrestrial when he said good-bye to Elliott on his way home:

"Be good."

Dell's Chief Blogger Chats Up Corporate Blogging on #Blogchat

My ritual on Sunday evenings is to tap into Mack Collier's Twitter feed to find out what he has planned for that evening's #blogchat. Blogchat is an online Twitter chat forum that features a keynote guest who brings his or her expertise about the world of blogging to an intense audience of hundreds of Tweeters and bloggers.

Mack's invitation to #blogchat Sunday, February 21, 2010 read:

@MackCollier: Want to discuss corporate blogging? Dell's Chief Blogger @lionelatdell joins #blogchat tomorrow nite at 8pm CT! 

Corporate blogging with Lionel Menchaca, chief blogger at Dell? Oh, yeah, I'm in. I'm sure you've seen pictures on television and in the movies of celebrities being mobbed by the press - manic reporters shouting out their questions hoping theirs will be one that gets answered. Blogchat is like that, minus the body press. I dove in along with more than 200 other bloggers firing questions to @lionelatdell. He responded.

The first question I tweeted was this:

@LionelatDell If I gotta start a corporate blog tomorrow/ No time to learn. What are the 3 bottom-line things to know? #blogchat

Lionel's reply:

@zkellyq 3 bottom line things for a corp blog: 1) know ur scope and objective 2) know the audience ur wanting to connect with... #blogchat

@zkellyq and 3) Be ready to deal with the negatives head on...Very important. It's what I mean when I say blog the right way. #blogchat

2nd Question:

@LionelatDell If u were to found a start-up, would u set up a blog for ur new co? Why, why not? #blogchat

Lionel's reply:

@zkellyq If I were a startup, w to start a blog or not would depend on what we did, but yeah, starting a blog probably makes sense #blogchat

Not only did Lionel answer my direct questions, his responses to other participants answered questions that were also on my mind. Throughout #blogchat, he found a way to respond to his audience and also tell the story of how Michael Dell set the directive for a corporate blog. But, before the first word was ever keyed into a post, months were spent listening:

@LionelatDell That listening period in April 2006 became the foundation for our SM strategy. We launched the blog 4 months later. #blogchat

When asked "Why is Dell blogging?" He responded by saying "to educate and serve are my main goals."

The #blogchat complete transcript includes over 2,000 tweets from 273 participants and I'm sure there were even more who were listening. 

Photo credit:  Treepie and Barbet by Nidhin G Poothully

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Z. Kelly Queijo is the founder of college visit planning site SmartCollegeVisit and a frequent contributor to Handshake 2.0. You're invited to follow SmartCollegeVisit on Twitter, @collegevisit.