"We don’t need no stinking badges."
- Bandit, Blazing Saddles

"We don't need no stinking World Wide Web site."
- Business owner, 1999
 
"We don't need no stinking social media. Twitter sounds like 'twit'!  Ha!"
- Business owner, 2009
 
"We don't need no stinking mobile app."
- Business owner, long before 2019

A company needs a mobile app.

This "Ah-ha!" moment came when I read about the Sacramento Bee launching its own smartphone app, and "In terms of presentation, there won’t be a huge difference between the downloadable version and what iPhone users experience now by going to sacbee.com."

If there's no huge difference, then the barriers to entry are low. 

According to Juniper Research, "...the annual number of consumer-oriented handset downloads is expected to rise from less than 2.6 billion in 2009 to more than 25 billion in 2015." 

Let me think this through.  A company needs to reach people - customers - to whom it can sell its products and services to survive and thrive.  A company website is available to almost 2 billion Internet users.  A company Twitter account becomes one of 100 million registered users and a corporate Facebook page joins 500 million.

25 billion mobile app downloads?

Worrying about whether or not to have a corporate Twitter account is so WWW.  Time to find a mobile app developer.

I actually can remember the bright young faces of my parents, then in their 20s, earnestly teaching me, their first born, to tie her shoes “all by herself.”  The looks of celebration and praise on my mother’s and father’s faces when I accomplished this feat of independence are unforgettable.

An entrepreneur extols “all by myself.”  But I have found it to be a child’s path.

As I reflect on the two-year anniversary of my company, after pure luck, I believe the single-most powerful determinant of my company’s 2.0 longevity has been not doing it by myself.

The guidance, advice and feedback I’ve gotten from being a VT KnowledgeWorks member company and a member of Presidents’ Council is priceless beyond valuation.

Feedback, at times, can be painful. 

“Look at me! I’ve started a company all by myself!” I think as a child.  As an adult, I say, “I have an idea.  What do you think?”  

The adult is told, “Not bad.  But I see some problems with it.  Some things you might want to consider are…”  The child wonders sadly what happened to the looks of praise.

But the adult thinks, "I didn't know that.  I never would have thought of that."

No matter how much I want to know it all and do it all by myself - and sometimes still believe I do and can - I do not and cannot.  I have learned from a half century of life that when I don’t know what to do, not asking for guidance is folly.  Asking for guidance, especially from like-minded individuals  who seek, or have achieved, business success, from members of a group connected to more groups in complex networks, offers a collective wisdom the extents of which I could never even dream of gaining even in an entire life-time.

My parents’ faces are no longer young and mine has double the age theirs did during the shoe-tying lessons.  What lasts, what matters, what makes a difference - these are the concerns of adulthood, less about who can tie the shoes, but whether we all have the shoes we need to take us on our life's journeys. 

***

Before Handshake Media, Incorporated was even a company, its founder, Anne Giles Clelland, joined VT KnowledgeWorks.  Handshake Media is a sponsor of VT KnowledgeWorks and VT KnowledgeWorks is a client of Handshake Media, the parent company of Handshake 2.0.

Handshake 2.0 launched on July 28, 2008.

With gratitude and thanks to our Handshake clients, we're going to celebrate two years in business.

To celebrate Handshake 2.0's second anniversary, we're holding a Foursquare Swarm Badge Party 2.0 (we tried 1.0 earlier this year) - in Blacksburg, Virginia - 50 people, same location, same time, all on Foursquare - on July 28, 2010 at Bull & Bones in Blacksburg, Virginia.

You're invited!

Handshake 2.0 is honored that the Blacksburg, Virginia office of Hutchison Law Group, headed by Ken Maready, is co-sponsoring the event with us.

Since the theme is 2.0, we're "doubling down."  For our 1.0 attempt to earn a Fousquare Swarm Badge, we offered a free beverage to the first 50 people to arrive and check in on Foursquare.  This time we're offering two free beverages to the first 50 to arrive and check in on Foursquare.  If you're not on Foursquare, we'll give you a ticket for one free beverage. :)

Not on Foursquare?  If you'd like to be, here's where to get started.

Handshake 2.0's Anniversary Party 2.0
Foursquare Swarm Badge Party 2.0
sponsored by Handshake 2.0 and Hutchison Law Group

Wednesday, July 28, 2010
6:00 PM
Bull & Bones Brewhaus and Grill
First & Main on South Main Street
Blacksburg, Virginia

We invite you to let us know you'll attend on the Handshake 2.0 Anniversary Party 2.0 event page on Facebook.

These posts offer more details about Foursquare, a Swarm Badge, our first Swarm Badge Party, and geolocation-based social networks:  "Checking In" to Location-Based Networks, Foursquare Swarm Badge Party, Location, Location, Location - Geolocation, That is!, and Social Media Gelocation Applications by the Numbers.

Our first Swarm Badge Party made SwarmBadgeParty.com.

We look forward to sharing a swarm of handshakes with you on July 28 in Blacksburg, Virginia!

Handshake 2.0 turned 1.0 on July 28, 2009.

We were delighted and honored to be included in this Roanoke Times article.

Fantastic graphic by Kelsey Sarles

But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near.
- Andrew Marvel

In Stop Wasting Time With Social Media, Dan Schawbel asserts, "A lot of people are surprised that their thousands of followers on Twitter aren’t converting into leads, but I’m not... I used to spend two hours a day on Twitter, yet it didn’t result in enough opportunities to prove its marketing value."

Ben Paynter quotes Erich Joachimsthaler for Fast Company in Five Steps for Consumer Brands to Earn Social Currency: "There is a lot of wasted effort in social media... We forget that these programs have to pay into something, a shared value or a social context where the product actually gets used."

Life is short.  We all want our time spent well.  How then shall we spend our time with social media marketing?

At Handshake, we're not into wasting time or effort.  Here's what we do.

Handshake Media, Incorporated is a digital media company.  One of our enterprises provides social media marketing and consulting services to companies.  Another enterprise is Handshake 2.0, a business news and public relations site.

Although Google has just announced its new search index Caffeine, we already knew the market need Google wants to fill:  "Searchers want to find the latest relevant content and publishers expect to be found the instant they publish."

"Latest" is crucial.  Searchers - and users of social media - want the latest everything.  Companies who create content, then grind away at repeating that content in order to force it into social media channels will experience diminishing returns.  Trying to force the market to want what they're offering - news that's older and dustier with each repetition - creates indifference in the market and frustration for the social media marketer. That's the waste of time, not social media marketing itself.  The market wants news.

Because we offer social media marketing services and run a site and operate multiple corporate social media channels, we know the news about online news:  It's like a celebrity.  It's hot. Then it's not.

In the graph, we use "traffic" as a broad term to cover visits to our sites, to our clients' sites, action and sharing on Twitter and Facebook, mentions and more - any online buzz about our latest content. A "content item" can be, for example, a post on Handshake 2.0 or an update on Twitter or Facebook.

 
The graph shows our experience with the use of social media for our company and our clients' companies.  A new content item is news.  Traffic begins, peaks, and declines.  Sometimes particularly outstanding content can extend a content's fame.  Regardless, traffic to the content eventually decreases.  The content is found occasionally through deep searches, usually by the equivalent of long-time fans or historians.  It's not that the content lacks valuable insights or information.  It's that it's no longer news.  

Many new content items over time result in sustained traffic.  Overlaying that new content graph one after the other on top of each other shows that news is famously valuable to people.  Individual news items are, too, but they have a life span. Leveraging social media requires leveraging people's desire for news.

How do we spend our time with social media at Handshake?  We create new content, we post it, we share it, done.  We create new content, we post it, share it, done.  Using the metaphor of the social media sales funnel, the more traffic, the more potential leads.  The less traffic, the fewer potential leads.  New content generates traffic.  We create new content.

We create what people want and what they value.  That's time spent well.

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

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

It premiered in a blog post on Handshake 2.0 on December 1, 2009.  It can be seen on YouTube and AOL Video.

The original music, Handshake, was written by Joseph Masciello and is available on iTunes.

"Handshake" was directed by Jarred Foresman of Blacksburg Media and produced by Handshake Media, Incorporated. 

The cast included Rob Martinez, Sean Moore, Kevin Allen and those from all over the world who shake hands when their paths happen to cross in Blacksburg, Virginia.

***

Parts of the story of the creation of the "Handshake" video were told on Handshake 2.0 in Blacksburg Media's category in Handshake 2.0's Company Index.

Handshake 2.0's founder, Anne Clelland, wrote about the video on her corporate blog in A Cost-to-Benefit Analysis of Creating a Corporate Publicity Video, A Personal Short Film History, and About That Corporate Video.

In Handshakes All Around, Z. Kelly Queijo wrote about attending the premiere of the "Handshake" video:

For most businesses, a web site and business cards are all that's required to represent a company, but for Anne, whose company is founded on harnessing the power of social communications by using today's technologies to connect regional businesses to the broader, global marketplace, web sites and business cards are not enough. It's a multi-channel world and having a multi-dimensional presence opens doors to more business opportunities. Handshake 2.0 facilitates making that happen.

What did I do at the Handshake premiere? I shook hands with people I met there for the first time. I shook hands with friends and business associates, and I introduced those I knew to people they did not know. It was a good night for handshakes 1.0 and 2.0.

Pictured left to right:  Jane Dalier, Kimberly Reynolds, Cory Donovan, Tony Yang, Bethanne Trexell, Ronald Bruintjes, Barry Welch, and Z. Kelly Queijo.

Handshake 2.0 launched on July 28, 2008.  According to Google Analytics, the site had 126 page views.

We passionately created content, single-mindedly mission-driven to publish site content worthy of site traffic. Our top source of traffic in 2008 was "direct," i.e. people knew about the site and found it through its URL.

Almost two years in, over 30,000 people have visited Handshake 2.0, viewing its 1000+ posts and pages over 100,000 times.  Our social media PR services have a delightful list of clients.  And our top source of traffic is the great arbiter of online value - Google.  What people seek through Google, they find more and more often on Handshake 2.0.  Handshake 2.0 has traffic-worthy content.

In 2008, while "build it and they will come" no longer worked for Web sites, it worked for blogs.  Handshake 2.0 is built on a TypePad blog frame.  Our new content showed in Google search results ahead of the very sites of the companies about which we wrote.  Why, back in the old days of 2008, a blog was omnipotent.  People were still debating whether a blog was "new media" or "social media."   In 2008, I had neither a corporate Facebook page nor a Twitter account.

Our social media sales funnel graphic tells the story of the past two years.  Media fragmentation means not only does a Web site no longer attract traffic simply because it exists, but neither does a blog as a solo strategy.  Rather than rely solely on search to find what they seek, people now use their social media networks for word of mouth (WOM) referrals.   A visitor still needs to find fantastic content upon arrival at a blog or site.  But people don't know about that fantastic content unless someone in a social network mentions it.

In 2010, vying for third and fourth place for top sources of traffic to Handshake 2.0 - direct traffic is now second - are Twitter and Facebook.

That is a result of expanding our original vision of creating fine content for Handshake 2.0 to include creating fine content for social media networks.  This is what we do to a post on Handshake 2.0 in 2010 that we didn't do in 2008.

What might have happened to Handshake 2.0 had we not embraced social media? 

I would have compromised my mission as a company founder.  The screenshot at the beginning of this post shows Handshake 2.0 in 2008, a site with vitality, if perhaps a bit of large-fonted awkwardness.  Regardless, it showcased people and companies in the hopes that knowing of each other would result in handshakes on deals. 

Our look has changed in two years, as have the tools we use to achieve our mission.  But the mission hasn't.  Two years ago, we used a stone hammer.  Today we're using titanium.  We'll use what's next tomorrow.  Regardless, we're still building businesses, one handshake at a time.

A Warm Handshake is a post on Handshake 2.0. And here's what we do to a post on Handshake 2.0.

Handshake 2.0 specializes in social media public relations and marketing. Please see our services and feel free to contact us.

As I've mentioned in recent posts about InteractiveGIS, I am beginning to understand Geographic Information Systems (GIS) - also termed Geospatial Information Systems - enough to formulate how GIS applications for business might work.

Game Mechanics + Social Networking + GIS + Business Data
+ Algorithm, Formula and/or Idea + Mobile = Killer App

My own killer app began, not on a whiteboard, but with a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), not with a randomly selected NDA template downloaded from the Internet, but with custom versions created by our company's attorney.  I value my work and the work of those who will contribute to the project too much to risk losing that work to competitors, or to risk losing investment or acquisition in the future because we didn't follow legal protocol.  An NDA doesn't perfectly prevent these things from happening, but decreases the likelihood. 

Even Mr. Handshake 2.0 has signed an NDA.

My killer app actually began on a tablet of lined white paper, words and pictures sketched with a Pilot G-2 07, then moved to stick figures on a white board, then to text and a rough flowchart on a large sheet of paper torn from a flip chart.  The white board diagram and the sheet of paper were photographed and shared with NDA-signers.

Having practiced and presented pitches to angel investors through my company's membership in VT KnowledgeWorks, writing one-page executive summaries has become as straightforward as adding Wheaties to the grocery list.  But the process is profoundly creative, resulting in a clarification of  the product or service and how it possesses not just a foundational idea, but a business model.

What's the next phase in the creative process?  More drawing?  More writing?

I'm trying writing.  With regard to the killer app development process, this iPhone app post mortem by Mike Ziray has proven invaluable.  It's helped me think and helped me avoid dead ends.

Conclusions so far:

• I find the creative process exciting, enriching, engaging.
• I find the creative process muscular and athletic.  I do sprint triathlons, not distance races because a) I can finish a sprint, and b) I am not skilled at pacing.  I hammer, recover, hammer, recover.  I thought I might be able to hammer the creation of the app, and be done.  Nope, not done.  Okay.  Hammer, recover it is. 
• For software developers, particularly for mobile app developers - for whom I already had great respect - the well of respect has deepened.  Conceptualizing, much less coding, complexity is very, very difficult.
• If I were an angel investor, I would want to see more than a one-page executive summary. As I create a narrative version of the app, I'm finding myself reworking how I thought it would work.
• An idea is not its execution.

***

Photo credit:  Mr. Handshake 2.0

A one-page executive summary template in .pdf format is available from VT KnowledgeWorks: Useful Links > Funding and Finance > Executive Summary.

The template is available in Word .doc format Under "Pitching" on the ATDC site. 

InteractiveGIS and VT KnowledgeWorks are clients of Handshake Media, Incorporated of which Handshake 2.0 is an enterprise.

I can't wait!

I am so looking forward to "Shake Hands with Handshake 2.0," a networking mixer at Bull & Bones Brewhaus and Grill, Blacksburg, Virginia, Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 5:30 PM.

I'm getting ready.  Here's my to-do list.

• Dress for a Handshake 1.0 photo.
• Bring business cards and quarter-sheet flyers to easily stick into a pocket or pocketbook. (Please feel free to bring yours, too.)
• Bring name tags.  "It's still who you know," you know!
• Bring bold, black markers so we can write - and read! - each other's names on our name tags.
• Bring beverage tickets for the first 50 people to pose for Handshake 1.0s.
• Be one of the first 10 to arrive to win handcrafted soap from Capricorn Soap Company!

Not on my to-do list:

• Prepare a company pitch and presentation.  At this networking event, no interruptions. Let's just talk!
• Prepare a PowerPoint presentation.  Ah, since I am the organizer, we don't have to have one.  I'm not alone in not being a fan of slide presentations.
• Bring a fish bowl for business cards for a drawing for a prize. Yes, but we'd have to interrupt the flow of conversation to award the prize.  So, no, not this time.  Let's just talk.

You're invited to shake hands - pose for a Handshake 1.0 - and talk!

Shake Hands with Handshake 2.0
"It's still who you know!" Networking Mixer
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
5:30 PM
Bull & Bones Brewhaus and Grill
First & Main on South Main Street
Blacksburg, Virginia

Free beverage to the first 50 people who pose for a Handshake 1.0!  See Allen J. Fuller, III for your photo op and free beverage ticket!

Directions to Bull & Bones

View our first invitation with more details

R.s.v.p. on our Facebook page

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

Handshake 2.0 specializes in social media handshakes.  Let's do some social handshaking in person!

You're invited to "Shake Hands with Handshake 2.0," a networking mixer at Bull & Bones Brewhaus and Grill, Blacksburg, Virginia, Tuesday, May 4, 2010, 5:30 PM.

We're taking Handshake 1.0 photos! 

Free beverages for the first 50 people who pose! 

Allen J. Fuller, III will snap a photo of you shaking hands with a colleague.  In a post on Handshake 2.0, we'll feature your photo, your name, your company's name, and a link to your company's site for posing for the camera - and you'll receive a ticket for the Bull & Bones beverage of your choice.

Allen is in charge of the free beverage tickets! 

Feel free to bring business cards!

Looking forward to shaking hands with you at Bull & Bones!

Shake Hands with Handshake 2.0
"It's still who you know!" Networking Mixer
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
5:30 PM
Bull & Bones Brewhaus and Grill
First & Main on South Main Street
Blacksburg, Virginia

Directions to Bull & Bones

Want to extend an online handshake from your company to a global audience?  Shake hands with Handshake 2.0's Warm Handshake!

The Handshake Video premiered at Bull & Bones Brewhaus and Grill on Tuesday, December 1, 2009, from 6:00 PM to 6:03 PM, EST.  

The original music, Handshake, was written by Joseph Masciello and is available on iTunes. 

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