The Circuit

Read entire article By Harry McCracken - FOXNews.com

Seven useful Google services you may not have tried yet, from a free phone number to a cool new way to peruse the news.

Startup businesses are the nurseries of job creation, but they need funding to pay salaries, buy equipment, lease space and grow. Unfortunately, the tough economy has slowed new-business funding from a major source - venture capital firms.

"Money is out there, but it's still very hard to get," says Jim Burns, CEO of AssureRx, a Cincinnati firm developing genetic-based therapies. Venture capital companies are less willing to take risks now, Burns says. Raising money takes longer. His company wants to raise $10 million by the end of next quarter. He's confident it will happen, but said funders want real evidence of development these days.

Funding is especially tough for early-stage companies looking for their first $100,000 or half-million in seed money, Conway says. "There's a reason they call it 'venture' capital," he says. "It's unknown." He suggests putting an institutional investor on the board to help boost the confidence of potential funders.

Read entire article by Dan Holthaus
dholthaus@enquirer.com

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There's a lot marketers can learn from artist and musician Lady Gaga.

At age 23, Lady Gaga has rocketed to global fame in less than two years. Playing piano at age 4 and New York nightclubs at 14, she recently broke Billboard's record as the first artist to have her first five singles reach number one. She's won two Grammys, and has sold 8 million albums and 15 million singles digitally worldwide. While her performance art-style stage shows and bizarre outfits have garnered much buzz, it's her loyalty marketing that may sustain her for years. Gaga is dedicated to her fans and clearly knows the elements of cultivating a community of evangelistic fans.

With that, here are my 5 lessons about building brand loyalty, Lady Gaga-style:

1. Give fans a name. Gaga doesn't like the word "fan" so she calls them her "Little Monsters," named after her album "The Fame Monster." She even tattooed "Little Monsters" on her arm and tweeted the pic to fans professing love for them. Now fans are getting their own Little Monster tattoos. By giving the group a formal name, it gives fans a way to refer to each other. Fans feel like they are joining a special club.

2. Make it about something bigger than you. During her concert tour, Gaga recites a "Manifesto of Little Monsters".  Although a bit cryptic, most Little Monsters see it as a dedication to them, that her fans have the power to make or break her.

It’s a little ironic that I’m writing this post about iPhone apps using WordPress on a Motorola Droid (Devour actually), but it allows me a chance to experience how hard it is to blog, using a tiny tiny tactile keyboard and also finally get this post started.

Ah, back to a full sized Logitech keyboard and mouse. Much better.

Popularized by iPhones, there are apps for just about everything, including tools to help social media marketers on the go. In fact, there are over 100,000 iPhone applications to choose from. Many of those apps are extensions of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Others serve as productivity tools for more efficient social web participation or for content creation.

As a content marketer that is also a big fan of social networking and sharing, here are a few of my favorites:

Echofon – Twitter usage on iPhones must be out of this world and while there are many great apps for Twitter including Seesmic, Hootsuite, Tweetie and Tweetdeck, I like EchoFon the best. It’s amazingly easy to switch between multiple accounts, its fast and there’s an auto-complete feature when typing in Twitter handles that saves a lot of time.  It works with lists very nicely but does not offer scheduled tweeting, which I don’t personally use much anyway.

Queen City Angels works in cooperation with C-CAP, which is an initiative of The Circuit.

Read Entire Business Courier Article by Dan Monk
Committing a ‘larger pool of capital’

Angel investors are high-net worth individuals who purchase shares of stock in startup companies. Typically, they invest alone. But increasingly, angel investors are forming groups to jointly evaluate investments and provide management guidance to the companies in which they invest.

The Angel Capital Association estimates there are 225,000 angel investors in the U.S., including about 15,000 who participate in some 300 groups. Overland Park, Kan.–based ACA has 165 members. On average, the groups had 42 members each, with each group investing $1.8 million in 6.3 companies in 2008.

“We don’t have the large number of members that some groups have,” Shipley said, “but we have people generally committing a larger pool of capital.”

Shipley is trying to grow membership in Queen City Angels to more than 40. But it’s more than just capital he’s seeking. He’d like investors with experience in life sciences and information technology, which account for 80 percent of all investments made by the group. And he’s eager to add women and minorities to a group that is predominantly white and male.

“That means the workload is split among the group and nobody is over worked,” he said. “The normal angel doesn’t want to spend 60 hours a week working deals. They’ve got other things going on in their life.”

The vetting process for new angels is extensive. It includes a verification of each investor’s status as an accredited investor, which means a net worth in excess of $1 million, and an initial interview with Shipley and QCA Executive Director Jim Cunningham. Investors then submit a bio, which is circulated to all existing members for feedback. Then comes a visit to an investor meeting and the new member’s informal pledge to invest at least $250,000 over three years.

In a down market, Pomeroy IT Solutions, which provides comprehensive technology services andsolutions, is thrilled to report they have not had a down day lately. In fact, Colleen Hines, Marketing Director, reports, "We’ve actually added more than 100 jobs at our Hebron, Kentucky service center in the past eight months."

How did they do it? "Flexibility and scalability," Colleen asserts. "No matter what size client we’re working with, we can always find a way to solve their problem. It’s like fitting together pieces of a puzzle – we look for the best solution to meet their needs in any area."

Pomeroy thus decided to sponsor the March 9 wine tasting & networking event at Eddie Merlot’s, as well as a beer tasting in June. Colleen confirms they’re looking forward to both events: "They’re fun, but they’re also a great way to network and meet people. We’re proud to be able to invest some of our marketing funds in this way!"

In response to member requests for more events in Northern Cincinnati, The Circuit, the IT association of the Cincinnati Tri-State Region, today announced that it will simulcast its March 25, 2010 Breakfast Bytes to West Chester. The networking event, which features technology-related topics of interest to the IT community, is scheduled for the fourth Thursday of the month at the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati. Circuit members from Northern Cincinnati and beyond will be able watch March’s meeting live from a suite in Office West Chester building located at 9100 West Chester Town Centre Drive (Suite 205) in West Chester. This will be the first time that the event will be simulcast. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m.

“We recognize that our membership is growing beyond the 275 loop and more of our event attendees are coming from the communities of West Chester and Mason, and as far north as Dayton,” said Jim Cunningham, president of The Circuit and executive director of C-CAP. “With technology today, simulcasting events has become easier, and we are excited about the opportunity to reach more of our members and bring to them the tremendous education and network events that we host every month. We feel this will be a great way to help grow The Circuit, while strengthening the area IT community.”

The March 25 Breakfast Bytes, SaaS – The New Normal, will examine the new reality of how enterprise software is developed, delivered and enhanced as a service and what’s it in for the organizations who embrace SaaS. Presenters for the event include Terry Brown of Service-Now and Matt Mountain of NexGen Consultants. Breakfast Bytes is open to the public at a cost of $15 for members of The Circuit and $20 for non-members. To register for the event, visit https://www.thecircuit.net/NewsandEvents/EventDetails.aspx?eventID=1001

About The Circuit

Since 1994, The Circuit is the information technology association for Cincinnati Tri-State Region. The Circuit is dedicated to raising awareness for the region’s growing IT community by providing support and services for local technology professionals, companies and institutions. The association’s growing membership consists of a variety of professionals and organizations representing all areas of information technology. IT professionals or organizations interested in supporting Cincinnati’s IT community can join The Circuit at www.thecircuit.net.

LinkedIn is the most powerful social networking site to help you grow your business.  It makes Twitter, Facebook and YouTube seem like social networking sites for kids.

If you want to hang with the big players—a place where connections are made, leads are generated, and deals go down—then you need to spend more of your time on LinkedIn.

Although other sites have their purpose in the business world and many people utilize multiple social networking sites, LinkedIn is still the number-one place to market your business.  Here are ways to use LinkedIn and get results:

#1: Use LinkedIn Groups & Receive Tons of New Leads Daily

After being unsatisfied with a kennel for his dog, Joe Mason decided there had to be a better option and after much research, he came up with the first PetSuites.  His thought was to have a better place for pets and a better experience for the pet owners, too.  Much of their current business is based on recommendations as the customer service aspect has been key to their growth. 

Tom Ladt became CEO of PetSuites when River Cities led the Company's first round of venture capital. PetSuites has successfully grown its operations and now operates five resorts.  Despite a challenging economic environment, Management has positioned the Company well for continued development and growth.  

Thank you for taking a moment to see if your company is a member of The Circuit by checking the "View Member Directory" at the bottom of the website.  If you company does not appear in this listing, sign up now for membership.

The Circuit offers affordable company memberships (individual memberships are unavailable) that vary in price depending on the # of local employees. 

Members' CEO or Top Local Official will soon be receiving an invitation to our annual CEO CIO Forum, so it's a great time to join and network with other local executives.

• BENEFITS INCLUDE
• Training Discount - Get a discount with our training partners
• Career Center - Post up to five positions Free and view online resumes
• Visibility!  Members are Featured - on the website, through articles and Blog
• Discounts to some events
• CEO CIO Forum - annual "invitation only" event for members' CEO or Top Local Offical
• Support the local IT community! networking and building relationships are key to business growth
• Meet new people through events and the scholarship golf outing presented by ISOCNET
• c-cap - an initiatve of The Circuit
• Plus, More!
  
  Get noticed today through your Circuit partnership.   Since 1994, we thank you for being partner to enhance the promotion of IT in this region.

Congratulations Circuit Member:  Purple Trout, LLC, an internet  marketing company headquartered in Newport, Kentucky, is now offering social media monitoring  services to help clients keep track of online conversations about their business, brands, competition and more.

“Monitoring the chatter in social media networks is becoming more important for businesses,” says Steve Phillips, Purple Trout, LLC President. “You need to stay on top of what customers are saying about your brand every day.”

Purple Trout’s social media monitoring service “listens” to Twitter, Facebook, blogs, bookmarking posts, forums, open chat, etc., and tracks targeted keywords and keyword phrases. A detailed monitoring report will show a brief comment of the social mention post; a live link to the website containing the mention as well as sentiment tagging (positive, negative or neutral sentiment.)

“This allows clients to track the Internet any time on any web content mentioning their name – good or bad,” says Phillips.

Social media monitoring rates start as low as $99 per month.

Contact Purple Trout, LLC at (513) 885-5000 or visit www.purpletrout.com for more information.

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About Purple Trout, LLC

Headquartered in Newport, Kentucky, Purple Trout, LLC is a state-of-the-art search engine marketing (SEM) company that specializes in honest and ethical techniques to obtain higher rankings for company web sites in Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. Services include: Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Paid Search/Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns, Social Media Marketing, Video Search Engine Marketing, Usability Analysis, Conversion Tuning, Web Analytics, Competitive Analysis, and more.
 

Datalliance is a leading provider of collaborative commerce services, and the world's largest independent VMI service provider. Delivered via the Internet using the 'Software as a Service' (SaaS) model, Datalliance solutions make it easy for suppliers and their customers to establish sales and inventory management relationships that fully align business objectives, improve collaboration, and streamline supply chain operations. Datalliance manages billions of dollars in orders, millions of SKUs, and thousands of locations for leading Fortune 1000 companies in a number of industries. For more information about Datalliance, visit www.datalliance.com.

The 2010 Entrepreneur Boot Camp, presented by C-CAP and the Queen City Angels, will be held on June 7th and 8th at The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati.  This annual program has sold out each year so register now to reserve your seat.   AGENDA

This is a comment from a previous attendee, Joseph Reynolds, CEO of Spineform LLC, who has raised over $2 Million in equity investment since he attended the Entrepreneur Boot Camp.

The Boot Camp taught me how investors think, and to how to build toward success. The experienced speakers gave me advice that I use every day. “

In addition to the program, attendees have an opportunity to connect with other entrepreneurs and those relationships have been very rewarding.

Share an experience as a past attendee stated: "Overall, the best investment I have made in my professional career"