Online Business Networks and Social Business Softwares Prepared

Online Business Networks and Social Business Softwares Prepared by Hendrik Deckers Close Partners September 2004

>european business development solutions< Networking is your business > Networking defined > Networking: the exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions (Merriam-Webster) > Networking: The systematic process of meeting people, learning about them, and establishing relationships so that all parties establish and expand a base of resources to support their endeavors. (John Hoppe, President, Independence Capital Company) > Business isn’t what you know, it’s who you know, so networking is your business > The guiding principle of networking is to give first and receive second. Experienced networkers have an ‘abundance’ mentality, looking to help others on every occasion. (Will Kintish at www. kintish. co. uk ) > “Give without remembering, receive without forgetting” Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Elizabeth Asquith Bibesco British Author &Poet (1897 - 1945)

>european business development solutions< Why networks matter so much: jobs, pay, vc, influence The many benefits of social capital to individuals and to organizations: > Getting a job > Pay and promotion > Influence and effectiveness > Venture capital and financing: > Organizational learning > Word-of-mouth marketing > Strategic alliances > Financial stability > Democracy Professor Wayne Baker: « Achieving Success Through Social Capital: Tapping the Hidden Resources in Your Personal and Business Networks » Sandler Sales Institute Study > Cold calls are successful 1% of the time > Word of mouth is successful 15% > Referral goes up to 50% > Referral plus the person who made the referral either participate on the sales call or attends the meeting – the success rate goes up to 80% Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Embrace change or be run over by it Business Networking Business Interactions Letters 1984 In Person Email 2004 Letters Instant Messaging Andrew Forbes earlystage. com Online In person Networking Tools • Total Transaction Value – Up • Total Transaction Count – Way Up 2004 • Individual Transaction Quality - Down 2014 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 R&D Hype & Funding Refinement & Early Adoption Broader Adoption, Shakeout/ Consolidation “Part of the Furniture” Cesar Brea, former CEO of Contect Network Corporation Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

Too many social networks ? >european business development solutions< The (very) Long List 13 stripes - Affinity Engines - Amigos. com - AOL: People and Chat Directory - Asia. Friend. Finder - Backwash - bianca - Bolt - Buddy. Pic. com - Buddy. Bridge - Buddy. Zoo - Building an Online Community: Just Add Water - Bumi-n City - Buzznet - Classmates. com - CNN Interactive Communities - Community. Zero - Company of Friends - The Conneck - Contact Network - Corporate Alumni - Couch. Surfing - CPixel. com - Cybertown - del. icio. us - Dogster - domeus - dudecheckthisout. com - easeek - Ecademy - e. Conozco - Ed. Gateway Communities - Edgeofeverything - e. Friendsnet - 8 minute. Dating - Eliyon - en. Centra - Enter. Nexus - Entre. Mate - Eurekster!, - Everything 2 - everyonesconnected. com - eyebees - Face. Party - Findapix - Follow. Mrs. Poon. com - Friend. Fan. com – Friend. Finder – Friendifieds – Friendity - Friend Surfer - friendsreunited. com - Friendster - Friendzy - Full Moon Webs - Fun. Hi - firsttuesday. com - Going. Professional - Groups@AOL - Growth Company - Gruuve - heiyou. com – Hello. World - hipster Huminity - ICERED - I’m Not From Here - Indian. Friend. Finder - Inter. Action - i. Saw. You. com - Its. Not. What. You. Know - Know. Mates - Lian. Qu - Linked. In - Link Silicon Valley - livingdirectory. org - Local 2 Me - thelunchclub. net - Makeoutclub - Many 2 Many - Map. Planet. com - matcheroo - Meatball Wiki - Mediabistro - Mediachest - Meet Up - Mixer - Monster Networking - MSN Groups - MSN Member Directory - My. Space – mr. Neighborhood - My. EMatch - New Friends in Town - Net. Miner - Netmodular Community - Netparty - Networking For Professionals - nerve. com - nlinebusinessnetworking. com - Nowwwhere - Online Community Report - Open Business Club - Order. Generator - orkut - Pal. Junction - Paradise - Petsburg - Picit. com - Pinoy Exchange - Pinoy Forum - Playdo Community - PLINK - Polypol - Pop. Mates - Power. Mingle - Rate. My. Body - Rate. Or. Date - Real. Contacts - Refer. Net - Rep. Check - Ringo - Ryze - Shortcut - Silicon Valley Pipeline - socialcircles. com - Social Grid – Social. Tree - The Spark - Smart. Groups. com - Spoke Software – The Square - Staying. Close - Stumble. Upon - Sullivan Executive Networking Community - Tacit Active. Net - Talk City - TENG - Thefacebook - The. Fence. com - There - threedegrees - Tickle - Tribe. net - Truth. Bytes - UUFriends - Virtual Communities and the Internet - Visible Path - Volume. com - waferbaby - Wallop - Webstock Whole Earth Festival - Well, The - Wild. About. com - Wisdom. Builder - Whiz. Spark - Wi. W - Wordof. Mouth. Connection. com - World Lounge - World. Shine - Yee. Yoo - Yahoo! Groups - Yahoo! Member Directory - Zamboozle – Zanpo – Zerodegrees Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 thesocialsoftwareweblog

>european business development solutions< Social Search Engines & Social Business Communities Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Online Social Business Communities Search engines for people and relationships

>european business development solutions< Trends & Exponential growth Copyright 2004 Trend. IQ, Inc: Information from 8 FEB 04 untill 10 APR 04 Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

Which sites were hot in May 04 >european business development solutions< Social Networking Sites - as measured by Internet-Presence – through May 2004 Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Copyright 2004 Trend. IQ, Inc: Social Networking Report 05

Categories >european business development solutions< Online Social Business Communities Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Social BUSINESS Communities Search engines for people and relationships Business Networking Platform Relationship Management Tools SOCIAL business Communties

>european business development solutions< Linked. In: the Facts > > > > > Headquarters: Mountain View, CA Founded: December 2002 - Launched May 2003 Employees: 14 (nov 2003) Funding: $4. 7 million from Reid Hoffman, Sequoia and others Key Metrics: business networking platform with 600. 000 mmbers in May 2004, 200. 000 in Feb 2004, 40. 000 in Nov 2003. Links: Sequoia also invested in Plaxo. Hoffman is an investor in Friendster, and coinvestor with Mark Pincus of Tribe in Six. Degrees’ patent portfolio. There is a small cross-ownership with Tribe. URL: www. linkedin. com Fees: Linked. In is currently free while in beta. Once they exit beta, subscriptions for premium services will likely be offered for $5 to 20 per month or per referral. Description: Linkedin is an online service helping professionals find and connect with one another more effectively. Whether looking for jobs, a lead for that next deal, or seeking out an industry expert, users can make contact with thousands of professionals through a chain of trusted connections. Linked. In now offers Linked. In for Groups. It allows existing groups to get their members “Linked In” — bringing the members of those groups extra features for networking, and giving the groups themselves a new way to bring value to their members. Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Linked. In: Homepage Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Linked. In: Conclusions > > > Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Powerfull social networking platform: it requires users to explicitly “opt in” to connect with one another, the connections usually are meaningful. Could evolve into the individual’s platform of choice for storing his or her network and biography. Each person’s resume and network are interlocked lifetime personal assets. As people progress in their careers, they will steadily add more endorsements, more connections, and become more deeply embedded in the network. Being the platform for this data is a very powerful position for Linked. In. Squarely focused on the business customer. Hoffman’s philosophy is that people have a business side and a personal side, and they do not want to mix the two. A classic internet business: low investment and customer acquisition costs; high virality; significant user value; dramatic economies of scale. Today the clear winner in the ´Search engines for people and relationships´ or ´Online Business Directory´ category http: //Online. Business. Networks. com/online-social-networks-guide/linkedin. php

>european business development solutions< Spoke: the Facts > > > > > Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Headquarters: Palo Alto, CA Founded: July 2002 by Ben T. Smith, IV Employees: 34 Funding: $20. 9 million from Sierra, Partech International, US Venture Partners and DCM-Doll Capital Management Key metric: 10 clients (dec 2003), including four Fortune 500 companies Links: Its board includes Mark Granovetter, head of the sociology department at Stanford; Bonnie Nardi, an activity theorist at UC Irvine; and Albert-László Barabasi, a well known network theorist. Fees: The individual professional version of Spoke is free. Spoke makes money by charging companies for access to the corporate version of their software, which provides a gated version of a company’s relationship database. This allows a client to mine its own relationships without giving the outside world access to those relationships. Dscription: Spoke aspires to build the broadest platform in the social network software space. They have or likely will have offerings which compete with almost every other social network software company. URL: www. spoke. com

>european business development solutions< rm s, . . o f t la gree P ing ro. De k r wo In, Ze t e s N inked s e L in h s t i u B ive w etit p m co Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Spoke visibility

s >european business development solutions< ct a t on p com e d. C t a pd Goo U t ac o and t n Co Plax ith w ve i t e Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Spoke Intouch

>european business development solutions< Spoke: Conclusions > > Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Privacy Concerns: As a Spokebook user, all of your relationship data is stored in Spoke’s server. After all, Spoke has far more data about you than Plaxo or Good. Contacts, since Spoke knows just how well you know the people in your network. Spoke calculates this by tracking how frequently you exchange emails, how fast you respond to emails from one another, and so on. Spoke is the only company in the space to have a Chief Privacy Officer. Recommendation: Spoke offers a number of attractive features, and may very well meet their goal of becoming a total social networking platform. To the individual user, though, Spoke's greatest selling point is the sheer size of the public network. If you are looking for a connection to a specific person or company, your odds are better here than in private networks or smaller public networks simply because there are more data points. http: //Online. Business. Networks. com/online-social-networks-guide/spoke. php

>european business development solutions< Zero. Degrees: the Facts > > > > > Headquarters: Santa Monica, CA Founded: March 2003 Employees: 14 Funding: self-funded Key metric: 550. 000 registered users (June 2004) Links: Jas Dhillon (CEO) is friends with Andy Halliday from Spoke, via a common interest in the Semantic Web and DARPA. He is also friends with Andrew Weinreich, former CEO of Six. Degrees. Fees: Zero. Degrees is currently free. Subscriptions for premium services will likely be offered later for $10 per month. Description: Zero. Degrees develops and markets advanced technology that brings people closer in ways that emulate natural social behavior. Zero. Degrees software technology enables individuals and organizations to harness the power of networks to achieve personal and business objectives. People in the Zero. Degrees network have explicitly agreed to be connected with each other, thus eliminating any possible misuse of the system or its connections. In addition, no email content is ever accessed or stored, differentiating it from other social networking systems. Zero. Degrees’ privacy policy also ensures that user data will never be mined or used for commercial purposes without the user’s explicit permission. URL: www. zerodegrees. com Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Zerodegrees: import Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Zero. Degrees: Conclusions > > Serious Linked. In competitor Part of strong group: IAC/Inter. Active. Corp High focus on privacy and data protection Strong focus on leading-edge software platforms Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 > Among other things, Zero. Degrees plans to use the latest in semantic technology, with an underlying XML engine and Resource Description Framework (RDF) to manage complex data structures and reasoning capabilities. > It’s the same idea as Spoke’s – to mine publicly available data – but with more technology behind it.

Categories >european business development solutions< Online Social Business Communities Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Social BUSINESS Communities Search engines for people and relationships Business Networking Platform Relationship Management Tools SOCIAL business Communties

>european business development solutions< Visible Path: the Facts > > > > Headquarters: New York, NY Founded: October 2002 by CEO Antony Brydon and CTO Jeff Patterson. Employees: 12 (nov 2003) Funding: $3. 7 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and from prominent angels Key metric: B 2 B Software Company with 10 -25 customers, including 4 case studies Links: Stanley Wasserman is chief scientist; two other employees are from Six. Degrees; advisors include Taher Elgamal, who is also an advisor to Plaxo URL: www. visiblepath. com Description: Visible Path develops a Relationship Capital Management (RCM) platform that uses social network analysis to locate, leverage and create relationship capital across the enterprise. Visible Path for SFA is the first web service built on the RCM platform, delivering unprecedented reach into companies and access to decision-makers by allowing sales teams to discreetly leverage the relationship capital of the enterprise throughout the sales cycle. The result: shorter sales cycles, improved close rates and a vital competitive sales advantage. Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

Visible Path: screenshots Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Visible Path : Conclusions > Powerfull add-on to Google (standalone), CRM (Visible Path for salesforce. com; Siebel CRM On. Demand; Act! & Salesnet) & Business Intelligence (Visible Path for One. Source) > Visible Path’s clients today are relatively small, including companies with only 10 to 50 salespeople and 50 to several hundred people overall. > Very early in the adoption cycle for RCM platforms > Will RCM become a standard part of CRM? Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Contact Network: the Facts > > > > Headquarters: Boston, MA Founded in 2001 and in production since September 2002. Funding: undisclosed amount from founders and private investors Key metric: B 2 B Software Company: March 2004, Contact Network has 16 corporate customers and 24, 500 paying seats. The Boston Consulting Group and Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business are among their clients. Revenues of about $1. 5 million annually Fees: $5, 000 - $30, 000 /month depending on size and type of enterprise (includes installation, support, upgrades and training costs). URL: www. contactnetworkcorp. com Description: Contact Network Corporation is the leading provider of enterprise contact collaboration solutions. The Contact Network application, the first corporate social networking software, enables leading professional service firms, Global 1000 sales forces, and major universities to better utilize their extended relationship network to generate sales, facilitate networking opportunities, and improve knowledge sharing within a secure, private internal network. Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Contact Network: Conclusions > > > Contact Network was founded before the current wave of social network hype. They are cash flow positive, and they have a significant head start over their competitors (notably Spoke and Visible Path). Other companies have more funding and more visibility with venture capitalists and journalists (as evidenced by how many articles about this space fail to even mention Contact Network). However, Contact Network has more live paying customers than all of their competitors combined. Contact Network is a utility, and by staying focused on that utility, the company has created a tool that does its job well. If you feel you need the ability to identify who within your organization knows a certain person or company outside of your organization, then Contact Network is well suited for the task. While they are not as ambitious in their scope as some of their competitors, they have the advantage of having the most experience in the market with paying enterprise customers. Very early in the adoption cycle for enterprise contact collaboration solutions; Will this become a standard part of CRM? Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 http: //Online. Business. Networks. com/online-social-networks-guide/contact-network-corporation. php

>european business development solutions< Tacit: the facts > > > > Headquarters: Palo Alto, CA Founded: 1998 Employees: ~20 Funding: $24 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Alta Partners, Reuters Venture Capital and In-Q-Tel Key metric: customers include the US intelligence community, Aventis Pharmaceutical, Northrop Grumman, and other Fortune 500 and Global 500 companies Links: located in Silicon Valley URL: www. tacit. com Description: In Release 2. 0 of Active. Net the software can figure out who knows whom as opposed to what. “We use the existing infrastructure [of Tacit’s installations] and added the concept of contacts, ” says CEO/founder David Gilmour. “Contacts” are defined as individuals referenced in e-mails, meetings in calendars, sales call reports and the like. Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 >european business development solutions<

>european business development solutions< Plaxo Number of connections: Over 700, 000 Number of countries: 219 connections = People who have not installed Plaxo 2. 0, but are connected to Plaxo members Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

Categories >european business development solutions< Online Social Business Communities Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Social BUSINESS Communities Search engines for people and relationships Business Networking Platform Relationship Management Tools SOCIAL business Communties

>european business development solutions< Orkut: the facts > > > Definition: orkut is a broad-market social networking platform, offering the standard mix of profiles, private messaging, and usercreated groups. It is currently in beta, and is most notable for being a) invitation-only and b) affiliated with Google. Membership: Over 6, 000 members as of day 3 after the launch. The membership currently consists predominantly of people interested in the social networking space—technologists, sociologists, active bloggers, et al. Launched: January 22, 2004 Founder: Orkut Buyukkokten, a software engineer with Google, created the site over a several month period working on it one day a week. Google requires its engineers to devote 20% of their time to personal pet projects, and this was his. Fees: Free Corporate Overview: Orkut is officially run by "orkut. com LLC", but a notice on the footer of the site says simply "in affiliation with Google". Beyond that, the precise nature of the relationship is unclear, and both Orkut and Google have declined to comment. Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Orkut: Orkut Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Orkut: screenshots Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Orkut: Conclusions > Orkut is worth watching, if only because of the Google affiliation. The frank and open nature of many of the discussions and member profiles, though, make it attractive as a business networking environment only to those not easily offended by a prospective business associate's personal interests. > The biggest shortcoming, though, is the limited search functionality. Without the ability to search on common interests, company, title, etc. , it is not useful for any focused relationship-building, only for general socializing and conversation. > Orkut is a viable alternative to Friendster, Friendzy, et al. , but not to more business-focused networks. Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 http: //Online. Business. Networks. com/online-social-networks-guide/orkut. php

>european business development solutions< Tribe: the facts > > > > Website: Tribe. net Summary: Tribe is an online community offering a hybrid of social and business networking. Tribe's most distinguishing feature is its focus on trusted, person-to-person classified ads: members can place free classified ads within the context of the various interest groups, or "tribes", as they are known on Tribe. Membership: Over 111, 000 members as of February 2004 Launched: July 2003 Founders: Mark Pincus, CEO (bio) Pincus is Co-Founder and former CEO of Support. Soft, Overview: Tribe is based in San Francisco and currently employs a staff of about 25, including noted social software researcher and blogger danah boyd. Funding: Tribe received $6. 3 million in funding from venture firm Mayfield, with participation from newspaper and media giants Knight Ridder and The Washington Post Company. Fees: Tribe membership and classified advertising are both free while it is in beta. Tribe plans to keep membership free, and to start charging for certain types of classifieds, such as job listings (a model proven viable by Craigslist), and listing enhancements, such as persistent listings and better placement. Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Tribe: Mark Pincus Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Tribe: Conclusions > > Tribe has put together an outstanding platform—by far one of the most usable in the space, and we recommend it highly for general social networking. It also represents an excellent alternative to Yahoo Groups for existing social clubs and other organizations. For business networking, it's suited for the people who want a richer interface than Craigslist and more business interaction than Friendster. Tribe's fuzziness between personal and professional boundaries appears to be part of their business model. If that lack of boundaries doesn't bother you, and you want a little business networking along with your social interaction, rather than the other way around, it's an excellent choice. Very US-oriented – not a lot of traction in Europe – Tribe doesn’t use countries in search Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 http: //Online. Business. Networks. com/online-social-networks-guide/tribe. php

>european business development solutions< Craigslist Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Craig Newmark • Giving people a voice • A sense of trust and even intimacy • Consistency of down-to-earth values • Simplicity • No charges, except for job postings • Freshness of the material • No ads, particularly no banner ads

Categories >european business development solutions< Online Social Business Communities Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Social BUSINESS Communities Search engines for people and relationships Business Networking Platform Relationship Management Tools SOCIAL business Communties

>european business development solutions< Ecademy: the facts > > > Summary: Ecademy is a focused business network community, with a heavy emphasis on user-generated content—articles, weblogs, and message posts in their "clubs" (discussion forums). Ecademy also offers extensive face-to-face networking events throughout the UK, and rapidly expanding worldwide. Launched: February 1998 - Founders: Thomas Power, Glenn Watkins, Penny Power Members: today 34, 000; (2004 - 50, 000; 2003 - 25, 000; 2002 - 13, 000 members; 6, 500 members; 2000 - 3, 000 members; 1999 - 1500 members) The membership consists primarily of entrepreneurs, business coaches, consultants, and sales and business development professionals. Funding: Ecademy has been privately funded with a total of £ 2. 5 ($3. 75) million invested since its founding. The management is considering an Initial Public Offering in 2006. Fees: Basic membership: Free; Power Networker: Free one-month trial, € 14 per month Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Ecademy: Thomas Power Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Ecademy: Trusted Networks Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Ecademy Belgium Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Ecademy: conclusions > > > Ecademy is truly an innovator in terms of proactively stimulating business among its members and creating revenue stream for itself in the process. For UK and European residents, and any others involved in global business, it should be one of your first choices, especially if you are in a B 2 B business. Ecademy will be of most benefit to those who write well and can spend the time writing in order to leverage the content-rich environment. For organizations, the Trusted Network platform is a robust platform for building your online community. While there are certainly many other competent platforms for this, the unique benefit of Ecademy Trusted Networks is the integration with the broader Ecademy context. Ecademy can be overwhelming. The user interface is very busy, but that's because there's simply a lot going on here. Once you can get past that, it is the most feature-rich platform of all the online business networks. What is perhaps most remarkable about Ecademy is the extraordinary loyalty of its members and their commitment to the platform. Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 http: //Online. Business. Networks. com/online-social-networks-guide/ryze. php http: //Online. Business. Networks. com/online-social-networks-guide/ecademy. php

>european business development solutions< open. BC: the facts > > > Summary: open. BC (started in Germany) wants to become the foremost European based, global on-line networking platform for professional and safe contact management and networking. Innovative networking and communication technologies are available in German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese. Fees: Free membership: access to all basic functionality: your own contact page with a guest book, invite and manage your contacts and events, receive private messages. Premium membership (€ 5, 95/month) advantages: Advanced search, private message, Organize events Launched: October 2003, Hamburg, Germany Founders: Lars Hinrich Members: 100. 000 +; 250+ forums (=clubs) Funding: VC funded. Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 >european business development solutions<

>european business development solutions< open. BC: conclusions > > > open. BC should be your first choice if you do business in Germany, especially in a B 2 B business. Focus is 100% business only. For organizations, the private clubs are a platform for building online community. The user interface is very business like, a bit boring. open. BC has started their international expansion, the company is run very professionally with big ambitions. Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Ryze: the facts > > > Founder: Adrian Scott, a founding investor in Napster, co-founder of Applesoup/Flycode Description: Ryze is a general-purpose business network community, offering highly customizable personal profile pages and both private messaging and public discussion areas. Ryze also emphasizes face-to-face networking, offering monthly get-togethers in many major cities. Membership: Over 120, 000 members (May 2004) Membership is worldwide, with the majority of users in the United States, and a large user base in India. There also large concentrations of users in Silicon Valley and New York City. More than 200 organizations host Networks on Ryze to help their members interact with each other and grow their organizations. Launched: October 2001 Fees: Basic membership: Free- Gold membership: $9. 95/month. Funding: Ryze is known for running "lean and mean", and is one of only a handful of companies in the social networking space that is currently profitable. Ryze currently has three sources of income: Gold memberships, local networking mixers, and classified advertising. Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Ryze: Adrian Scott Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Ryze: screenshots Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Ryze: conclusions > > Ryze's advanced features offer power networkers a variety of tools for proactive networking, but its simple and highly intuitive user interface make it very accessible even to novices. Busy individuals will want to review the privacy and notification features, as Ryze tends to generate a great deal of activity. Ryze is an excellent choice for individuals looking to increase their visibility and build credibility in a public context. The large number of active discussion groups and the high membership growth rate make it well-suited for this purpose. Ryze is well-suited for those wishing to increase the diversity of their network, as it has perhaps the most geographically, demographically, and culturally diverse membership of any of the online business communities. Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 http: //Online. Business. Networks. com/online-social-networks-guide/ryze. php

Categories >european business development solutions< Online Social Business Communities Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Social BUSINESS Communities Search engines for people and relationships Business Networking Platform Relationship Management Tools SOCIAL business Communties

>european business development solutions< Country specific Networks Belgium spain Netherlands Turkey France Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Sweden

>european business development solutions< YASN’s & Others Tools Andrew Weinreich Former President and CEO, sixdegrees. com Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< The Value of your Network > > > N: The Number of people in your network Reach more people with less effort. R: Their Relevance to your professional goals Do more with less effort by knowing the right people. S: The Strength of your relationships with them Learn how to build trust and friendship online. C: Your Credibility with the people in your network It doesn't matter who you know if they don't believe you. D: The Diversity of your network Diversify your portfolio of people just as you do your finances. Network Valuation Formula: and Time = Number x Strength Scott Allen David Teten Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Top Ten Online Business Networking Tips How to build quality business relationships online: 1. Remember, you're connecting with people. 2. Clarify what you have to give and what you want to gain. 3. Become an information centre. 4. Be personally visible on the Internet. 5. Pick online communities that work for you. 6. Review the online community as a guest before you join. 7. Be prepared. 8. Pace yourself. 9. Manage your email. 10. Be sensitive to people's time and email boxes. Scott Allen Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Top Ten Tips for Networking Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Collect people Respect geography Start a club Relax and be yourself Go for volume, not quantity Listen for link words Make a match – live Disturb your comfort zone Read new material Manage your reputation Your face is your brand Thomas Power Networking for Life

>european business development solutions< The beauty of online business networks Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Online business networking is … > > > independent of Time: 24/7/365 independent of Place: from you pc – stay at home both Local & Global Targetted: use keywords, companies names to find the right people Inbound: Passive presence - While you sleep people will search you. Make it easy for everyone. Put your picture up. Give them information. Tell them everything, because they really do not know. Blog. Competitive: Stand out as you have competition. Visit others in your field and see what they have. Copy from the best! an Investment in your business: Feed your pipeline. Do it everyday. New: start now, then you are ahead of most of the universe. You will be established when others catch on. Memory-proof: you can keep track of your network. Social Networks have online profiles so you don’t forget, some keep track of your message exchange. Efficient: you can connect online with far more people than you could ever meet face to face on a daily basis. Changing the way we do businss

>european business development solutions< Online Networking: A full time job? Hendrik Deckers - September 2004

>european business development solutions< Not only for people Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 g n i k r o w ! t s e g N o D r fo

>european business development solutions< Also for geeks! Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 g n i k r o w ! t s e k N Gee for

>european business development solutions< Resources Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Guide to Online Social Networks, Social Software, and Business Communities Scott Allen David Teten Esther Dyson thesocialsoftwareweblog

Contact me >european business development solutions< Hendrik Deckers - September 2004 Managing Director Close Partners hendrik. deckers@closepartners. com www. closepartners. com Chairman Ecademy Benelux hendrik. deckers@ecademy. com benelux. ecademy. com Close Partners is a multi-national, multi-skilled team of business development professionals operating across Europe. We design, build, drive and manage high-performance, pan-European routes-to-market for enterprise-class software and solution vendors. References include: