Madison Who’s Who Blog

These days there are so many demands our time made by our business, professional, and personal lives it is tempting to assign a lower priority to networking as an activity designed to meet new people. However, effective global networking is only a conversation away.
We are constantly being introduced to new people every day with no disruption to our schedules. Secondly, by not consistently widening our circles of acquaintances and contacts, we may be severely curtailing our chances for advancement and success. It is estimated that the average person knows about 250 people. And each of those people knows, in turn, another 250 or so people.
This means that for each new person you meet, you gain access to a potential pool of 62,500 people separated from you by just two degrees! Talk about effective global networking! Imagine the odds, then, that out of so many people, you would NOT find one person who would be a source of information about a better job, additional clients or customers, a speaking engagement or writing assignment, an investment opportunity, where to shop for better value, and much more.

The popularity of peer to peer networking (social networking) sites appears to be dependent on the audience’s geographic region. Here is the breakdown of how social networking site rate based on geographic regions.

• North America.  Both MySpace and Facebook attract predominately North American audiences, around two-thirds according to comScore.

• Europe.  Bebo is the choice of European social networkers with 63 percent of its users coming from that region and

• Asia-Pacific Islands.  Friendster attracts 89 percent of its audience from Asia-Pacific.

• Latin America.  Orkut is the darling of users in the Latin American countries.

Peer to peer networks are growing in popularity on a global scale. So, it would appear that social networking is not the fad it was once thought to be but rather an activity that is being woven into the very fabric of the global internet.

Professional directories like Madison Who’s Who can help Realtors network with other realtors on a global basis. Why would a realtor want to network with another realtor internationally?  Because a new report shows that nearly one in five realtors has sold a home to an international client in the past year.  This is according to new research by the National Association of Realtors®. International buyers purchasing homes in the US appears to be a growing trend.
Foreign buyers purchase homes across the United States, but 52 percent of sales in 2006 were concentrated in three states – Florida (26 percent), California (16 percent) and Texas (10 percent). The South attracted nearly half – 49 percent – of international buyers last year, while 31 percent purchased homes in the West.
The ability to network with other realtors worldwide will become an important tool for every realtor wanting to court the international buyer.  Professional directories like Madison Who’s Who give realtors the ability to do exactly that.

Now that the 2008 NFL pre-season is officially underway, we thought it would be a great time to take a look at who’s who among NFL rookies.  Here are the top 4 rookies to watch this season:
1. Adrian Peterson, RB, Minnesota Vikings - Rated as a top 3 talent by some well-known draft experts, Peterson slid a little in the first round - but not too far. He’s unquestionably the top running back from the 2007 draft and collectors know it.
2.  JaMarcus Russell, QB, Oakland Raiders- The big man with the big arm was the No. 1 overall pick, and he’ll be suiting up for a team that has little choice but to start him soon. Russell will have to beware of opposing rushers because the Raiders didn’t do much to improve the protection in front of him, but at 265 pounds he’s bigger than plenty of blitzing linebackers.
3.  Brady Quinn, QB, Cleveland Browns - Quinn took a roller coaster ride on draft day, getting passed on by a bunch of teams that appeared to need a young quarterback, then ending up with the Browns after they traded up to the 22nd pick to grab him. It wasn’t the way he pictured it going down, but he’ll be playing for the team he idolized as a young boy.
4.  Calvin Johnson, WR, Detroit Lions - True to his word, Matt Millen didn’t allow his past failures drafting wide receivers with high first-round picks to dissuade him from taking Johnson. The question now is whether collectors will find it just as easy to forgive and forget.

Lately security industry leaders such as Sophos are working to protect social networkers.  They are warning users of the dangers of allowing strangers to gain access to their online profiles.  This comes following new research into the risks of identity and information theft occurring through social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.
While these sites can help achieve effective global networking, recent research shows that 41 percent of users will share their personal information with a complete stranger.  Information such as email address, date of birth and phone number are bits of information that ID thieves love to get their slimy hands on.  Freely giving strangers access to this information greatly increases a person’s susceptibility to ID theft. While there are few documented cases of ID theft occurring from social networking sites, given their popularity it won’t be long before thieves are fully exploiting them.  Protect yourself by limiting the amount of personal information you divulge to strangers. The bottom line – If you’re using social media to increase your effective global networking, do it without divulging too much information about yourself.

Today’s world anymore is basically a mobile, social experience, at least to most people. However, for those of us who are digitally dependent riding a crowded bus can be more isolating than sitting in a room alone with a computer. However, this is about to change with new advances in mobile phone technology.
Now the mobile phone screen threatens to fill the loneliness that devotees of peer to peer networking sites experience when they are away from their PC.
Online peer to peer networking heavyweights such as MySpace and Facebook have added mobile features, and start-ups are scrambling to allow people to share every moment with their network of online friends through voice, text, pictures, and video – all done via mobile phone.
Peer to peer networking has been a popular thing with teens and young adults, and is now being utilized by business as well. With MySpace and Facebook hitting at a time when mobile phone usage is soaring, networking with peers and businesses alike is always at your fingertips.
Although only 3.5 percent of US mobile subscribers report logging onto a mobile social network site or blog even once a month from a mobile device, according to M:Metrics Inc., a mobile media research firm, investors and entrepreneurs see the cellphone world, with more than 200 million subscribers in the United States alone, as a market with massive potential.

Madison Who’s Who caters to business people from around the globe. Most business people realize that ratios are an invaluable tool for comparing the performance of companies on a like-for-like basis. Using ratios, the relative profitability, growth or debt levels, for example, of differently sized companies can be directly measured or compared with ease. Your Business Ratio Report focuses on the performance of key players in the industry it examines. Having closely analysed the sector, our editors and analysts have compiled the largest companies, so you dont have to. A Business Ratio report is, in effect, a complete financial reference for the sector. Here are some things that Madison who’s who subscribers might find useful:
A business ratio report can be used to assess trading and financial information on:
The Company
Size
Structure
Performance
The Industry:
Structure
Major companies
Performance
What you can look for when reading your Business Ratio Report:
- Trends
The results given in a Business Ratio report generally cover at least the previous three full accounting years, therefore any fluctuations in any area can be easily pinpointed
- Benchmarks
The average results for each ratio together with the industry profile of the average company in the sector can both be used as benchmarks to compare individual company performance.
- Size
All the major companies in the sector are ranked on the basis of sales, profits, total assets and employee numbers (PERFORMANCE LEAGUE TABLES Section 4). The largest and smallest of the key players can be easily identified, while the relative size of any company can be assessed.
- Growth
The average annual growth of each company’s sales, profits, total assets and number of employees over the three-year period being analyzed is calculated and ranked (Performance League Tables Section 4). This key information highlights strong and weak performers, which companies are expanding or losing market share, increasing or decreasing asset investment, or taking on or shedding employees. The industry results are also given for comparison purposes.

While many who’s who directories include lists of professionals in their field, Madison’s Who’s Who boasts a diverse membership base that includes artists, academicians, engineers, and realtors to name a few.  Providing those member’s biographies and credentials along with the multiple benefits of online exposure was just the first step of many that Madison Who’s Who has taken to providing Madison Who’s Who members increased value.
Now members are not only names in a book but are real and viable connections.  With the addition of a virtual bulletin board, Madison Who’s Who members have a forum where they can engage in business, chat about trivia, and mingle with professionals with like goals, life styles and ambitions.
Madison Who’s Who also provides convenient news feeds where members can review headlines from leading online publications from around the globe.  After perusing the latest investment news, Madison Who’s Who thought a classified ads section would be especially handy for members to engage in business, list job openings or recruit.
Madison Who’s Who could have stopped there and still retained a competitive edge.  Truth is, in creating an online presence, Madison Who’ s Who committed itself to never standing still.  As long as there is technology available that will increase and improve our services, Madison Who’s Who is committed to applying it.

The first time you ever hand out your business card, you are engaged in some sort of global networking.  Effective global networking may occur whether you know it is happening or not.  Every time you select new vendors, recruit for new employees, seek to promote your product/service or expand your market reach, some type of networking is involved.
The focus of effective global networking is to create a positive identity as both a business and a brand or service.  Essentially, effective global networking is operating on your name.  An integral component of networking is maintaining an impeccable reputation with your vendors and affiliates and your customers.  Any poor business practices will become evident in time and if that reputation is damaging, there is no networking that can reverse it.
Effective global networking is one of the many key methods for generating leads.  Someone always knows someone who needs your service/product.  If you have a pristine relationship with your vendors and affiliates, they will gladly recommend you.  Consider coordinating a marketing campaign or event with your affiliates that promote your mutual interests.

The word failure usually carries a negative connotation with it. Fear and failure are the usual human reactions to change. However success and failure go hand in hand to those that understand what it takes to succeed at anything, everything.

Failure can have duel reaction. A company or individual can get stuck in the fear of failure and never try anything new to move closer to success. A company or individual can also look at failure as simply a process of learning to change something that gets them closer to their definition of success.

Fear of failure is the main reason why more than 80% of people in the world are not prepared to change their circumstances. Why do people fear failure so much? The reason for this is because people don’t understand the dynamics involved in success and failure.

Today’s Social Web is an Incubator of Failures

Network operators, brands, institutions, organizations and individuals are all continuously failing to find success in the emergence of all this “social stuff”. A month or even a week doesn’t go by when a new technology creates a failure for an older technology. A blogger learns a new way to attract a larger audience pulling traffic and popularity away from another blogger. An established online community is replaced by a new community because users find more value, affinity or learning opportunities than provided by the older community.

Given the growth of adoption of all this “social stuff” what we have is a brand new dynamic of accelerated failures. Accelerated markets can shift instantly because of new technology, mass communications and the migration of swarms of “people” following dominant conversationalist using all the latest and greatest “social tools”. With the accelerated failures comes accelerated learning and the wave of knowledge lifts all conversations. Napoleon Hill once said: “Every failure, every adversity and every heartache, carries with it the seed of an equivalent or a greater benefit. Get it?

In a Business Week Cover Story titled “How Failure Breeds Success: Everyone fears failure. But breakthroughs depend on it. The best companies embrace their mistakes and learn from them they state: Coke’s Chairman and CEO E. Neville have said to his shareholders “As we take more risks, this is something we must accept as part of the regeneration process.”

“Failure’s capacity to teach is exactly why venture capitalists often look for managers to run startups whose résumés include experience with a flop. Gordon McCallum, CEO for Richard Branson’s Virgin Management Ltd., can point to managers within Virgin who might have been overlooked by other companies because of failures in their careers. He’s also quick to note that errors on the job, as long as they aren’t repeated, are not only supported, but valued”

Failure teaches you what works and what doesn’t. When you study the reasons for your failure and learn from it, you’ll find the key to your success. The great inventor Thomas Edison knew this truth better than anyone else. It took Edison 8000 trials to perfect the Edison battery? Afterwards he uttered this famous quote, “At least we know 8000 things that don’t work”.

Do You Know What Doesn’t Work?

Einstein said the definition of insanity is” Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”. As more and more businesses migrate to the social web they must learn to change everything. Applying old methods and mindsets to the new and ever changing dynamics of “social” technologies and open conversations of the “markets” could be and should be labeled as insane.

Everyone wants results and the results come from failing fast then changing methods to fail even faster. It is learning from others failures as well as your own that enables you to reach any definition of success. However, as soon as you think you’ve reached success one thing is certain, you should look to fail yet again and if you don’t your success will be but for the click of a mouse. Get it?

Stay tuned for How Fast Can You Fail: Part 2

What Say You? I say I can’t wait to fail yet again.