Monday, April 26, 2004 – I’ve always been smitten with the power of online communications, so when I read an article recently about the latest Web craze, social and business networking, I couldn’t resist the urge. I became a member of Ryze. Of course, I perfectly understand if you’re pleading ignorance right now. I didn’t know anything about Ryze, either, until about a month ago. But today I have my own home page there, which serves (quite conveniently, might I add) as a portal through which I can hook up with industry brethren, kindred spirits and like-minded souls. It’s all about viral marketing, really, e.g., Ryze makes it easy for users to connect with their own list of contacts, then extend that reach outward — exponentially — to their contacts’ contacts, and so on and so forth. Everybody wins. On my page, I simply list what I (on behalf of Yellowfin) have — integrated direct marketing solutions — and what I want — nonprofit and for-profit clients as well as strategic partners and allies. I also include separate hyperlinks to the Yellowfin Web site and A Fine Kettle of Fish (yes, this very blog — speaking of online communications). But this is no destination site. It’s only as effective as the time I put into it. So every once in a while, I’ll invite a few people to visit my page, hoping they’ll dispense with any skepticism, add their names to my official list of Ryze friends and, ultimately, open up their own Ryze account. It’s up to me, not Ryze, to create the buzz. And the more I’m evangelizing for me, the more I’m evangelizing for them. (Like I said, think viral — all around.) The bottom line? I see it as a way of not just organizing my network online, but also as a way of introducing my list of contacts to each other (can you say matchmaker?), creating one big, continuous loop of mutually-beneficial relationships.
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