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They called it the Snowpocalypse. When the East Coast was slammed by a massive storm this past winter, Newark Mayor Cory Booker hit the streets, coming to the aid of stranded residents and literally shoveling out a transit bus. But tales of his derring-do weren’t just transmitted by the media or word of mouth. The tech-savvy mayor also blasted out news of his exploits and engaged directly with constituents via Twitter, earning widespread

Conventional wisdom says that great companies are built by business leaders with the greatest vision. However, the truth is that groundbreaking businesses tend to come from entrepreneurs who were smart enough to out-execute everyone else in their space. That means getting products out there and growing a loyal customer base rather than trying to engineer a product to its supposed perfection.
Microsoft is a great example of company that has succeeded by out-executing its competitors. They’ve rarely been first to market with any of their products, but they’ve successfully brought them to market, figured out how to improve them, and reintroduced them again and

I hear it all the time from small business owners: “I can’t afford to spend time tweeting or hanging out on Facebook — I have a business to run!” and “Is it possible for my small business to make money from social media, or is it just a necessary game I have to play?”
The experts tell us that social media is here to stay; it’s no longer a question of “if” your business will have a presence on social media but “when” and “how.” But while many small business owners may be actively participating on social media networks, if someone asked “why” or “how” they are using it to bring in new customers, they wouldn’t have clue.
Most large companies are just now figuring it out themselves. I recently talked to a multi-billion dollar company that has a grand total of one employee whose responsibility it is to manage social media (and still do her day job). Many have outsourced everything to their media agency in hopes that they know what to

A year ago in honor of Data Privacy Day, I wrote “How to Keep Your Privacy Private: Data Privacy Day 2010,” and called out the need to protect our personal and families’ privacy, with emphasis on investing the necessary time to protect your privacy. One year later, that advice continues to remain valid and, in fact, more important than ever. As more and more of our societal interaction has included an online component, we must ensure that we are paying attention every time we hit that “enter” key.
What’s changed from 2010 to 2011? More and more of us have migrated successfully to the myriad of social networks that are euphemistically pounding at our front door. Joining in the barrage of invites to join this or that entity, we’ve seen the larger online social network sites (in the English-speaking world: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Foursquare) capturing the largest audiences and become the new places where we begin our

Q: What is the best way to increase the size of my network? How can I get myself and my brand in front of people?
–Christina Montgomery, FL
The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council, an advocacy group founded by serial entrepreneur Scott Gerber that works to take action against youth unemployment by teaching young people how to build successful companies. The council’s members include Generation Y entrepreneurs and experts in a variety of fields.
A: Attend Events
Attend as many networking events and relevant panels/speakers as you can — you never know whom you might meet. Make sure to put yourself out there when you’re at these events, not just watch and listen. Get people’s business cards and follow up with every single one of them afterwards — they will likely lead to new

Several months ago, as a favor to a friend, I did an informational interview with a recent grad — a nice young woman with an Ivy League degree. At the end of our coffee, she leaned in and lowered her eyes. “There’s something else I should mention,” she said. “I’m not sure if you Googled me before we met,

There has been much discussion about the impact of the so-called “information age.” Prior to 2003, mankind had generated a sum total of 5 Exabyte’s of content historically. Today it is estimated we generate this amount of content measured in days. Google CEO Eric Schmidt:
So what impact does all that content have on our society? How do we value ‘things’ when knowledge is pervasive, when money is digital, and when you can no longer protect an idea or concept legally because information scarcity no longer applies? The level and rate of change that we are experiencing today is likely to accelerate over the next 50-100 years. We will be undergoing periods of constant disruption this coming century, and the disruption we face every 10-15 years, may be something our forebears only have had to deal with during their entire lifetime.
Where is it all coming from?
Geographically, in 2010, the majority of email users were located in Asia/Pacific

In the spring I travelled to Barcelona for the GSM Association’s World Congress, with 49,000 participants spread between mobile phone-related 1,300 vendors. I was not interested in asking about how many bytes or the latest stock prices. I wanted to ask the CEOs gathered there, What is your company doing to better humanity? The response overwhelmed me and I am working my way through a total of 50 stories on how Connectivity is bettering humanity.
Political uprisings anywhere in the world today depend on cellular technology.
Twenty-five years ago I launched Fundamentalists Anonymous (FA) to combat extremism – the Fundamentalist Mindset – a view of the world in black-or-white, right-and-wrong, with no shades of gray. Today, we see extremism in the form of terrorism around the globe and the threat of extreme ideologies are more dangerous than ever before given the ubiquity of nuclear weaponry.
Ten years ago I formed a network of orphan care known as Orphans International Worldwide (OIWW) that has worked in Africa, Asia and the Americas to Raise Global Citizens. Connectivity allowed me to build the network, as I note on Skype’s website.
Connectivity breeds goodness, not evil. Terrorists may use Connectivity to plan their activities or share videos of terror tactics, but Facebook, LinkedIn, and cell phone’s mobile technologies are at the heart best able to transmit the positive, not the negative.
Maasai tribesmen today in Kenya rely on their cell phone technology.
Since humanity began, we have had equal opportunities to act in ways Good or Evil. With the invention of the Gutenberg press, we began to evolve towards being better as a species.
Skype’s former CEO, Josh Silverman, echoed this thought in a recent interview with me:
I strongly believe that education and communications help us become what we are ordained to become – Good. The Connectivity that we are beginning to see around the world will assist us in furthering our evolutionary trajectory towards being better and away from being ‘extremist.’ For the most part, Josh agrees:
In brief, over the last 20 years, the Internet and cell phones which bridge the Digital Divide have reshaped our world through electronic (“e-”) and mobile (“m-”) applications or services. The mobile applications – mServices – that I am most excited about impact health, education, and finance.
In Kenya health workers are using mHealth programs to track and contain outbreaks of disease, manage vaccine and medical supplies, and monitor childhood immunization campaigns, all on a device that fits in the palm of your hand (photo: DataDyne.org).
Many of the world’s poor have access to mobile phones. From 2006-2009, the number of cell phone users in the developing world went from 1.5 billion to 2.2 billion, and future projections see a jump to over 3 billion within the next couple of years.
In 2009 it was noted by Money.com that in India alone, over five million new mobile phone customers sign up per week. We now have a global network of connectivity that is almost endless. It can be used for healthcare, for education, and of course for finance. More people today have cell phones than have radios – or even land lines. We are seeing mobile operators creating joint ventures throughout the developing world:
mHealth. The U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set out clear and ambitious targets for reducing child and maternal mortality worldwide. But a growing shortage of healthcare workers and other economic and environmental trends have made elevation of life expectancy rates a challenge. The MDGs also call for dynamic public-private partnerships to help tackle obstacles to international development. Through new alliances and the widespread availability of mobile technologies, the field of mHealth has enormous potential to leverage health innovation and improve healthcare delivery worldwide. mHealth will allow healing where there existed only pain and suffering.
mEducation. Long distance learning is playing an increasingly vital role in allowing students to learn. In post-earthquake Haiti, for example, the teachers of Leogane have ‘fled, bled, or are dead.’ Supervised mEducation may be the best way to move the thousands of students left behind through high school and into college.
mFinance. People are paying bills, sending money – or even air time – over their cell phones. It is simply more convenient that the old ways. The majority of people in the developing world are ‘unbanked.’ Mobile technology is empowering them – allowing them to control their own finances – giving them financial independence.
Josh Silverman, former CEO of Skype, leads the global conversation.
I asked Josh Silverman how Skype helps to better humanity? He told me:
Look, we give away free software that allows you to talk to anyone else on earth for free. Our business model is simple: We give away a product for free that doesn’t cost us anything, we gain lots of new subscribers that way -and to them we have the opportunity to market really high-value, low-cost services. We can market products that are really cheap and deliver great value because we did not have to pay to acquire the customer and we don’t have to pay to support the customer. We can pass along all of those savings to our customers, still make a fair margin on the products that we offer, and have it still be disruptively cheap — calling to Europe for two cents a minute, for example.
The great thing is – and I think this is true for a lot of disruptive companies – we focus on putting great software out there that allows you to turn any computing devise into a communications devise. The innovation this has unleashed in every sector of the economy is perhaps almost as surprising to us as it is to you. Every day we get stories from different sectors of the economy and how they are using Skype – and it’s super heartwarming for us. And we haven’t had to do a lot of investment specifically for it.
Lots of educational institutions are using Skype now. They are using it for distance learning. So teachers can teach a class from far away. They are using it for students that are sick. I hear so many stories of a child who maybe has a blood cancer and needs to spend six months or a year in the hospital and can actually participate from her hospital bed in classes. And then bridging cultural divides.
I heard just the other day the story of a classroom in Harlem that does a video call with classroom in a favela in Rio — so that these underprivileged communities can learn from each other and get exposed to the fact that there are other people facing similar challenges in other parts of the world. Those are just three examples that I’ve heard of recently. They are all happening without a lot of specific focus from us. We are now starting a “Skype for Educators” section of the website that is doing more to basically train people on how they can use the functionality that already exists in Skype in education.
I think we can look at healthcare and other sectors in the future, but our main focus is: How do we provide a base level of functionality with Skype that is powerful enough that people can use it and it will meet their needs in almost every circumstance?
I spend a lot of time in Washington, D.C. and in Brussels and the Middle East talking about why we think that a really open communication policy is very important to foster economic growth and civil rights and human rights.
Skype is really useful in particular as a synchronist communication method, so what Twitter is good at and Facebook is good is broadcast – one-to-many broadcast. What Skype is really good at is giving much richer information between people. We are seeing, for example, citizen journalism explode via Skype. Anyone with a webcam can go and report from the field. We are able to suddenly get much more accurate information about what’s happening in real time without needing to send a satellite truck. We think that’s a really helpful element – together with Twitter and Facebook – for situations like this.
Beginning in 1977, I travelled the world to connect to others in person. My grandmother, who had lived through both World Wars, assured me that the Germans and Japanese were intrinsically evil. My mother, who embraced Black Americans through her work in civil rights, gave me the mixed message that I should never marry a Latina. Growing up in Ohio, I had an a priori feeling that people were people. To prove this hypothesis, I was an exchange student to Germany, Japan – and Colombia. And discovered I was right.
Today, people connect electronically – over the Internet or mobile phone – making the world indeed much smaller. My story about Israelis and Palestinians playing mobile games together, and building friendships electronically, illustrates this. These are all vital steps towards world peace, where we no longer must allocate the time and resources to go physically to all corners of the earth – Facebook, Skype, our email takes us there.
After having written for Huffington Post and Daily Kos for years on Thought Leaders and Global Citizens, I branched out to create The Jim Luce Stewardship Report (JLSR) recently focused on Connecting Goodness. Because Connectivity allows for Goodness, and through Connectivity we become better people.
Connectivity is part of our natural evolution as human beings to become one world living in peace and harmony. It will not happen in our lifetimes, but it is a trajectory that will change the world for future generations.
Other Stories and Videos by/of Jim Luce on Connectivity:
Gates Foundation’s Ignacio Mas On eFinance in the Developing World (HuffPo)
Allure of the Hive: Experts on Connectivity, Social Networking and Social Change (HuffPo)
Eunhee Jung O’Neil’s Center for International Virtual Schooling (HuffPo)
Roshan: Cell Phone Company Helping to Change Afghanistan (Stewardship Report)
C.E.O. Brooke Partridge Helps Lead Technology Thought in Developing World (HuffPo)
Connecting Disaster Relief Through Technology After Earthquake in Haiti (HuffPo)
Introduction to mFinance: Cell Phone Banking (Stewardship Report)
The Impact of Cell Phones on Psychology, Community, Culture, Arts and Economics (HuffPo)
CharityHelp: An Electronic Bridge to Kids in Need (Stewardship Report)
Skype Interview with Josh Silverman on Haiti and Bettering Humanity (HuffPo)
Jim Luce: Skype at Orphans International Worldwide (Skype.com)

Follow Jim Luce on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/jimluce

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Last spring I travelled to Barcelona for the GSM Association’s World Congress, with 49,000 participants spread between mobile phone-related 1,300 vendors. I was not interested in asking about how many bytes or the latest stock prices. I wanted to ask the CEOs gathered there, What is your company doing to better humanity? The response overwhelmed me and I am working my way through a total of 50 stories on how Connectivity is bettering humanity.
Political uprisings anywhere in the world today depend on cellular technology.
Twenty-five years ago I launched Fundamentalists Anonymous (FA) to combat extremism – the Fundamentalist Mindset – a view of the world in black-or-white, right-and-wrong, with no shades of gray. Today, we see extremism in the form of terrorism around the globe and the threat of extreme ideologies are more dangerous than ever before given the ubiquity of nuclear weaponry.
Ten years ago I formed a network of orphan care known as Orphans International Worldwide (OIWW) that has worked in Africa, Asia and the Americas to Raise Global Citizens. Connectivity allowed me to build the network, as I note on Skype’s website.
Connectivity breeds goodness, not evil. Terrorists may use Connectivity to plan their activities or share videos of terror tactics, but Facebook, LinkedIn, and cell phone’s mobile technologies are at the heart best able to transmit the positive, not the negative.
Maasai tribesmen today in Kenya rely on their cell phone technology.
Since humanity began, we have had equal opportunities to act in ways Good or Evil. With the invention of the Gutenberg press, we began to evolve towards being better as a species.
Skype’s former CEO, Josh Silverman, echoed this thought in a recent interview with me:
I strongly believe that education and communications help us become what we are ordained to become – Good. The Connectivity that we are beginning to see around the world will assist us in furthering our evolutionary trajectory towards being better and away from being ‘extremist.’ For the most part, Josh agrees:
In brief, over the last 20 years, the Internet and cell phones which bridge the Digital Divide have reshaped our world through electronic (“e-”) and mobile (“m-”) applications or services. The mobile applications – mServices – that I am most excited about impact health, education, and finance.
In Kenya health workers are using mHealth programs to track and contain outbreaks of disease, manage vaccine and medical supplies, and monitor childhood immunization campaigns, all on a device that fits in the palm of your hand (photo: DataDyne.org).
Many of the world’s poor have access to mobile phones. From 2006-2009, the number of cell phone users in the developing world went from 1.5 billion to 2.2 billion, and future projections see a jump to over 3 billion within the next couple of years.
In 2009 it was noted by Money.com that in India alone, over five million new mobile phone customers sign up per week. We now have a global network of connectivity that is almost endless. It can be used for healthcare, for education, and of course for finance. More people today have cell phones than have radios – or even land lines. We are seeing mobile operators creating joint ventures throughout the developing world:
mHealth. The U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set out clear and ambitious targets for reducing child and maternal mortality worldwide. But a growing shortage of healthcare workers and other economic and environmental trends have made elevation of life expectancy rates a challenge. The MDGs also call for dynamic public-private partnerships to help tackle obstacles to international development. Through new alliances and the widespread availability of mobile technologies, the field of mHealth has enormous potential to leverage health innovation and improve healthcare delivery worldwide. mHealth will allow healing where there existed only pain and suffering.
mEducation. Long distance learning is playing an increasingly vital role in allowing students to learn. In post-earthquake Haiti, for example, the teachers of Leogane have ‘fled, bled, or are dead.’ Supervised mEducation may be the best way to move the thousands of students left behind through high school and into college.
mFinance. People are paying bills, sending money – or even air time – over their cell phones. It is simply more convenient that the old ways. The majority of people in the developing world are ‘unbanked.’ Mobile technology is empowering them – allowing them to control their own finances – giving them financial independence.
Josh Silverman, former CEO of Skype, leads the global conversation.
I asked Josh Silverman how Skype helps to better humanity? He told me:
Look, we give away free software that allows you to talk to anyone else on earth for free. Our business model is simple: We give away a product for free that doesn’t cost us anything, we gain lots of new subscribers that way -and to them we have the opportunity to market really high-value, low-cost services. We can market products that are really cheap and deliver great value because we did not have to pay to acquire the customer and we don’t have to pay to support the customer. We can pass along all of those savings to our customers, still make a fair margin on the products that we offer, and have it still be disruptively cheap — calling to Europe for two cents a minute, for example.
The great thing is – and I think this is true for a lot of disruptive companies – we focus on putting great software out there that allows you to turn any computing devise into a communications devise. The innovation this has unleashed in every sector of the economy is perhaps almost as surprising to us as it is to you. Every day we get stories from different sectors of the economy and how they are using Skype – and it’s super heartwarming for us. And we haven’t had to do a lot of investment specifically for it.
Lots of educational institutions are using Skype now. They are using it for distance learning. So teachers can teach a class from far away. They are using it for students that are sick. I hear so many stories of a child who maybe has a blood cancer and needs to spend six months or a year in the hospital and can actually participate from her hospital bed in classes. And then bridging cultural divides.
I heard just the other day the story of a classroom in Harlem that does a video call with classroom in a favela in Rio — so that these underprivileged communities can learn from each other and get exposed to the fact that there are other people facing similar challenges in other parts of the world. Those are just three examples that I’ve heard of recently. They are all happening without a lot of specific focus from us. We are now starting a “Skype for Educators” section of the website that is doing more to basically train people on how they can use the functionality that already exists in Skype in education.
I think we can look at healthcare and other sectors in the future, but our main focus is: How do we provide a base level of functionality with Skype that is powerful enough that people can use it and it will meet their needs in almost every circumstance?
I spend a lot of time in Washington, D.C. and in Brussels and the Middle East talking about why we think that a really open communication policy is very important to foster economic growth and civil rights and human rights.
Skype is really useful in particular as a synchronist communication method, so what Twitter is good at and Facebook is good is broadcast – one-to-many broadcast. What Skype is really good at is giving much richer information between people. We are seeing, for example, citizen journalism explode via Skype. Anyone with a webcam can go and report from the field. We are able to suddenly get much more accurate information about what’s happening in real time without needing to send a satellite truck. We think that’s a really helpful element – together with Twitter and Facebook – for situations like this.
Beginning in 1977, I travelled the world to connect to others in person. My grandmother, who had lived through both World Wars, assured me that the Germans and Japanese were intrinsically evil. My mother, who embraced Black Americans through her work in civil rights, gave me the mixed message that I should never marry a Latina. Growing up in Ohio, I had an a priori feeling that people were people. To prove this hypothesis, I was an exchange student to Germany, Japan – and Colombia. And discovered I was right.
Today, people connect electronically – over the Internet or mobile phone – making the world indeed much smaller. My story about Israelis and Palestinians playing mobile games together, and building friendships electronically, illustrates this. These are all vital steps towards world peace, where we no longer must allocate the time and resources to go physically to all corners of the earth – Facebook, Skype, our email takes us there.
After having written for Huffington Post and Daily Kos for years on Thought Leaders and Global Citizens, I branched out to create The Jim Luce Stewardship Report (JLSR) recently focused on Connecting Goodness. Because Connectivity allows for Goodness, and through Connectivity we become better people.
Connectivity is part of our natural evolution as human beings to become one world living in peace and harmony. It will not happen in our lifetimes, but it is a trajectory that will change the world for future generations.
Other Stories and Videos by/of Jim Luce on Connectivity:
Gates Foundation’s Ignacio Mas On eFinance in the Developing World (HuffPo)
Allure of the Hive: Experts on Connectivity, Social Networking and Social Change (HuffPo)
Eunhee Jung O’Neil’s Center for International Virtual Schooling (HuffPo)
Roshan: Cell Phone Company Helping to Change Afghanistan (Stewardship Report)
C.E.O. Brooke Partridge Helps Lead Technology Thought in Developing World (HuffPo)
Connecting Disaster Relief Through Technology After Earthquake in Haiti (HuffPo)
Introduction to mFinance: Cell Phone Banking (Stewardship Report)
The Impact of Cell Phones on Psychology, Community, Culture, Arts and Economics (HuffPo)
CharityHelp: An Electronic Bridge to Kids in Need (Stewardship Report)
Skype Interview with Josh Silverman on Haiti and Bettering Humanity (HuffPo)
Jim Luce: Skype at Orphans International Worldwide (Skype.com)

Follow Jim Luce on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/jimluce

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

As the needs of our clients increase and FSB expands to serve them better, I find myself looking to hire people. However, this year, my approach is very different. As we are working on branding authors on the web, I am looking for people who can demonstrate that they have the skills to help us market and publicize books in a new way, using social media and web technologies to communicate a story.
What I have found is that a resume is just not enough to get my attention. The job market is tough, for sure, and everyone is looking for an edge. My bold suggestion is that you pretend you don’t have a resume. Think, then, how would you get someone’s attention, how would you tell them your story? Rather than crossing your fingers and sending out a one-dimensional paper resume, I recommend that all job seekers use a variety of social media tools.
One way to stand out to potential employers is to develop a personal story and a personal brand. Today, your online personal brand is much more valuable than your resume.
Before you get started, like all branding campaigns, start with an analysis of your goals.
Think about the following questions: What are my goals for generating income? Take time to meditate on the types of things that you enjoy doing, along with the unique set of skills that you possess.How can you parlay these specific talents and interests into landing a fulfilling job for yourself?
Who am I?Easier asked than answered, of course, but this question will be presented in each and every interview you attend.”Tell me about yourself.”Make sure that you are able to answer this question with your individual goals and aims in mind.Above all, be authentic, be YOU because there is no competition for YOU.
How will my potential employers be able to verify my professional experience and references?Brainstorm about the ways in which you can communicate your assets to potential employers or clients.Maintaining a social media profile is a fantastic way to present your past work experience and professional connections to potential employers.
Here are some sites and services that can help you develop a three-dimensional resume and your personal brand.
LinkedIn
This site enables you to showcase your employment history, professional contacts, and endorsements from peers and clients. Potential employers want to see the extent of your commitment to an industry, as well as the level of respect that you have gained from colleagues and former bosses. Make sure you use a professional looking photo of yourself.
Blog
A blog is a great way to show off your expertise and comment on the latest news in your industry. Of course, your blog posts should be current, well-written and representative of your brand and goals in all ways.
Twitter
Your twitter feed allows potential employers to examine what sorts of things interest you and what sort of information you choose to share with your social network.Become a source of good information and resources for people. Make sure you follow the companies you’d like to work for.
Video/YouTube
Post videos of yourself on YouTube to give employers an idea of your presence and persona. If your personality is your greatest asset, why not show it off?
The idea behind developing an online brand is twofold: to spread the word about you — your story, experience, and your portfolio — and also to allow potential employers to verify your professional history — references, dates of employment, professional recognition.That said, the next time you apply for a job, don’t just forward your standard paper resume.Instead, attach a cover letter with links to your various profiles online.My advice is to replace that dated, one-dimensional resume and bring yourself to life with social media.
I would love to hear about the ways in which social media and personal branding has helped you secure a job or make connections with other professionals in your industry.Employers, have you ever hired someone that you found through the Web?Job seekers, how much time do you devote to maintaining your social media sites and pages?
Fauzia Burke is the Founder and President of FSB Associates, a web publicity and social media firm specializing in creating awareness for books and authors. Founded in 1995, FSB’s mission is to give authors an opportunity to promote their work to an eager, targeted audience online. FSB is based in the NYC area. Please engage with FSB on Facebook or Twitter. For web publicity and social media news, follow Fauzia on a new Twitter feed: @WebSnapshot

Follow Fauzia Burke on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/WebSnapshot

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

As the story goes, F. Scott Fitzgerald once remarked to Ernest Hemingway, “The rich are different than you and me.” To which, Hemingway replied, “Yes, they have more money.” Fitzgerald, as you probably know, was obsessed with the rich, how they behaved, what they thought and so on. On the other hand, Hemingway was clearly more of an everyman. As most of us are everyday people, we are unfamiliar with how that elite world operates. What is different about the world of a high net-worth family? How about multi-generational wealthy families? What are some of the problems that having money creates?
Typically, high net-worth families rely on “family offices” to manage their complicated day-to-day lives. These family offices may be single family offices, i.e. just for one family, or they may aggregate services among many families, thereby known as an MFO or multi-family office. A dedicated staff usually handles many facets of financial services including investments and complex asset allocation strategies. They also are responsible for associated tax implications, trusts and estate matters (either via in-house expertise or to specialized outsourced firms). Additionally, the staff of an family office may manage multiple residences and domestic staff. For others, it may involve private aircraft and its maintenance, etc. The more assets that belong to the family, the more to track, insure, maintain, etc. Most family offices handle travel arrangements, may create special family events, advise on philanthropic decisions, etc. They handle the routine “paperwork” for wealthy families whose everyday life is complicated. Family offices routinely manage bill pay/reporting as well as more sophisticated transactions such as legal matters, real estate transactions, etc. The family office staff implements controls, reporting and structure to manage expected service levels and reflect certain values for each particular family they support.
Multi-generational families need support and guidance on family management, tax planning, governance issues, succession planning, as well as every day accounting. For multi-generational wealthy families, some of the advice sought after may be regarding philanthropic foundations, and how to evaluate outside charitable areas of interest, how to structure the family’s position on environmental matters or a myriad of other things which wealthy individuals may find interesting and worthwhile in addition to managing their family business and other assets.
This is the world in which I am working in every day. I am neither wealthy myself nor had the good fortune of being born into a family which has been wealthy for past generations. I must navigate the worlds between the business which I am creating and the life which I am living. Over time, I have developed a keen eye and deep understanding of what motivates HNW (high net-worth) individuals. Marketing products or services to the high HNW client differs tremendously from mass marketing to the “everyman.” The essential difference lies in the relationship and trust — marketing within the HNW space is almost always relationship-based and highly targeted to particular groups of individuals or family offices.
Access to the HNW is only available to a handful of “vetted” individuals. Word-of-mouth recommendations rule. If the right person tells you to “take the meeting” you do so. It is a tightly woven community of trust in the HNW world. That was that trust which Bernie Madoff exploited. He based his “marketing” on word-of-mouth from one rich person to another rich person. His word-of-mouth campaign was executed perfectly. It evolved to be an “exclusive club” to which people were even denied access. The more people who were denied access the greater the demand became to “get in.” I have heard of many stories of the “lucky” investors who were turned away by Madoff who claimed that his hedge funds were “closed.” Access to these powerful clients is something which comes with implied trust and secrecy. This is exactly what Madoff took advantage of. Trust and one’s own reputation are essential tenets of becoming service providers to the HNW.
How can a service provider penetrate that market without the usual introductions? Here are some basic suggestions:
Strategies for prospecting in the High Net Worth Market
Go meet the HNW on their turf. Try joining the best country club, play golf 3 times a week at 2 pm and you will likely meet wealthy business owners and retirees or perhaps large shareholders of large companies. Also, target a specific number (limited) and type of client. Its quality of clients vs. quantity of clients in the HNW world.
Here is another way to “mingle” with your prospects. Each year, when the opera (for example) has their annual gala, buy a table for and bring your best clients (a nice treat for them!). You will get noticed and meet others in attendance. Follow up with the individuals and then volunteer on one of the opera committees. These committees will be populated with usually wealthy older patrons of the arts, your younger generational wealth or perhaps the emerging affluent. You can make friends, get invited to their events and leverage each contact to the next. Take every meeting and get to know the names and backgrounds of those targeted by your marketing plan.
Here is another smart idea: try to dominate an industry. One successful real estate entrepreneur I know believed that hedge fund principals were wealthy individuals. He located events targeting hedge fund managers at which he could give talks on the real estate markets and mingle. He went to their turf. Additionally, he has written articles on investing in real estate for their newsletters specifically addressing the hedge fund bonus situation and planning for opportunistic investments.
Next, and this is key: try to focus on “money in motion.” Money is “in motion” during the following life cycle events:
Death — do you prospect trust and estate attorneys?
Divorce — do you prospect matrimonial attorneys?
Sale of a business — do you prospect business brokers?
Sale of Real Estate — do you prospect commercial real estate brokers and real estate attorneys?
You can work to cultivate relationships with others that can introduce you to their wealthy clients. These are called centers of influence. Find other service providers that may have the type of relationships which you want and exchange contacts and introductions between both of you. Expand your rolodex and your firm’s name will also spread virally. Think beyond CPAs and attorneys to art gallery owners, high-end car dealers and the like.
Finally, don’t forget a social/online media strategy, especially if you have set your sights on, for example, hedge fund entrepreneurs. Create a strategy and stick to it. Social media strategy emulates the more traditional word-of-mouth marketing in an online platform. Create, update and utilize LinkedIn to increase your online visibility and to best leverage your existing contacts to meet new ones and learn about similar individuals at other firms and so on. Facebook, while typically used for social rather than business networking, is still a viable tool for an online presence. The goal is to increase the proliferation of your firm and your message. Twitter was initially dismissed by mainstream business as a not “serious” form of social networking. As someone who has recently begun “twittering” my tweets, I think it is a great medium for exchanging ideas, especially for those on the go! Frequently, I will read my incoming tweets when bored. I subscribe across a wide variety of topics including social media/marketing, news feed, women’s issues, parenting, foodies, etc. You can decide to skip a tweet or news bite, open the link and read it, reply to the tweeter privately or reply to all followers of the tweet. You can also forward the link via text message or even email to help spread the viral message. An example of this is following a chef who tweets a seasonal recipe and you forward the link via Twitter to all of your followers. Just some basics on Twitter…
Sometimes the HNW arena is an elite world which seems impenetrable and so I enjoy and value teaching others how to network amongst the rich and famous. However, I also confess that during other times, I think of “Miss Jane” the private banker alongside “Mr. Drysdale” on the Beverly Hillbillies. And, other times, Robin Leach of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” theme comes streaming through my head….
The real truth: I am just awaiting the day when I can change my “service provider” Coach Ocelot Print Maggie pocketbook (retail: $298) for a Hermes Birkin Bag (retail: $9,000) I want to change sides from an offensive position to the defensive side.

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com