[Hidden-tech] Re: ? about self-promo

[Daniel Fried]

Nothing wrong with noting your own software when it's appropriate to the
conversation!

I think you're right... even just making the contents of the survey/skills
inventory nicely accessible (and useable) to the outside world would be
helpful.  There are a lot of questions about how to handle member listings
within that, but at least a lot of the pieces are there.

The plan, as I understand it, is to do a pretty major overhaul of the HT
site this year.  I think that some form of member directory would be a great
thing.

-Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net
[mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] On Behalf Of Michael
Muller
Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 5:23 PM
To: Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
Subject: RE: [Hidden-tech] Re: ? about self-promo

   ** The author of this post was a Good Dobee.
   ** You too can help the group
   ** Fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
   ** If you did, we all thank you.



I agree.  I think there are many of us that have overlapping skills, and
there's no need to have a bidding war on banner ads or highlighted bios, but
I do believe the website (and the organization itself) should bring the
individual up to the surface a little more. I mean, we're the Hidden
Technology of Western Mass, but... who are we? If you go to the website it's
not a simple task to find individuals. Is one of the organization's goals to
promote the membership?

First of all, you have to sign up on the website to access any of the
listing information. Is that something someone outside of the HT community
wants to do? No. So... no marketing to the outside world. And since (rightly
so) pushing your product is discouraged in the mailing list unless
specifically someone posts a request for your specific skills (ie; SEO,
blogs, etc), there's limited marketing to other HT members too. And that's
fine. I mean, we don't need to be barraged by everyone's "Hey, this is what
I do" emails. But there could be more inner-HT promotion. I have no idea
what most of the people on this list do, or in the org itself. And not
everyone in the org is on this mailing list.

Second, there's only a directory search on the website. There should also be
listings by category. I hesitate to provide an example as it's done by my
software, but at the risk of this email not going through, why not check out
how I do it:  http://www.montaguema.net/directory.cfm?gpt=34   Note how you
can do a search, as well as click on a category. And once you click on a
category, the resulting listings each have a list of categories they are
listed by, which you can click on to go look at other groupings, etc.
Perhaps the HT site can do something like this too? Or better?

Third, and this may be the most controvercial, but I agree with the time/$$$
investment thing. If you do a service or pay dues, you should get some sort
of ad presence on the website AND in the emails. I've been thinking about
this for a long time, about how to do it in my software. Emails that go out
when someone posts a corkboard post could have a "brought to you by" message
at the bottom of the email, taken from the directory if the listing owner
had passed a certain muster (ie; volunteer time or money). That way we, the
HT community, are exposed to what each other are doing. For me, getting my
skills out there and finding out about what my neighbor does that may help
me is the main reason I joined. So far I haven't learned much. I have to go
to the events to meet the other members and ask them what they do. Which is
great, but... I spend a lot of time online. Should I have to wait until the
next elbow-rubbing session to find this stuff out? I'd really like to browse
the directory. Searching implies you know what you're searching for.

Lastly, there are a lot of local community websites all over the valley. HT
should be a presence on them all. I know of several just in the Montague /
Greenfield area (one run by me), and we're obviously much wider than that.
If we're talking about volunteering time, someone should make sure that HT
has an organizational logon to all those sites and post any events to their
messageboards / blogs / calendars, etc. Get more members, and get more
traffic to the site. As the president of MCTV I have tasked the station
staff with posting our TV schedules and press releases to all local
websites.  The outreach is paying off, and it doesn't take very long.

Just my 4c.

Michael





At 03:39 PM 1/3/2007, Daniel Fried wrote:
>   ** The author of this post was a Good Dobee.
>   ** You too can help the group
>   ** Fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>   ** If you did, we all thank you.
>
>
>
>I think there are some other interesting questions we could explore here.
one of which being exactly what kind of organization are we anyway?  I know
we do a lot of internal networking and referrals, but there have also been
concerted efforts (thanks again Amy) to market Hidden-Tech as an
organization to other organizations and businesses.  Do we want to go down
the road of a kind of virtual corporation where we try to market ourselves
to the outside world as a place to go for technology solutions?  If so, it
might not be in our best interests to focus the organizational website on
individual marketing where we're trying to one-up one another with our own
individual advertising.
> 
>Of course there are a lot of complications that would come with that
approach as well, but I think it's a conversation worth having.
> 
>-Dan
> 
>-----Original Message-----
>From: hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net
[mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] On Behalf Of Mitch
Anthony
>Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 12:00 AM
>To: A - Z International
>Cc: Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
>Subject: [Hidden-tech] Re: ? about self-promo
> 
>Thank you Amy, for everything.
> 
>And let me use your question to raise a larger one:
> 
>What is this - wide open access to the most creative minds in the valley -
worth to me?
> 
>EVERY time I've posted to this list - no matter how arcane or sophisticated
the need - I've found an answer within the day. (The first time I posted -
looking for a web programmer to meet some pretty demanding requirements - I
noticed that the respondent was from Greenfield.  I live in Greenfield. In
the ensuing e-mail exchange I suggested that I stop by at the end of the day
and share a creative brief and a site map. When I got to his house I
realized that I could see my house from his front yard. Hello.)
> 
>In answer to your question, no, I wouldn't pay for my own promotional page.
Because I don't think that's the best way to promote services like those we
offer. Nor do I think that we are each other's audience. Paid pages are paid
pages and they look like paid pages. 
> 
>However, referral and reference is the heart of a network. And with a bit
of finesse this list-serve of mouthy individuals (I'm guilty) can easily be
turned into a true network of referring professionals.  
> 
>And I sure would pay to be a member of that group. (Even though I get it
now for free.)
> 
>And I sure will pay for the privilege to ask the most creative minds in the
valley their opinion on what I'm wondering/thinking/needing about. (BTW,
Cingular is the way to go in this hilly valley. They grew out of a network
of small rural carriers, so they tend to own the steeple tops and radio
beacons it takes to beam straight in this up and down terrain - my opinion.)
> 
>I propose it's time to create a tiered dues structure, with appropriate
allowances for those who can't yet pay full price.
> 
>This is Western Freaking Mass.  Let's act like we get it.
> 
>Mitch Anthony 
> 
>P.S.  I second Tom Adam's suggestion.  I sometimes resist asking a question
I know the group knows the answer to, only because I also know the same
topic was covered 3 months prior... but in that time I've lost the thread.  
> 
>Another reason for dues: paid librarians.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>On Jan 2, 2007, at 4:50 PM, A - Z International wrote:
>
>
>Would you pay for your own promotional page?
> 
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Muller Technologies
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