Lets make is short. Below is a starting list of super smart people whom I would like to have 5-10 minutes conversation this year during my Babson journey. Why I publish this list? first - make it easy for me to go over this list as long as needed. second - make it easy for you to know or talk with a great bunch of smart new people.

Geraldine Alias
Colin Angle
Pano Anthos
Dave Barrett
Steve Bayle
David Beisel
Jeff Bennett
Woody Benson
Adam Berrey
Elon S. Boms
Dan Bricklin
Shawn Broderick
Joe Caruso
Jon Chait
David Cohen
Jarrett Collins
Matt Cutler
Richard Dale
Eran Egozy
Brad Feld
Bob Frankston
Daniel Gaffney
Michael Gaiss
Mike Grandinetti
Dayna B. Grayson
Chris Heidelberger
Jean Hammond
Will Herman
Eric Hjerpe
Nabeel Hyatt
Steve Kane
Alec Karys
Warren Katz
Will Kohler
John Landry
Margaret Lawrence
Rich Levandov

I have done the hard work for you. See the “lite” view of the list in excel format for easy sorting, searching and funding!

Link to the file

You will probably meet at least one new person every day. If not, start doing it from today.

There has been a lot of discussion about the power of first impressions, but that’s not what I’m not going to cover in this post. Instead, let’s talk about “hype.”
As someone who is very involved in social media, I meet a lot of new people who are using hype words such as “social media marketing,” ‘Facebook marketing,” and “brand marketing” at the start of every conversation. All too often, the purpose of these words is to impress the other person and to show their understanding of the specific topic. I can honestly say that 90% of the people have no idea what they are talking about!

The power of words

Words influence every aspect of our lives. The power of words to deliver our message is even more important at those times when we are introducing ourselves to someone new and pitching our companies. We want to make sure that we use the right words and that we ourselves understand what we are saying. After all, wouldn’t it be ridiculous to hear a singer say “I know how to build an aircraft”?

The wrong way for feedback

Over the years, I have developed a specific method for filtering these people within 2-5 minutes at the start of any conversation. My method for dealing with these types of people is a mixture of experience and questions.
Please note: many people use fashion words to feel better about themselves in the start of every talk. By nodding your head and smiling at these people, you are using the wrong approach!
While some people just smile at these moments, others react in the wrong manner by blaming or accusing the other person for using specific terms without knowing what they really mean.
Accusing people is the worst-case scenario! Don’t do that. Always remember, there is a big difference between people and their words. By asking the right questions, you can dig a bit deeper and find out whether such people actually do know what they are talking about. And remember too, there no connection between how well people express themselves and how smart and nice they are.

The simple approach

A few weeks ago, I met a very nice woman who told me that advertising on Facebook was not working.
What would most people do in this situation? Simply go and repeat to their friends that advertising on Facebook doesn’t worki?
That would be the wrong answer. Advertising on Facebook does work, but only for specific goals. So how can you keep yourself from jumping to the wrong conclusions? First of all, by asking the “why” question.
Once you ask the question, “Why is advertising on Facebook not working?”, you will usually see a different view. That’s a start, but it’s not enough. Asking “why” is easy, but still not the perfect way.
Ask yourself as well, why does this person assume that advertising on Facebook is not working? Maybe the person hates Facebook and prefers Twitter for unknown reasons? Yeah, that could be a better answer. Would you go now and tell your friends that advertising on Facebook is not working? I’m sure not!

See the difference?
More about asking the right questions in the next posts.

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Photo credit seandreilingers

I had the opportunity to interview Dean Hunt who is a leader in buzz marketing and creative business strategies. Dean has also had numerous viral marketing successes, one of which got over 241,000 unique visitors to his blog in 21 days, his free marketing report that was famously given the edgy title: “Web Traffic Orgasm” has been a revelation. Dean is also one of the only major gurus who responds to each and every email personally.
In this interview, Dean share some great tips from his own experience. I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I have!

Dror: Video become very popular factor in Buzz marketing, how you can explain this change over the last year? What is your estimation for the next year?

Dean: I think it was innevitable that video would become very popular. The reason it has happened recently is due to technology and broadband speeds.
7 years ago we didn’t have super fast broadband, or flip cameras, or Youtube.
For next year I think video will become even more popular, as will sites like Twitter and social media sites.

Dror: What cause you to think about this subject for that video?

Dean: I study creative thinking, so I am able to create ideas like this all of the time.

Dror: Are you making some tests before publishing video? Could you measure how much buzz some video will do?

Dean: There is no way to predict… you just have to make it and then hope for the best. That is the scary but exciting thing about viral marketing, you never know how your ideas are going to be received.

Dror: Do you see any new trends like widgets in the upcoming year?

Dean: I can see there being more coherence between social media sites and out websites. Twitter accounts will talk to blogs, and vice versa.

Dror: In the past, you wrote in your blog that being focused would be just restrictive to your thinking process. How you change this? Do you have any tips to many creative people who have ideas all the times but cannot focus on specific idea.

Dror: How you monetize your creativity?

Dean: Creativity brings me traffic, and traffic makes me money. We all want more traffic, I am no different.
One way I do this is to create some creative content, and then advertise one of the projects I am working on, for example, we have a membership site full of amazing articles and reports at http://www.buzzprofits.com and we are currently doing a $1 trial which gives people access for 21 days.

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