Do you own the domain name for your name? For example, I own mikemaddaloni.com and own a few names with just my last name, Maddaloni, as the dot-com name is owned by someone else.

Owning the domain name may seem vain, but it is an important component of your personal brand. What you say – personal brand? Yes, just as a company brands itself and its products and services, individuals should do the same. If you think about it, if you are a jobseeker or have your own business, you are doing this to a certain extent. By developing a personal brand you are making a constant and consistent effort to market and promote yourself.

Recently I have seen several references to personal branding, including this article on a brand trainer in Forbes as well as Chicago networking guru Jason Jacobsohn who has been writing and speaking about it. A service from a Chicago company called Naymz allows you to develop an online profile and a link to it will appear as a Google text ad – try Googling me and you will see it.

So what do you with your personal domain name? You can create a personal Web site and use it for your email. If you are not ready for a Web site yet, you could forward Web traffic to another Web page, such as your blog or LinkedIn profile.

Business • Domain Names • (7) Comments • Permalink

Recently I received an email survey from an organization from whom I have purchased their product before, and upon completing the survey I purchased more from them. However I would bet that was not their intention with sending the survey.

Thousand Hills Coffee is a brand of Rwandan coffee where part of the proceeds benefit school projects in the land where the coffee originates. I know the president of the company, and I like coffee, so I have been a customer. When I received a marketing survey from them, I completed it and then realized I hadn’t ordered from them in a while. That issue was remedied with another order placed and I was enjoying the coffee a few days later.

This got me thinking – as I market my company, maybe I should be thinking about reminding my existing customers rather than selling to them?

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This morning I participated in a dynamic discussion for the first meeting of likemind.chi. What is likemind you ask? I asked myself the same question when I heard about it, and this video by the founders of likemind explains it well.

And as I am the closest one to the meeting spot at Intelligencia Coffee on Randolph and Wabash, I was there late, however I was one of the last to leave. I met some interesting people and as we sipped our coffee, we exchanged ideas on branding, blogging and swag.

How I heard about this event is almost as interesting. The blog of one of my clients was mentioned on the PSFK blog. After finding this blog interesting, I started reading its feed and heard about Likemind, as it was started by one of the people of PSFK. A sequence of events that had a fantastic result.

And to think that people were meeting today all over the world with the same common goal.

Business • Technology • (4) Comments • Permalink

Tonight I am attending a meeting of the Circle of Progress. It evolved from a Chicago Meetup.com entrepreneur group, where the concept of attendees talking about what they did the last month and what you plan to do the next month became the focus of the meetings. Where many networking events for small business people tend to simply be card swap events, this meeting has depth to it that I have been seeking, and brings people back each month.

As I was thinking about my accomplishments and plans, I recalled this blog post about paying the price for success. It served as a check for my plans in the next 30 days and if they are directly related to the growth of my business. It is often easily to get wrapped up in something that is more time consuming that the reward for the time spent. Stepping back and taking a look at it in the context of the big picture is required. I view the Circle of Progress as one way to ensure I am doing all I can to grow my business.

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A couple of weeks back I posted about the abrupt shutdown of the ChicWIT email list and organization, as well as its parent organization, WorldWIT. I am now happy to write that a replacement list and organization has been formed to replace it, under a new moniker.

I just got the following email from Gigi Bozzano, who was the leader of ChicWIT, and it stated the following:

Warm greetings to all of my much missed friends!

I'm thrilled to let you know that I've started a new women's networking organization to replace the one that recently closed - guaranteed to be even more benefit for all of us women (and men)!

Called CW-Network (Chicago Women Network), it will feature moderated online discussion, networking events, educational opportunities, and as the group expands, discounts on services and products for members.

The site will be live by no later than mid-week next week so please watch your email box for instructions on how to sign up! Also, please forward this information on to your friends, colleagues, and any former members of the recently closed women's organization.

I'm looking forward to continuing the friendships and alliances that have already been formed and to establishing many, many new ones. Hopefully, you'll join us!! And...if you would like to contribute your ideas and suggestions please get in touch with me. CW-Network - Chicago Women Network - is for all of us!

Cheers...
Gigi Bozzano

That Web site mentioned will be at cw-network.org, and as of me writing this it is not live yet. Where it may take some time to ramp back up to the thousands of subscribers, it will be good to see this community, valuable to women and men in Chicagoland, back in action.

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