Take part in the parties.

Yes, I’m getting this reason out of the way…if you’re interested in starting a new business and want to get out there and meet some influential people, then you can’t just be sitting around attention sessions and panels. There’s much more networking opportunities that await you at the Mashable MashBash, TechSet & Windows Phone Party, FourSquare Party, etc. And while you might think that simply the word “party” denotes alcohol and pictures that shouldn’t be seen afterwards, you’re probably wrong. In fact, you’re going to have a great chance to mingle with folks like Kevin Rose, Gary Vaynerchuk, Leo Laporte, Robert Scoble, Pete Cashmore, Brian Solis and many others. While you won’t have more than 30 seconds to chat with each one of these people, you’re going to do some solid networking because you’re going to wow them with a great opening line and then leave behind a business card and a promise to talk with them more about your startup business, right? Right…there’s more to this pitching thing…

Launching a product? Don’t need a booth.

Traditional convention marketing may dictate doing a booth at the expo hall and that’s probably well and good, but only if you really have the money. Otherwise, you might want to try more guerrilla marketing programs. Just look at how FourSquare did their marketing – they didn’t have a booth at the expo hall. In fact, they didn’t really need one because they didn’t have that much to display. But what they did do was go outside the halls of the convention center and put on an interesting game of real-life Four Square and give out tattooes. In fact, they created their own ad hoc booth, per se. Find a more viral way to promote your product through a lounge area or perhaps a meet & greet event at SXSW to make it more private and captive. Nokia held a lounge at a nearby Fogo de Chao for two days of the festival where people gathered and learned about their latest products. Or, you could simply find a more gung-ho approach throughout the halls of SXSW. Be creative – the more creative and viral means the more attention paid to your product. Especially if it provides some real value.

Go to the sessions.

Yes, I am advocating that you send people to SXSW and have them pay attention to the sessions. HOWEVER, what should not be overlooked is the fact that you should not be at all the sessions. Choose the ones that are really important to you, but don’t feel compelled to stay at the session if it starts to get boring just because it might provide some insights to your business. Find the ones that you’ll feel comfortable with and will provide genuine benefit to your business. Stick around at the end for a few minutes and talk with the panelists and get their contact information so you can talk with them later – don’t try and lay it out there all at once because they just won’t remember. With SXSW being so big, you’re going to have to decide which sessions are more important and whether going to a tweetup or lunch gathering outweighs that. But some sessions are definitely worthy of SXSW so just make sure you balance your schedule.

Don’t miss out on the competition.

Did you know that there was at least two competitions held at SXSW? There was a casual gaming competition sponsored by USA Networks and also the annual Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator competition. This is probably a really good program for anyone to participate in if they’re launching a business or feel their existing business is qualified. It’s going to be here that you put your work to the test and go up against your competitors and are judged by well-respected thought leaders in the industry. Once you’ve settled your battles, don’t miss out on the Web Awards program that is also held every year. Each of these programs are open to applications months prior to the conference and you can find out more on SXSW.com.

Submit a panel to talk at SXSW.

Want to be known? You want people to flock towards you to ask you questions about your business, case study or whether you’re hiring right now? Then submit a topic for a panel or lecture at SXSW. Yes, it will be a popularity contest to get your panel chosen, but nevertheless, if you are chosen, you’re going to have a great time speaking to people about something you’re passionate about. If anything, it’ll get your company’s name out there for more people to learn about. But if you’re going to do this, don’t make your topic bland, but find out what people are interested in learning about and that will help motivate people to vote for your selection.

So there you have it…five reasons for sending someone to SXSW to help your business. Don’t mistake SXSW as entirely a partying event because that just becomes way to childish and personal. We’re all going to SXSW for a reason and regardless of our intention, people will always want to do business and learn about the latest thing happening on the web.

The Superbowl Shuffle

Originally posted over at Solutions Are Power:

I remember when I was a kid the Bears won the Superbowl and everyone was crazy for the Chicago Bears. So much was the love for “da Bears” across the country that they made a record that immortalized the team and made household names of Mike Ditka and William “Refrigerator” Perry.

This record was called “The Superbowl Shuffle“.

According to Wikipedia, “The idea for “The Super Bowl Shuffle” came from record producer Randy Weigand, who was a friend of Willie Gault’s. They had met through Randy’s girlfriend, Courtney Larson, who was a cheerleader for the team. Weigand had noticed a dance routine on the Amos & Andy television show called “The Kingfish Shuffle” and thought that a similar performance by the Bears players would be good for marketing.”

They filmed it to raise money for needy Chicago families and with the music video it became a phenomenon. If you have ever seen the video, which I have included below, two things come to mind for me – great marketing and not taking yourself too seriously.

We put together a special “Superbowl Shuffle Domain and Hosting Offer” for the 2010 Superbowl. More on that at the end of this post.

Big Game Shuffle for Your Business – Shuffling to Renew or Transfer Your Domains

For this 2010 Superbowl, Network Solutions has put together a special offer for Sunday and Monday. $6.99 domain names and 25% off hosting packages so you can “shuffle” on over to start or keep using Network Solutions as your small business solutions provider. Check these out:

25% 35% off hosting – Use code HOSTSOC001

New Domains $9.99 – Use code SUPERDOM06

Domain Transfers for $6.99 – Use code DOMSOCIAL3

REMEMBER: This is only for 2010 Superbowl Sunday and Monday

At the GrowSmartBiz conference, Randy Windsor of Network Solutions gave a great small business tip presentation onf SEO and SEM. Check out the video below:

At the GrowSmartBiz conference, Anthony Pappas of the Pappas Group gave a great 10 minute presentation on the power of brands. To see the full presentation, check out the video below:

About Anthony Pappas As the founder of the Pappas Group, Anthony Pappas defines the overall creative direction for the company’s clients, most recently leading the rebranding initiatives of Blackboard, Inc, Discovery Education, Network Solutions, and Destination DC.

Prior to starting Pappas Group in 2003, Anthony held the position of Senior Vice President/Executive Creative Director of Proxicom’s Brand & Experience Group from 1996-2003. During this tenure, he was responsible for leading, developing and executing creative strategy and interactive marketing/design initiatives for Proxicom’s global client roster.

His accomplishments at Proxicom included being appointed Executive Creative Director after the company was named “interactive agency of record” for Mazda North America; producing the interactive campaign for the launch of MCI’s national “IP Telephony over the Web” initiative; and leading the concept creation, identity development, information design and multimedia work for more than 50 Fortune 500 clients such as NIKE, General Electric, Timberland, Merrill Lynch, Mercedes-Benz Credit Corporation, Cole Haan, Liz Claiborne, PepsiCo, MCI, Marriott, Gap Inc, Intel, Microsoft, Marriott, Quikbook.com and the Intel Travel prototype. Prior to Proxicom, Anthony spent seven years in the “traditional advertising arena,” working with organizations such as Saatchi & Saatchi and Grey Advertising. He also did extensive art direction work in film, television and commercial industries. Clients included: McDonalds, Pepsi, Mellow Yellow, Warner Bros (Batman).

Rieva Lesonsky is CEO of GrowBiz Media, a communications company offering custom content and expert insight designed to help entrepreneurs build their businesses and achieve success. Lesonsky spent 26 years at Entrepreneur magazine, where she started off as a research assistant and worked her way up to editorial director. Lesonsky is also one of the only women to ever hold a top spot at a business publication.

A native of New York, Ms. Lesonsky is the author of Get Smart and the best-selling Start Your Own Business, and co-author of the books Young Millionaires, Ultimate Book of Franchising and 303 Marketing Tips. She served on the Small Business Administration’s National Advisory Council for six years. The SBA also honored her as a Small Business Media Advocate and a Woman in Business Advocate. She is a nationally recognized speaker and expert on entrepreneurship and small business ownership, and is a regular on MSNBC’s “Your Business” program.

Alex Orfinger, Publisher of the Washington Business Journal was our MC for the event and was very entertaining. He kept the audience going throughout the day and on top of that gave a great 10 minute overview of using the WBJ. Check out the video below:

Rohit is a founding member of the 360 Digital Influence group at Ogilvy and author of the best selling new book Personality Not Included, an actually useful (gasp!) guide on how to use personality to reinvent your marketing. He writes the top rated Influential Marketing blog. Below is his presentation at the GrowSmartBiz conference.

So I got asked a few months ago to present at the GrowSmartBiz Conference and I suggested to do something on business cards. I am sure many people were like “ok….” It can be a dry subject unless you find the examples of business cards I did and relay some solid and clever rules to create “Killer” business cards.

This is a presentation that is usually given in 30 minutes and I did it in about 10. It was rapid fire and from the Twitter stream and the high fives I got, it went over really well. For those of you that could not make it, I embedded the presentation that came on everyone’s thumb drive below and further down is the video presentation of the session. Leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Video Presentation of “10 Rules for Killer Business Cards” SKIP TO 4:35 past the raffle to get to my smiling face and enjoy.

About Steve Fisher:

Steve currently is Managing Partner of AppSolve. In its 10th year, Appsolve specializes in user experience design, enterprise web development and online community management. Through AppSolve, he works with Network Solutions to manage its online small business community. Prior to that he was founder and CEO of Slipstream Air, a software provider to the private air travel industry. It was sold in 2008 to JIT Airline Resources, which rebranded as Slipstream Aviation Software. Steve has also held key leadership positions at Global Network Solutions, OnSite Technologies, IKON, USConnect, Ryland and Wells Fargo.

He has published several e-books on Small Business Management, User Experience, Online Marketing and Innovation. Currently, he is working on his first book, “101 Rules for Entrepreneurs” slated for a Spring 2010 release.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from University of Baltimore and on a personal note he is a private pilot, musician and concert photographer. He cur¬rently resides in Columbia, MD, USA.

Ever wondered what the Small Business Success index is all about? Well, get it from the guy that runs it and will give you fond memories of statistics class in college.

Charles Colby is that guy and Rockbridge Associates is his firm. Check out the video below for some great content.

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Presented by RockBridge Associates

Special Note: Mark R. Warner, U.S. Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia

Mark R. Warner was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2008, and serves on the Senate’s Banking, Budget, Commerce and Rules committees. He served as Governor of Virginia from 2002-2006 after spending 20 years as a business leader in the high-tech industry.

He gave a great speech at the GrowSmartBiz Conference. Check out the video below:

More about Senator Warner Senator Warner was the first member of his family to graduate from college, earning a degree from The George Washington University, thanks to part-time jobs and student loans. He received a law degree from Harvard in 1980.

As a private citizen and philanthropist, Mark Warner helped create the Virginia Health Care Foundation, which has provided health care to more than 600,000 under-served Virginians, and SeniorNavigator.com, a referral network for older Virginians and their caregivers.

As Governor of Virginia, Mark Warner inherited budget shortfalls that ultimately grew to $6 billion. He left office four years later with a budget surplus that allowed Virginia to make the largest single investment in K-12 education in state history, key reinvestments in one of the nation’s best public university systems, and record investments in the clean-up of the Chesapeake Bay.

In 2004, Warner chaired the National Governors Association, and TIME Magazine named him one of “America’s Five Best Governors” a year later. Governor Warner’s bipartisan, results-oriented focus resulted in Virginia being designated as the nation’s “best managed state” and its “best state for business.”

He lives with his wife, Lisa, and three daughters in Alexandria, Virginia.http://warner.senate.gov/