Praise for The Virtual Handshake: “Today, everyone has to learn how to use technology to grow their network. The authors have written a groundbreaking book that shows very clearly the options available to anyone and how technology can be used to multiply one’s reach. This is a major contribution to the way in which people do business.” —Richard Guha, Principal, The New England Consulting Group; former Pres- ident, Reliant Energy Retail “An important and timely read.” —Gregg S. Robins, Executive Fellow, NYU Stern School of Business; former Citigroup Business Head, International Personal Banking, Switzerland, Monaco & Luxembourg “Authors David Teten and Scott Allen clearly practice what they preach, and have drawn on their own impressive networks to assemble a vast but well- organized and highly applicable set of recommendations for how to be suc- cessful in the emerging, networked world. This book will be an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to build their own network and/or to under- stand the growing importance of social capital.” —Ben Dattner, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Industrial and Organizational Psy- chology, New York University “The Virtual Handshake is an invaluable wakeup call about how quickly things are changing and what you must do to become successful in this new world. More and more people are building relationships and transacting business using online networks. The new generation of people entering the business world (and many already in it) see the Internet as one of the most natural ways to build and maintain business relationships, and a whole new suite of capabilities is rapidly being developed to facilitate such interac- tions. As an executive, you are affected by the growth of this new medium whether you choose to fully utilize these new tools or not, because others will be using them to gain a competitive advantage. At a minimum, you must be aware of how your virtual image is being presented (and how to manage it), because it will increasingly be seen by people considering doing busi- ness with you.” —Gerry Mintz, former President, Gartner Executive Programs; Principal, Mintz & Partners, Inc. “David Teten and Scott Allen have written a terrific book that, while re- maining true to universal laws of business and social success, provides us with the knowledge and wisdom to succeed in the 21st Century. I greatly appreci- ate their sharing their expertise so completely and in such a way that any- one from the ‘newbie’ to the most experienced can come away with a practi- cal and clear understanding of how this very important ‘game’ is played.” —Bob Burg, Author, Endless Referrals: Network Your Everyday Contacts into Sales and Winning Without Intimidation: How to Master the Art of Positive Per- suasion “The Virtual Handshake is an invaluable resource and insiders’ guide for any- one who wants to proactively manage their business and personal relation- ships online. Don’t go home without it.” —Robert Labatt, CEO, ezboard, Inc. “This is a book that business executives should read. The authors show how communications technologies are allowing people to form lasting business re- lationships and personal networks. This goes way beyond just a tech-trend.” —Michael Tanner, Managing Director, The Chasm Group, LLC “ If you want to learn how to build powerful relationships, take this book off the shelf and buy it. This is The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People for the Internet. It is a nonstop flow of ideas which will help you to make more money, take your career into overdrive, and make you a far more effective person.” —Chris Michel, President, Military.com, largest military membership organ- ization in the U.S. “I really love it. It’s frank, specific and useful, and that’s what people need.” —Thomas Power, Founder and Chairman, Ecademy “In a globally competitive world, a person’s business network is the key to success. The Virtual Handshake gives readers tactics that provide immediate results and strategies for long-term, enduring success and value creation.” —Adrian Scott, Ph.D., Founder and CEO, Ryze “This is easily the best how-to manual for online business networking. I rec- ommend it to Contact Network customers, and to users of all online social net- works.” —Geoffrey Hyatt, Founder and CEO, Contact Network Corporation “The time I have invested in building a powerful personal network has been critical to my success. Doing it online has enabled me to leverage it even bet- ter. In fact, what made Cvent the industry leader in online event planning was my willingness to take a traditional business practice outside of histori- cal boundaries. The Virtual Handshake is a distillation of insight into face-to- face and online networks that should have been made available years ago. The Virtual Handshake will open doors for you that you did not even know were closed.” —Reggie Aggarwal, CEO, Cvent “The Virtual Handshake is a wonderful resource to improve your online busi- ness relation building. David Teten and Scott Allen provide hundreds of use- ful hints embedded in a strategic guide to enhance online social relations. Even considering myself as blogging and social software literate, I could find much advice and dozens of helpful links in this wonderful book.” —Torsten Jacobi, Founder of Creative Weblogging, Ltd. “Suddenly the internet has given everyone access to the little black books of background and contact information that have traditionally been the exclu- sive currency of successful business people. The Virtual Handshake is the per- fect instructional guide that actually shows people how to harness the in- credible breadth and depth of information that’s now available, and turn it into actionable tools for achieving business success.” —Gary Halliwell, President of Zoom Information Inc., formerly Eliyon Tech- nologies Corporation “As an entrepreneur, I am an ardent supporter of utilizing technology to be more effective in business. The Virtual Handshake provides the tools and tac- tics everyone would need to succeed in today’s online business networks.” —Chandra Bodapati, Founder & CEO, eGrabber, Inc. “This book couldn’t be more timely. The World Wide Web is the perfect infra- structure for networking. The age we live in is all about global connecting. This fascinating and unique book gives us the directions to build and main- tain that infrastructure and create global relationships. This is the way the world now works. Read this book if you want to work in it.” —Michael Hick, Author, Global Deals: Marketing and Managing Across Cul- tural Frontiers “Long-distance relationships that I’ve created online have [been] a huge fac- tor of the success of my books and speaking career. This is simply the only book I’ve seen that really shares examples, and teaches how we can create and manage those relationships most effectively.” —Greg S. Reid, Author, The Millionaire Mentor “Contact management software is the foundation tool for managing a power- ful network; social network software and other new technology tools are now becoming part of the way successful people are doing business. The clear logical reasoning of The Virtual Handshake helps people like me who like to know “why,” not just “what.” I’ve spent 15 years in the customer relationship management industry, and I still learned a boatload of valuable ideas from this extremely useful book.” —Greg Head, formerly General Manager, ACT!, Best Software’s CRM division “While most people recognize the value of networking, many are unable to achieve their desired results. This book outlines step-by-step processes that anyone can follow. It takes complex issues and breaks them into actionable items.” —Andy Nunemaker, CEO, EMSystem THE Virtual Handshake f [...]... company I was managing a team of other home-based consultants located throughout North America It was the heyday of the tech boom, and we needed warm bodies out in the field as fast as we could put them there I had to hire most of them without ever meeting them in person Sometimes no one from the company met them in person A couple of them didn’t work out, but most of them did, and I doubt face-to-face... Although the core group was founded in Birmingham, the members quickly learned the value of continuing their dialogue between meetings and in extending their reach beyond their local community Never larger than fourteen members, approximately half attended any one meeting However, the volumes of letters they wrote to each other—predecessors of e-mail—carried the conversation beyond the walls of their... engine, and Josiah Wedgwood, founder of the Wedgwood china company Other members were some of the most renowned inventors, manufacturers, scientists, engineers, and physicians of the day Their personal interests varied, but they came together to talk with other equally learned and creative men Initially, they discussed the application of technology to business, but their conversations quickly expanded... MEN IN CONVERSATION4 The 18th-Century Internet In 1765, a small group of businessmen/inventors in Birmingham, England, formed a discussion group They called it the Lunar Society, because they met every four weeks during the full moon so they could see their way home following their late-night discussions The Lunar Society’s distinguished membership included James Watt, inventor of the modern steam engine,... changed fundamentally since the days of the Lunar Society What has changed is the medium; more and more of our conversations are virtual Academics and researchers have been heavy users of e-mail lists and virtual communities since 1971.7 People started using those technologies for dating and gaming soon thereafter 5 6 —————————————————————————————————————— THE VIRTUAL HANDSHAKE h The mainstream business... to one another Therefore, participants cannot attempt to recruit other participants for their firms or even set up face-to-face meetings Instead, they must return to VIC to benefit from participation in this exclusive community Greenblatt and Petry have a very reasonable argument for this unusual centralization of information They built and manage the community for free They want to retain the intellectual... primarily on the timeless business and social practices that will help you build a powerful network We do not discuss specific companies or technologies in depth, because of how quickly that material would become out of date Please visit TheVirtualHandshake.com for specific, timely advice on how to use the latest tools TheVirtualHandshake.com/directory includes free detailed profiles of the major companies... Americans— have taken the first step to creating a virtual presence by “contribut[ing] their thoughts and their files to the online world through building or posting to Web sites, creating [Web journals], and sharing files.”8 Those 53 million have opened the door to a virtual handshake Like most consultants, we love bullet point lists To structure our discussion, we will first outline the Seven Keys to creating... However, the three also all live in Los Angeles, and Armand and Brenda both work for the same company On the whole, you have a modest level of Diversity Competence and by what each Acquaintance views as the level of your Competence Relevance: The Acquaintance’s value to You, defined as the Acquain- tance’s ability to contribute to your own goals The Acquaintance’s Relevance is driven by the value of the. .. from top schools around the globe These people are Diverse by national origin, education, and so on Once these people start work for McKinsey & Company (for example), McKinsey works very hard to create a closed network of Strong bonds among the 18 —————————————————————————————————————— THE VIRTUAL HANDSHAKE h coworkers The combination of a Strong, closed network whose members are themselves very Diverse . and breaks them into actionable items.” —Andy Nunemaker, CEO, EMSystem THE Virtual Handshake f