Customer Reviews

The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online

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Online social networking tools give you the power to expand and manage your network with an efficiency and effectiveness that were virtually unheard of even a decade ago. It's no longer who you know but who you know online that counts when closing deals, making a career move or organizing a local charity function. The authors of The Virtual Handshake -Teten a CEO and online networker extraordinaire; Allen an entrepreneur-tell their story from hard-earned personal experience and research that spanned over 300 sources.

Settling into our careers, we were taught the old school methods for networking. Glad handing and card flashing at evening mixers where all you could do was hope to meet someone with whom you could form a connection. Not to mention that most networking events seemed tailor made for extroverts only! According to Teten and Allen, online networking, already a fast-growing professional tool, proving to be a highly effective means for growing, cultivating and managing personal networks many times larger than most of us ever dreamed possible.

Getting started is simple, or so say the authors. Most of you reading this probably have anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred contacts just sitting in your computer, on your PDA or, gasp...the old Rolodex on your desk. The trick is to get those people out of your Rolodex and into the online network tools scene where you can really flex your networking muscle.

According to Teten and Allen, getting started with online networking isn't the challenge you might think it is. In fact, 84 percent of us have already used the Internet to contact or get information from an online group, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

The authors have even put together a ten-step action plan to get started with online social networking. Here are six of the ten steps:
1. Write down your goals and how a virtual relationship could help you achieve it.
2. Analyze your current network.
3. Make the mundane sublime. Common office productivity tools combined with e-mail and the Internet are very powerful
4. Become and information sponge (and send that information to people you know).
5. Master your email.
6. Share your knowledge wealth with your network.

The book is not all how-to and action item lists, however. Teten and Allen understand that networking is about altruism, sharing, doing what is in another's best interest and giving of yourself to the network. Speaking from my own personal experience, they're on to something there. In networking, you must give to receive.

Whether or not you choose to participate in online social networking, it will impact us all in some way. It's just as likely that your next client comes from within a salesperson's online social network as it is that someone is using Google right now to learn more about you in hopes of expanding their network.

The Virtual Handshake is a resource for anyone trying to build a professional or personal network both online and offline.

Though by most accounts my forum is a fairly successful one, as creator and moderator of a very active forum, I can safely say that my forum would have been even more successful and enjoyable had I read and applied the principles in David Teten and Scott Allen's "The Virtual Handshake" when I started "My Linkedin Power Forum" 6 months ago.

David Teten and Scott Allen got it right! And kudos to them for organizing and sharing such great networking concepts with us.

Rather than community participants wringing their hands anxiously trying to figure out the online business networking world, "The Virtual Handshake" will have those who practice Teten and Allen's principles opening their hands to greater prosperity and less online stress.

I highly, highly, highly recommend "The Virtual Handshake" for community members and moderators alike.

[...]

My first response while reading the book was "how can a busy professional find the time to do all or even some of these online self-marketing best practices"? But the deeper I got into the book, the more I realized that representing oneself online is really about developing daily/weekly habits that foster getting-the-word out there about what you do. Whether it's hosting a blog, creating a personal web site or an email list, David's suggestions are right on. Most importantly, as David points out about this information age that we live in, hoarding information hurts your online reputation. Give information (e.g. networking, book recommendations, helpful web sites) and ye shall receive.

The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online.
By David Teten and Scott Allen

CEO's and business managers is general have been slow to get online. Those who have been early might have made all the mistakes, but a good number have also made significant money by trading with or doing services for somebody they first met online. Until now too many people have been unsure what to do "now that I'm online". The Virtual Handshake is a solution to that problem. It's plain and clear that what you do online is important, and the authors give you strong, specific and easily understood instructions about how to "do it" right.

For the business executive The Virtual Handshake has detailed instruction on the need to maintain both face to face and virtual communications. Managers tend to be siloed by their work. The Virtual Handshake tells you how to create an online presence that might attract to you the partners you need to succeed.

There is detailed help in the use of Blogs for that purpose by demonstrating your competence and knowledge in your posts. In the process you collect contacts with other people, most of those contacts being very weak connections. By controlling your use of email and lists and social networks like Ryze, you can develop from those weak connections a number of "strong virtual connections" with people who have skills and abilities that might be useful to you. One of the most impressive parts of the book for me was the section on building networks that were both large and diverse, and LinkedIn is the ideal tool for that.

There is very strong emphasis in the book on doing the right things, and in every chapter there is help and advice to make it possible for you too to succeed online. The last sections of the book focus on finding work, or finding the right staff, on marketing, making sales and building our businesses, essential tasks that are doable, with the right approach.

This book is worth every dollar of the price.

Regards
John

David Teton is CEO of Nitron Advisors, a research firm which provides hedge funds and other private equity funds with access to industry experts. Scott Allen is a consultant on online relationship management. This book serves two valuable purposes: it is a management overview of how digital relationships are a viable supplement to traditional communication methods. The second objective is a practical guide to using this new tool.

PRACTICAL

As an example of their practical orientation, I tend to use one or two
passwords for all my digital relationships. It is easier for me to remember but there is a cost. I increase my exposure to identity theft. The authors provide an easy way to use unique passwords for different registrations I complete. Instead of providing a specific word, they provide a clever conceptual framework that is easy to remember and can apply to any digital password chosen. Buy the book if you want to learn the secret.


They also provide concrete ways of managing E-Mail deluge.

CONCEPTUAL

I will talk about online dating and then tie it into business development.

Online dating is now a mainstream way of linking interested people together. Did you know that online dating is the largest legal segment of the U.S. online content industry, with 29% of all paid content spending in 2003? 20% of all European internet users use online dating sites each month. Match lists over 5% of the entire U.S. adult population on its website.

The authors argue that face-to-face methods for meeting people are inefficient: (1) you have geographical limits on the people you get to meet (2) you are locked into meeting people connected with your immediate social networks and (3) physical appearance has a disproportionate influence in the relationship. With online dating, you get a chance to meet people outside your functional, industry, or geographic communities. It is also possible to get to know the person's thoughts and values before seeing how the person looks. It is also possible to double check the person's story prior to a physical meeting. A Canadian study on dating found that people had as many uncomfortable experiences with online dating as with traditional methods of meeting.

Author David Teten and his wife met through an online dating service.

Face-to-face meetings are costly and time consuming. Digital relationships are inexpensive and time efficient. As search and transaction costs are reduced, volume of social contact increases.

Whether your interest is romance or business development, quantity of initial relationships can sometimes be of more value than quality of initial relationships. Get the quantity first and then mine for quality.

FOR SENIOR EXECUTIVES AND BOARD MEMBERS

In the "real world" middle management acts as intermediaries for the eyes and ears of decision makers. The digital world allows for some "disintermediation" of these secondary sources of information so that decision makers can make their own judgments with their own eyes and ears. Pentagon Generals and Presidents can jump over the chain of command and watch the battle in real time. Board members can jump over the chain of command and observe customer reaction by tapping into contact databases, blogs, and virtual communities. They can form their own conclusions independent of what they are told and even independent of their own limited face-to-face social networks.

Presidents should not be selecting bombing targets. And Board members should not be making conclusions based on reading a blog. But this information acts as a useful check & balance on what information is being distilled/cleansed prior to being sent.

The Virtual Handshake infuses new life into the classic ways in which salespeople, executive recruiters, and jobseekers do their jobs. David Teten and Scott Allen maximize the return on your time by leveraging the power of online networks. This comprehensive guide to building a highly credible online presence, uncovering strategic networking groups, building a presence with affinity groups, and understanding the subtleties of online correspondence is essential to anyone in search of a new job, new business opportunity, or professional alliance. The practical tips and useful links can be assimilated into everyone's toolbox quickly, easily, and at a nominal cost. I've applied the concepts of this book to my own practice to increase my firm's visibility and coach clients towards more productive and efficient job searches.

Scott and his co-author David Teten have really hit the nail on the head with this book. It's like a "how to" manual for smart business people who want to make the most of their online business networking.

They detail tons of case studies and examples of exactly how other business people have turned their networking gold into cash for themselves or their business. And they give you instructions and action steps on how you can make it work for you.

On top of that, Scott and David truly "walk their talk." As co-authors of this must have book on online networking, they never have met face-to-face. Using many of their own real life examples and those of colleagues they've met virtually, Scott and David show you how to leverage your online business network for maximum success.

This book is a handy guide that should be within quick reach for any small business owner who wants to learn the best way to maximize "who they know" in a minimum amount of time.

Not being a natural born networker, I found The Virtual Handshake to be extremely valuable in using many of the communication technologies the world wide web makes available to all of us.

This is a book to have pen or highlighter handy to flag the areas of interest, be it blogging, instant messaging, email, on-line communities, and more. You want to flag these areas of interest because the authors offer so many examples and URLs to amplify their points--you'll want to go back to the areas you flagged when you're on-line to visit these sites.

I found the blogging chapter the most succinct explanation of the value blogging can bring in building your credibility and network of influence. The other key takeaway I had was the value that services like can have in building the reach of your personal network.

I highly recommend this well written, easy-to-read book, and one that you'll go back and reference from time to time.

Want to gain an advantage over your competition? Read this book and apply what you learn. Each chapter can make you money. That's a pretty bold assertion, but you're going to learn a considerable amount from this book...even if you think you already know everything about building contacts and business on-line. I gave up on the idea of turning corners down and started taking notes!

There is an incredible amount of information in these pages. Some you may look at as ho-hum or I-knew-that-already, but there won't be much. Maybe the net etiquette section. The content is cutting edge. I know, because our firm has a relationship with a company responsible for some of the technology they cite, and their launch was in March 2005. The notes in the back of the book are, by themselves, practically worth the price of the book. I would have liked the index to be a bit more comprehensive, but that's a minor point given everything else that's in this volume.

The authors repeat a theme throughout the book: the Seven Keys to a Powerful Network. The concept was presented nicely and interpreted well. Then, later in the book, we got more chapters on the theme again. In hindsight (book reviewers can do this), I would have liked to see the explanatory chapters pushed further to the front of the book. Of course, if the book designers had done that, I would not have been so excited about the terrific content I was getting before I was a third of the way through.

Whether you're looking for a spouse, a business partner, a venture capitalist, an employee, or new customers, this book will show you the techniques that work in today's electronic virtual world. It's a whole new ball game folks, on a new playing field with new rules. Teten and Allen are your coaches and, with this resource, you can be on a winning team.

Buy and use this book before your competitors do.

The world is changing and so is business. The Internet, and various "Web 2.0" technologies, for lack of a better (or even good) name, are rapidly becoming an integral part of business and life.

The Virtual Handshake doesn't attempt to get you entirely up to date -- that's impossible, but up to speed -- that's far more valuable.

If you don't have any trusted colleagues you've never met in person or maybe not even talked to over the phone, you need this book. Even if you've spent a quarter of a century online like I have, you need this book. I learned a lot, and still refer to this book often. (If your secretary reads your email to you and you dictate answers, I suggest you retire or read this book ASAP.- You need help catching up).

After reading The Virtual Handshake, and I strongly suggest you do, you'll understand the basics, importance, and success guidelines of social software. You'll be up to speed in perhaps the most critical area of business change in our lifetime. The CURRENT wave of the Internet, and probably more important than the original commercialization and popularization of the Internet.

Hey, what's more interesting, the Big Bang Theory or How Life Came About?? This is the "How Life Came About" part and you'll learn about things like virtual communities and social networking, but far more importantly,- you'll know what to do. Actual steps you should take --- and plenty of case studies to help you understand their importance. Guidelines to harness the power of these new whateveryoucallthem.

Hint: be yourself, act responsibly, and remember you are the same person both online and offline and don't forget it!

There is a lot of valuable information in this book. Plan to read it, enjoy it, and then study it. And plan on concrete benefits.