Here are some links to the tools we like to use for twitter…

• Tweetie 2 for iPhone: http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-iphone/

• Seesmic for Web and Desktop Application: http://seesmic.com/

• Tweetdeck is another popular tool: http://www.tweetdeck.com/

• Twitter Search: (This is where the power is at) http://www.search.twitter.com

If you are new to twitter or need to know more about setting it up, you should read this guide put together by Mashable. Really, the possibilities are endless and it is only limited by your imagination. Just start talking and building new relationships, that is what it is all about. Use twitter search to find people talking around you. Simple as that. Start Talking.

We build websites. We customize blogs. We do all that backend stuff so you don’t have to. We pretty much do anything web. We are also passionate about talking with customers and business tools to streamline how you do things. Please call us anytime at 309-453-8175 or subscribe to our feed via RSS or Email to receive notifications on new business tips and dev tools. You can also follow m2volt on twitter or join our fan page on facebook.

This post was recorded by Shane Mac and Cameron Plommer. Read more about shane or follow him on twitter here.

You can follow Cameron on Twitter Here.

(sorry if offended by title, I mean no harm but it got your attention…)

Prostitution. Horrible. Disgusting. Illegal. Not Always… Wait! Before you leave, did you know that prostitution is considered the oldest profession in the world? With that said, I think we can all learn something from the oldest model of business if you forget about the morals. Here are 3 things I believe all of us can learn from the business of prostitution.

1. You know where to find them.

It seems so obvious. We tend to assume that people know where to find us. Small and medium size business owners, myself included, tend to think that because we know exactly where to find ourselves that everyone else does too. While people may be able to find you if you are bad ass at PR and marketing, but the truth is that it’s much easier to find the street corner where other businesses are standing and setup your shop there. Think about McDonald’s, Hardee’s, Burger King, and other large chain restaurants, they are usually built within blocks of each other. The same can be said for automotive dealers, bars, online networks, and any other business you can think of. It is usually easier to be where people are looking rather than making them take a detour. If you do take the “build it and they will come model,” you had better be worth it. Go find your corner, work it, and make sure you take the time to look better than all of the others.

2. You know what they are selling.

I can’t tell you how many times I talk with businesses, especially online, where I find myself thinking, “what are they trying to sell.” Once people find you on the street do they know what you have to offer? They should be able to look at you from head to toe and know exactly what you do. Content is more important than you think. I find many companies who assume that because you found your corner that people will know what you are selling. Don’t ever assume and make sure you dress the part, walk the walk, and realize that no one will know what you do unless you show them.

3. You know you’ll have to pay to get more.

This is where you have to be good. If you suck, you are not getting anyone to pay for more. If you are good, then you can keep them wanting more and more and more and more and more and… you get the picture. Have confidence that you can give a little bit up front and that people won’t be able to resist what you have to offer. This is especially important online and you should have enough confidence in your product that you can offer it up for free knowing that people won’t be able to resist wanting to use it more. Perfect example is Basecamp by 37signals. They tease you for 30 days and get you to bring in all your buddies for the party and then right when you are about to get off they ask for the money. You can’t resist and you keep coming back every month because it is good, really good. There are technology companies across that board that forget this point and try to run out the door selling shit. Build something of value, give a little taste of it, listen to them tell you how they like it, then only give it all up if they want to pay. The secret is figuring out how to charge for each little pleasure you give. If you are no good then you will get kicked to the curb anyways so focus on building kick ass stuff. Do your clients know where to find you, what you offer, and how much it cost to get their lips wet? Ask yourself… Are you “Down on the corner?” We build websites. We customize blogs. We do all that backend stuff so you don’t have to. We pretty much do anything web. We are also passionate about talking with customers and business tools to streamline how you do things. Please call us anytime at 309-453-8175 or subscribe to our feed via RSS or Email to receive notifications on new business tips and dev tools. You can also follow m2volt on twitter or join our fan page on facebook. This post was written by Shane Mac, co-founder of m2volt, and he only ‘interviewed’ a few prostitutes for this post, a while back. Read more about him or follow him on twitter. Photo Credit: ricardo.martins

Let me start off by saying that I think meetings, for the most part, are held for the complete wrong reasons.  It seems to me that most meetings, which for the most part I no longer attend, are geared towards dates, schedule, and checklists.  I tend to agree more with a post by Andrew Swenson who writes at wordpost.org.  He argues that,

If you really want to, you can still meet with your department, but instead of passing information, use the time for creative problem solving.

Like myself, he believes that

…the simple solution to preventing the monumental time suck of departmental meetings is an online forum using a service like Google Wave, Ning, Facebook, or a custom install behind the firewall.

I would go on to add basecamp, staction, and google docs as other key players in the online collaboration arena as well.

With that said, if you are having a meeting to actually solve a problem or talk creatively around a project, would you please leave your phone behind or at least leave it out of sight?  Alright ya, I have done it before and I understand that everyone is “doing it,” but lately it has been driving me nuts.  In the recent months I have made a point to turn off my phone during meetings and actually listen to what the people have to say in the meeting.  What do i hear? I hear the same people, the same question, at every meeting.  “Can you please repeat that?” or “What were you asking?”  If we wanted to come to the meeting and type on our phone’s the entire time we could have stayed at our desk’s and had a circle text.  I mean really, why don’t we all just sit in a circle and text each other then?  It isn’t until you stop, look around, and realize that everyone in the room is typing on their damn phone that it will drive you crazy.  Especially when the person talking has to repeat themselves 2, 3, or even 4 times.  If there really is a need for a meeting and all of the participants indeed need to be in attendance then we should have a new “golden rule.”  No cell phones are allowed during meetings, Period.

Think about it, as books and print transition more and more onto digital screens, our phone is a newspaper, book, and dvd player for that matter.  Imagine sitting in a meeting or a classroom and flipping through the newspaper during the creative briefing.  It just wouldn’t make sense.  Just because the phone fits nicely in the palm of your hand and slightly below the surface of the table doesn’t mean the concept is any different.  Now that the phone is our main source of content we need to realize that collaboration and creativity come from the interaction of individuals coming together and brainstorming ideas, not from staring at a leash we have come to know as a phone.  So ask yourself 2 questions, is this meeting worth having and if so then should we all bring our phones to talk to each other?

I find that most people will agree with me on this subject but are not really sure how to approach the issue in meetings.  I believe it is a lot easier to make suggestions to people when you ask them how they feel about a subject and then if you have agreement among the group it doesn’t come off as you trying to “lay down the law.”  Instead of situations where it would seem as though you were calling people out for something, I would simply ask at the beginning of a meeting if all in attendance would agree that we should put away our cell phones and get through the meeting as smoothly as possible?  I think you will find that most people will agree and hopefully then take your advice with them to their own meetings.

We build websites. We customize blogs. We do all that backend stuff so you don’t have to. We pretty much do anything web. We are also passionate about talking with customers and using business tools to streamline how you do things. Please call us anytime at 309-453-8175 or subscribe to our feed via RSS or Email to receive notifications on new business tips and dev tools. You can also follow m2volt on twitter or join our fan page on facebook.

This post was written by Shane Mac, co-founder of m2volt, and he only ‘interviewed’ a few prostitutes for this post, a while back.  Read more about him or follow him on twitter.

Image Credit: www.cartoonstock.com