I won’t quote you a zillion studies – let’s just accept it as fact that for most businesses, referrals are both the least expensive and most effective source of new business. Referrals are also the best source of leads for job seekers and employers. There are customers and jobs and employees out there – referrals dramatically accelerate the matching process.

With that in mind, last year my friend John Jantsch created Make A Referral Week, a week-long event designed to educate people on making and encouraging effective referrals, and to drive people to action by making 1,000 referrals during the week.

There are several ways you can participate:

1. Free webinar Wednesday, 3/10, at 1pm EST with John Jantsch hosting a panel with Ivan Misner, founder of BNI and author Masters of Networking, Bob Burg, author ofEndless Referrals and the Go-Givers Sell More, Ben McConnell, author of Creating Customer Evangelists. Register here.
2. Make a referral (or two or three) and post it on the MARW Referral Counter.
3. Read guest posts from a long list of referral/networking/word-of-mouth experts all week at the Duct Tape Marketing Blog. Posts are already up by David Meerman Scott on The Referral Multiplier Effect and a podcast with Andy Sernovitz on Word-of-Mouth Marketing.
4. Join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #marw.
5. Keep up with the goings-on at the MARW blog.

I’ve contributed a guest post for later in the week on “selfish networking” – I’ll link when it’s up.

Let’s make our own economic stimulus package!

I considered shelling out the $400-$500 for a badge, but then I thought about how I had spent my most productive time the past few years, and it was mostly hanging out in the hallways, going to lunch with people I only see once or twice a year, and at the parties. Sure, without a badge I won’t be able to attend the panels, the awards, the official parties, and a few other things, but I realized I could also pretty easily find other people, places and parties to replace those official activities.

I started looking for resources online, but all I found was a few random blog posts – nothing comprehensive. So I figured I’d try to organize something myself – it would put me in the information flow, plus be a good networking opportunity, right?

I set up a Twitter ID and a Facebook group named SXSW Badgeless.

Well, obviously I hit an underserved niche. The SXSW Badgeless Facebook group had 1,000 members on the first day. Wow! And then 1,000 more the second day, and so on, and so on – 10,000 members in 10 days!

And then – BAM!

Hello,

We have removed or disabled access to the following content that you have posted on Facebook because we received a notice from a third party that the content infringes or otherwise violates their rights:

[Group: SXSW Badgeless]

We strongly encourage you to review the content you have posted to Facebook to make sure that you have not posted any other infringing content, as it is our policy to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers when appropriate.

If you believe that we have made a mistake in removing this content, then please contact us at ip@facebook.com.

The Facebook Team

Huh???

OK, let’s be clear here…

First of all, naming a group “SXSW Badgeless” constitutes fair use of the trademark:

1. First and foremost, the use of “SXSW” is descriptive. How can you possibly organize a group of people who don’t have a SXSW badge without referencing SXSW?
2. The purpose of the use was not for profit.
3. The use doesn’t damage SXSW in any way. It doesn’t keep anyone from buying a SXSW badge – it’s merely grassroots community organization of those people who are making their own decision not to.

But Facebook doesn’t seem to care about any of that. I wasn’t given any opportunity to explain myself – or change the name of the group – before they shut down the group. They have no process for intellectual property conflict resolution.

I tried writing them back (twice), as they said to do, but I still have received no response from Facebook.

Here’s what really gets me…

See that? 486 Results!

Clearly, SXSW Badgeless was unfairly and prejudicially singled out. Basically, it got big enough to get on their radar, and they didn’t like it. Too bad.

I’ve been wronged, as have the other 10,000 people who wanted to use Facebook to communicate with each other.

But I’m not willing to sacrifice my Facebook account on the altar of fair use righteousness. So instead I bought the domain unSXSW.com and have set up a site there to aggregate all the information I can find about unofficial (and official, but open-to-the-public) activities during SXSW. You can also follow @unSXSW on Twitter.

For the record, I love SXSW. It’s a great event, and I wish them well. But I also hate brand bullies and won’t cave to them. I understand and support intellectual property rights, but not when they impinge on the 1st Amendment.

Subject: Get Your Website on the 1st Page of Google, Yahoo and MSN

Dear Website Owner,

How are you ? i hope that everything is fine over there, The reason of my e-mail that i did some analyze of your website. Your website design is really good and its also shows that you have done some SEO work on your website also , but still you don’t have any good ranking on search engines.

You must have to be on page 1 to get the maximum sales and revenue.

We are the purely organic SEO company, we can get your website on the 1st page of Google , Yahoo and MSN. And we will guarantee to get the ranking and traffic on your website.

SEO process is the investment returning process, means if you are investing something in SEO, so you will cover all the cost once your website on the first page. We will increase your business atleast 4 time, which you are doing right now.

Our Company Challenge – Our Price is the lowest and affordable price with the maximum service with quality and 24 x 7 customer support , includes Whole SEO, Directory Submission, Blogs, Social Bookmarking, Web 2.0. No SEO company will provide these service better than us with quality in lowest price, which we are providing and its our challenge.

So i want to chat with you regarding this. I have very good plans regarding this. Please let me know, if you are interested in this , so please reply me back.

I am waiting for your reply back with very excitement.

Please let me know, if you have any further query regarding this.

Thanks

Never mind the atrocious grammar. And by the way, if you can’t write English properly, you can’t do organic SEO properly, because organic SEO requires writing copy, and you’ve just proven to me that you’re incapable of that.

No, what really got to me was this: “still you don’t have any good ranking on search engines.”

For what???

The first step in SEO is understanding the marketing strategy for the site. Keyword research comes after that. If someone doesn’t know the strategy for my site, they can’t possibly know what (if any) keywords I’m optimizing for, and they certainly can’t know if I’m ranked well in search engines.

As it turns out, this site is actually ranked #1 for the only couple of search terms I really care about. See, search engine traffic isn’t really part of my strategy for this site. This site is all about closer engagement with people who find me through social media – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, my other blogs (which, by the way, are well ranked for the search terms they’re optimized for). It’s also about building my personal brand – Social media is my middle name.

How’s it working?

When I launched this site a year ago, the exact phrase “social media is my middle name” didn’t exist online…anywhere. Today, a Google search on the exact phrase “social media is my middle name” turns up some 9,000 search results. This site is #1 and probably 95% of the other search results link to this site.

The point is, it’s not always about search traffic, and even when it is, it’s not always about being ranked well for the most popular search terms. If you’re ever talking to a marketing consultant or SEO firm and the first question they ask you isn’t some reasonable variation of “What are you trying to accomplish with your site?” – RUN!

For better or worse, she marked me for life. I have an amazing, but I’m sure occasionally annoying, habit of being able to come up with an appropriate song lyric for just about any occasion.

Of course, the internet has just fed my fascination with song lyrics. Twitter, in particular, seems to be the perfect venue for occasionally using song lyrics to communicate.

But what if I pushed it to an extreme? I’ve been wondering if I could go a whole day communicating on Twitter via nothing but song lyrics. And talking last night with @jeremya, who’s trying to get his blip.fm Marathon badge (blipping at least once an hour for 24 hours), I decided I’d go ahead and give it a try. Today.

Here’s how the conversation started last night:

ScottAllen: It’s 2am…fear is gone. ? http://beta.blip.fm/~kthma

ScottAllen: @jeremya I’ve been toying w/the idea of tweeting all in song lyrics one day.

ScottAllen: @jeremya Participate in conversation, talk about what’s actually going on in my life, but all w/ song lyrics.

Jeremya: @ScottAllen That would be cool!

ScottAllen: @jeremya I’m cool like that. ? http://beta.blip.fm/~kti9d

Jeremya: @ScottAllen lol Started already.

ScottAllen: @jeremya Something got me started. You’ve got to help me… ?http://beta.blip.fm/~ktixl

Jeremya: @ScottAllen lol. It would be cool if you could search by badges… lol.

ScottAllen: @jeremya Badges? We don’t need any badges. We don’t need no stinking badges. ? http://blip.fm/~ktjo8

ScottAllen: It’s 3 o’clock in the morning. Can’t even close my eyes. ?http://blip.fm/~ktk1a

<Jeremy only made it to hour 4 of his marathon last night>

ScottAllen: @jeremya And how goes the medium tempo? ?http://blip.fm/~ku8nt

Jeremya: @ScottAllen Unfortunately I slept through the night.. when I meant to only take a nap so I am trying again today. lol.

ScottAllen: @jeremya It’s a test of ultimate will, the heartbreak climb uphill. Got to pick up the pace if you want to stay… ? http://blip.fm/~ku90n

I feel like such a geek, but I feel compelled to finish what I started.

Now if I could just find a lyric for “I’m headed to Walgreen’s ‘cuz we’re out of milk.”

My wife doesn’t understand why I want to watch a couple of hours of Super Bowl pre-game shows today.

“But you don’t follow football.”

“Exactly.”

She’s right – I don’t follow football. I enjoy it, though, when I do watch it, and I enjoy it more when I watch it “in context”.

It’s yet another example of one of my favorite sayings: “Context creates meaning.”

Knowing 10 things to keep an eye on in Super Bowl XLIV will make the game more interesting to me. I want to know how the Saints are planning to go after Manning. What impact will the Colts’ big-game experience have, compared to the Saints, who have never been to the Super Bowl?

I will have a deeper appreciation of the game if I have that context. But I don’t have the time, energy or inclination to follow football all season.

It’s also an application of a principle I learned from Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek (by the way, an expanded and updated version came out in December): low-information diet.

The idea of a low-information diet is simple: you don’t have to follow a constant stream of information on a topic in order to make informed decisions. Just find sources that you trust to provide you just enough information when you need it. That may be a friend who has similar views to yours, a favorite blogger, or a traditional media source.

Point is, we can’t all keep up with everything. You can’t be an expert on every single thing that interests you, and you certainly can’t try to keep up with the constant stream of information that may, ultimately some day, impact a decision you have to make.

You don’t have to know everything – you just have to know where and how to find out everything when you need it. In short, it’s perhaps more important these days to have a diverse network and good research and information management skills than it is to try to be smart in a lot of different areas.

Knowledge on demand, when you need it…definitely the wave of the future.

What group?

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I think maybe I’d better check my profile settings!

…and it reminded me of a story I’ve retold under the right circumstances for years, but never written down.

So a few years ago, I was a Lead Developer at Harte-Hanks Response Management, working on the IBM account. We were in the final stages of a huge project with a Monday morning deadline (well, internal deadline of Monday morning to show it to our IBM account team, Monday afternoon showing to the client).

I had worked 16 hours on Friday, 16 on Saturday, and was planning on an all-nighter Sunday. Other members of the team were pulling long hours, too, as their schedules and families would allow.

Sunday evening about 5:30, our manager, Mike Ortegon (one of the best managers I’ve ever had, and still at Harte-Hanks, by the way), showed up with Pizza Hut pizza for the whole team – everyone of course knows that geeks will work for pizza in a pinch.

Mike: “I figured y’all were hungry, so I got Meat Lover’s. I hope no one here’s a vegetarian.”

Scott Bellware (@bellware): “Actually I am…”

Mike: “Oh damn…”

Scott B.: “…except when I’m really hungry.”

Image credit: Matt McGee

Redefining tragedy when everything around you, as bleak as it is, suddenly disappears

I have to say, though, it’s really cool to see how social media and other new technology is making it easier to give, raising awareness, and perhaps most importantly, driving people to action.

One of the coolest and most effective things I’ve seen is the Red Cross 90999 Haiti text campaign, which has already topped $10 million, according to The Washington Post. Pretty simple: text “HAITI” to 90999 on your phone to donate $10 to Haiti relief via the Red Cross. It’ll show up on your next phone bill. Contrary to some claims on Twitter that it’s a scam, yes, it’s legit – you can see the announcement on the Red Cross site.

I also received an email last night from my friend Sean Patrick Simpson (@vpsean), who asked internet & business legend Mark Joyner (@MarkJoyner) to write a couple of letters that people could send out to their email list to encourage giving. I loved his take on it, so I thought I’d share it with you here (with permission):

3 Reasons You Should Help Bail Out Haiti

1.  Stability is good for the market

When countries fall under hardship they can fall prey to a number of unhealthy practices that are bad for legitimate business.

Black markets, looters, warlords …

Doesn’t exactly beckon capitalists to risk their money there.

In my estimation, the more countries we can trade with the better. I’m a believer in the "trade with all, war with none" notion of the framers of the US constitution.

2.  I think it’s a tax write-off (Check with your accountant)

3.  American Airlines is Giving 250 Free Air Miles for your donations over $50. Check it out: http://budurl.com/savehaitinow

So, I’m gonna go do this thing.  Not because someone guilted me into it, but because it’s a good idea for all of us.

Image credit: United Nations Photo

Got an email today from Breanna at Phenix & Phenix that there are 34 pages still available in the verysupercool Austin Makes a Book project. I’ve posted my submission, Untitled #3, here previously. You can view some of the other submissions on the new AMAB Facebook page.

Also, they’re looking for a low-key, Austin-y place for the launch party – needs to be able to handle 200-300 people. If you have any suggestions, contact Breanna at Phenix & Phenix or leave a comment here and I’ll pass it along.

Image credit: austins_irish_pirate