How to Create Awareness: Social Networks Marry Uber-Rich With Investment Opportunities

Courtesy of Liz Moyer, WSJ (excerpt) :

“..A new breed of social investment networking is popping up, with the aim of helping wealthy suitors and private-business owners meet up and pair off. Call them matchmakers for the deal market. What the networks do best is give buyers and sellers the rough equivalent of a well-lit meeting place for a first encounter. The networks are generally open to “accredited” investors, typically those with an annual income of at least $200,000 or $1 million in investible assets..”

Firms such as Axial.net, Zanbato and FDX Capital are catering to deep-pocketed investors looking to buy majority stakes in closely held firms by introducing investors to business owners seeking that kind of long-term investment commitment. Zanbato and FDX opened their doors in the past year or so, while Axial was formed in 2010.

Zanbato’s network, Zanbato Sutter, launched in the spring. It connects about 800 wealthy families, as well public pensions and sovereign-wealth funds, with potential deals in real estate, media and other sectors. The firm, in Mountain View, Calif., charges investors a fee based on the size of a completed deal, says Nico Sand, its chief executive.

Here’s the link to the WSJ story

How to Create Awareness: Social Networks Marry Uber-Rich With Investment Opportunities

Corporate Brand Burnishing 101: #Citi Sings For Lunch with Man-in-The-Mirror

As reported in the WSJ weekend edition, what better way for Citibank to burnish its brand and show its humanity than to have its London-based bankers and traders perform their acoustical skills by singing a heart-rendering version of Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” on BBC’s hit competition TV show, “The Choir” ?

The Citibank Singers not only perform one of Michael Jackson’s best, but the performance by the CitiTroupe was apparently so compelling, clips from their performance are scheduled to be used in the opening of each segment of the show’s Season 2 (which premieres Mon Dec 2).

Ironically, BBC2′s website indicated that none of the promo clips for Season 2 were actually viewable online (yet), and as much as some might liken the snafu to less-than-customer-friendly experiences encountered when dealing with financial institutions (and/or with “healthcare.gov”), the clip to left offers great transparency (a quasi-popular phrase on Wall Street) i.e. the type of returns Citi staffers deliver when prompted to sing for their lunch.
For the full story, click here to be redirected and watch the clips, 

Thought-Leadership Requires Thought & Leadership: Excellence Awards Go To Excellent Folks

Well-demonstrated by a short list of Wall Street women recently awarded for their excellence and contributions to their respective organizations and to the communities they serve.  We’re proud to be associated with one such winner.

Thought-Leadership Requires Thought & Leadership: Excellence Awards Go To Excellent Folks

Advanced Branding: Story Tellers Rule The World

Caleb Ferguson for The New York Times
Dave Goldberg, left, Shane Snow and Joe Coleman founded Contently, which aims to be the “anticontent farm.”[/caption]

Kudos to NY Times’ David Karr re yesterday’s article profiling upstart company Contently, and narrowcasting on the increasing trend on the part of companies to disintermediate their intermediary media companies by creating [in-house] story-telling-style content and delivering this well-proven, brand value strategy directly to the consumer.

So as not to infringe on the NY Times copyrighted story , below are the excerpted “take-aways”:

“..At a time when advertising is achieving diminishing returns and public relations has trouble breaking through, companies are learning the value of putting their names around — but not in the middle — of memorable stories.”

“..In 1947, General Electric had an in-house reporter telling the company’s stories — a guy named Kurt Vonnegut.”

“…the bar has been raised by companies like Red Bull, whose incredibly popular extreme sports videos almost make it seem like a media company that sells beverages on the side..”

Call it “brand positioning” or call it “spinning”, companies who aspire to innovate need to pull no punches and understand  the art (and science) of telling stories as a means to ingratiate your targeted audience is a critical component to your overall brand messaging strategy.

This self-acclaimed expert re topic of spinning strongly advocates the successful and time-tested use of  compelling story-telling as a means to inspire and influence your audience to respond to your story accordingly.

Kurt Vonnegut might have pioneered this corporate branding strategy for GE, but to truly appreciate how a good story can have a meaningful impact your audience is to consider the success of The Bible.

Advanced Branding: Story Tellers Rule The World