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Three reasons early stage companies should attend Southland on June 12-13

Have you heard of Southland? More than 500 entrepreneurs, investors, thought leaders and innovators will gather in Nashville, TN for the upcoming conference. With a focus on earlier stage companies, Southland sets a maximum on capital raised at $5 million and less than $3 million in revenues. The top 20 companies will be selected to present will be given full company presentations to the conference’s panel of "Encouragers".

Crossroads PR’s Shawn Ramsey and Kristi Lee-John will be there to join the Southeast's best early-stage companies and hundreds of VCs and Angel investors. There are several reasons why you should be as well.

1. Networking with the Southeast’s cream of the crop:

One of the most beneficial things you can do as an entrepreneur is to network. The event is positioned between CMA Fest and Bonnaroo, so attendees will be able to meet a wide range of people from across the region and country. At Southland, you’ll have access to mingle with:

Handpicked startups from the Southeast

VCs and Angels from around the country

Regional musicians, makers, chefs and distillers

National technology and entrepreneurial press

Speakers on the latest trends in technology

Founders, CEOs and developers

2. Learning opportunities:

Southland touts a great group of speakers, presenters and “encouragers” from across technology, investment, entertainment and service industries to provide a wide variety of views on technology trends both nationally and regionally.

Attendees can attend several panel discussions, keynote speeches and pitch competitions — all of which can help you learn and grow your business. You’ll also be able to get feedback from experienced entrepreneurs, investors and product professionals in the “Encourager” panels.

3. Experience Southern culture:

This reason is less related to your startup success, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out Nashville’s legendary culture. While at the conference, entrepreneurs will experience Southern culture and preview some of Nashville’s finest restaurateurs, clothing designers and craft distillers.

To find more information, visit the event’s website and make sure to purchase tickets here.

Tech Tool of the Month : Email Marketing Services

Email, despite its age relative to other social media platforms, is still one of the best online marketing platforms in existence. As Internet Retailer reported, it’s not likely to disappear anytime soon. In the Q4 2012, email marketing experienced a 7 percent increase in sales per message over the same quarter in 2011.

But merely knowing the lucrative side of email isn’t enough if you’re not actually doing anything. It can be tough. Web Marketing Today reported poorly crafted subject lines can cause open rates to drop to as low as 5 percent.

Never fear, though! There are plenty of programs out there to help you organize your contacts to help you more closely target your potential customers. Here are a few providers we reviewed:

Contactology

Contactology promotes opt-in email marketing by working to prevent spam. According to its website, the software is designed for a broad audience, including “newbies and seasoned email marketing experts.” The service comes with plenty of how-to videos and tutorials, which can be very helpful to a user who is unfamiliar with email marketing.

The software seamlessly integrates with other CRM software such as Salesforce and Google Analytics. It also will work well with previously existing email platforms — the EasyCat feature gives you the ability to create, send and track email using your own email client. Additionally, it offers a webmail simulator, which allows you to see what your email will look like in a variety of email readers. Even the most extreme control freak among us can appreciate this feature.

Best fit: If you’re brand new to email marketing or really particular about the email formatting.

MailChimp:

MailChimp helps users to create, send and track email content, such as signup forms, product updates, event invitations, announcements and editorial content. The software fully integrates its reports with Google Analytics, Salesforce and several other applications.

Its analytics reports rated highly in several reviews, and it’s easy on the pocketbook: MailChimp is free for lists of up to 2,000 subscribers.

The only downside is that it’s not super friendly to brand-new users. A basic knowledge of HTML is needed to fully appreciate the benefits of the program. Reviews also complained about the lack of phone support.

Best fit: If you’ve already got some basic email marketing how-to knowledge and are looking for a program with top-notch analytics.

iContact:

iContact is often rated the highest in email marketing service reviews. It’s designed to target everyone from the novice to the experienced email marketer.

Though it doesn’t integrate with Google Analytics, iContact works with almost every program imaginable, from Salesforce, to WordPress, to most social media platforms. Users can add “Tweet,” “Like,” or “Share” buttons into their emails.

Another helpful feature is the spam checking tool, which tests emails before they are sent out to ensure your messages will make it past various spam-blockers.

However, one of its downsides is it does not offer a free removal of their logo from emails.

Best fit: If your email marketing approach is part of a broader integrated communication plan that includes other programs such as Wordpress or social media.

Constant Contact:

Constant Contact, which describes itself “as committed to your success as you are,” is targeted specifically at small businesses. The company offers more than just email marketing software including social media campaigns, surveys and online event management.

Reviews often praise the support offered by Constant Contact. Its help lines stay open until 9 p.m. and as this Email Marketing Tree review said “Constant Contact’s support is what really separates them from the rest of the email marketing companies.”

Though it does offer extensive analytics reporting of its own, Constant Contact doesn’t integrate with Google Analytics. There is also a limit on the amount sizes of images you can use and it’s far less than the limits of other email marketing software.

Best fit: If you run a small business that uses email marketing as part of its broader marketing campaign, or if you like the idea of great customer support.

Benchmark Email:

Benchmark’s strong suit is its ability to produce quality analytics that will benefit you as a marketer. The results of your click-throughs, unsubscriptions and opens can be downloaded and integrated with Google Analytics.

One interesting feature is Benchmark’s real-time analytics, which lets you see the effects of your marketing campaign without having to wait for the program to form a full report. The easy-to-use interface will also let you schedule emails and create surveys.

Best fit: If your marketing campaign calls for heavy analytics, and you don’t have a lot of time to spend specifically on email marketing.

Tech Tool Review - Telly

Telly (the rebranded Twitvid) is a video sharing service which pulls content from CNN, YouTube, Vimeo, ESPN, and more. Its goal, according to its website, is “to only play videos you’ll love.” It attempts to utilize user data, garnered from its 7 million users’ activity within the app, on Facebook and on Twitter, to provide users with a stream of videos they’ll love.

I visited the service and my stream consisted of a music video, a video about a 100 pound candy bar, a movie trailer and a video about cats. Because the site had no user data from me, a message came up and told me that Telly would play the most popular videos that day. The idea is no different from YouTube’s “trending” page, except that Telly also incorporates several other video platforms (besides just YouTube). Telly’s Twitter feed consists of links to 15-20 videos a day. I will admit that most of them looked interesting.

Bottom line, though, this app is all about user experience. Its focus is entirely on video discovery, not video production. It’s like the Huffington Post of videos. There’s no function (at least that I could find) to market anything. True, an organization could create an account and start sharing videos, but I don’t see how that would produce any benefits. The same outcome can be obtained by linking to these videos via Twitter and LinkedIn.

Pros:

It’s got a great interface (at least this is true of the web version) and is very intuitive.

The video recommendation is surprisingly spot-on — and I don’t even have an account. I’m sure my experience would only improve if I were to start participating and giving the site data.

Cons:

There’s no clear way to use it as a marketing tool.

Its brand is fun and relaxed (remember the cat video?). This is probably a little too casual for any B2B brands.

Consensus: An organization can use Telly like a video-based Google Reader because it does a really good job of providing interesting content, but there’s no way to push out content in a marketable way.

Increasing follower engagement on LinkedIn

LinkedIn was destined to become a vital social platform for B2B marketers. Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram? They’re all bright colors, exclamation points and funky hashtags — aimed at making people feel good. Contrast that with LinkedIn, the professional, informative website that centers on business-based relationships. Sounds kind of like B2C vs. B2B, right?

But ignoring the abstract, LinkedIn is absolutely valuable for B2B marketing. As Social Media Today reported last month, LinkedIn “has a visitor-to-lead conversion ratio of 2.74 percent, which is outstanding.”

With that in mind, it’s time we all got a little more engaging on LinkedIn. Here are a few tips on getting started.

Ask questions:

Hewlett-Packard (with its 1 million followers) says it asks questions from followers as a way of increasing online engagement. It works out great — HP is able to stay on top of the needs of its audience, and the responses provide content for blog posts.

Says HP: “This approach is working: Our followers are highly engaged, not just in sharing and linking to our content, but in offering thoughtful, genuine comments. They’re responding well to the customized messages that LinkedIn lets us deliver to them, and they’re much more likely to recommend HP solutions. It’s been exciting to watch our community grow and engage with each other.”

In some of your status updates, think about adding in a question, prompting followers to add their thoughts in a comment.

Change it up:

LinkedIn (via its blog) recommends posting things other than run-of-the-mill hiring announcements and articles. Possible content can include photos and YouTube videos.

This is not to say you need to start posting cartoons and funny office photos. It should still be professional and informative. Look at the Harvard Business School Executive Education for a good example; it keeps its feed interesting with videos, podcasts and Twitter-chat announcements.

Link to the company page in email signatures:

In another blog post, LinkedIn recommends adding a link to your company page in employee email signatures. It’s along the same lines as signing off a blog post with your Twitter handle. Short. Simple. Easy fix.

Participate in group discussions:

Participating in discussions is a key to success on any social media platform, as it’s the best route to engage followers. It’s easy to do in LinkedIn — the website does a lot of the work for you with its “Groups.” Join a few groups in your industry and make worthwhile contributions. Set goals such as having employees comment on at least one discussion every week.

The benefit here is two-fold: One, you're getting your company name out there; simply increasing visibility will inevitably pay off in gaining followers. Two, you’re establishing yourself (and therefore your company) as an expert in your field. By offering advice, putting forth your own ideas and commenting on important industry trends, you can show that you know what you’re talking about, and thus the best one for the job.

Time posts appropriately:

Dell, which has close to 450,000 followers, recommends timing your posts to the schedules of your audience.

Says Dell: “Keep your audience in mind when posting; try to post at the beginning of the workday if you are hoping to reach people at work or later in the day or early evening if you hope to reach people checking in from home.”

Remember the basic rule of marketing: it’s all about meeting consumers’ needs.

Need more? Check out our Techpreneur Spotlight How-To-Guide for LinkedIn.

Too many hashtags

Since its addition of the hashtag in 2007, Twitter has managed to resurrect the pound sign. A little rebranding and violà, there’s a new symbol — pun intended — of online communities. It’s near impossible to find a conference these days without that little sign (hash)tagging along. LinkedIn already uses them, and Facebook is rumored to start as well. Last year, someone even named their kid “hashtag” — well I guess in her case, it’s the capitalized “Hashtag.”

Originally started to help Twitter users bond together through common interests, the hashtag’s goal is noble. But users have tipped the great power/great responsibility seesaw off balance. The problem with this micro-tic-tac-to board is that it’s so overused. With people hashtagging everything from “salt” to “building,” any actual online communities are lost in the chatter.

Also, as the Nieman Journalism Lab recently pointed out, studies are starting to show that hashtagging isn’t even all that effective. There were, on average, 167 tweets sent out every second during the super bowl that included “#SuperBowl.” Even if users read the first 10 tweets on the “search results” page, it would take 17 people searching for “#SuperBowl” every second for any single tweet to get seen once.

That’s an extreme example, but still, how often have you actually sought out what other people were saying about “#MarchMadness” or “#prop8”?

We’re not calling for the death of the hashtag — we’re just asking that it be used appropriately.

When to use the hashtag:

For events: As we said before, most events come packaged with an official hashtag. Event coordinators tweet memorable quotes, shout-outs to speakers, and relevant information, all accompanied by this hashtag. As a participant (or as a representative for your company), this can be helpful when you want to quickly recap what you’ve learned or to find speakers so you can network.

For Twitter chats: Often described as a way to increase online engagement, Twitter chats allow for an online discussion of sorts. Like events, there is a specific hashtag associated with the chat, and anyone who wants to participate simply adds the hashtag to their tweet. The difference here is that followers are actively looking for this hashtag so they can keep up with the discussion.

For major events: Though your business probably won’t gain many followers (remember the 17 people a second?), including a hashtag about a major event shows engagement in emerging topics. But make sure you check the “Trending” column first; if you were the unfortunate soul who hastaged “KeepGoogleReader” as opposed to “SaveGoogleReader,” your tweet probably wasn’t seen at all.

When not to use the hashtag:

In place of Twitter handles: This one is just a newbie move. Your business should tweet @TechCrunch, and not #TechCrunch. Likewise, if we find a tweet beginning with #crossroadspr as opposed to @crossroadspr, we’re coming after you.

For the sake of hashtagging: There’s no law that says you need a hashtag in every tweet. In fact, some accounts (such as @NYTimes with its 8 million followers) refuse to use them at all. Hashtagging relevant terms such as “#tech” or “#CRM” is fine. Things like “#computer” or “#improve” are not.

Like a teen star, the pound sign has enjoyed so much time in the spotlight it’s losing touch with reality. And if Facebook really does start use of the hashtag, we’ll be inundated with it from all directions.

But with some discipline, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

New video series: Q&A with Shawn Ramsey and Kristi Lee-John

Crossroads Public Relations co-founders Shawn Ramsey and Kristi Lee-John chatted with local entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano about startup tech PR. You can access videos from the interview on our YouTube channel.

In the videos, Shawn and Kristi discuss their definitions of PR and offer small business owners some tips and tricks they’ve learned from their time in the industry. In our favorite video, Shawn and Kristi explain why they love working with startups and founded Crossroads PR.

Before starting Crossroads, Shawn and Kristi worked (sometimes together) in larger agencies. While there, they discovered a gap in the services provided by these agencies and the services needed by startups. Crossroads seeks to fill that gap.

Shawn explains in the video that she feeds off of other entrepreneurs: their passion and their excitement, how smart they are and how creative they are. Kristi added that it’s important for PR, as it enables us to do a great job promoting our clients.

We highly recommend you check them out to learn more about what we do at Crossroads PR! Here’s the full list of videos:

How can entrepreneurs increase their visibility?

What are the biggest PR mistakes made by startups?

Why was Crossroads PR founded?

Why each client is different?

What is public relations?

Why should you remember your influencers?

Social networks that connect early stage startups with potential investors

In the world of startups, coming up with an idea isn’t too difficult, at least not for the entrepreneurs. The hard part is convincing everyone else of its brilliance. From friends and family to potential customers, it can sometimes seem like a battle getting the world to understand your unique value proposition. A big part of that includes convincing investors.

There are a handful of social networks specifically geared towards connecting startups with angel investors. Here are a few tools you should look into:

Gust: Gust is a global platform for the sourcing and management of early-stage investments. Skilled entrepreneurs are able to collaborate with investors by virtually supporting all aspects of the investment relationship, from initial pitch to successful exit.

This platform resembles a freelance website. Each business can create a profile and pitch investors. Similarly, investors can comb through the business listings to find startup partners.

Pros: It’s very well-organized and full of tips and tricks to help startups stand out. As its site proudly brags, Gust.com helped over 1,000 businesses find funding in 2011.

Cons: Strange as it may seem, we were hard-pressed to find any cons. Over 50 Angle Investing groups, including Angel Capital Association, World Business Angels Association and Alliance of Angels, have endorsed it.

AngelList: AngelList is a platform for startups started by the same guys who started VentureHacks. This site claims to have raised over $10 million this month. Similar to Gust.com, its goal is to introduce entrepreneurs to investors.

Pros: With over 6,000 introductions in this month alone, this site hosts vast troves of both startups and investors. As long as you are willing to do the hard work, this site can be a huge opportunity for continually locating funding.

Cons: It can be easy to slip into thinking that you don’t have to do any work to reap the benefits of this site. AngleList shotguns new startup names at investors every day. You’ll still have to develop an actual relationship with these investors — just like you would offline.

Pitcheo: Pitcheo touts itself as "a revolutionary entrepreneur social network that is quickly gaining momentum." Social entrepreneurs can connect with other business founders and pitch their concepts to angel investors who are eagerly searching for viable new ventures. Resembling an online dating website, Pitcheo automatically connects entrepreneurs and angel investors based on capital and specific expertise.

Pros: It’s more targeted than traditional angel investor sites. It integrates social networking, email and online team building.

Cons: All you’re really allowed to do with the free account is set up a profile. Only after signing up to pay $33 a month will you be able to actually pitch your idea to investors.

LinkedIn: We’d be remiss if we didn’t include the top professional social network out there. With over 200 million users, LinkedIn is a must-have tool for entrepreneurs.

Pros: The site is based on networking, so it would be very ordinary for you to reach out to a potential investor. You’ll also have access to more professionals here than anywhere else.

Cons: Without paying a premium fee, you won’t be able to send InMail (LinkedIn’s version of email). This site is also less specific than the previous three sites in that not everyone with a LinkedIn account is interested in investing.

Meetup: This social networking site is based on the idea that it’s better to connect face to face than through the Internet. Meetup allows members to form a group that can both collaborate online or meet in person. Groups often revolve around a single interest, including business interests.

Pros: An in-person meeting can sometimes be the push that a business deal needs, and with 342 angel investor Meetup groups (by our last count), you’ll have ample opportunity. Meetup also allows for great specificity, meaning that you can connect with investors in your particular industry.

Cons: It can take a little work to maintain a presence on this site, especially if you started your own group. In order for you to keep your name in front of potential investors, you’ll have to keep discussions going and schedule regular meetings.

New York Investment Network: Based on the name, it may seem like startups in the Triangle are prohibited from joining, but this social network also has an “out-of-state” category. It functions similarly to Gust, in that entrepreneurs post proposals, and it is up to investors to contact the business owners.

Pros: It’s free to use until an investor contacts you. Only after you reach out to the investor will you be charged a one-time fee for membership. If you try it out and find you don’t like it, it won’t cost you anything.

Cons: If you do decide to reach out, however, you’ll be hit with a $199 fee.

IdeaCrossing: IdeaCrossing revolves around helping entrepreneurs grow their business networks. It provides the opportunity to meet with possible mentors, business partners and investors. Similar to Pitcheo, it connects members of the same industry based on common interests or needs.

Pros: It’s completely free, and it does a lot of the work for you. By pairing you up with specific investors based on your ideas, you’ll be saved from having to shotgun pitches across the entire VC community.

Cons: Unlike Pitcheo or AngleList, it’s not solely focused on pairing startups with investors. If you’re looking for a broader scope of benefits, then this will be a great site. However, if you’re strictly seeking capital, you may be better off going somewhere else.

Plan Heaven: Like Gust, AngelList and Pitcheo, this site is strictly about connecting startups with capital. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to make 10-minute video pitches, which are posted to specific areas of the site based on industry. Once a new pitch has been added to the site, angel investors will be alerted through email.

Pros: A 10-minute video pitch will provide you with an opportunity to communicate passion for your business in a way that a written proposal can’t. It’s the closest thing to a face-to-face pitch.

Cons: Because it is up to the investors to contact you, you’ll have very little control over who sees your pitch. This means you aren’t able to target a particular firm, and are left shotgun pitching every VC investor in your industry.

Dear Future Interns

It’s March, which means it’s time to apply for those summer internships! But before you add your resume to the growing electronic stack, we caution you to seriously consider what you’re about to send in (regardless of where you’re applying). Instead of giving you some “how-to’s,” we decided we’d show you some common mistakes we see in applications. Take heed, and make sure you avoid these cardinal application sins!

YOUR RESUME:

A good resume will get you far in the application process. It’s easy on us (which scores you points), and it’s a reflection of your personality. Conversely, a bad resume will end the hiring process every time. Do yourself a favor and don’t send any of the following:

THE NOVEL:

What it looks like: This resume is always more than a page and lists every job experience, every award won and every reference gained since grade school. Though we applaud this candidate for going above and beyond, we’re not about to take the time to treasure hunt for what is actually relevant. Unless your career has aged a decade, your resume should never venture longer than a page.

What it communicates: You have no idea what the word “brevity” means. You are probably a perfectionist. As most internships involve research (for anything from publicity venues to city population statistics), this could brew trouble in the future. PR often is time-sensitive, and we can’t wait for you to compile a 50-page report full of mostly worthless information.

THE IMPOSTER:

What it looks like: This resume lists things like personality traits and experience in industries completely unrelated to PR. The author of this resume clearly didn’t get the memo that a resume is supposed to demonstrate why you are appropriate for the position to which you are applying.

What it communicates: This is probably the first resume you’ve ever written. You didn’t run it by a career center or professional, which means you either don’t care enough or are too afraid to ask for help, neither of which are particularly attractive characteristics.

THE INCOMPLET:

What it looks like: This resume is wrought with misspellings and grammatical errors. It includes notes from the author to “copy and paste more information here.” It has blanks where percentages or numbers were (assumedly) supposed to be filled in.

What it communicates: You are lazy. If you can’t even put together a readable resume, how can we expect you to put together things like press releases or tweets? An internship is supposed help you hone your skills, but we’d prefer spelling be pre-mastered.

YOUR COVER LETTER:

Know this: your cover letter is your writing sample. Make sure it’s not a restatement of your resume, and make sure you succeed in telling why you’re great for the particular position for which you are applying. Also, don’t send these:

THE THESAURUS:

What it looks like: Your cover letter states that you are creative, innovative, inspired, original and productive. You “love and enjoy” to do things. You are “qualified and appropriate” for the job. You are “motivated, driven and determined.”

What it communicates: You aren’t a very good writer. PR is very writing-focused, and we do judge you based on the quality of your cover letter. Keep it brief. It’s clearer and it takes us less time to read (which we appreciate). If we want to find out how many different ways to say “well-rounded,” we’ll just Google it.

THE HOT AIR BALLOON:

What it looks like: You claim to be “social media savvy” because you’ve tweeted a few times from your personal account. Your “extensive writing experience” only includes essays for various classes. And your references? Well, they’re your grammy, your aunty, your momma, your mammy, etc.

What it communicates: You’re just not qualified. We appreciate your effort to put a positive spin on things, but we suggest that you go and get some actual experience before you come in and tell us that your social media skills came from watching your girlfriend plan a wedding on Pinterest.

CONTACTING US:

Whatever happens, don’t be one of the following! A bad resume and cover letter are trouble enough, but we won’t even read those if you mess up this badly.

THE “MR. SHAWN RAMSEY”:

What it looks like: Put simply, you address you application email to our co-founder as “Mr. Shawn Ramsey.” Shawn is a woman. A 30-second trip to our website would have cleared that up.

What it communicates: You’re lazy. There is no excuse for missing such an obvious fact about our company. We don’t even read your cover letter’s opening line.

THE FLATTERER:

What it looks like: The other day, we received a cover letter that addressed us as “one of the largest employers in the Triangle.” We have six employees. Please, a lot of us are southern belles. You don’t think we know how to see right through flattery?

What it communicates: You’re not confident in your qualifications, and you’ve resorted to shallow compliments. If we want to hire you it’s because we think you can do the work, not because you said our hair looked good that day.

If you’ve made it through the list — and you haven’t committed any of these application sins — then you’re good to go! We wish you luck in your application adventures.

Why we will miss Google Reader

Today, you would think our team members were replaced with a herd of deer staring into bright headlights. Thanks to Google’s announcement that it’s shutting down Google Reader on July 1, we are just … stunned.

The tech company already dominates the search engine, email, online mapping and 5-minute video clips (that’s you, YouTube). Perhaps ruling a kingdom gets tiring, and Google has decided to release one of its territories to the rest of the world. But Google Reader? In the announcement, the company said it was “spring cleaning.” Spring cleaning or destroying the way we read the news? We’re not bitter.

We understand the service has not undergone any major updates for quite some time, but it didn’t need any. Its functionality was pristine. Every member of the Crossroads team enjoyed arriving at work, hopping on Google Reader and exploring the various updates of our account industries.

Not to mention how important it is in the tech PR industry to stay abreast of ever-changing technologies. We’ve been left with our Twitter feeds, and they’re just so … unorganized. We can’t make folders of the different topics we follow, neatly stuffing each RSS feed inside. Twitter lists cannot fill that need. What’s that thing people say about bundling tasks together to increase time efficiency?

Crossroads is perplexed. True to our adaptable nature, we are exploring other alternatives (listed below), but our team members will probably go their separate ways. You can argue the benefit of alternatives, but there will be no more “Hey did you see that on Google Reader today?” conversations. Nevertheless, we — and every other saddened blog reader — must press on. Here are some of our options:

NetVibes is one of the most popular web readers, and includes RSS feeds, Twitter feeds, and feeds from up to 200 apps. It conveniently posted instructions on how to migrate your Google Reader feed to its servers.

NewsBlur looks very similar to Google Reader, so if you’re looking for familiarity, this may be the route to take. It works on a desktop, Android and iOS systems. However, you have to pay for a premium account in order to follow more than 64 sites. For you news junkies out there, this may not be the option.

Feedly is also popular, but looks very different from Google Reader. It’s got browser capability and apps for Android and iOS. Feedly also has instructions for moving your feed.

We are not alone in picking up our dropped jaws. Thousands up upset online community members took to Twitter to express their concern. Here were some of our favorites:

“Google Reader is to Twitter as a well-labeled filing cabinet is to a bag of insane cats."

“Updating my Google Calendar fills me with fear that it too may end one day.”

"Imagining Julia Child's voice saying #SaveGoogleReader instead of #SaveTheLiver has been keeping me entertained while reading all morning.”

“I'm so upset about Google Reader. How am I gonna waste my time now?? #savegooglereader”

Of course, we are open to suggestions as to where to take our blog-reading needs. Feel free to offer advice!

Crossroads PR will be at SEVC. We want to hear from you too!

Crossroads Public Relations is eager to attend the Southeast Venture Conference (SEVC) this March. Crossroads Co-founders Shawn Ramsey and Kristi Lee John will be at the conference in Charlotte on March 13 – 14, and are ready for the two day discussion of the continuing growth of the tech industry.

SEVC will be highlighting more than 50 of the leading high growth technology companies from around the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Companies will range from Pre-IPO late stage firms to some of the most promising earlier stage high-growth firms.

According to the SEVC website, “The presenting companies are the present and future of the region’s innovation economy, representing some of the most promising technologies in the region from a diverse range of technology industries.”

Before the conference begins, we would love to hear from the presenting companies!

We are posting elevator pitches on Techpreneur Spotlight. This is a great way for your company to gain exposure to thought leaders, media and other entrepreneurial tech companies.

If you are interested in having your company represented, send us your elevator pitch and your answers to the following questions:

· What is your company?

· What makes your company different?

· Why should your company get funding?

Please email all submissions to [email protected].

Thank you for your interest. We are excited to see you at SEVC!

#SEVC

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