Opinion
Are you community conscious?
By Steven Burke
More often than not, giving back leads to bigger sales—particularly in the social networking age where professional and personal lives are blended together in one big Facebook, Twitter and YouTube community.
Over the years, giving back has been the central part of CRN parent Everything Channel and its XChange conferences. At the recent XChange Solution Provider in Los Angeles, the XChange community—including vendor executives, solution providers and Everything Channel employees—teamed with 115 teachers, parents and students to provide a technology makeover to one of LA’s neediest elementary schools, Dayton Heights.
The project, led by Microsoft as the chief underwriter, with a big boost and equipments from AMD, Samsung, Juniper and Belkin, provided students at the school with six new computers and a printer in the school’s library, a new computer in the teacher’s workroom and a major overhaul of the computer lab.
The solution providers that led the technology makeover at Dayton Heights are Bob Nitrio, CEO of Ranvest Associates, a technology consultant, and Jessica DeVita, owner of Uber Geek Girl, another solution provider from LA.
Another solution provider who really gets creating a socially conscious networking business is Allyance Communications, and its charismatic CEO, Quy Q Nguyen. Allyance is a case study in how to use social networking. Among the charities the company contributes to include Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation, The Tim Salmon Foundation, Talk About Curing Autism, Irvine Valley College Foundation, Hillview Acres Children’s Home, Freedom Writers Foundation, All Stars Helping Kids, OrangeWood Children’s Foundation, YMCA and Junior Achievement.
The charity efforts have made Allyance a highly visible part of the LA community and are detailed on the personal Facebook page of Nguyen and, of course Allyance’s page. Allyance also does a great job on its Facebook page of high-fiving its customers’ success stories as well. “Allyance would like to congratulate our client, Zappos.com, on wrapping up 2009, with nearly $1.2 billion in gross merchandise sales,” reads one post.
It’s no mistake that Nguyen was recently asked to be a guest professor at Concordia University’s MBA class.
Listen up, kids—there’s a lot to learn from Nitrio, DeVita and Nguyen. |