Over a year ago I received a message on Facebook from a fraternity brother and at-the-time chapter president of the DU chapter at the University of Houston about a new startup company. The gist of the message was that a DU from U of H was starting up a website that allowed users to create groups, or lists, of people, and then send one text message to the webiste, which would then send out the message to the members of the group(s) created. I thought it sounded like an innovative idea, and briefly looked into it. The company was called NetworkText; again, this happened well over a year ago.
About two months ago, someone posted a message on the discussion page in one of the DU groups I am in on LinkedIn. The post was basically about wanting to “connect” or “friend” other DU’s to expand one another’s networks. People were replying to the post that they were interested as well, and that they would accept all friend requests from DU’s–myself included.
One of the guys who replied to the post was someone named Derek Johnson, CEO of Tatango. Out of probably the 10 guys I friended based on that post, his LinkedIn profile attracted my attention the most–mainly because he is my age, and the fact that he is the CEO of an internet startup. I thought that was pretty cool.
Then probably a month or so ago, I got a call from my dad while I was at work. He was telling me that he was listening to the Laura Ingraham radio show the night before, and the topic was about dress attire in the workplace. He said a younger-sounding guy had called into the show and was talking about that he was the CEO of an internet startup, and that everyone who works for the company dresses casual to work every day (i.e. jeans and t-shirt). The main reason my dad called, though, was because the caller mentioned he was in a fraternity while he was in college–Delta Upsilon, to be exact.
I thought, wow, that’s pretty cool. Then I remembered back about the guy I friended on LinkedIn…the CEO for Tatango. I somehow recalled his name, and asked my dad if the caller’s name was Derek. He said, “Yes, yes it is! How did you know?!” I told him the story about friending him on LinkedIn, etc.
So after my dad and I ended our phone conversation, I got on LinkedIn and looked up Derek’s profile. I noticed that Derek went to U of H, and then proceeded to send Derek a message telling him about the call I had just received and asked if that was, indeed, him on Laura’s radio show the night before. I got a message back within the hour, saying that, yes, that was him–and he found the interview to be very fun.
I started delving into what exactly this company “Tatango” does. As it turns out, they provide a service for users to create groups…you get the picture. Yes, this DU from U of H had started NetworkText, but the company changed its name to Tatango, because now they do more than just texting, and having the name NetworkText is somewhat limiting. I then friended Derek on Facebook, and we have exchanged some messages/emails. To make this an even more “small world,” Derek was college roommates with the president who sent me that original Facebook message over a year ago, and whom I’ve met on several occasions.
Anyway, I wanted to tell that story and give Derek and Tatango some free publicity. Derek is nearing (if not there already) “master rank” when it comes to using social networking and online media to promote Tatango, as well as himself. He stays on top of his Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter profiles, and recently started a sleek, fully-functional blog. (I also added the link to his blog in my Blog Links section.) Following the success of Derek and Tatango through these social networking mediums is not only fairly easy and not time consuming, but very interesting. He is definitely using these free tools to his and Tatango’s advantage.
I’ve thought for a while that it would be a great idea for a CEO to have a blog that he periodically updated, so as to communicate directly with customers, vendors, stockholders, potential investors, etc. Derek has done an excellent job so far, and I see him continuing to do so.
Now if only the CEOs of the big 3 auto makers would take note…but that’s a totally different story.
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For more information about Derek and Tatango, check out Tatango.com, as well as Derek’s Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.