At Promote-My-Site we're not an SEO company, though we are building a tool for people who want to use social media sites more effectively. But this is the newest part of our business and we have clients and partners scattered around. And we talk to some of them daily (help!) and some we just have quarterly revenue meetings (yay!). And we like to keep up with what is going on in their area. Did GE pull a factory? Fidelity build an administrative center? Someone win the Stanley Cup (that's hockey, right?) or the triple crown? You get the idea.

For example, The Biz Journal just sent me an email full of business stories with this gem:

SEC halts trading of Rocky Mount company's shares

Regulators said Friday they suspended trading in Roanoke Technology Corp. until Dec. 20 due to "a lack of current and accurate information concerning the company." Roanoke hasn't filed any documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission since February and hasn't filed a quarterly or annual report since September 2005.

Man, our accountant and lawyer get on me if the minutes from the last BOD meeting are a day late. Two years to miss a filing? Bejebus!

But wait, it gets better:

Friday's action is the company's second major run-in with the SEC in recent years. In 2006, former CEO David L. Smith Jr. settled an SEC complaint that he improperly issued stock to "consultants" who sold the shares for $7 million and kicked back $4 million to Smith.

Dang. I feel better for accidentally double expensing the ice cream bars for the picnic! (FYI: Our accountant caught that and called me on the carpet.)

This was quite a cool thing to be able to send to our clients in Charlotte - everyone loves a good disaster story. Big enough to be juicy and not even close to being able to hurt Charlotte's reputation or economy.

I get between 25 and 40 of these newsletters a week and scan them in a few seconds. I'm looking for things like this, or that mention a competitor to a customer/partner. Then I forward the story to our client manager or directly to the customer/partner. I think my total time into the process is not an hour a month. Setup time is probably 10 minutes or so per customer.

It's a great way to give people a chance to communicate with you and maybe even do some additional business because now you are on their mind.