I have been going to “off-line” networking meeting for the past 2 years and would like to share some observations. Each network group is more or less self regulating; people are going there to do business but not expecting to do it directly, There is generally no direct sales but it is a process of [...]
I have been going to “off-line” networking meeting for the past 2 years and would like to share some observations.
Each network group is more or less self regulating; people are going there to do business but not expecting to do it directly, There is generally no direct sales but it is a process of getting to know the various network members. By establishing your reputation, you can impress other members to refer you to their own personal network. As a result of attending the meetings, you get to know them, but also, know their personality, their business, credibility and the relevance of their personal network.
Each network group has a group of core members and there is a peripheral group who are newer but have not established within. People of the newer group still have got to know the others but it is because of the desire to do business, they learn to adapt to the rules of the network group. In general, these rules have been described in Penny Power’s book, “Know me, Like me, Follow me” where their mindset is Open, Random and Supportive (ORS). One of the best analogies of networking is “farming”. You are sowing your seeds by establishing yourself in the network and you harvest it when you have established yourself in the network. Direct sales is described as “hunting”.
I have always wondered what happens when a “newbie” to networking, who has a different mindset – “Closed, Selective and Controlling” (based on Penny Power’s book), comes to a networking group. How do members respond?
In ORS, we try to collaborate as it is a win-win situation but suppose, a comment like “I do not collaborate with my competitors” is made.
In ORS, we concentrate on raising the strengths of our network members are they are own partners but suppose, a comment like “I find “AN Other” very aggressive and unreliable”. As a group, we know this is totally contrary to our knowledge of this person’s personality.
In ORS, we find out the skills of others so we know how we could fit in, but suppose a comment like “I am an expert of “XXX”” and talks about the “expertise”. It so happens, in that meeting, there is a world renown expert who says to himself, “that does not work”.
Just like in a village, back chatter happens. Conversation between members about the statements are made. Not surprising, comments go out to support the aggrieved and questions are raised about the newcomer. It is all about having ORS mindset.
There is order in the unregulated network meetings.
Dr Michael Oon
Tom Evans, The Bookwright led a workshop about getting your killer blog on the web at the Blackstar Ecademy meeting at Ripley on 12 March 2010. He went through the WordPress basics together with the various essential functionalities to get it as a killer blog. The essential focus was to have a reader centric mindset. [...]
Tom Evans, The Bookwright
Tom Evans, The Bookwright led a workshop about getting your killer blog on the web at the Blackstar Ecademy meeting at Ripley on 12 March 2010. He went through the WordPress basics together with the various essential functionalities to get it as a killer blog. The essential focus was to have a reader centric mindset. More importantly, he stressed the importance of blogging being the core of your Social Networking toolset. Care with the use of keywords as Google matters.
Tom demonstrated the principles and use of catchy “headlines” in newspapers to attract attention as this is the only criteria to attract readers in the multiple formats of PC or smartphones. They should be either vague or interesting; making the reader curious to have a look. An ingenious system to over come writer’s block was shown with great effect. This was really impressive and will be a boon to any blogger who gets stuck on topics to write.
Other basics that Tom covered were the use of Categories (like Topics), Tags (keywords) which are needed when the blog gets large or you plan to write a book from the blog. Additionally, each posting should have a “call to action” at the end of the page.
As to the presentation of images, there is the use of the golden ratio of the images and text so that the it just looks right.
It was a hour well spent with Tom and endeavour to use was presented at the workshop.
Tom Evans, The Bookwright (thebookwright.com)
Dr Michael Oon
LikeMinds – organised as a social media event- but was it?
1. Linkminds meeting on Friday 26th February 2010 in Exeter.
2. “LikeMinds is an organisation dedicated to Making Action Accessible. Founded in 2009 amidst the boom of Social Media, where communication was drastically changing, and knowledge was overflowing – creating both the opportunity and the necessity for us to act and turn our ideas into reality.” (http://www.wearelikeminds.com/likeminds2010/)
3. From the description, it feels like an organisation that has embraced social media. I wanted to see whether this meeting was a Social media event or an event using the words social media as a marketing angle.
The event was a mix of meeting people and presentations – this is good especially in this day and age. The programme looked really ambitious – 6 keynote speakers, 6 discussion panels consisting of 18 panelists with 6 moderators.
My point of view: I am a Social Media newbie and have come to see this in action. My understanding is Social Media is conversations between people rather than communications – corporate speak for broadcast.
Comments:
I will only comment on the afternoon session as it took me quite a time to get my head round the event.
1. The 2 speakers – Joanne Jacobs and Chris Brogan were the highlights; Joanne was a performance that set the standard. Chris – an outstanding blogger and the reason why I came. He did not have the time to finish; what a shame!
Chris Brogan in action
2. Then there were 2 speakers with corporate backgrounds – explaining why corporates are not comfortable with social media. Corporates in general broadcast and do not have conversations – it is their structure that makes it difficult. There was a constant referral to Dell getting USD 6.5 million extra sales from twitter. That is broadcast of special deals and not business resulting from a conversation.
It would be better to have people who are successful in using social media and doing good business resulting from it. I can name 4 people immediately and would therefore, recommend them as keynote speakers.
3. Panels: I did not think there was sufficient time to develop the “conversation” with the panels short of the introduction. It is also very brave to “label” a person as a social media expert. How old is this subject and the knowledge has not settled down. The time allocated for the panels was just too short.
4. No twitterfall in the background – that was a real disappointment. This is a validation of the event by social media – everybody in the audience can see what is happening.
Is it a distraction to the speaker?
Everyone in Social Media knows that there is a fight for attention so that there will be engagement. Therefore, every successful person in Social Media is outstanding or exceptional. They are well above the noise because of the quality of their content or their presentation. If your presentation is only mediocre, you will sink to the level of the noise and the twitterfall screen will be more interesting.
In this day and age, multi-tasking is the norm – listening to the presentation and twittering; watching TV and “doing” e-mails simultaneously.
I spoke to a number of people who were not in Exeter and were disappointed that their tweets where not shown – no twitterfall at the meeting.
Suggestions
Conclusion:
I had a beneficial time in Exeter and got the message of the important 4 words mentioned in Vanessa’s blog “Business : Four little words that may lead to success on the social web … #likeminds”
(http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=145723).
However, this Likeminds series will survive should it show its authenticity and leadership in the social media age where transparency is paramount.
Was it a true Social Media? It has the potential to get there if……
Dr Michael Oon
