Keyboard Networking

LinkedIn Question on Professional Networking

2008-05-25T16:32:48Z

Question: Are you finding that as more people join social networks that the value goes down due to noise and difficulty adding quality contacts?

My Answer:

I find that it's the exact opposite, the more people who join social networks increases the odds that I'll find more quality contacts. The pool of "early adopters" for any new networking site is going to be small and narrow. When a site breaks out from being just early adopters, they pick up a wider range of people with more diverse careers and interests.

There are a lot of folks whom I consider professional colleagues that wouldn't consider joining a social networking site unless it offered them more than just professional connections. Colleagues who have secure, full-time jobs often don't come to an on-line forum with the notion of expanding their business. Unless there's a wider range of people on that site, say others from their city, folks who share outside interests, school alumni, etc., they'll just take a pass.

I'm all for as many of those folks being here as possible! There may come a time when I'll want to tap their expertise on a subject, or hire them for a consulting project.

To address the notion of pay-based social networking sites, That's certainly the best way to narrow the universe of members quickly. I don't see where that would benefit me all that much, however.

Sockpuppets are a BAD marketing strategy!

2008-05-15T09:44:41Z

Update: Thanks for reading the blog and commenting! Just to clarify, I sat on this post over 24 hours in the hopes that my requests on Twitter for clarification of the situation would be answered. They weren't. There was no undone homework or gun-jumping here, and I stand by the case as a classic example of what not to do. Cheers and thanks for reading!

Developing an effective Social Networking strategy requires patience. A posse won't just appear before your eyes when you snap your fingers; it takes time to meet folks, talk to them, and get them into your contact sphere. One thing is certain, though, you will develop your network as you work it.

Patience isn't a virtue for many folks, myself included, and the temptation to cut corners in any business is often strong. In social networking, the temptation is to artificially increase the size of your friends/followers list. One of the most common shortcuts in this regard is the use of the sockpuppet.

As a kid's toy, the "sock puppet" is when you draw a face on the toe end of a sock, put it on your hand, and go to it. In the on-line world, a sockpuppet user is when a person joins a forum or community under multiple names. The user then plays ping-pong with the two accounts. The user posts an announcement, position, or argument under their primary account. They'll switch to the sockpuppet account to offer support for the argument, or possibly an endorsement of an event or service. If the position is attacked by another member of the community, the author can convey the impression of outside support.

This sort of behavior is almost universally frowned upon in most online communities. It's the sort of thing that gets a user "banned" from a site. Even if the owner of a sockpuppet isn't banned from a site, the original user's credibility and integrity are brought into disrepute. For example, Lee Siegel of The New Republic was slapped with a suspension and his blog was shut down by the magazine when it was discovered he was using a sockpuppet to defend his writing in comments to the blog.

It's important to make the distinction between the use of sockpuppets and the use of an anonymous persona on the web. Anonymity is permitted in many communities, both mainstream and offbeat. Political communities often permit the use of pseudonyms to protect a user's identity. Even if the user's positions don't constitute whistleblowing, expressing political opinions that conflict with an employer could well cost that user their job. Since political blogging can't compare salary-wise with many full-time gigs, best to conceal real identities.

There are other situations where anonymity is a good idea, from back when Errol Laborde (now of New Orleans Magazine) used to do parade reviews for Gambit Weekly (@gambitweekly on twitter) as "Rex Duke," to mommy-bloggers who don't want to reveal too much about their personal lives. In Laborde's case, it was better to praise and/or criticize carnival krewes under a pseudonym to have a level of deniability in public. Mommybloggers, like many female writers online, have to be concerned with the possibility of stalkers. There are a lot of psychos out in the world, and when we start talking about intimate details of spouses, children, family, and friends, it's possible to feed the twisted minds. My friends who blog under pseudonyms don't lie about their experiences, they just don't give you their names. It's easy to take away the point the author's trying to make without knowing their real name in these circumstances.

Of course, some folks are open books online. I'm a good example of that. I use the nickname "YatPundit," but all you have to do is look at the "about me" section on my blog to find out more than you want to know about me.

Either way, however, the anonymous user and the "out there" person are both just being themselves. They don't join a community with the intention to deceive.

And that's the purpose of a sockpuppet account--deception.

The case that prompted me to write this article comes from the social networking community, twitter.com. Twitter is an immature technology, drawing inspiration from chat boards, instant messaging services, and SMS/texting on phones to create a new paradigm. I'm enjoying twitter at this stage mainly because it's full of "early adopters" who are more tech-savvy than the "regular" users who will invariably follow as the site matures. Since it doesn't take a lot of technical knowledge to use twitter, we're seeing a number of people style themselves as "social networking experts." When you characterize yourself as an authority on something, it's logical to want to present the appearance that you know what you're doing.

On an interactive system like twitter, the way to look like you know what you're doing is to gather a following among users. Readers of a popular blog will welcome the author's appearances in other media, such as Pam Spaulding (@pam_spaulding) or Wil Wheaton (@WilW). It's natural for someone actively involved in self-promotion to want as many followers as the man who once was Ensign Crusher on ST:TNG, but that has to happen naturally. Creating those followers yourself rarely works out.

There is another type of twitter user that deserves mention: The accounts used by established news outlets. I don't know exactly if the owner of the twitter account for the New Orleans newspaper, Gambit Weekly (@gambitweekly) has a personal twitter account. I also don't care if TV personality Tavis Smiley's twitter account (@tavissmiley) is controlled by Tavis himself or someone on his staff. There is a common understanding on such accounts that they exist to promote their paper, show, etc.; there is no intent to deceive.

Which brings me back to my latest sockpuppet encounter. I found a mommyblogger who was promoting a product-sales website that's a family operation, mother and two daughters. The lead daughter is a good writer, and their mother isn't that much older than I am, so what the heck, I followed mom and daughter. Two days ago, I discovered that the daughter was posting on twitter not only under her account, but also as her mother.

Sockpuppet!

When confronted with this, the original user made light of the situation. While that could be dismissed as a rookie mistake, this woman claims credentials as a Social Media coordinator for not only her family business but another mommyblogging site.

In other words, she should know better.

It's a shame, too, because I don't think this young woman is dishonest or unethical by nature. Still, I can't help but look at messages from her that now come through twitter and wonder, do her sister and mother even participate on the website, or does she do it all? Her almost-amoral dismissal of my concern that she was running a sockpuppet could be attributed to the arrogance of a twentysomething, but there's that little something that nags the back of my mind, making me ask, is she just a liar?

The immature nature of a site like twitter makes it unlikely that the site admins can be called upon to police sockpuppets. Given that most of the current twitter community consists of computer professionals at one level or another, it makes sense that users by and large aren't interested in interactions with dishonest people. It's hard to re-build a reputation that's been tarnished in such a way. Bloggers who take controversial positions leave themselves open to challenge and mockery by their detractors. Operators of e-commerce businesses have a tough enough time distinguishing themselves from the phishers and scammers online.

Develop your social network slowly. Expand it naturally. If it doesn't take off as fast as you like, be patient. Work your contacts, meet folks in their networks, participate in their discussions. Karma comes back as we give it out.

And don't cut corners!

Thoughts on Twitter Spam and the Twitter Blacklist

2008-05-09T12:58:37Z

Using a narrow definition of "spam" is merely an exercise in semantics. One of the current goofy threads in many twitter conversations these days is whether or not "twitter spam" should be called "twitspam," "tweetspam," or "twam." It's not surprising that such a staid and respected authority on defining the Internet as wikipedia hasn't caught up with these goofy names.

Let's look at what spam is and consider if the behavior of a spammer can be applied to twitter users, however. This is a better way to determine whether or not applying the term "spammer" to tweepeople is appropriate.

At best spammer sends unsolicited, mass-market messages to people to entice them to visit one or more websites that the recipient would otherwise not have gone to. At worst, the spammer is malicious, trying to send the reader to sites which will force-download viruses and other nasties to their computer. Let's leave malicious out of this for the moment.

When someone goes on twitter and begins to follow thousands of people, it's legitimate to question their motives. It's impossible to maintain social networking relationships with so many users, just as it's impossible to maintain personal relationships with a similar number of LinkedIn connections. So, why follow thousands? One can examine the user's twitter stream and draw some conclusions. If 80%+ of the twitter stream is pointers back to that user's website (be it a site that sells a product/service or a blog), there is little difference between that person's twitter behavior and the guy who wants me to click through to the Canadian pharmacy to buy Cialis.

In short, if the user's purpose in following people is an attempt at mass-market promotion of you, your serivices, and/or your blog, you're a spammer. What makes it worse is that the user who engages in "twam" is mass-marketing to early adopters. That's a very unproductive approach to getting those folks in your camp as promoters of yourself and/or your business. I wrote on nurturing early adopters last week:
http://www.keyboardnetworking.biz/archives/2008/05/early-adopters.html

Now, that brings us to the "Twitter Blacklist." Since this is not a part of Twitter.com, one has to evaluate its impact in how people use Twitter. There are two ways a twitter user will see who is on this blacklist is to go twitterblacklist.com and scan through it. The other is to install a script that runs with the "Greasemonkey" add-on for the Firefox browser that will compare a user's ID to the black list and pop up a red alert bar on their twitter user page if they're on the list.

I submit that the overhwelming majority of twitter users are blissfully unaware of the add-on site and never will be. Most folks are certainly, even if they have Greasmonkey installed, aren't going to be bothered with adding a script for this function, and IE users don't even have the option. It's much ado about nothing.

Early Adopters Aren't Going To Hire You...

2008-05-02T10:01:26Z

...but they may refer/recommend you.

One of the biggest challenges that self-employed/self-starting workers face is self-promotion/self-marketing. Many F2F networking groups work hard to educate their members on how to identify those people in their business network that are potential customers as opposed to those who will be partners. When it comes to new Social Networking media online, many self-styled "Social Networking experts" appear to have difficulty understanding the difference between these two groups. They treat Early Adopters as potential customers rather than potential referral partners.

What is an Early Adopter?

Simply put, an early adopter is a user who buys into technology ahead of the curve. Early adopters are the folks who put Firefox on the map as a browser alternative to Internet Explorer. They bought Macs in the mid-1980s. They switched from WordPerfect to MS Word in 1990. In terms of Social Networking, they're incorporating technology like Twitter and Pownce into their use of sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

Early adopters are technology hackers, experimenters, self-educators. They wear being on the "bleeding edge" as a badge of honor. They don't need someone to teach them how to use new tech, they figure it out on their own. These are often just as much "experts" in the technology as those who market themselves as such.

In short, they're not going to hire an "expert," but they are very likely to recommend an expert to someone else.

Early adopters may enjoy a technology, and may even develop an addiction to its use. Most of these folks have jobs that don't directly involve the new technology, though. The legal secretary who switched from WordPerfect to Word in 1990 didn't have time to sell others on the wonders of MS Word; she still had to get the work done. Still, she was likely to talk on CompuServe with other Word users. In short order, she was an expert and didn't know it! For all her expertise, however, the odds were against her capitalizing on that expertise by going into business for herself.

Fast-forward to the Social Networking sphere of today. One of the newest angles in this sphere is the concept of "micro-blogging," using systems such as Twitter and Pownce. It's logical that the people to take up micro-blogging first would be those who have already bought into blogging and other maturing aspects of Social Networking. They've climbed one mountain and are ready for the next expedition.

And they're not going to hire you.

Still, the "experts" promote themselves and their skills, causing many of us to doubt their expertise as they continually promote their blogs, Facebook and LinkedIn groups, and announce how much they love helping people learn technology that all those in earshot (and monitor-shot) already know how to work. It's all preaching to the choir.

So, what's a choir member to do? Talk! Socialize! And ask for referrals. F2F networking groups encourage their members to get to know their fellow networkers, developing a level of trust that will enable them to recommend and refer each other. I'm not going to get the guy who owns the local comic book store (follow "bsicomics" on Twitter) to hire me to help him develop a Twitter strategy for his business-he's already there. I will, however, get him to refer others to me, because, even though he knows as much about Twitter as I do, he has a business to run. Same goes for the computer programmer who is at university, finishing her degree.

To get to these early adopters, one must establish a relationship with them. Since you're not going to tell them anything they don't already know about the specific technology, one must reach out to them on other levels. I've already written on how it's not a bad idea to be social when doing Social Networking - that's a good start. Finding common ground with fellow early adopters is both fun and profitable. Get to know your colleagues and they'll turn you on to the people they know who would benefit from your skills.

Case study in developing early adopter relationships: Greta Perry is the "Princess of Positive" She's a New Orleans blogger who writes for both her own site, Kiss My Gumbo, as well as writing and doing video projects for Nola.com. I may be a computer trainer and consultant, but there wasn't much about Twitter I could teach a blogger who was using the system as much as I was. That doesn't mean she was a "lost cause" in terms of business, though. By talking to her about our home town and sharing ideas on other subjects, I learned she was starting her own radio show on a local AM radio station, WIST-690. Next think you know, she's inviting me to be a guest on her show for a 10-minute segment. We're going to talk about streetcars tomorrow afternoon, allowing me to promote my book and the New Orleans Street Railway Association.

If all I ever did would be to try to sell Greta (follow "kissmygumbo" on Twitter) on my skills as a Social Networker, I'm sure she would have dropped me from her Twitter stream in no time flat. Working at the relationship requires more than just saying "Hello, I'm here to solve all your problems!"

The bottom line: Treat early adopters as colleagues, not students. Show them respect. Get to know them, both socially and on a business level. Develop trust and turn them into your sales force!

Feel free to comment on this post here, or follow YatPundit on twitter and talk to me there!

If you're going to use Social Networking...

2008-04-23T13:18:00Z

BE SOCIAL!!!

One of the toughest parts of any Keyboard Networker's marketing strategy is to discern the line between social contacts and doing business. Some will argue that you're always doing business, even when you're with your friends. They usually continue that line until either a) they have no more friends, or b) their friends stage an intervention that usually involves beating them over the head with a nerf bat.

Sometimes a person who is in that downward spiral of all-business-all-the-time enters a new social environment, finding that environment disappointing. They've spent so much time in all-business mode that they've forgotten how to just talk to people.

The biggest thing to remember about Social Networking sites and technologies is that they're there to facilitate being social, not you making money. The creators of the sites want "normal" users, people who come online not to constantly hawk a product, but just to connect with friends. The sites are set up so they can make money. If you do, that's fine, but it's certainly not their mission.

So, what's a dedicated Keyboard Networker to do when faced with a bunch of people not doing business?

BE SOCIAL!!!

Approach the social medium as a networking mixer, or better yet, happy hour at the local tavern. Folks aren't going to want to hear your "elevator speech" when you first arrive. People who have worked at a 9-5 job all day (as well as those goofing off while at those jobs) don't want to hear more work-related stuff when they're done. They want to talk about their kids, their hobbies, or just about anything other than work.

Your task as a Keyboard Networker at this point is to decide whether or not engaging these folks is a good use of your time. If you enjoy their company on a social level, even if talking to them doesn't open doors that expand your client base or business revenue, it's still good for your sanity. If you can't justify that, then move on.

Whatever you do, don't become the person nobody wants to talk to because they always bring things back around to business.

BE SOCIAL!!!

Scanners!

2008-04-21T14:46:49Z

My Twitter buds are talking about receipts and business cards this morning, so here's a run-down of my scanners. I own three scanners, one standard, flat-bed, one portable that is 9" wide, and one that is business card size.

My flatbed scanner is a Canon CanoScan 600U that is a few years old now. It runs the CanoScan Toolbox software. It's also set up with a TWAIN32 interface, so I can use it with a wide variety of applications. This scanner is your basic $80 flatbed. I haven't even attempted to install this scanner to firefoot, my new laptop. I just added getting the scanner running under Ubuntu as a task for me for this week.

I was using this to scan receipts for expenses reimbursement, but it presented a complication. Because it's a standard-size flatbed, I didn't pack it and bring it along when I traveled to teach. If I'm on the road for 3-4 weeks in a row, I wouldn't want to be bothered with doing expenses in the 24-36 hours on the in-between weekends. That meant the receipts were piling up on my desk for the week where I was home. by then, the entire task was the ultimate pain in the butt, and an experienced procrastinator like me got very good at avoiding them.

Most of us can get away with this to an extent. sure, your bookkeeper/accountant will fuss at you that they can't get things done. When you're married to your CPA, however, it's more complicated, as you can imagine.

Since I fly Delta regularly, I pass through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) regluarly. There are three great geeky things at ATL: a Palm Store, vending machines that sell iPods and accessories, and NeatReceipts.

The NeatReceipts concept looked interesting - a portable scanner that's not a flatbed, but a feed-through design. A typical scanner works like a photocopy machine; you put the original face down, and the bar with the scanning element is pulled across the length of the original, storing the image digitally as it goes. A feed-through scanner switches the movement. The entire scanner is page-width (9"), but it's only as thick as the scanning element, maybe 3" or so. That means it's very portable. The software is straightforward, scan-to-PDF, which is all most of us need to scan receipts.

I hesitated buying it, thinking, do I really need to spend $200 on another scanner? When my CPA threatened to withhold marital favors, I still procrastinated. When she threatened to change the locks, I figured she might be serious, so I bought one.

It's wonderful. I can pack the NeatReceipts scanner in my suitcase and do bills while watching TV on the road, emailing it all back to my CPA, thereby guaranteeing I don't have to sleep on the patio when I come home late one evening.

NeatRecepits has a MAC version of the software, as well, Greta. :-)

My third scanner is for business cards. It's an older CardScan (600x). In addition to the very-techie stuff I travel to teach, I also do a bit of "end-user" training, particularly stuff that helps self-employed and self-starters. It started with me showing folks in my BNI chapter a thing or two, and that grew into regularly scheduled classes. I taught the ACT! contact management software, occasional classes on MS Outlook, etc. One of the most popular classes I ever taught is called "How To Use A Business Card Scanner." I talk about how the scanner will scan a bitmap (graphical) image of the card, then use OCR (optical character recognition) software to turn that into fields in an "address book" style database. Depending on the specific software used, that scanned-card database can be exported to various other applications, like Outlook or ACT!

Business Card scanners are a very useful tool for those engaging in a lot of face-to-face business networking. If you go to business card exchanges, networking mixers, etc., you trade a lot of cards, and the prospect of keying all that data into your computer can be daunting. The CardScan scanner+software's pricetag ($225 or so) doesn't look so bad at that point.

(As an aside, the NeatReceipts website says you can scan biz cards with that scanner as well. I don't know how good their OCR software is, though.)

Which scanner works for you? A flatbed scanner is important for anyone who wants to scan photos, or use the scanner/computer/printer combination as a photocopy machine. NeatReceipts is perfect for road warriors, and the small, bizcard-size scanners make business networking a snap.

Business Networking Spam

2008-04-15T12:58:50Z

If there's one thing worse than an unsolicited sales pitch sent via e-mail, it's when an organization you gave a bit of credibility to spams you with multiple copies of a sales pitch. Yesterday, I got a solicitation to participate in a "Referral Success Program" from someone named Richard Martin from the regional BNI office. Then I got three more copies of the same solicitation. The From: address was a "donotreply" account, and there was no reference anywhere else to an originating e-mail.

Then today, I get four copies of a different e-mail from BNI regional.

Mr. Martin, your personal bio is trying to convey the impression you're professional, but your office looks like amateur hour. I'd suggest you get the e-mail act together, or tech-savvy people are going to assign a lot less credibility to your efforts than you'd like.

"Open Networking" Doesn't Work For Me

2008-04-15T02:38:37Z

A common concept on the LinkedIn business networking site is that of "Open Networking." LinkedIn Open Networkers, or "LiONs" work towards amassing huge lists of connections, usually in the thousands. Given how LinkedIn is supposed to work, I don't see the value in such a huge list.

Because I'm on the "My Linked In Power Forum" list, I often get connection requests from other members of that list, particularly in the immediate aftermath of a post or reply I've made there. While I appreciate the fact that someone related to or enjoyed what I wrote, that doesn't mean we're automatically a good business networking "connection."

I want something more before I "connect."

I've got a fairly diverse group of contacts on LinkedIn, but most of them have a common thread. For example, I got an "join my network" request over the weekend from a gentleman from India I did not know, but he works for the national railway company and has an interest in street railways. Even though we don't have any common connections, I'm good with the request. That's what I'm looking for on LinkedIn, that certain something beyond merely being users of the same site.

Does "open networking" work for others? Sure, if your goal is to develop what is essentially a huge mailing list. Beyond that, it has little practical value. Of the thousands of people in a LiON's network, how many can truly write a proper recommendation for the individual? If I join one of these huge networks, just now much credibility does that individual have enough credibility to "introduce" me properly? If they can't, the the overall value of LinkedIn diminishes dramatically.

So, I'll stick with my approx. 100-person network and grow it out as I really "meet" others.

Building An Online Community for New Orleans III - Defining the Community

2008-03-29T22:39:43Z

When the weekly market or bazaar opened in a town, the owners of the stalls who were selling their wares anticipated that people would come into town from all over the region, so they would have a large customer base. The last thing they wanted to do was to stand around and have coffee with the other stall-owners all day. It's the same thing with an online community. A NOLA community is not about a bunch of established bloggers reading and commenting on each other's blogs; that's going to happen anyway. A community site is like the market; the goal is to attract a wide audience.

A more modern metaphor to the bazaar would be the shopping mall. Even established stores with other locations will open up in a mall, because the concentration of options for the buyer means (hopefully) a lot of customers. Again, the store owners don't want their employees standing in the entrance chatting with the folks who work down the mall, they expect the location to attract a wide range of customers. A shopping mall offers a number of options for a business owner. You can open up a very small storefront, or lease enough space for this to become your primary location.

The "stall owners" in an online community site have the same options. They can maintain a minimal presence on the site, say one blog entry every couple of weeks. Perhaps they'll go further than that and post every few days, or even post the one-per-day blog entry maximum. Unlike the mall, there are no financial limitations here; everyone can post the maximum if they choose. The site's FP bloggers may even post more frequently, depending on scheduling.

Who will occupy the stalls in the bazaar? Initially established bloggers will share their content with the community. Think of this as the restaurant that opens up a small outlet in the mall food court. They cook everything up at their main location and bring it over for sale at the mall. If "business" picks up (indicated by the number of recommendations and comments received), a blogger will no doubt put more time and effort into the writing they do for the community.

The hope here is that others will come into the community to read and comment. There's nothing that says they have to blog themselves, just come in and participate. As a reader's interest level increases, no doubt they'll be inspired to start blogging. For example, if an established blogger does a post on Da Saints, a community member might realize that they have enough knowledge to chime in and be as credible as the blogger. Eventually we may even see Front Page bloggers who have "come up through the ranks" in this manner.

It's not about bloggers, it's about people. With a platform and structure that facilitate community participation, non-blogger users of Teh Internetz will discover that the community site is more attractive than the foulness of nola.com.

Building An Online Community for New Orleans II - Site Ownership

2008-03-29T22:04:49Z

If you've ever worked on a group project, you know how difficult it is to produce a quality product when everyone is an equal. Even on a jury, someone is elected foreman, to facilitate communication with the judge. Successful developments in many fields are solo efforts, dual-partnerships at best. Development by committee rarely produces a quality product.

This project will be a sole proprietorship from a business standpoint. That doesn't mean this is will be a top-down dictatorship, mind you; I see two roles of the site owner. The first deals with the legal/financial aspects of any business. Because I'm using my bandwidth (seashell software's business account with Cox), and my server, initial startup costs are small. This is one of the reasons I can move forward quickly. I'm going to continue to lay out the vision I have for the site in more essays, but the short version from the business side is that I'd love to see it make lots of money from blogads/adsense/whatever, as well as contributions from the community. The ultimate goal here is to generate the revenue to be able to do what Markos does, sponsor paid fellowships for FP bloggers and have a paid tech support person.

The second role is the whole buck-stops-here thing. Again, I don't see this role as a top-down dictatorship, but rather as an ultimate arbitrator for the community. There will be times when decisions will have to be made, and I'll be the ultimate court of appeal in those circumstances. The goal here is for me to be the ultimate appeal; hopefully the decisions will work themselves out at the community level first.

To return to the bazaar metaphor, I'm the guy who owns the property where the bazaar is set up. You own your stall, and the contents in side it. The rules of the bazaar are worked out amongst the various stall-owners. They also (for the most part) set the standards for conduct amongst themselves. When they cannot work things out, they turn to the owner of the property.

In terms of site management, I welcome input. The process will always be transparent.

Building An Online Community for New Orleans I - The Vision Thing - Structure

2008-03-29T16:44:45Z

(x-posted to Keyboard Networking and YatPundit)

Since the NOLA Bloggers Bazaar project is definitely moving forward, I want to lay out some of my thoughts on, as Bush 41 would say, "the vision thing."

Initially, I thought it sufficient to say that I wanted to start a community for New Orleans that was based structurally like Daily Kos, MyDD, or RedState. I was surprised to see how many experienced bloggers did not understand what I have in mind.

One of the ideas being floated by local bloggers was to build a site that would serve as an aggregater to make it easier for folks to read and comment on the blogs participating. It's an ambitious and worthy project, but it's not a community. It won't give those coming to the site a sense of ownership. That's the goal here, a dynamic community where members feel they're part of something.

One of the things that makes a community like DailyKos so successful is that the platform, the Scoop software package, allows members to do several things:

Comment on the "Front Page" (FP) stories.
Create their own blogs (called "diaries" on Scoop sites), including their own online polls.
Rate the quality of individual blogs by "recommending" them.
Allow site managers to "promote" individual blogs to the FP.
Rate comments posted by users, positively and negatively.

There are many Content Management Systems that have the first two features, but the others are crucial to building a solid community. If the only people able to recognize the good work of a diarist are the site's managers, the hierarchy created discourages participation. Invariably, personality issues will pop up, accusations of favoritism, etc. When a blog entry is positively rated by the community, it goes on the "recommended list," and becomes featured. (That entry can still be promoted to the FP as well).

Allowing community members to rate comments is also crucial. The nola.com website now has a number of blogs, and comments there are often pretty nasty. The levels of racism and personal attacks on that site are some of the reasons that many bloggers won't participate there. This has created a divide, though, between the non-technical user and the more tech/blog-savvy users. A community that contains a policing function that will remove comments deemed inappropriate by the community will catch on fast.

That's basically my vision for the structure of the community. To this end, I'm going to set up both the drupal and Joomla Content Management Systems on YatBazaar so folks can offer feedback.

Social versus Business Networking

2007-12-06T15:42:47Z

Reading through a discussion about the site LinkedIn.com, I was fascinated by this statement by one of the participants:

Why is everyone rushing to join Facebook and porting over all connections? I use LinkedIn for business and Facebook for social purposes.

My response was simple: I don't see the two as mutually exclusive.

The notion of keeping your social and business networks separate is a trap that networkers have fallen into for generations. The desire to not mix business and pleasure is understandable. Business dealings can easily break up even the strongest friendships. Many people are reluctant to sit down with their friends and "talk business."

Three years ago, I found that I was having lunch less and less with some friends whom I've known since college. I was building up two business networks of my own, and was struggling more and more to find the time to just "do lunch" and not talk business. That's when it dawned on me, why not do both? I left the business networking group I was in and started a new one that included my friends. It turned out that my friends knew a lot of people that I didn't, and were more than willing to introduce and recommend me to them.

All I had to do was ask. The formal structure of a business networking group was the right catalyst for this.

It's tough for some folks to get past this wall between business and social networking, and Keyboard Networking can ease the process. Instead of those awkward face-to-face moments, do it on-line:

Set up your social network on Facebook. Upload your personal contact list from your e-mail program and build up your Facebook.
Set up LinkedIn and add your business contacts.
Merge the two.

I set up Facebook a while back, and didn't use it all that much--my social networking is done mostly on blogs and LiveJournal. When I revived it and uploaded my e-mail contacts, I was surprised at how many of my onlne friends were already there. It was neat to watch others who immediately set up Facebooks when invited to do so.

Once your social network is set up, then do the same with your business network. Again, I was pleased to see how many competent face-to-face networkers I knew went right to LinkedIn and set themselves up there.

The third step is the key one. So many of us don't want to impose on our friends, so we don't know who they know in the business world. We don't hang out after hours with business colleagues, so we don't know all that much about their personal interests. If someone goes through the trouble of setting up a Facebook or a LinkedIn profile, it's safe to assume that they'll do two if asked. There's no awkward face-to-face moment where your friends think you're trying to hook them into Amway or something, just an e-mail. Odds are they'll check it out, and if they decline, nobody gets upset.

Now, study your connections on both sites. You'll be impressed when you learn that your friends from school or church know half a dozen people you'd love to be introduced to for business. Next time you go to a chamber mixer, you'll be armed with more personal knowledge so you can strike up conversations and keep them alive

Give this a try today, it will only take you a few minutes.

LinkedIn Seminar - NEXT WEEK

2007-12-06T02:37:55Z

Keyboard Networking 103 - Using LinkedIn.com

Monday, December 10th - 8:30am-9:30am
repeats
Tuesday, December 11th - 5:30pm-6:30pm

Location:
T. L. Starke's
3535 Severn Ave.
Metairie
(Severn and W. Esplanade, next to CVS)

RSVP: edward@nosra.org or 504.339.5087

Learn how to make LinkedIn.com work for you!

Why Network via the Keyboard?

2007-10-22T19:03:07Z

One of the guidelines often mentioned by personal coaches and networking trainers is that a person should try to work three personal networks at a time. Less than three is too vertical; there is less chance for branching out between the networks. More than three spreads the individual too thin, straining their personal credibility within the networks.

Keyboard Networking allows the savvy networker to go beyond those three personal networks, because it allows for a much more flexible schedule. For example, if e-mail is a persons primary Keyboard Networking tool, they can answer their messages in the morning, before they begin their traditional work day, and in the evening, after that traditional work day is complete.

The national and international aspects of the Internet are also good reasons to include Keyboard Networking in a marketing plan. Belonging to groups such as Rotary, the Chamber, or BNI are good ways to meet others locally, but growing a network beyond your local area usually requires travel. There are many people whose businesses are such that they could offer their services to others from a distance, but are unable to make contact with others to build the relationships necessary to make that a reality. Communicating with others via the Internet is a good way to develop those relationships; the individual can travel via the computer to expand their contacts.

What is Keyboard Networking

2007-10-22T18:52:11Z

Back in 1998, I was chatting on-line using a program known as ICQ. The program (ICQ stands for I Seek You) has since become the most widely-used instant-messaging program on the planet. One of the more interesting features of ICQ is its random chat feature. Users can make themselves available to receive instant messages from other ICQ users at random.

While many of these random encounters are short-lived, some turn into interesting conversations and still others into business relationships and friendships. Such was the case when I met a web developer from Missouri. We started chatting about computer topics and realized we were a good fit professionally. Without even meeting this person face-to-face, we were able to establish a business relationship that remained profitable for several years.

As the Internet has matured, so has Keyboard Networking. Sites dedicated to on-line networking are coming of age as even newer on-line networks are forming. The old-school tools, instant messaging and e-mail, have become second nature to so many that it's easy to develop an effective Keyboard Networking strategy.

That is the power of Keyboard Networking. Word of mouth will get your business known in your home town, and maybe a bit farther if the people talking about you travel. Keyboard Networking expands that and enables you to extend your visibility worldwide.

Since the technology that facilitates Keyboard Networking isnt new, there are a number of possibilities for implementing this as part of your overall marketing strategy.