Am I hell!!

What I am is aware. Aware that there is more to this than paddling around in the shallows of facebook.

"Guru":  no way!. Passionate:  yes. Learning:  very yes, and hungry for more.

I’ve just got back from a trip to America.  I’ve never been to Silicon Valley before and as much as I am a self-confessed geek, what I saw was more than just "geekery" or "nerdishness".  What I saw was boundless:  boundless in the sense that it is immoveable, a huge entity that is unstoppable.  And unless someone works out a way of turning off the internet, it’s not going away.   It’ll just get bigger and more all-encompassing.  It will touch more and more of our daily lives – "augmented reality" is no longer just a phrase out of a sci-fi comic.

Consider Google.

They started off in a garage and now they have a "campus" the size of a large village – complete with their very own T-Rex!

So it is no secret that I have this passion for the web, and there is no secret that I have a desire to learn more – after all non of us are experts, merely participants -  maybe participants with experience, but participants nontheless. 

I don’t know where the web will go.  I don’t know if I will be using a phone in 12 months or a "communicator".  How will I use the web?  How will I transact on the web?  How will I work on the web?. How will this effect my life, family, time  – what I do know is that it has, it will and it’s there.

The web moves in dog years, seven times faster than normal years,  so as much as it may be 20, in reality it acts like 70.  It’s wisened.  It demands respect and it deserves it.

So inspired by my trip to the birthplace of social communications and inspired by the very essence of social media, as in the act of sharing, Vanessa and I  have decided to create a monthly event in Guildford.  We are calling it The Surrey Social Media Tribes and it is dedicated SMO – social media optimisation.

You can see a presentation I have done below which explains more.

As V. and I have always said, to quote Kevin Kelly:  "None of us is as smart as all of us".  So if understanding Social Media, the Social Web, and the contemporary forms for web communication/s is important in your world, then I hope this event is for you.

After all, we need you to lead us.

This month’s event, scheduled for the 24th of March, is going to focus on getting the most out of LinkedIn.   I have brought in the person who communicated LinkedIn to me the best, Marc Perl.

Click here for further details.

P.S I did get the tee shirt.

Regards N
 
   

 

This month’s inaugural event is set to feature a presentation about how to get the most out of the business networking site, LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has more than 60 million users worldwide, of which approx. half are in the United States with 11 million being from Europe.  It is a site that allows professional people to maintain a list of contact details for people they know and trust in business.

This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:

 

• A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections, the connections of each of their connections (termed second-degree connections) and also the connections of second-degree connections (termed third-degree connections). This can be used to gain an introduction to someone a person wishes to know through a mutual, trusted contact.
• It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one’s contact network.
• Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.
• Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them.

The "gated-access approach" (where contact with any professional requires either a preexisting relationship, or the intervention of a contact of theirs) is intended to build trust among the service’s users. 

LinkedIn also allows users to research companies with which they may be interested in working. When typing the name of a given company in the search box, statistics about the company are provided. These may include the ratio of female to male employees, the percentage of the most common titles/positions held within the company, the location of the company’s headquarters and offices, or a list of present, past, and former employees.

Clearly, LinkedIn is one of the major players in social networking that we all should endeavour to understand and leverage.

We have therefore brought in one of the most respected LinkedIn trainers in the U.K., Mark Perl,  to speak to you.  Mark’s presentation will help you optimise your presence on LinkedIn, and help you be efficient in the time you spend in the network.

Please book for this hot topic below.

Payment:  £10 in advance, or £15 on the door, on the day (places permitting).

Date:  24th March 2010

Venue:  Holiday Inn, Egerton Road, Guildford, Surrey.

Time:  18.30 to 19.15 – Networking. 

           19.15 to 20.30  LinkedIn Presentation:  Mark Perl

           20.30 to 21.30  Business Challenge and networking

Parking:  Ample and free

Refreshments:  Available to buy in the hotel.