Social Media Day 2010 - Mashable

The Nr.1 Blog on Social Media, Mashable, is organising Social Media Day 2010

Wednesday 30 June over 500 Social Media Meetups will take place all over the world.

I will be attending the meeting in Antwerp, which seems to be the second most popular after New York !!!

This is probably one of the most interesting networking events this year !

Are your children safe on Social Media ?

Last week, after a workshop in Brussels, someone from the organisation of the event approached me with the question "Are my children safe on Social Media ?"

I think it's a sign of the times that we worry a bit too much. When I was a little boy, I was always out and about, playing with friends. Later, as a teenager, I only came home to eat and sleep.

A lot could have happened out there, but like most others I survived.

Yes, I'm pretty sure child abusers are using all possible tools to communicate with children.
In the old days they would sit on park benches and try to attract children with candy. Today they might start a conversation on one of the popular social networks among children and teenagers.

The good news is you have control. In the old days there was little or no control about who your children would meet on the streets. On a network like Facebook you have the ability to remove people from your network, block people and even report people which will bring them in trouble !

I would advice that until a certain age children would use the family computer which is placed in the living room where there is a lot of 'social control'.

Last but not least, you can also install Parental Control software which makes it easier to control the internet-usage of your children.

Conclusion : There will always be abuse because Internet is just a part of society. The good news is you have more means of control compared to the old days when children were out on the streets whole day long.

Introduce yourself to your grandmother

An essential part of networking is introducing yourself to others.
This is often described as the very first part of the networking process, "Know Me" (Read more about this in Penny Power's book "Know Me, Like Me, Follow Me")

Introducing yourself might sound simple and easy but often isn't that simple at all.
As professionals in our trade we are used to talk to peers, customers and suppliers in our own industry. Typical tech-talk or jargon for your industry automatically slips into most conversations.

It's very important that you train yourself to be able to introduce yourself without using tech-talk or jargon at all. To make this even more clear :

Try to imagine that you would introduce yourself to your grandmother and she really needs to understand every single word you say.

I have read some books stating you need to introduce yourself in under 30 seconds, but I think that's cutting it a bit short. A professional 2 minute introduction is still very polite and can contain all the necessary information. Two minutes is the maximum time it takes an elevator to travel from the ground floor up to the penthouse of the investor ... dixit the "Elevator Pitch".

These are the essential parts of your introduction :
- Who are you ?
- What's your professional activity ?
- What exactly is the problem that you can solve ?
- What is the value that you can bring to your clients ?

If you are introducing yourself at a networking event, you might want to add a few extras to include the 'now' :
- What are you working on right now ?
- What are you looking for right now ?
- How can people help you right now ?

Last but not least :
Always network as a person. If you network as a company you will loose your entire network whenever you leave that company !

Integrate and automate your status updates

Since Social Media is time consuming, we need to search for ways to integrate and automate most of the daily processes we use for communicating with our network.

Recently I was interviewed by a journalist for Bizz Magazine, the leading business magazine in Belgium for startups and small businesses. The result of this interview you can find in this article (in dutch) : http://www.friends-with-benefits.eu/images/press/BIZZ105.pdf

I want to share a few essentials in this blogpost :

For each connection you make between networks, try to use the most simple way to connect. For example, LinkedIn and Twitter have integrated direct routes to each other's networks.
In Twitter you can use the hashtag #in to include a status-update on LinkedIn. On LinkedIn you only have to cross the box next to the blue Twitter 'T' to include a status-update on Twitter.

The most popular broadcast tools for status updates are Ping.fm, TweetDeck and HelloTXT

As a 'heavy' user of Ping.fm I still think the best feature is the ability to update all my networks with a simple email message ... a lot cheaper than updating through a webinterface when I'm abroad !

All three mentioned applications offer more or less the same features, only Tweetdeck delivers an application that can be installed on your pc and also gives you a dashboard view on your most popular networks.

When constructing the routes for your status messages to be send from one network to the next, always watch out not to create loops or multiple posting errors !
Each message should only appear ONCE on each network or otherwise this will annoy your visiters and followers !

Integrating and automating your status messages is also a part of the workshop 'Social Media for Business'.

The mobile revolution

Some techies will claim the real mobile revolution already happened years ago, but I can't help noticing how new mobile applications are popping up every day now.
Since my primary interest is Social Media, I couldn't miss the Social Media applications recently launched by the most popular online social networks.

The latest Blackberries are sold with the Facebook application already installed. If you missed it, it can be found here.

LinkedIn recently launched a full set of applications for Blackberry, iPhone and Palm operated cellphones. Other phones can still use the mobile site http://m.linkedin.com

The real mobile networks like Foursquare of course run 100% on their applications. Foursquare has developed apps for Blackberry, iPhone and Android. (They also have a mobile website in case you don't have a smartphone)

Xing even recognizes mobile devices and sends you directly to the mobile portal.

Ecademy doesn't have a mobile application ready yet, but they are working on an iPhone app to be launched soon.

Feel free to add links to other Social Network applications in the comments below !

(Dutch) Persbericht : Businessclub M4M lanceert nieuwe netwerkformule

PERSBERICHT – VOOR ONMIDDELIJKE VRIJGAVE
Businessclub M4M lanceert nieuwe netwerkformule

Nieuwe formule : M4M Business Advisory Boards

De meeste ondernemers gaan netwerken met enkele doelen voor ogen. Ze willen hun netwerk vergroten, zichzelf profileren, credibiliteit verwerven en indien mogelijk ook hun business stimuleren. Mits het spenderen van de nodige tijd en moeite zal je regelmatig doorverwijzingen krijgen vanuit je netwerk.

Voor het grootste gedeelte van de ondernemers is dit waar het om gaat bij het netwerken en dit verhaal is eigenlijk ook perfect gecoverd in het reeds bestaande aanbod van Managers 4 Managers. Als lid kan je immers elke maand terecht op een business meeting met een interessante gastspreker en het zeer succesvolle “Greet & Meet” concept.

We vroegen ons dan ook af op welke manier M4M nog meer kon bieden aan zijn leden ?

Een half jaar geleden werd Social Media expert Geert Conard (www.geertconard.com) aan boord gehaald om het bestaande netwerkconcept te verfijnen en daarnaast een nieuwe netwerkformule te ontwikkelen.

Deze nieuwe formule ‘M4M Business Advisory Boards’ of kortweg ‘M4M BABs’ is voorgesteld aan de leden tijdens de meeting van de Antwerpse club op 25/03, in het bijzijn van de gouverneur van Antwerpen, Mevr. Cathy Berx.

Grote ondernemingen hebben het grote voordeel dat wanneer er zich een probleem voordoet, men snel een vergadering samenroept met alle directeurs of afdelingsverantwoordelijken en het probleem op tafel gooit.
In een mum van tijd geeft iedereen zijn inbreng en op die manier worden problemen snel aangepakt of worden nieuwe ideeën afgetoetst.
Een zelfstandige of een zaakvoerder van een klein bedrijf heeft geen ‘board of directors’ en meestal is er eveneens geen budget voorhanden om beroep te doen op dure consultants.
Bij elk probleem of voor elke belangrijke beslissing sta je er alleen voor … Hier wil M4M nu ook een oplossing voor bieden in de vorm van een uniek business networking concept.

Stel je voor dat je elke maand kan samen zitten voor een lunchmeeting met 8 ondernemers uit 8 verschillende sectoren, waarbij elke ondernemer vast deel uitmaakt van de adviesraad van de anderen.
Elke maand opnieuw leren deze 8 mensen elkaar beter en beter kennen en werken ze samen aan de groei van elkaars ondernemingen.
Elk probleem kan onmiddellijk worden aangepakt en elk idee kan op tafel gegooid worden zonder bang te moeten zijn voor misbruik. Elke deelnemer moet immers bij het instappen een contract ondertekenen.
Eén van de belangrijkste punten in dat contract is 100% geheimhouding van alles wat er gezegd wordt tijdens deze meetings.
De BABs groepen zullen worden geleid door ervaren moderators van het M4M team.

Voor de deelnemers aan deze meetings is er een enorm grote return. Deze return kan je zonder probleem vergelijken met de directe input van 8 consultants of bijna 200 adviesuren op jaarbasis. Reken zelf maar uit wat daarvan de waarde is !
Om deel te nemen aan deze nieuwe netwerkformule moet je in elk geval ook lid zijn van M4M, dus sla je 2 vliegen in één klap : op de gewone M4M meetings bouw je aan je netwerk en aan je verkoopscijfers, op de BAB meetings werk je samen met je “board of directors” heel intensief aan elkaars business.
Uiteraard is dit concept niet interessant voor iedereen … maar als je denkt dat dit voor jou interessant kan zijn dan kan je terecht bij de M4M bestuursleden voor meer informatie !

Meer informatie :

Voor meer informatie over M4M kan u steeds terecht op www.managers4managers.eu

M4M International
Kort Ossegoor 7
B-2390 Malle

Jan De Vos / jan.de.vos@managers4managers.eu / +32 475 455837
Tamara Mariën / tamara.marien@managers4managers.eu / +32 477 545589
Geert Conard / geert.conard@managers4managers.eu / +32 496 127710
Tineke Vanhove / tineke.vanhove@managers4managers.eu / +32 478 762526

M4M – Managers for Managers :

MANAGERS 4 MANAGERS is een initiatief voor en door zaakvoerders dat een platform creëert om de ondernemers, bedrijfsleiders, managers, starters en beslissingnemers op een informele manier bij elkaar te brengen per regio. U kunt door u aan te sluiten bij een regionale club alle (inter)nationale leden bereiken. Elkaar beter leren kennen, uw relatienetwerk uitbreiden en het bundelen van knowhow, zijn maar enkele van de sterkhouders van dit concept.
Op dit ogenblik zijn er in België regelmatige meetings van M4M in Antwerpen, Beveren, Brussel en Hasselt. Er zijn daarnaast ook reeds groepen actief in Nederland en Luxemburg.
Voorzitter en initiatiefnemer van deze businessclub is Dhr. Jan De Vos, die wordt bijgestaan door lokale teams per locatie waar M4M meetings worden georganisseerd.
Naast de netwerkmeetings worden ook andere diensten aan geboden aan de leden (M4M Profit / M4M Trading)

Social Media expert Geert Conard :

Deze netwerkformule werd samengesteld uit de beste eigenschappen van meerdere ‘Premium’ formules die er momenteel wereldwijd op de markt zijn. (= Netwerkformules die worden aangeboden als extra lidmaatschap bovenop het gewone algemene lidmaatschap van een organisatie)
Als ervaren netwerker en expert op vlak van Social Media heeft Geert Conard meerdere van deze formules persoonlijk uitgetest en/of geanalyseerd.
Geert Conard werd vooral bekend als de man die een bloedhekel had aan netwerken en dan uitgroeide tot één van de bekendste netwerkers in Europa. In het voorjaar van 2004 begon hij met social business networking via websites als LinkedIn, Xing en Ecademy. Exact één jaar later was hij reeds één van de TOP Netwerkers in België. Deze waanzinnige transformatie wijzigde niet alleen de manier waarop hij zijn professionele activiteiten ontplooide, maar veranderde effectief zijn leven 100%. In zijn eerste boek "A Girlfriend in Every City" (11/2005) deelde hij zijn verhaal, maar ook zijn methodes en inzichten voor het netwerken met mensen, zowel online als 'face to face' op netwerkevents. In November 2009 lanceerde Geert zijn tweede boek 'Friends with Benefits', waarin hij dieper ingaat op netwerken in de sterk gewijzigde economie waarin we vandaag leven en werken.Geert is ondertussen internationaal actief als spreker, trainer en consultant en hij runt een eigen ICT bedrijf, IT Consult Services. Geert maakt zich sterk dat hij vandaag maar liefst 95% van zijn nieuwe business krijgt aangereikt vanuit zijn netwerk. De resterende 5% is het resultaat van mond-aan-mond reclame van zijn bestaande klanten. Zijn presentaties en workshops over Social Media en Social Networking zitten steeds nokvol met handige en bruikbare netwerktips. Deze tips zijn eenvoudig en direct toepasbaar om je eigen netwerkervaring te verbeteren.
Op 27/04 organiseert M4M ook samen met Geert een Social Media event waarbij een netwerklunch zal worden gecombineerd met een Social Media Training. Inschrijven hiervoor is nog steeds mogelijk.

Met vriendelijke groet,
Geert CONARD
CNO M4M Business Advisory boards

Foursquare : The next big thing is location !

The newest hype in Social Media world are location-based web-applications such as Foursquare.
Foursquare is a very simple mobile Internet tool to build your network and tell each other WHERE you are. The question is no longer "what are you doing ?", but "Where are you doing it ?"

The big thing in this evolution is of course peer promotion. This new platform has all the keys in hand to become the leading network for marketing and business purposes. Users can add tips to trigger other users to visit locations or businesses.

As my friend Marieke (@hensel) points out : It's just a matter of time before companies will offer free drinks or coupons to people who digitally check-in to their store.

Today Twitter is already recognized as one of the most important business networks. It were the users who invented most of the innovative features and uses of this network. I hope users will also be clever enough to develop the right uses for Foursquare ... there is a lot of potential in this new network ... but it's up to us to unlock it !

Outlook integration with Social Media

Since many years Microsoft Outlook is one of the most important tools in my professional life.
Already a while ago Microsoft announced their plans to integrate connections with Social Media platforms, straight into the contacts and e-mail features of Outlook.

As a Proactive and Professional Networker, this was of course something I was very excited about. Normally I'm not much of a beta-tester, but this time I just couldn't resist and downloaded the Outlook Social Connector, the plugin for Outlook that opens the gates toward the Social Media platforms.

Today there is only one add-in available for this plugin, connecting Outlook to the Nr. 1 Business platform : LinkedIn.
Soon other add-in's will be available too. Microsoft already announced connections to MySpace, Facebook and Windows Live.

The setup and configuration was not the easiest I've ever done. I installed the plugin onto Office 2007 Professional (Downloading a beta of Office 2010 was even too wild for me ...)
My biggest problem was the fact the add-in for LinkedIn wouldn't accept my login and password. After debugging this problem I found out that the client won't accept passwords containing a 'space'. I changed my password and got it up and running.

Result : It does exactly what it says on the box. When I receive an email from someone who's already in my LinkedIn network, I get extra information at the bottom of the page.

Even without the Linkedin connection it's already worth installing because the plugin gives you a history feature to track back all communication.
In the contacts section of Outlook you get an extra file with your LinkedIn contacts.

My conclusion : Bring on those new clients for Facebook and MySpace ... this is good stuff !!!

Wealth Dynamics Profiles (Video)

Roger Hamilton, chairman of one of the largest Premium Networking organisations (XL Results Foundation) is talking about Wealth Dynamics Profiles.
These profiles show you exactly who you are and how you should be working with others around you.

Up until 2005 I was running my business activities in a typical "supporter" style, always having the feeling of running into walls. After attending a webinar from Roger I could understand that I had to change my behaviour. In Wealth Dynamics I have the Star profile, which is still very close to the Supporter, but with a different focus. After adjusting my behaviour to my profile things became much easier.

If you know what you're good at and you can focus on doing that, you will always be successful. If you will surround yourself with people who are good in other things, the sum of your capabilities and skills will make your team stronger.

(un)Fair competition

In this blog I'm talking about the Social Media industry as an example, but I'm pretty sure the same goes for many other industries such as training, ICT, marketing, ...

Lately I see every 'dog with a hat on' organizing Social Media Workshops. Recently I got an invitation for one of those and I looked up the trainer on several online networks.
The largest network I could find where his 140 friends on Facebook ...

I also noticed some other Trainers and Public Speakers who are now on the market as Social Media Experts, but a few months ago they were speaking about Taxes and a few months before that they were speaking about marketing strategies. Whatever's hot is their game.

Lots of people attend these workshops and are often disapointed on the quality of the content.
Most of today's trainers don't walk their talk. I love to learn new things myself but the only way you can really pick something up is in the case that the trainer really knows his stuff ... from doing it himself.

In case of Social Media and Online Networking I do know most experts worldwide. It's not a very large crowd because there are only 4 or 5 in each country. Half of them are on the market as Public Speakers or Trainers and really know their stuff. As a few examples I'll drop the names of Octavio Pitaluga (Brazil), Thomas Power (UK), Louis Gray (Silicon Valley, USA) and Roger Hamilton (Singapore).

I have read a few good blogs with lists of questions to ask a potential Social Media Expert.
I really liked these questions and agree that any of those people I know would have no trouble at all answering them. Most of the trainers now jumping on the Social Media train "because it's hot" would probably have a huge problem finding the right answers.

The best part of Social Media is of course that you have all the tools to check people out yourself. Just tap in the name of the expert or trainer in any of your favorite Social Media websites and watch the results. Don't forget Google because you might even find some comments of attendees to earlier workshops. Nevertheless, I think there is a huge value in these workshops because we need to get the managers and entrepreneurs online now to keep up to level with the new generation of starting entrepreneurs.