LinkedIn – Communicating With Group Members

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Yesterday when our members started to accept invitations to our newly established group on LinkedIn, I started a discussion just to see what might happen. One member responded but I think that he just saw the discussion when he logged on. Found out some interesting things about how this might work. LinkedIn is a fabulous program but there are just some things that seem so simple to me that it is just not designed to do. The good news is, this stuff is continually involving. You can even subscribe to an updates feed on LinkedIn Updates.

1. If somebody starts a discussion, notifications are not sent to other group members
2. If somebody starts a discussion, they can be notified of any comments made
3. If somebody makes a comment, they can be notified of any other comments made
4. If you see a discussion, you can choose to follow that discussion and be notified

Now, I had envisioned this thing to work in the manner where somebody could say, pose a question to the group, and all group members would be notified. Apparently, that is what email is for and LinkedIn refers to the fact that they are not a mass email program. However, …..

LinkedIn Groups

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My last post to this site suggested that Twitter might consider chapping their lips on a certain portion of my anatomy (smile). For now, Tweet Deck is dead to me. That’s good because I can’t get it to work anyway (smile). I’m still locked out. However, Twitter is back up and Twirl is working. I placed several shout outs for help yesterday and received……..zero, none, zippo, nada responses. Just me? Probably but hope not (smile). Therefore, I am pronouncing Twitter to be on life support and I still might just pull the plug.

What I continue to be pleased with is LinkedIn……………..

A Tasty Event…………

Substitute the rice for a smoked baked potato, add some BBQ beans and macaroni salad, and………….me likey (smile). Just got back from the “Smoke Out” which is a monthly networking event that is put on by the folks over at Ultra Clean. I’m told that the turnout was approx. 210 folks (those that signed in) but I would say that there were likely more. Our group was well represented. I was pleasantly surprised to hook up with folks that I had not seen for, in one case, 20 years. Met a lot of people who I had spoken to over the phone or via email only. I’m starting to get feedback from those in attendance and would say that this monthly event will become a part of our NetWorks! model. This is good since I have already penciled it in as such (smile). This is a fabulous event. Well organized and well attended. And, people were anxious to network and tell the media to place their gloom and doom where the sun don’t shine (smile). We need more of that!

Journey Part 5 – January 1 to Present

Over the past number of years, I had played with Social Media. Why do they call it that? I don’t get it. Seems to me that it should be called “Web Based Networking”. Oh, well (smile). I had learned a few tricks like integrating my LinkedIn profile into my email signature lines. Stuff like that. As I said earlier, I am not what you would call an “early adopter”. I do tend to evaluate things like this in terms of whether or not it will make my job easier and my ventures more profitable. The jury is still out (smile). While not actively pursuing Social Media, I still kept my eyes open for things that make me go hmmmmm.

And, I did see things. About the first of the year I received an email from Brandon over at Ultra Clean. He and I had exchanged emails last year about them becoming a member of NetWorks! and it never really went anywhere. Now there was renewed interest. We emailed back and forth and then he sent me one about the Smoke Out. I had heard of this and understood it to be something like a Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours but was not sure. Thus began my accelerated journey:

The Sales Weasel’s To-Do List

I like the term “Sales Weasel”. Keeps things real (smile). Might even put it on my business card. I also like D.D.S.. No, I’m not a dentist. I’m a Door to Door Salesman (smile). The term “Sales Weasel” actually came from a Dilbert cartoon. Jimmy the Sales Weasel has to take Dilbert out on a call with him so that he can have some technical backup. So Jimmy says “Tell me a little bit about our product while we are driving over there”. Dilbert replies “It’s brown and uses electricity”. Jimmy….”Whoa, brain overload!” (smile). Right now I feel a lot like Jimmy (smile)

Time to make out my to-do list. Things I have gotten done so far:

1. Set up this basic blog
2. Integrated this blog feed into my LinkedIn profile
3. Added a link to this blog in my LinkedIn profile
4. Loaded google reader and have two feeds coming in
5. Set up a twitter account and added tweet deck and twirl (more on these later)

Things I need to work on: