With Seth Godin about to appear on stage in Orange County in just a few weeks time, there is a buzz around here about what new insights he will provide to us in 2011. And the event, in line with what Seth preaches about holding BIG events, is set to be HUGE – he will be speaking at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, a location that is host to the likes of Natalie Cole and the Vienna Philharmonic. In my eyes, but more importantly the eyes of the event organizer …
read moreI had a chance this week to speak at an event in front of several different local Orange County nonprofit organizations. While nonprofits are beginning to understand the potential for social media engagement, my sense during the meeting was that efforts seemed to be centered around Facebook for the objective of merely gaining awareness for their organization in the community. While utilizing Facebook to help in raising awareness for a nonprofit and its cause is a necessity to any social media strategy for nonprofits, there are many other things that nonprofits can be using social media for. Similarly, there are …
read moreOver the past several months there has been a significant increase in the number of social media-related events occurring nationwide. These events range from formal educational seminars and full-day events with multiple speakers to networking social events and tweetups over lunch or on a weeknight. If the target audience for your business is using social media, which is increasingly the case, it makes business sense for your company to start participating in these events through event sponsorship. If you have been a blog reader of mine from the past, you’ll know that I am a co-founder of ConnectOC, a group …
read moreImage by @Photo . via Flickr If you’ve followed my Windmill Networking blog for awhile or read my LinkedIn book, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of the LinkedIn Events Application. Seriously. I wrote an April Fools’s post back in 2009 complaining why Events wasn’t considered an application with a blog post rhetorically entitled, “What are LinkedIn Applications?” I was the first one to ask “What Happened to LinkedIn Events?” when they mysteriously disappeared for a day in October of 2009. So you can say that I have a personal relationship with Events, and when all of the “social …
read moreIn the world of blogging, mommy bloggers are the talk of the town. You hear stories about how corporations want them to blog about their products. PR professionals want to know how to engage with them. And if you haven’t thought about it before, there are some compelling statistics on mommy bloggers which reveal why they are so important: Women influence 85% of all consumer purchases in the US Mothers who blog have undoubtedly emerged as a trusted source of information for women Of the 42 million women taking part in social media, 1/2 of them have children and more …
read moreIt all started with a secret social media event that was actually held for the publication of my LinkedIn book: the “Hush-Hush Surprise — Networking Mixer, Charity Event & Book Release Party.” 157 people came out for a networking event to celebrate, well, networking! I stood amidst a crowd of people, many of whom I knew, but all of them I met purely through engaging in social media itself. It was at this event that Christine Weijland, Sales & E-Commerce Manager of Hilton Orange County Costa Mesa met Debbie Miller, Information Systems Coordinator for the Costa Mesa Conference & Visitor …
read moreI will start out this post by letting you know that I am not in any way nor have ever been a recruiter or a headhunter. While I have been a hiring manager for previous companies, my experience in being able to write this post comes from helping out many recruiters looking for candidates on or off LinkedIn. Because I am a Windmill Networker, I see great value in establishing relationships with recruiters and helping them out when I can. In fact, my LinkedIn Profile Contact Settings explicitly state: I also enjoy speaking with recruiters and providing introductions whenever possible …
read moreOn an average day, I receive an invite or two to join a LinkedIn Group. It is only natural since I have so many connections as a LinkedIn Open Networker (= LION). Since you can easily send out invites to join a group when you create it, it’s obvious that I am a common target to be the recipient of so many new group invites. I don’t mind receiving so many, especially because every once in awhile there is one (like the We are Orange County group I blogged about yesterday) that causes me to cancel a different group membership …
read moreAre you happy with how the city you live in is displayed on your LinkedIn profile? I’m not. Let me explain further. When you enter your zip code into your profile, LinkedIn will display your city based on its own algorithm and database of metropolitan areas. Let’s take a look at how these locations are defined. If you go to your “Connections” screen on LinkedIn and choose the “Advanced Options” to “Filter by Location”, it is interesting what geographies of your connections show up on LinkedIn and which do not. These are the same locations that will appear when viewing …
read moreToday I announced what I believe is the first LinkedIn Group Mashup on LinkedIn! Giving you an idea of what I did will hopefully give you ideas of how you can collaborate with others on LinkedIn for whatever networking purpose you have. I am a manager of the Windmill Networking in Southern California “So Cal Sushi” LinkedIn Group, a networking community for those of us in Southern California (Los Angeles & Orange County) to get together monthly for lunch over some raw fish. My brother just started his first LinkedIn group, Tercero Wines, and he appointed me co-manager so that …
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