So I took advice and decided now was the time not only to sort out the virus but to actually sort out the site. When Mike – who has been alongside me since I started blogging – said that in his view my site was not doing my business justice I bit the bullet and hired Fraser of boom digital .

In the meantime I stopped blogging. I thought taking a break would be good for me too. I had a holiday during that time and I decided that I would cut myself off totally from logging on.  Taking time to think was very therapeutic…for a while.

But one of the benefits of blogging for me is that it gives me the opportunity to reflect/think out loud and more and more ideas were coming into my mind. I could have written up posts and saved them for the “relaunch” but I have been in the habit of posting what I think is relevant and at the time I think of it.

So  - the site is ready much sooner than I thought it would be and I am ready to go (thanks Fraser). Let’s hope that the pent up ideas will flow now that I can blog!

If you have been to read my blog before then thank you for coming back. If this turns out to be your first time – welcome!

And please let me know what you think of the site. Press the comments button above and away you go…….

“What I didn’t anticipate was that commenting on other blogs would be such a great experience. Now I tell coaching clients that they should read blogs on topics of interest, but also comment. It helps you learn, but, more importantly, it makes you part of the conversation and a wider community”

 and his comments got me thinking some more…. which is the point of this post really.

I love when people comment on my blog. I have a band of regular commentors and from time to time somebody new comes by and takes the time to tell me what they think. Sometimes they become regulars too which is good. As a blogger I gain a huge amount from the comments others make. We don’t have to agree  – the point of the conversation is to share your perspective   – and knowledge – and maybe provoke some futher thoughts.

Wally tells me that he suggests to his coaching clients that they read blogs and make comments. I think this is a great idea. I found it really challenging to do this in the early days so I ”lurked” for a bit  until I plucked up the courage (As an aside –  when I talk about social networking and lurking my audiences love it…they recognise themselves and know that they are not alone. Hopefully it helps them come out of those shadows!) . Then I found a couple of bloggers who were saying something that really caught my attention and I pitched in. I thought, rethought, edited and finally pressed the “submit” button and was delighted to see how other strands of the thread came from what I had said – it gave me the confidence to do it more and then set up my own blog.

A post might be worthy of reading in its own right – with comments attached it can take on a life of its own.

But I do have some concerns. Sometimes I am attracted to a post that has loads of comments but when I look a good number of them are saying “great post”. I realise that this might be spam but if you have gone as far as saying “great post” how much more valuable would it be to say why you think so? I realise too that some commentors want their profile to be linked to a recognised blogger but really it would benefit  their reputation so much more if they added something worthwhile to the discussion!

I also have a bit of an issue with anonymous commentors. I participate in several discussion groups in which people are obviously using pseudonyms  and much of my community is made up of HR professionals I accept that this might have to be so. But I regularly see comments making a particular point and usually at odds with the original post which does not allow the author to take the discussion with the commentor further. To me that is a bit like ringing a bell and running away….!

So let’s hear it for commenting on blog posts you agree with /disagree with/want to learn more about to keep the conversation going.

….and please share your thoughts.

I have been blogging now for coming up for 3 years . I have no idea how that time has passed so quickly. And that is one heck of a lot of posts. I look back on the earliest posts with fondness. That dipping my toe in the water was a big step for me but when I got into the habit ( I may have this wrong but I recall that  you need to do something for 20 times for it to become a habit ) I found that I really enjoyed it. To sustain anything over a period of time you need to get something from doing it and Seth and Tom’s conversation got me thinking about what it does for me.

Seth suggests that one of the benefits is that by blogging you “force yourself to be part of the conversation”. Now this was a big step for me.  I was very very cautious about “going public” on a number of levels not least of which was “what did I know?” but on reading other blogs I realised that this was an opportunity to share with others – and the whole being much much better than the sum of the parts.

As time has passed I realise that my style of writing is pretty much unchanged but my content is far more informed by what I have learned from other places – live, face to face, and online.

In the clip Tom Peters mentions that blogging has changed his “intellectual and emotional outlook” which I find very interesting. Intellectually blogging has challenged me more that I could have ever imagined. I find myself researching regularly and often – and not only for material for posts – which is quite a change for me. In the Honey and Mumford Learning Styles language I am strong activist learner and blogging has slowed me down some and encouraged me to reflect more which is a huge benefit to the way I work now. Emotionally I have never felt more connected to so many people. I have never been focussed on how many readers I have but always surprised and encouraged when someone takes the time to post a comment .

As a final comment on this I could never have imagined that Seth Godin, Tom Peters and I would be talking about the same thing. Actually – how would I have  known? But blogging was the first step to opening up a whole new world to me and if you don’t blog yet I urge you to give it a try. And if you do – please share with me why you started and what keeps you going.

But so many people I speak to still tell me they are not interested in what Stephen Fry has to say or what somebody has had for breakfast. And I find myself launching into why Twitter has been so useful to my – both personally and for business reasons.

Speaking to my very good (pre Twitter) friend @bethedberg – a face to face networking phenomenon in her own right- yesterday made me think and I wanted to jot down my thoughts in a post so that I can look back at some point in the future and see how I was thinking in April 2009 ( I do this regularly with old blog posts. It is good practice and often makes me smile).

As I write this I have about 470 followers and I am following just over 500. That in itself is hard to imagine. Now in practice what I do is read the tweets that appear on Tweetdeck when I am online – so some of my twitter friends and I are never on at the same time.  Some were friends and contacts pre Twitter through my blog and other online activities and I from time to time I will look a their tweet stream just like I check blog feeds.  Finding Tweetdeck was a turning point for managing my groups. I have a few different reasons for online social networking and sorting friends into columns has made keeping up so much easier  – whether it is to listen to the chat in HR/coaching circles, see what my teacher and educationalist friends are up to , get the heads up on new research and reporting on various journals or just finding out what is going on in people I care about’s lives.

My home is my workbase. When I am with clients I am in their space. One of my friends who also works from home called Twitter their coffee machine chat replacement – and I really get that. When I did work in an office the best connections I made were with random people from other departments as we made our coffee selection. The coffee is much better now ( loving my Nespresso machine!) but until Twitter the chance to bump into people had pretty much gone. Now I can be inspired by a 140 character comment and take that off in all sorts of directions. And I have been touched by the warmth of best wishes from my Twitter friends in celebrating good news and support when things are a little less sunny.

For business development it has been hugely beneficial. After delivering many in-house sessions I recently ran my first public speaking skills open programme in Edinburgh. I found a route to advertising this and one of the delegates through Twitter. I have met other coaches and speakers who are happy to share experiences – all great for my CPD. I can get views on business sectors I don’t know well from people on the inside. And I can find people who know the people I would like to get to know.

One of the other benefits is that I can find out about things that are happening in the wider community. The Red Nose Day Twitter feeds were fun. I follow a few charities’s tweets ( an more should be jumping in to raise awareness).  I have an eclectic mix of big business “friends” from British Airways to ING and a smattering of politicians. It has  given me a whole load of useful ( depending on your point of view) information to talk about at social gatherings when I actually see the people I am speaking to.

So what next then? Well I have already spoken to one group about online social networking and have been invited to do a similar talk to a group of businesswomen. That will be fun – hopefully for them too! And to ensure that I still benefit I have decided to be a bit more discriminating about who I follow. It is nice to be nice – I know – but my stream is in danger of getting cluttered with stuff that has no relevance to me and is, in reality, never likely to. I now that there might be some gem lurking that I will miss but I will take that chance.

I am looking forward to seeing how this develops in the next year and wondering what I will think about this post then!

“I spent about 8 years somewhere in the middle and finally decided to go for the first group…I’ve never made so little money and been so happy:) Doing what you love is under-rated”

Take a look at his new blog – there is more to couriering than I thought!]

http://www.cascadecouriers.blogspot.com/

 Check it out – really good stuff do dip into there

http://blogs.talentsocial.com/

Don’s idea of having weekly meetings to which he will invite groups of people within the service he heads to talk to him again sounds like one of those ideas that are so simple that you have to wonder why more people are not working this way.

And then I thought back to opportunities that came up for me in the past to speak with someone  who had the overall view, the power to make changes and the ( apparent) desire to listen to me.  Personally I took this at face value and contributed when asked. But so many people are wary about  saying something that might “come back to haunt them” which means that they either did not take the chance to speak or contributed a diluted version of what they really wanted to say.

OK – that comment must be taken in context. Some leaders are really great listeners who use what they hear to make beneficial changes or to build more on the already good stuff. Much depends on how they are viewed by their people- and that  pretty much comes down to trust and rapport. So a leader whom most of the workforce would not recognise if they bumped into them will have a bit more work to do than someone  who “walks the talk”.

I know that Don is out and about in his role. How can I know that? Well he has been blogging for a couple of years. What he does, thinks and where he has been is there for anyone to see – including employees for whom he is ultimately responsible.

The new way of “walking the talk” – there must be a Web 2.0 phrase for that! I am looking forward to reading more about how his idea pans out.

A while later he asked when I was sending the details. As he has a laid back approach to lots of things I responded in what I considered to be a suitably robust way by telling him to check his inbox again as I had definitely sent them. He did. There was nothing from me. I sent them again cursing the black hole that some of my communications seem to head for.

Next day – in my inbox – was an e-mail from a guy telling me that he had got my e-mail but that he was not my son! The suffix .com instead of .co.uk made the difference.

I replied with an apology and complimented his parents on choosing such a great name for their son. He replied saying that he had had a look at my website and the entry on missing opportunities had a particular resonance with him at this point. He said that he had got “something important out of it already”.

He lives in Australia. I live in Scotland.

So -  a small mistake led to something useful and the timing was great. I can’t remember how we managed before the www – life was definitely much simpler. But the world is a much smaller place in 2008 and there are now unlimited opportunities to  share stories, connect with others and make a difference!

So as a start – and thanks to Lucie and the team at HR Zone for providing the means for me to put out the request for recommendations – here is my list so far.  I would love to hear about your own favourites?

Scott McArthur    Human Resources, Organisations and HR 2.0

Jo Jordan            Flowing Motion, Beautiful Work

Jon Ingham         Strategic HCM Blog, thoughts on value creating people management ( Human Capital Management, HR 2.o etc)

Karyn Romeis      Karyn’s erratic learning journey

Katy Ledger         Katy’s blog – portfolio work, how to get money , meaning and magic into your life

Frank Hobson      Frankly HR

Richard Donkin    People Work and Management

Advorto             Recruitment, Technology and other random topics

Sylvia Doyle        Just Rewards Blog – news, insight and comment on reward

Flip Chart Fairytales  ( not repeating their tag line  here -but take a look, it is good)

HC Global           The world of Human Capital Management

Couraud             HR Architecture, HR Tools, HR Training

Bowland Solutions

Tim Elkington      Online recruitment, the bigger picture

Donald H Taylor

 ….and of course my own one – you know - the one you are reading!

 In addition blogs at

People Management

HR Zone

And take a look at Talent Social

]]> http://www.consultcameron.com/2008/07/18/its-time-to-support-bloggers-writing-on-uk-hr-issues/feed/ 11 http://www.consultcameron.com/2008/07/18/what-i-learned-from-social-networking/ http://www.consultcameron.com/2008/07/18/what-i-learned-from-social-networking/#comments Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:44:10 +0000 jackie http://www.consultcameron.com/2008/07/18/what-i-learned-from-social-networking/ I was reading my feeds and catching up on my e-mail and dipping into online magazines …and wondering what I should blog about today.

A lot has happened this week. I have focused on getting my Linkedin profile up to date. A  friend I made through blogging  suggested this a while back. I had joined but done nothing else. I realised that this week was the “right time” to take a look at the possibilities . Since Monday I have added contacts and answered questions. And I have read loads -  learning all the time. I just read an answer to a question about career coaching and what a client should expect. The thread of answers agreed with what I believe and added some new slants to this.  How else would I get that range of up to date information and opinion?

Then I spend a night away with my sister- in- law. The hotel we stayed at has a communal dining room arrangement ie you sit at a table for 8 people as you arrive. I introduced myself to my fellow guests ( all ladies coincidentally). When I mentioned the work I do I was bombarded ( in the nicest possible way) with questions about how to and recognise skills and talents  and how to write a great CV which would include these. I got the chance to talk about something I feel passionately about with people who were desparate for some help!

Because I had been away from my desk for a few days – and I don’t have a laptop – I am catching up with e-mail today. I set up a couple of wikis last week for projects I am working on and I have been tracking the new members, helping them with navigation and reading what they have posted. Understanding what they need to make it worthwhile ( and effortless) has been a real learning experience for me.

And then I read John Connell’s post asking what kind of social networker you are. It is a bit of fun but it helps me understand where I sit.

I realise that I learn something new every day from my social networking activities. It is random. Depends on my mood and the time I have. My way would not suit everyone but I can highly recommend it as a way to keep up to date and informed in my specialist interest areas.

Oh – and it’s a great way to make new contacts that might just turn into associates and maybe even friends.

So – that’s my blog post for today. Funny how sometimes they just create themselves!

 

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