PatientsLikeMe, an Internet start-up, creates information-rich communities for the chronically ill. Is it the next step forward in medical science — or just a MySpace for the afflicted?
Archive for the 'Networking' Category
Practicing Patients
Posted by Ted Hopton on April 19, 2008
Posted in Health, Networking, Science, Technology, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
What Are Your 43 Things?
Posted by Ted Hopton on February 18, 2008
I heard about the 43 Things website a long time ago, and my first reaction was that it was odd. The idea is that you create a public list on their website of things that you intend to do. Any kinds of things at all. And by doing so, you become part of the 43 Things social network, which is where it gets rather interesting.
The funny thing is, not quite a year ago I decided to try it out. I made my own list (only 8 things, as I recall — 43 is just a random number). And, feeling secure in the anonymity of the Internet, they were highly personal, deeply important goals, fundamental things that I wanted to change about myself and in my life. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Human Interest, Networking, Web 2.0 | Tagged: 43 places, 43 things, goals, objectives, social networking | 2 Comments »
Index of Groups on LinkedIn
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 30, 2008
I started two groups on LinkedIn. One is for ICMI Members, and only current ICMI Members are eligible to join. The other is for the ICMI QueueTips Community, and that’s open to anyone to join. Both are intended to facilitate networking among call center professionals by leveraging the power of LinkedIn’s 10 million+ members.
However, I was curious about other groups on LinkedIn. For example, is there an alumni group for my college? I could not find any list of all the groups on the LinkedIn website, which seemed strange. There is a list, but it’s only a few pages — surely there are far more groups than those listed. And there’s a note at the moment saying that new groups are not included (the note has been there for at least a month).
Well, today I found an index of sorts to LinkedIn groups. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Career, Networking, Web 2.0 | Tagged: Career, Networking | 2 Comments »
LinkedIn Explosion
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 15, 2008
I knew I had read news about how popular LinkedIn is becoming, and when I searched just now one of the top results was this blog entry titled, Networking on steroids: LinkedIn growing in popularity. Marilynn Mobley expressed some of the same feelings I have been having about dealing with link requests from people you don’t really know:
It strikes me as irrelevant to connect to someone I’ve never heard of who happened to find me using a keyword search. The way I see it, my connections aren’t relevant to me - or others - if I can’t personally speak to why I’m connected to them.
Furthermore, I think she’s right on target when she says,
I suppose it’s possible that some people actually know - and can credibly introduce - hundreds or even thousands of people, but frankly, when I see people with so many connections, I automatically raise an eyebrow.
She’s harsher than I am about what she thinks of them, though I bet her term (”Link Ho’s”) probably does fit some people!
Back to my original question that I was searching to answer, one of her links took me to a news story citing more than 9 million LinkedIn members and 350 corporate customers — but that the news story is a year old. Another figure, from April 2007, is in this report on LinkedIntelligence, citing a LinkedIn press release, which says there are 10 million users on LinkedIn. So, I am not sure how many there actually are now, but it’s an awful lot. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Career, Networking, Web 2.0 | Tagged: Career, Networking, social networking, Trends, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
ICMI’s QueueTips Edition 130
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 14, 2008
It’s that time again! Fresh new call center management advice in ICMI’s QueueTips! Check out the notification email for some suggested topics in both the QueueTips Knowledgebase and the QueueTips Forums.
And don’t miss out on the chance to show off your affiliation with QueueTips on your LinkedIn profile.
In case you are a regular ICMI’s QueueTips reader, no we did not miss our deadline last Friday. Well, we did not publish on the regularly scheduled day, but it’s on purpose so we can test whether Monday is a better day to send the ICMI’s QueueTips notification email. We’ve been sending it on Friday afternoon for so long that it seemed like a good time to test changing it. We’ll look at the statistics and decide whether to stick with Fridays or change to Mondays.
call center management
Posted in Call Center Management, Call Centers, ICMI, ICMI's QueueTips, Networking, Web 2.0 | Tagged: Call Centers, ICMI, ICMI's QueueTips, Management, Networking, user-generated, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Networking is Vital for Successful Managers
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 14, 2008
Managers today juggle more responsibilities than ever and for many of them networking becomes an afterthought. That’s a potentially fatal career mistake. Managers who neglect to build their networks risk failing or remaining stuck in middle management.
I highly recommend this article! Written by Herminia Ibarra, INSEAD Professor of Organisational Behaviour, it’s a good examination of the value of networking and it breaks networking down into 3 types so you can understand the differences. Good insights, good advice — compelling reading if you care about your career. Here’s more: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Career, Management, Networking | Tagged: Career, Management, Networking | No Comments »
Social Networking in Business
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 14, 2008
Old-time sales pros always believed in the importance of face-to-face contact. Now new media is making that contact easier than ever. Emphasis on socialization is growing for digital media, including social media such as such as blogs, wikis and social networks.
eMarketer’s article, “Business Gets Social,” has useful stats, insights from several people studying social media, and it’s a hot topic, worth keeping up on.
Posted in Career, Management, Networking, Web 2.0 | Tagged: Marketing, Networking, Sales, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Multiple Profile Disorder
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 13, 2008
When is there going to be one central repository for an individual’s online profile? So many websites and organizations ask you to create a profile, and they tend to ask the same kinds of questions. Let’s see, off the top of my head, here are the profiles I have been asked to create: LinkedIn, Blogger, Google, Yahoo, AIM, Digg, Delicious, PB Wiki, Naymz, Salesforce, ZoomInfo, Meetup (a separate profile for each Meetup I join), Pandora, 43 Things, ICMI Membership, ICMI’s QueueTips Forums, Facebook and Flickr.
Kind of hard to keep track of them all! So, I’m coining the term “Multiple Profile Disorder” and I hope soon there will be a cure.
Posted in Networking, Web 2.0 | Tagged: Career, Networking | No Comments »
Show Your Professional Affiliations
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 12, 2008
There’s a nifty feature in LinkedIn that lets you join groups, and once you’ve joined then the group’s logo shows up on your LinkedIn profile. (Take a look at mine, for example.) Even better, as a member of the group, you can see the other group members on LinkedIn, even if they are not in your LinkedIn network. So, it’s another way to find people you have some affiliation with — in other words, to network.
I’ve set up two Professional Groups on LinkedIn, and if you’re part of them already (or want to join), I encourage you to add them to your LinkedIn profile and add another resource to your professional networking toolkit.
If you’re a subscriber to ICMI’s QueueTips, you can join the LinkedIn ICMI’s QueueTips Community Group.
If you’re an ICMI Member, you can join the LinkedIn ICMI Membership Community Group.
In both cases, you may need to wait until you’re “approved” before the logo shows up and you are accepted into the group. Since parts of that process are not automated, please be patient if there’s a delay.
So, if you’re part of the call center community, show your affiliations and wear your badge with pride! You just may make some valuable professional connections, too.
Posted in Career, ICMI's QueueTips, Networking | Tagged: call center, Career, ICMI, Networking, QueueTips | No Comments »
Who Do You Let In Your Professional Network?
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 11, 2008
I have long understood the importance of networking to career success. I landed my first job out of college in good part due to a couple of network connections. Not that I wasn’t qualified, mind you, but so were the other people applying. Having a recommendation from an industry “name” helped me get a second look, and having an alum from my college on the selection committee helped me get past the competition.
I’m far from a networking expert, however. I dabble at it and admire with awe colleagues I have met who have mastered this art. I try to learn from them, because I don’t think you have to be “born” a networker — although some people seem to be. I think you really can *learn* to do it well.
So I have the requisite profile on LinkedIn and every few months or so I go look at it and wonder if I will ever get it 100% complete so the website will quit nagging me (stuck at 80% as I recall, since I don’t feel like writing my biography). And I actually have about 100 connections now on LinkedIn.
But I’m still not sure what those connections really should be. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Career, Networking | Tagged: Career, Networking | No Comments »
