If you are a professional interested in advancing your career, increasing your business or expanding your opportunities through relationships, this book is for you. It helps you understand and develop an effective online social networking strategy with LinkedIn.

The reader will walk away with 1) an understanding of LinkedIn and why they should use it;2) a set of best practices and tips to get started and keep moving, and 3) an understanding of how LinkedIn fits into their networking and career strategy

I'm on LinkedIn -- Now What???: A Guide to Getting the Most OUT of LinkedIn is available at Amazon for $17.95. To Order click here
Amazon Product Pages contain a lot of other details on this product as Customer Reviews, Sales Ranking, Special Offers, Alternate products that customers are going for and much more.Want to read these details? click here

Want to get some other Format / Binding / Version? You can search for them from here

Other Products of Interest

• The LinkedIn Personal Trainer
• I'm on Facebook--Now What???: How to Get Personal, Business, and Professional Value from Facebook
• Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand
• The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors And Closing Deals Online
• The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly

If you’re like me and have multiple social networking and IM accounts spread throughout the World Wide Web, then you know how annoying and time-consuming it is to have to navigate to each site and remember one of your many logins (the same password parameters all around would be helpful) just to update your status and keep up with what your friends are doing. It’s exhausting.

Enter Digsby to the rescue! 

This social networking tool combines several of the aforementioned social sites (but  not all) as well as some IM clients, and e-mail notifications into one application. The IM clients that Digsby currently supports include AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber. Have multiple e-mail accounts? No problem. Digsby allows users to manage their Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL, IMAP, and POP accounts. Remember those social networking sites you don’t want to individually log into? Digsby allows you to be fully connected to your Linked-In, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace pages at once.

All of these features display fully customizable pop-up notifications when you receive new e-mails and new status updates. The one and only disadvantage that I have found is that while Digsby allows you to make updates to Linked-In, Twitter and Facebook, it does not support instant updates to MySpace directly from the application, thus forcing users to click on the “Home” link at the top of the MySpace window from your taskbar.

Bottom line: This application is fun, convenient, and just downright cool. Check it out at www.digsby.com.

The advantages of using LinkedIn are many, but I think that the one that sets it apart from the rest of the online social networking sites is the absence of irrelevant content for your professional development. In other words, there are no photo albums, no wall where your friends can make funny comments, etc. Instead, LinkedIn offers you the possibility of having a professional online profile, to interact with other professionals in the same field through groups, Questions&Answers pages, and most important, to reach more people that may be interesting for your business or your career development, either through these groups or through your own contacts.

The challenge with having a profile in LinkedIn is to make it stand out, and that is exactly the goal of the Social Harbor Team. They will create and manage profiles for you or your company in different networking sites, then they will give you advice on how to grow your different professional networks. By doing this, the Social Harbor professionals will give your profile the online relevance that it deserves, and more importantly, they will make easier for your profile to be found for the professional reasons you want it to be found.

Take Twitter, a place where people can post anything that goes throught their mind, in under 150 characters. Once you register, you can "follow" other people and entities to read what's on their mind. Conversely, others can "follow" you and read what you are up to.

I had a feeling that if Warren Buffet were on twitter under his own name, most people would want to "follow" him but he may not necesarilly be interested in turn, in "following" them. From there, I posit that the coolest people on twitter are those whom everybody want to follow while they, chose more carefully whom they are following.

I therefore came-up with the "wer/wing" ratio which gives a score to everyone who is on twitter.

The formula is this: (Number of followers / Number following) multiplied by the Log of numbers of followers.

My twitter score is 0.96. I "follow" 141 people while only 73 "follow" me.

If you plug these numbers in the formula, you get:

(73/141) x Log (73) = 0.96

Let's pretend for the time being that the formula were shortened to: number of followers / number of people you follow (in my case 73/141=0.518). WBUR on twitter scores 1.01 (759/763). The problem is that if you leave the formula as is, it doesn't account for the order of magnitude; 2/1 gives the same score as 400 / 200. So to account for the order of magnitude I take the Log (base 10) of the number of followers and multiply to the previous score. (Here is a list of selected Logs to give you a sense of what it does to the formula)

Log 10 = 1

Log 100 = 2

Log 500 = 2.70

Log 1000 = 3

So here is the coolnest scores for following people:

So you now get a sense of how the ranking is possible through these scores.

However, there are refinements that can be brought. The most imporant to me is the quality of the "follower". There should be a way to account for the "quality" of the link. In other words, if someone like Warren Buffet follows you how many other normal links is that worth?

This can be more relevant in a social, and more professional, network like Linkedin where your chances of getting ahead are improved by the quality of the links you have.

Currently, our office intern is summarizing the findings so that we can post them on the new Office of Advocacy blog.

I clicked on the "What's This" and it said:

While it is very difficult for most people to process the amount of input they receive in a networking atmosphere - especially larger mixers - there are steps you can take to maximize the experience and outcome for you and those you meet.

Here are some tips on how to "stand out in the crowd" (while you are there) and then how to stand out "from the crowd" (in your follow up and your follow through.)

While you're at the event:

1. Be sure to take a card of theirs before you offer your own. It is common courtesy - and I always take notes while I ask the other person to talk about what they do. That way, I know what they do and how I might be able to help them. Also, when I hand them my card, I write a person I think they should know on the back. I ask them to connect with me (even though I have the same info on the back of their card) so that I know they want the introduction.

2. I use a "rating system" - and keep cards in an order in the meeting. There are (a) people I am glad to have met, (b) people I know I can help, (c) people I want to meet with further, and (d) people who I made a business connection with - they need my product(s) - or I need theirs. This allows me to follow up properly and promptly.

3. Be sure to keep eye contact with those you meet. We're all been told how this is polite - but I never realized how much it can separate you from the pack. Keeping eye contact also increases your focus on the other person and what they are saying. They feel like you are tuned into them. I have had both new clients and great networking friends comment on how this made me stand out.

4. In every meeting, small or large, I try to use a trick I learned from Jackie Robinson via Jack Petrash. They both speak of how, when a batter goes to the plate, the batter is entitled to 3 good pitches. I keep the same thing in mind - only in networking, it is 3 good minutes. One minute to understand the person in front of me, one to listen harder and ask a good question or two - and then one to share my own insight or value I could bring to them.

5. In larger groups I try to keep in mind the people I met who are in the "spheres of influence" for those I am meeting. That way, I can ask "do you know Sam Jones - he does trash removal - and you're a landlord with lots of turning properties." I also can keep this in mind the next time I attend - and bring along people with coinciding interests.

6. Ask distinguishing questions to set yourself apart. Be sure to go deeper than surface level - asking them not just what they do - but what things they need to take next steps for success in their business? or who they get best leads from? or what else they have done or do outside of work? In that minute or so - asking them for this type of information allows you to gain a more intimate understanding of how you can help them and who else you know with similar interests. Again, keep track of these small things for the follow up, on the back of that person's card.

7. Give them a way to find you that is unique and different. Sure, connecting with them on LinkedIn and for other social and business networking sites can be a way to expand your relations - but being able to say "Google Me" - is a really great tool - it helps with "your 'bility."

8. Finally, I try to take note of what type of networker and person I am meeting, using Malcolm Gladwell's "Tipping Point" trio to distinguish people as either a maven, connector or salesperson. This helps me know how to introduce them (article on page 20) when I begin networking introductions - one of the five followup rules. If you haven't read "Tipping Point" - I very highly recommend it.

Be sure to check out our article on "How to Make Positive and Memorable Networking Followup."

The professionals on Linked In had plenty of experience and advice for me that I found very helpful. This post will categorize and present those recomendations so that hopefully they become useful to you as well. To note unless I get an answer that is completely off topic and backwards I am usually very happy to rate it as a good answer because the person took time out of their day to respond to me. With this question I got twenty responses that really sent my head spinning with some of the insights and experiences. Lets get to it. To pick the best answer was tough so I picked the one that provided me with the most unexpected reasons and points that I did not consider.

Best Answer

• How the form looks is just one part of the overall experience of completing the form
• Most people are used to the web presenting things differently so user confusion is not much of a factor.
• The experience of filling out the form matters more than how it looks on initial inspection
• We should be designing web-based forms to make the most of the browser medium
• Legal reasons may require you to make the form look like the paper one
  • 1. If the actual form - and not just the policy it implements - is enshrined in legislation, then every version of that form has to be approved. Having a web form that looks different can mean a whole separate approval process (and therefore additional costs).2. In legal arguments around data, the design of the form that collected data in question - rather than just the data themselves - may be used. Therefore, having a web form that looks different from a paper form may muddy the waters in any legal argument that calls on the design of the data collection instrument.

The above points really show why this was the best answer to me because I never considered the chance of there being legal reasons that a form had to look like the paper version. For the rest of the answers that I received it was a split scattered bunch. Below are the major points that were given to me for making forms look like the paper version.

For The Paper

• People printing out the form, filling it in, and mailing it to the office rather than submit it online
• Users familiar with the form would not use the interview style, preferring the familiarity of their tried and true replicated form
• They're trying to minimize is the cost of retraining the experienced staff
• At a minimum, the flow of the form (the order of the fields) should be preserved if the paper form has been in use for quite some time
• It will be easier (faster) for people to transfer information from one to the other
• Fewer mistakes will be made if the meanings and locations of the web form items match those on the paper.
• When someone goes back to reference the form, it will have a familiar layout

For Using Web Technologies

• Tightly packed forms that are designed for the constraints of paper can and will be improved by the spacing of a web interface
• The ability to provide on demand help as well as assistance text in places that it was not possible with the paper form.
• Paper reading and screen reading are different so the form should be adjusted for the screen
• The length and complexity of the form should factor into the decision to adjust it especially if completion rate will increase using web tools like auto populate.
• If web users are a different segment that paper users or don't have a lot of interaction with the paper form redesign the web form.

For A Hybrid Approach

• Only adjust the form slightly where it can help then as users get used to the adjustments continue to ween them away from the paper form
• Start with the paper then roll out a web version along side it. This would provide both versions and keep all users happy.

From this interaction I have learned that the phrase "there is more than one way to skin a cat" truly applies to this scenario. There are definitely compelling reasons to consider when designing a web form based on an existing paper form. The top reason being the effect on the user population.

Reporter Daniel Pearl Is Dead, Killed by His Captors in Pakistan

Following are key events in the abduction of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, with links to relevant articles.

Jan. 23: Daniel Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, fails to check in with his editors. Mr. Pearl was reporting in Karachi, Pakistan, at the time.

Jan. 24: Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, says the newspaper is working with the U.S. and Pakistani governments to locate Mr. Pearl.

Jan. 27: A group calling itself "The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty" claims in e-mail sent to several news organizations that ...

WORLWIDE EVENTS

 7th annual Daniel Pearl World Music Days
Global network of concerts for “Harmony for Humanity”

WORLD MUSIC DAYS

1 - 30 0ct 2008

infos@weri-events.org

 "DANIEL PEARL  FOREVER "

 'Daniel Pearl detainee' is dead

  A Pakistani man detained over the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl has died weeks after being released.

   Saud Memon owned the property in the city of Karachi where Pearl's body was found after his kidnap in 2002.

Mr Memon's family say he disappeared in 2003 and was held in Guantanamo Bay before being dumped by unidentified men outside his Karachi home few month later.

They deny he had anything to do with the murder. Doctors say Mr Memon died of tuberculosis and meningitis.

Court order

Mr Memon's family say he was in extremely bad health when he was returned to them, weighing just 18kg (44 pounds). He was also suffering psychiatric problems, they say.

The 44-year-old textiles businessman owned the shed and land where Pearl's body was found in a shallow grave after his kidnapping and beheading in January 2002.

Mr Memon's family say he went missing for four years. They believe he was picked up by American FBI agents while on a trip to South Africa, taken to Guantanamo Bay and later handed to Pakistan.

Pakistani authorities said at the time of Pearl's murder they wanted to question Mr Memon but that they could not find him. They never acknowledged his detention.

But earlier this month Mr Memon was produced before Pakistan's Supreme Court, which is investigating "disappearances" of terror suspects allegedly being held by Pakistani intelligence agencies.

The court was alarmed at his condition and ordered he receive medical treatment and not be taken back into custody.

However, Mr Memon, a father of five, died at the Liaquat National Hospital in Karachi on  Friday, his family said.

"We don't know who had been holding him for the past more than four years, but my brother had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or Daniel Pearl's murder," his brother told The Associated Press news agency.

Convictions

Daniel Pearl, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped in Pakistan in 2002.

Pictures of his murder appeared on internet sites later, but the identity of the killer was not clear.

British-born Islamist Ahmed Omar Sheikh was sentenced to death for the murder six months later, while three other men were given life imprisonment.

They are appealing against the verdict.

In March 2002, alleged al-Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to personally beheading Pearl, according to an incomplete Pentagon transcript of his testimony at a military tribunal.

I have been busy catching up on reading blogs this morning.  With the new job here at Neutron I have had too much to do to get all my feeds read each day.

I have read some good stuff!  One thing that is really great is that social networking is infringing on people searching for other not so good material.  As you may know my brother Aaron created a sex offender mapping site several years ago, the very first one, and since then I have always been very active in promoting anything that can protect kids from online predators etc.  So this is great news to me to know that porn searches have dropped in half, from 20 to 10% of all searches over the past months.  Read more here.  This is terrific news – go social!

A few days ago I responded to an article request via HARO on how to avoid layoffs.   Put it this way – now days you have to make a move if feel you need to and can.  Given the current situation with the feds bailing out AIG – we are all at risk.  I believe AIG employs hundreds of thousands from what I heard on the news.  Are you in danger of being laid off if you work there – Yes.  You don’t know how, when, the details but you know that things are iffy.  So don’t sit around feeling sorry for yourself.  Get Linked In – get connected.  Network – go social.  Have other avenues.  Having been through one lay off in my life I do not want another – I am still catching up on bills from when I was laid off one year ago.  Do what you need to do to protect your family.  Need help – email me I will at least try to point you in the right direction.  Better yet, Get Linked In with me and we’ll see what we can do.

Education – wow.  Today in Business week there is a poll taking place for the top young entrepreneur of the year.  Six of the twenty-five entries – are closely related to College education or succeeding in College.  These are great sites – run by smart kids!  Education is very important.  These sites make class note sharing easier, Internship finding better, Class room teaching and file sharing better, more internship help for high schoolers, and campus live – what to do on campus.  All of these are great!  Oh and one more – A site dedicated to lowering the price of going to school by sharing and going social.

I still have several hundred more posts to go – so don’t be surprised to see another update from me today.

Mark

On Facebook I am finding a lot of people that I went to high school and college with.  That's pretty cool.  It is like a reunion of sorts.

So as I was searching around the sites when I thought "what about social networking events?"  There are so many groups and clubs and organizations on these sites that you could have social network tours traveling around the country catering to them.  People could actually meet (person to person) at these events.  This could be a sponsors dream come true.  Think about how targeted you could be with these events.  I think I am going to really look into promoting these events.  What do you think?  Send me your comments and ideas.

 

 

 

 

 

Today on Twitter, one mashup nerd excitedly wondered what custom API's were in the works and a Spore programmer claimed on Tumblr that they would run a version of the new game through Mountain View's Google servers utilizing Chrome's mobile capabilities.

From Amazon:

Imagine an almost instantaneous communication system that would allow people and governments all over the world to send and receive messages about politics, war, illness, and family events. The government has tried and failed to control it, and its revolutionary nature is trumpeted loudly by its backers. The Internet? Nope, the humble telegraph fit this bill way back in the 1800s. The parallels between the now-ubiquitous Internet and the telegraph are amazing, offering insight into the ways new technologies can change the very fabric of society within a single generation. In The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage examines the history of the telegraph, beginning with a horrifically funny story of a mile-long line of monks holding a wire and getting simultaneous shocks in the interest of investigating electricity, and ending with the advent of the telephone. All the early "online" pioneers are here: Samuel Morse, Thomas Edison, and a seemingly endless parade of code-makers, entrepreneurs, and spies who helped ensure the success of this communications revolution. Fans of Longitude will enjoy another story of the human side of dramatic technological developments, complete with personal rivalry, vicious competition, and agonizing failures. --Therese Littleton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

It's all been done before, why are we always intimidated when it comes in a new form factor? From communication techniques like smoke signals to technologies like the telegraph --> telephone --> Fax --> computer --> email  --> social applications - everything is coming at us at ever increasing speeds.

It's not whether these things are good or bad, it's whether it fits in your strategy or not, and whether your customers also participate in these activities. 

According to this source, 800-numbers, which have handled a ton of business over the years, were "invented by AT&T in the 1960’s." Every business felt they had to have one of these to be "present" for their customer. Then they found out they the numbers were useless unless they were marketed.

Having an empty pipe isn't helpful to anyone unless it's helping (something) flow from point A to point B.

The same is true for blogging, twitter, and any other social application.

What has blogging done to help you execute your strategy? Where does twitter fit into your marketing goals? Have you measured these activities? How will you know whether it's working or not?

A linked in user asked a bout a topic that can cause even the most experienced developers headaches. Differences between the ways browsers handle CSS. The tough part about this is that even with versions of the same browser there are issues. That being said lets look at some of the solutions the linked in pros came up with to help.

Most Popular:

The most popular recommendation came for using Firebug lite which provides a view of the site code as well as applied css classes and tags based on component. This way you can review what is being applied to your content to make it look the way it does. Multiple IE. Is also at the top of recommendations. It allows for snap shots of your page as it would be rendered in the different IE browsers. This is great so that there is no need to have them all installed on your PC. These applications are different in nature but both provide a very needed part of debugging.

Also Noted

I personally have used the IE Developer Toolbar and have found it very useful in debugging CSS issues. I also use Firebug for Firefox. There was only one suggestion to use the tool. Other tools mentioned were

• http://www.debugbar.com
• http://www.virtualbox.org
• http://www.parallels.com
• http://www.vmware.com
• http://www.litmusapp.com

I hope this helps out with your CSS debugging.

Since then, it kind of fell off my things-to-do list, mainly due to a healthy amount of procrastination. The fact is, I was never sure what I wanted to put up on my profile. As a student, I couldn't see the value of using the site to network, since I felt that most of my contacts would be other fellow students. As a communicator, I still felt like too much of a novice--even with all of the contacts I had developed through various projects--to start randomly adding everyone I knew.

What finally prompted me to complete my profile was realizing how important it is to maintain the ties I have developed in the field of communications, especially with my former classmates.

As I found out during a recent get-together with some of them, most of them are beginning to build their own career paths as communicators. By keeping in contact with them, I am able to learn from their experiences and improve my own knowledge, especially in social media and Web 2.0 which have become so vitally important to our industry.

So, six months, 10 days and 14 hours later (give or take a couple of weeks) Joe Chawla has finally made it onto Linked In. For those of you who have been waiting for me to accept your invitations to join and become your contact, my apologies. For those of you who I have recently sent invites to, hopefully it won't take you six months to respond back to me.

But in case it does, don't worry ... my profile will still be waiting.

Many people join the site, and send and receive invitations to connect.  Some follow the unspoken rules of the site, some don't and make spamming a pass time.  While some people have managed to just barely navigate Linked In and create great networks, few people know how to effectively use the Social Networks they have created. While there are many social networking sites, for the purpose of this blog entry I will focus on Linked In.

There is a lot of information on Linked In and other places on the internet describing the features of the site.  You can find stories about the site owners and how they've raised money for the site.  You can find self professed gurus telling how their expertise can help them turn a Linked In network into a sales pipeline or using it for successful job hunting.  But you rarely learn about the work and effort you need to put into it to make it work for you.  Signing up for an account is the first step.  Putting up a profile is the next important step.  But if you leave it there, you are doing yourself a disservice and only adding to Linked In's numbers, not it's success stories.

To be effective in any type of networking, you need to put in the effort.  I set aside time each quarter to connect with all of my 700+ connections to let them know what's going on in my world and how I can help them with any issues they are dealing with.  I am on Linked In daily because I run two groups on there and  get approval requests daily, not to mention inmail and invitations I need to weed through.  Every weekend, I am on Linked In looking for potential people to connect to.  I craft personalized introduction letters and request connection.  I also take time to answer questions when I can.  Sometimes I'll answer publicly, sometimes privately.  But I try to take advantage of opportunities that will allow me to showcase my expertise (not solicit business or recruit, but show my expertise).  I send notes to my connections who have posted recent promotions, successes and good news.  They are almost always surprised by that action.  It shows I'm paying attention.

Another thing I try to do is humanize my networks.  To me, it's not enough to just join a group or add a connections.  If I am connecting with someone it has to have meaning.  I'll call when I can, and in some cases plan to meet face to face.  This coming Friday, I am having lunch with some of my connections and I am very excited.  What is the sense of "knowing someone" without getting to know them?  I'm not in some contest to see who can have the most connections.  I connect with whom I want to connect.  Somehow it all works itself out.  Remember that video I posted a little while back by IBM, where the guy is explaining he has 600+ friends on his network, and his boss tells him to find 10 potential high level employees?  And he responds that he doesn't know anyone like that?  Well that's an example of poor networking form.  I can guarantee that any type of position someone has I can find a contact who knows someone who is an ideal fit.  That is a wonderful advantage to have.  Because I keep in touch with my network, it is easier for them to remember who I am and makes them more willing to help me.  I'm not bothering people with forward requests.  I'm not referring people I don't know.  I respect my network and am growing it organically. That is what makes me a successful networker.

There's more to social networking but this blog isn't long enough to hold it all.  I teach courses on social networking that breaks it down to the bare essence. If you're interested, come check one out.  They're not expensive.

So before you Link In, consider why you are linking in and what purpose it'll serve.  Consider what amount of time you plan to put into it and what your expectations are.  Don't connect for the sake of connecting or numbers.  Cultivate your network like you would your garden.  I guarantee the more attention and love you give it, the better your return.  If you don't know how to do it, learn.  It'll do wonders for your career and/or business

Til next time.

Adrienne Graham

Men do it all the time.  They get together for golf, at the country club, at exclusive dining clubs, cigar clubs, etc.  They come together to shoot the breeze, chip some balls, and do business.  They seem to do it seamlessly.  Women for some reason, aren't as focused on networking, or shall I say the true value behind networking.  Men do it without giving it a name.  They put in the time, get to know their peers or counter parts, and they make things happen.  No really, understand what I'm saying here.  Women network, but not like men.  We are often pushed into it and out of our comfort zones.  I don't know. For some reason, women feel that they cannot safely network, especially with other women.  I guess they think someone will steal their idea, turn on them, steal a client, or whatever.  Women also get so caught up in being all things to everybody (mom, businesswomen, corporate executive, student, etc) that they feel they don't need to network.  This is especially true for Black Women.  Yes sisters, I'm telling it like it is.  I see it first hand every day.

I am blessed and fortunate that I forced myself to learn how to network.  I'm a Recruiter by trade so it's par for the course, occupational hazzard.  But I have learned along the way that my sisters don't take networking too seriously.  As you know, I started a network for Black Women to network.  And it has been wonderful, now that I have tightened the criteria for joining the network.  There are wonderful women from all backgrounds, levels of responsibility, locations, companies, etc.  But a lot of them don't feel comfortable networking just yet.  That is why I go out of my way to facilitate networking opportunities.  Right now, we are all coming together to master networking amongst ourselves before moving on to networking with others.  It's coming along.  I had to remove some folks who signed up and never again returned or participated.  And when asked, the response was "I'm just too busy".  Sad.

It really doesn't take that much to network.  You set a purpose, list the people or types of people you want to connect with, and reach out.  The worse they could say is "No".  Most times, people are glad you reached out to them if you have a stated purpose for your initial contact.  Sites linked Viadeo, Linked In, Facebook are godsends.  But they create a safety net.  As long as you can shoot an email, why should you bother getting to actually know a person.  Heaven forbid picking up a phone to introduce yourself to Bob who just linked to you on Linked In.  It's not that hard.  You shouldn't use online sites as the core of your networking, only reaching out by email to connect or when you have a problem that needs to be solved.  Develop relationships.  Get to know the people you connect with.  You might find you have some things in common.  Don't wait for the annual conferences to tell people about yourself or to find out about them.  Follow up often (perhaps quarterly like i do). People like to help or do business with people they are familiar with.  Remember that.

My next conference call for my networking group is on September 4th.  I've decided to make it an interesting exercise to encourage more connections.  I don't want to disclose anything just yet, but I'll keep you posted on the results.  Next week, I'll be meeting some of my Atlanta connections (men and women) for the first time ever.  I am very excited about it and can't wait to sit down and break bread with my Linked In connections to get to know them better.  I'll let you know how that went too.

So bottom line is relationships and networks get you where you need to be and what you want faster than going it alone.  It only costs you some time.  Pick up a phone.  Go to the golf course.  Attend networking events.  Ask for introductions.  Introduce yourself.  Just start networking.

How much are you is it worth to you?

Til next time.

Adrienne Graham