Linkedin Comment FAIL

Anyone else ever notice that if you submit a blank comment on Linkedin that instead of there being a warning that you have not actually entered anything you get your home page with the warning above?

This is very basic interface design and a surprising and annoying piece of what I previously thought was a pretty polished design.

Always interesting to find these quirks.

Social Networking in Cincinnati

I've been doing a great deal of networking over the past few weeks and have had some excellent experiences and met fantastic people. Here's a quick guide to some of the events and groups I've been interacting with.

Cincinnati AMA
The Cincinnati chapter of the American Marketing Association has over 600 members in the Cincinnati/NKY region. With about a dozen monthly events planned around SIGs like Business-to-Business and International Marketing, there are plenty of opportunities to get to know people in your niche in both structured learning environments and more social mingling that the Young Professionals group gravitates towards. The fee is reasonable and scaled for business size, but non-members can attend just about every event.

Tristate Business Network
TBN's mission is to bring businesses from all over the Tri-state area together to meet, network and help each other grow business relationships. They have a monthly speed networking event (90 seconds - go!) and daily - yes, I said daily - meeting and networking opportunities in and around greater Cincinnati. With over 200 official members and a constantly changing flow of visitors, TBN focuses on giving first. A modest membership fee is worth the friendships and connections.

New Media Cincinnati - Second Saturday
If you don't know about this one, check out the New Media Cincy site. A relaxed gathering every second Saturday at the Pub at Rookwood organized around new media of some sort by Daniel Johnson, Jr., you can see some of the Twitter traffic by searching #newmediacincy. Event is free, food and drink are attendee's responsibility.

Jelly Cincinnati
This is the #CincyTweetup coworking event that takes place at Crossroads at Ridge and Madison once a month. "The idea here is to have folks who work in many different job functions working together in an open environment. The expectation is that creative juices will flow and new friendships will be forged." Honestly, more networking happens than actual work getting done, but there are people coming and going all day and always someone interesting to talk to and learn from. Was started by @researchgoddess (we'll miss you!) but is now headed up by @hellogerard and @blecount. Event is free.

Market and Profit (MAP)
Twice a month a speed networking event (where you're the only in your field in your group) followed by open networking and a meal. Excellent turnout every time. Very small fee to attend (joining group is free) and another great way to meet professionals and business owners in Cincinnati. Keep abreast of the events through the Linkedin Group. Over 600 Linkedin members.

Social media helps you get out your message and helps to build your presence for your face and your brand online. But nothing substitutes meeting people face to face and growing real-world relationships. Remember: A smile and a handshake is worth a thousand tweets.


So where do you go to network? What groups do you belong to or mingle with? I'd love to get your feedback.

UPDATE!
Thanks to some great feedback through Twitter from @newmediacincy and @hellogerard, we've got some more resources to toss in there, and some things I needed reminding of:

Job Search Focus Group
The Job Search Focus Group of Hyde Park is often lauded in Cincinnati as one of the most extensive "in transition" groups in the region. I was able to attend once and the resources and networking are great; if I ever moved from owning my own business to in transition, that's the first place I'd stop. Follow some of the Tweeting with #jsfg

Cincinnati Social Media
Follow the tweets at #cincysm. And set your alerts! The Enquirer event coming up 9/9 knocked down 50 seats in 45 minutes and the Social Media Breakfast usually goes faster than that.

Resources for Women
I've heard nothing but good things about the Cincinnati Women Bloggers (@cinwomenbloggers), Girlfriendology (@girlfriendology), and the women's publication Cincy Chic.

Additionally, Breanna Gaddie's Networking With Passion blog is always a great read, and Krista Neher created a post a while back that covers some of the items I did not in this post.

Oh, and Thursday, August 20th is networking at the Hofbrauhaus in NKY at 11:30 (thanks @justinrains

Anything else? I'm always up to update!

Avatar Rebranding and Facial Recognition

Up until yesterday, my Twitter, blogging, and LinkedIn profile avatar looked like this:



And that's fine enough. It's conducive to my logo, works towards branding in that vein, and is distinctive.

Unfortunately, whenever you are building a brand, while a solid, staid logo or logo-related avatar may be appropriate, when you're talking about the service industry, you're talking about a provider/client relationship. And that is built on trust. And you can't have trust in a digital, "small world" market if you don't have your face out there.

I'm as traditional as I can be when it comes to business relationships on the interwebs. LinkedIn and Twitter and Facebook are wonderful tools, but I prefer a smile and a handshake and view social networks as tools to be used to get to that point on the local and regional level. But because that can't always happen with a client in Florida as efficiently as it can in the Tri-State area, a face - that is: the face of the person who is posting/tweeting/potentially selling to you - is hugely important. And I finally got on the boat.

In order to maintain the work I've already done to build a blog and Twitter following, I didn't want anyone to freak out or pause more than 3 seconds when looking at my avatar (except, of course, to admire such a face), so I did something more transitional as opposed to a complete revamp:



And this is not just important in my instance, in my avatar. This should be a consideration for every person working on branding and working on social media on two levels:

A Face Is Important
If you are selling a service or product or ...anything, then you need to put yourself out there as a token of trust, give people the literal face of your business. If a smile and a handshake cannot work right now for a Miami-Cincinnati relationship, working with a face and a phone call can be very beneficial.

Transition is Important
I never wanted to transition from a logo-esque avatar to just my face. That would be confusing and disrupt the basic branding I'd already accomplished with Twitter followers (now quickly nearing 500) being able to identify the "big e" as something valuable. I added my image for the "face" aspect of social media, but maintained the logo bit in the upper right corner.

Never make a sudden break when you are dealing with branding or avatars. If it is a switch from one pic of you to another, then you're probably fine. But if you've been dealing with something non-headshot and want to switch, know that you should transition with grace and preserve your identity.


So are there any other stories out there, any other people who needed to switch avatars or felt the (necessary) need to put a face out there?

Love, thoughts, and suggestions always accepted in the comments.

Marian Call Accepted Your LinkedIn Request...

Marian Call is a brilliant artist out of Alaska. Yes, Alaska. And one of the last... okay, the only album I purchased in the last two years.

Yes. That good.

Because of my social marketing panache, I connected to her on LinkedIn. Of course, that's not where you'll get to experience the love.

Marian Call's MySpace

Listen. Taste. Love.

She's a geek just like all of us.

Now if we can just get her all the way to Cincinnati....

7 Mistakes - LinkedIn Guidelines Article

As I've been expanding my social marketing reach and getting into the ins and outs of many different platforms, it certainly helps to have someone to drop a couple of guideposts to help you along the way. Whether or not you're actively pursuing a position, Louise Fletcher has a great article about mistakes you're probably making on LinkedIn.

Indeed, LinkedIn now markets a service for recruiters that allows them to search profiles, store results and contact candidates, all from within an interface that they pay to access. But even recruiters who don’t pay for access, use the system to research candidates.

Worth the read.

And when you're done over there, say hi on the Eric Marschall (EJM Designs Limited) LinkedIn page.