Although I have been out of full time employment and the office environment since 2006, I still thought of myself as pretty up to date on most things related to my profession and career. Having had two children over the last 5 years, I have been in the very fortunate position of being able to work part time from home. Whilst I realised that I was falling off the radar in some respects, I really didn’t appreciate how out of touch with how things are done these days that I had become.
Recently, a friend of mine and I launched our own iPhone app - Legacy Organiser. Apart from overcoming a massive learning curve in IT over the last 12 months, I had no idea that I was literally out in the cold when it came to social and professional networking.
Although I knew all about the phenomenon of Facebook, I hadn’t really paid much attention to Linked-In and other professional networking sites. Having said that, and with the launch of our app, I had heard about an organisation called Women in Technology (www.womenintechnology.co.uk) with whom I got in touch. I have been overwhelmed by the support, different ways and speed with which you can engage and network through this organisation.
Very quickly we had received comments on our app through our blog that appeared on the Women in Technology website and we immediately started to network with other people in the field who are interested in collaborating on our app. This new way of doing business is completely unfamiliar to me but there is such a buzz from the way in which things can happen so quickly.
If you are involved in technology or thinking of getting into IT, I strongly urge you to join this fantastic and hugely supportive organisation. It really does make things happen - and fast.
Wednesday 29 June 2011
Wednesday 22 June 2011
Tweeting, Hashtagging and Friday Follows
If you had said to me six months ago that I would be tweeting and hash tagging on a regular basis, I would have given you a strange look to say the least. But these activities are common place in the wonderful world of Twitter.
It was fairly daunting, to say the least, to get started as it does feel like a different language. But once you work out who to follow, what your areas of interest are then very quickly you can join a community of people and organisations with whom you have things in common.
With our new iPhone app Legacy Organiser, we are very interested in connecting with parent groups, women in technology, the digital estate movement and organisations who deal with funerals and death. Very quickly, Twitter enables you to become a member of all these communities and to keep up to date on all current issues.
A friend of mine likened it to being in a "very friendly pub with other people talking about things you are interested in and you keep overheading snippets of conversation". That said, it is quite hard to keep up with the string of consiousness even though I am currently only following 98 people! Whilst I have been writing this there have been 14 new tweets on my profile page. Most people follow at least a few hundred, and I have no idea how those following thousands of other Twitter users keep up with all the Tweets.
I am still learning how to tweet - to put down in 140 characters or less what is interesting and relevent to people following me. This takes a while to get a hang of and I am still learning.....
It was fairly daunting, to say the least, to get started as it does feel like a different language. But once you work out who to follow, what your areas of interest are then very quickly you can join a community of people and organisations with whom you have things in common.
With our new iPhone app Legacy Organiser, we are very interested in connecting with parent groups, women in technology, the digital estate movement and organisations who deal with funerals and death. Very quickly, Twitter enables you to become a member of all these communities and to keep up to date on all current issues.
A friend of mine likened it to being in a "very friendly pub with other people talking about things you are interested in and you keep overheading snippets of conversation". That said, it is quite hard to keep up with the string of consiousness even though I am currently only following 98 people! Whilst I have been writing this there have been 14 new tweets on my profile page. Most people follow at least a few hundred, and I have no idea how those following thousands of other Twitter users keep up with all the Tweets.
I am still learning how to tweet - to put down in 140 characters or less what is interesting and relevent to people following me. This takes a while to get a hang of and I am still learning.....
Wednesday 1 June 2011
iPhone App Mum - Entering the Wonderful World of Facebook
After several years of being berated by friends, I have finally signed up to Facebook. I vividly remember hearing about Facebook for the first time when I was on holiday five years ago. Someone I met was talking about it - this was just before Facebook became huge in 2006 - and it sounded like Friends Reunited (remember that?) on steroids. I logged in but didn’t upload a photo and for the last 5 years, I have remained a faceless user with one friend. The guy I had met on holiday.
That is until 2 weeks ago…….with the launch of our app Legacy Organiser, I have got into social media - not least because our app has Facebook connectivity so users can tag friends through the app to songs and entries they have made. I have felt bamboozled by the options to post, comment, and poke and overwhelmed by the way FB can work out who you might know through other friends and suggest who you want to be mates with - how does it do this? It is all a bit of a mystery to me. I now have 27 friends and was pretty pleased with this number until I saw another friend of mine had over 900. 900? I’m not sure that there are 900 people who know how I am let alone want to be friends with me - so clearly I need to get my act together and to virtually get out there.
Next stop - Twitter. Quite worried about that. Tweeting, retweeting, hash tagging, Friday follow. That surely is a different language.
That is until 2 weeks ago…….with the launch of our app Legacy Organiser, I have got into social media - not least because our app has Facebook connectivity so users can tag friends through the app to songs and entries they have made. I have felt bamboozled by the options to post, comment, and poke and overwhelmed by the way FB can work out who you might know through other friends and suggest who you want to be mates with - how does it do this? It is all a bit of a mystery to me. I now have 27 friends and was pretty pleased with this number until I saw another friend of mine had over 900. 900? I’m not sure that there are 900 people who know how I am let alone want to be friends with me - so clearly I need to get my act together and to virtually get out there.
Next stop - Twitter. Quite worried about that. Tweeting, retweeting, hash tagging, Friday follow. That surely is a different language.
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