Social Media - How it can Work for You

I've just returned from a presentation for the ASSIST group by Jonathan Wheatley of MC Ware entitled - Social Media - How it can Work for You.


The presentation was targeted to small owner/managed businesses just starting out into the daunting world of social media and the social media "language".

For help understanding "some of this language" please check out my post In Plain English

The slides of the presentation (when i receive copies i will post a link) showed logos of social networking sites as well as a screen shot of what to expect once you have joined these sites. I thought this was a great way to introduce (to some attendees) this "alien" world.


Alien? ...it may be, but one of the greatest benefits of these sites is that they are FREE to use, so use them! Start a blog, post links from the blog to your website, post links/information/videos/images to Facebook, bookmark your webpages/blogs to bookmarking sites such as Digg, Reddit etc. Most importantly, regularly update. The more effort you put in the bigger the long term benefits.


LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogger, Google Buzz, Squidoo, Gather, Digg, Reddit, Stumble were a few of the sites covered.


As a result of the presentation I have given myself some homework - Squidoo, Google Buzz (soon to be launched) and Gather are social media sites which I have not yet looked into. This is my homework, if they are useful i will let you know

Christmas Party Pitfalls

Around 80% of British bosses will not organise an office party this Christmas, in part due to legal hangovers from fighting and flirting at past events.

You could say Christmas is cancelled!

Nick Poole, a partner at Latimer Hinks has put together a guide to avoiding common legal pitfalls. Avoiding the Legal Hangover of the Office Party

As Nick mentions, new media and social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace provide the opportunity for members to make comments/gossip/post pictures. Employees should be warned in advance that this type of networking with regard to the Christmas Party will be frowned upon.

So my additional advice is...

be on the watch for colleagues who take lots of pictures and encourage you to do silly things like pull faces, pose in awkward positions and dance with your arms wrapped around your boss’s neck. The subsequent circulation of such images via internet sites such as Flickr and Facebook might leave you extremely embarrassed.