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I’m about to do a complete ‘about face’, or at least that’s what it might seem to some.

For those who read my recent post on Mash they’ll know how I feel about others creating a profile for me at a networking site and then being invited to join that site. I wasn’t happy about it and still don’t agree with it – particularly if you can’t see what’s been listed before joining.

Recently I was encouraged to come visit Spock. I had declined invitations last year – I belong to many forums and networks now, why would I want to join another? And at that stage it was another one behind closed doors.

The person who encouraged me to go take a look recently I have a lot of respect for and is a very well connected person here in Australia, with respect to networking. So I went and looked since it’s now open. I was surprised to see that a number of people had gradually been compiling information about me, based on existing websites and profiles. So they hadn’t written any information about me, just connected websites to my name and added tags about who I am and what I do.

It works like a wikipedia – about people instead of things.

It was up to me to claim the profile as mine and then say ‘yes’ to everything listed there and ‘no’ to anything I didn’t want, or what wasn’t mine.  So in a short space of time (I claimed it 2 weeks ago) I’m suddenly in the top 1% of people on Spock. How did that happen?

Why not go take a look for yourself – you might find your name listed too!  And if you do, make sure you pop by and let me know at Spock.

Tags: Networking by Kathie Thomas
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Had an interesting discussion with one of my clients just recently. She asked me about a particular service available online and it is one I’ve been using personally for some years. I had mentioned it some time ago to her, as I do to all my clients, but it was dismissed at the time as something not of value.

She’s recently been reading material from someone else who promoted this particular service and the client emailed me, asking what I knew about it. I had to smile and reminded her I had mentioned it some time ago and that I use the service constantly.

That’s when she said to me something that is important for us all to remember ‘it depends on when you’re ready to receive the information’. I should have mentioned it to her again perhaps – I neglected to do so and so she found the information elsewhere.

If you’re a service provider to a client base it probably is a good idea to regularly let your clients know about various services you can provide to them – after all, it’s almost like ‘do you want chips with that?’ Sometimes they’re going to say ‘no’ but one day, when they’re ready, they’ll say ‘yes’.

We all get into ‘information overload’ and so there are always going to be times that aren’t the right time and other times when we are ready. Much like I’d been planning to find a new template for this blog – I just hadn’t gotten serious enough to do the research. I’ve found one I like now so if you receive this post via email, do click on the subject heading link and come for a look! Also, if you receive this via the old feed (Feedblitz) please re-subscribe at the Feedburner (email feed) or RSS feed links on the blog – I’ll be closing off the old feed sometime soon.

Oh! And what was the service I’m referring to? Google Alert! I posted about it just last month on this blog. I’ve since got my client to subscribe to my blog so she can read my material!

Going back to ‘being ready’ – if you have services you haven’t promoted to some of your clients for awhile, why not go back to them now and remind them? It’s still close to the beginning of the year and now’s as good a time as any to reconnect with your clients!

Tags: Author's Thoughts by Kathie Thomas
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I was recently asked by a new Aussie blogger how to get her blog out there.  Here is my response to her – I thought I’d share it so that others who might be wondering the same can have a go too!

Re blog, you need to reach outside of your current community.

Try registering with these for example:

www.technorati.com.

http://www.aussiebloggers.com.au  – register with the forum here and get to know the members – great info and lots of great people.

Register with a subscription list like Feedburner.com so that people can subscribe to your blog.

Register with http://www.google.com/alerts for daily updates on keywords of interest (put phrases in quotes) so that if anyone posts anything of interest to you, you can blog about it on your own blog.

Keep to a theme – don’t go all over the place to draw in an audience.

Link your blog URL in your signature block.

Send out to your current list now and then to let them know about a post you’ve just published.

Ping your blog every time you add a new post at www.pingomatic.com

These should get your started.

By the way – you’ll find a list of my blogs at Technorati at http://technorati.com/people/technorati/kathiemt.  I’ve just made the Top 50 Aussie Women bloggers’ list and sit at number 30 which I’m thrilled about.

Tags: About Blogging by Kathie Thomas
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