Building Developmental Networks, Part 2

Power Thought of the Week with Patricia Parham, Ph.D.

Developmental Networks: Mentoring

Build mutual mentoring relationships into your networks. Help another’s business develop and allow them to help yours, as well. These persons might be peers, superiors or up and comers – all have wisdom to offer. You must trust these mentors as mutual learning involves some vulnerability and you want to have each other’s best interests in the forefront of your relationship. Choose carefully and become more powerful.

Forward/Share This Article With Colleagues And Social Media:

Building Developmental Networks, Part 2

How to Use Delicious to Network your Website

Networking Your Website with Rita Wilhelm

Delicious or Del.icio.us, found on the Internet at http://delicious.com, is a social bookmarking site that allows users to share their content from a centralized location to other users from around the globe. The site takes advantage of social networking and community in order to allow users to share content. You can use Delicious to bookmark your favorite sites on the Internet so you can access your favorites regardless of what computer you are on. It also allows you to share your bookmarks with others and to view what other members find interesting on the Internet. This can be a great benefit for those who want to increase exposure to their sites.

It is very easy to get started with Delicious. You will need to set up an account, install a quick extension program to your browser and have content you want to share. For networking purposes, if you have a blog site with continually changing content you can use your blog software to automatically tag and submit your content to Delicious. If you have static content, you can use the pertinent links to bookmark your information. One of the most important aspects of using Delicious is to optimize your tagging and descriptions so others can easily find useful information.

When you are adding a bookmark to Delicious, you will be asked for various pieces of information. The link is important so others can easily navigate to your site. You should also have relevant tags or categories. For example, if you are linking to a band site, you may want to have a music tag or get even more specific with using pop music or classical music tags. The description of the site will allow others to view your opinion on the site or a summary of the site’s content. You can choose whichever method is a more effective marketing tool.

Delicious boasts the largest number of shared bookmarks on the Internet today. Not only does Delicious allow you to share sites with other people for marketing, networking and social purposes but it also allows you to contain your bookmarks for personal use. You can easily access personal bookmarks you do not want to share simply by clicking the “do not share” toggle when entering a site. This allows you to keep your personal links private and to share your other links when useful. Whether you own a personal or professional site, Delicious allows you to network to millions of people from around the world in order to increase exposure to your favorite sites.

Rita Wilhelm is founder and president of SnapMonkey Inc, which is a company that provides both online marketing consulting to businesses, as well as easy-to-use web-based technologies to help businesses effectively promote themselves on the web.

Forward/Share This Article With Colleagues And Social Media:

How to Use Delicious to Network your Website

The Flip Side of the Hurricane

People, Power & Possibilities with Donna Fisher

The hurricane had not even reached the shore when people started reaching out to help each other. An employee from the other side of town stopped by to help board up our windows. My neighbor called from out of town to see if I would check on her place. Numerous phone calls (especially from my Mom in North Carolina) and emails came in prior to the arrival of Ike and lots of text messages (many phone were not working) during and after Ike.

As a result of that NATURAL desire to help others in need, Houston and the Gulf Coast area had people arriving from all over the country to help our area recover. And individuals from this area showed up all over town to hand out supplies, assist with clean up (anyone with a chain saw became very popular) and answer the telephones at the "help lines". Neighbors (who hardly ever even see each other) helped each other clean up the debris and get their lives back "in order".

Sometimes the magnitude of our networks is fairly transparent until a crisis or need arises. But the main thing is that when there is a need, we do think to reach out to one another – to ask for help, to offer help or simply to let someone know we're "there". The good nature, compelling spirit and fortitude of human beings makes for a powerful network of support.

Forward/Share This Article With Colleagues And Social Media:

The Flip Side of the Hurricane