Big fish eating the small...

So Neurona has been bought by Xing. That's the second Spanish network that Xing has bought in ony a couple of months, the first being eConozco. It's not that I have anything against Xing or that I mind them buying small European networks to reinforce their position on the market (Xing seems determined to position itself as THE European network on the market) but I do find it a shame that these small networks disappear, especially since Europe has so little of them already.

If we look at the Spanish speaking market than I am loath to admit that the only networks around are either Latino oriented (meaning American) or from Brazil (and even then the only serious contenders in the business area are TEN or Via6, which are primarily Portuguese).

So while it lasts, feel free to connect with me on Neurona or eConozco.

Quote

Just found this virtual postcard on a Dutch blog. I think the text says it all, right?

How to improve my Linkedin results?

As a headhunter, one of the professional networks I use on a regular basis is Linkedin. Probably this has to do with them being the first social network I registered on, and secondly with the fact that they keep innovating.

I regularly receive questions from people who are on Linkedin or who want to join, but who are unsure on how to proceed in order to be successful.

Here goes my FAQ list to kickstart your career:

• Situation 1: You would like to be found by headhunters (or other contacts) whenever an interesting opportunity arises.

- To indicate your willingness to connect, use one of the following: list your email address, mention your number of connections (a high number will lead to more people wanting to connect) or put "Open Networker" in your profile.

- If your first name carries a hyphen, e.g. Jean-François, it is more difficult for people to guess your correct email address. The same goes for last names with different words such as "Van der Meeren". Avoid guesswork and emails that never arrive by simply adding your address somewhere on your profile. Don't forget, your headhunter has probably just looked at a zillion resumes online; why would he pick you if he can reach your colleague more easily?

• Situation 2: You always get the wrong job offers (they do not match your ambitions)

- Obviously you only attract stupid headhunters. Or maybe not? Take a look at the keywords you have put on your profile. Does it still list "Cobol" as one of your skills when in reality you stopped developing in Cobol since you left college? Best to take it out then. Linkedin offers two ways of searching for candidates: through full-text search (hence my Cobol example) and through fixed categories. Choose your categorie wisely. If you are an Asset Management specialist don't put your profile under the more general (but much too vague) "Banking" category- you'll end up getting offers to work at the counter...

• Situation 3: You are hardly ever contacted by headhunters or people who can advance your career

- Don't forget that people cannot be aware of your awesome talent if you don't write it down! Creating an account on Linkedin without filling out your profile will not get you noticed. Take the time to write some information about your job, the project you are working on etc so people get a feel for who you are. Also make sure you have a decent number of connections behind your name. Linkedin offers the possibility to connect directly with old colleagues and old classmates (without the need to have their current email!). You don't necessarily need to be a supernetworker, but five connections are really not enough to land you the job of your dreams...

Good luck! Hope this helps to maximize your social networking efforts :-)

Networking training in French

DYNAMISEZ VOTRE RESEAU DE CONTACTS !

Atelier + Coaching Jeudi 28 juin 2007 de 9h00 à 17h00
Un réseau construit et entretenu méthodiquement génère plus d’efficacité dans vos activités : un réseau stimule la créativité et l’échange d’informations. Réseauter permet d’entrer en contact avec des clients, des fournisseurs potentiels ou de futurs collaborateurs. Vous profitez du réseau de vos contacts ainsi que de leurs recommandations …

Objectifs de la journée
Vous apprendrez à réseauter avec la bonne attitude.
Les outils et mises en situation vous permettront de construire un réseau efficacement.
Profitez de cette journée en réseautant avec les autres participants ! Vous recevrez la liste et les coordonnées des autres participants quelques jours avant la formation.
Mettez en vous en action grâce aux « extras » (1 séance de coaching, une invitation à un drink Xème Cercle, 6 mois d’abonnement Premium Viadeo)! Ils sont inclus dans le prix de la formation.

Public
Les dirigeants d’entreprises, cadres et managers,commerciaux & indépendants.

Programme

Les avantages du networking

Choses à faire et à ne pas faire

Les croyances liées au networking

Le déroulement d’une prise de contact et le suivi

Le réseautage et la vente, la communication, la créativité

Outils pour les timides afin de dépasser sa peur

Où réseauter ?

Les réseaux en ligne

Méthodologie

Jeux de rôles

Exercices pratiques et mises en situation

Partages d’expérience

Mise en place d’un plan d’action individuel
Maximum 12 participants.

Animateur et Coach
Damien Colmant, fondateur d’Extend Coaching, est membre de la Fédération Internationale des Coachs.

Modalités et conditions
Quand ? Le 28 juin de 9h00 à 17h00
Où ? Espace Coghen, Avenue Coghen 219, 1180 Bruxelles
Tarifs Entreprises (avec facture) :
Avant le 9 juin : 280€ HTVA ou 338,8€ TVAC (-20% !)
Après le 9 juin : 350€ HTVA ou 423,5€ TVAC
Particuliers (avec note de frais) : 150€ TVAC
Inclus Matériel, lunch sandwich, les extras (voir ci-dessus)

Information et inscriptions
Envoyez un email à dcolmant@gmail.com avec :
Vos nom et prénom
Entreprise
Votre fonction
Adresse
Email
Tel
Adresse de facturation + TVA
Virement du solde au compte n° 310-1727734-56 d’Extend Coaching en mentionnant votre nom,
prénom et la formation.

EXTEND COACHING
Damien COLMANT
Boulevard du Souverain 328
B-1160 Bruxelles, Belgique
Mobile: +32 (0)473 731959
Email: dcolmant@gmail.com
www.extend-coaching.com

A neat new site for startups

In true Web 2.0 spirit, Killerstartups is a great new site which covers several Internet startups a day, and allows its users to vote on the probability of the startup's success. You can give them a support vote (making them rank higher) or you can choose
between the following:

• Go IPO
• Get VC $
• Be Bought
• Survive
• Bomb

To say it in their own words:

KillerStartups.com is intended for internet entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and CEOs of internet companies. We review around 20 startups per day, so you have plenty of internet startups to check out. Vote for the internet startup you think will be a killer. That way, together, we can find the next killer internet startup!

They have different categoris of which one especially geared towards social networking.

European Web 2.0 contest: the 15 who go to Madrid

Remember how I talked about the Web 2.0 contest for European startups in April? They have selected the best 15 who will go to Madrid in two days. Since some of them are social networks I include them here; others are just interesting to know about.

• Panoramio.com : Photo-sharing of geolocated photos. Panoramio offers 2 Gb of free storage for photos. The site has 330.000 registered users and 1,1 million geolocated photos.


• 11870.com : "a real-life delicious" where you can remember and share with your friends all kind of places (from business to sculptures) around the world using comments, tags, photos and videos. Launched in feb 07, reached #1 in technorati.


• Trivop : Trivop is the first videoguide for the hotel industry. It's a mashup with video, map and comments from users (through tripadvisor). We are convinced that video give travellers the transparancy they need before booking as today just a few photos is not sufficient enough. We want to become the youtube of the hotel industry.


• Tupalo : Tupalo is a social mapping network for local and independent culture, allowing members of elusive niche cultures to add, rate, review, search and tag their favorite local businesses in major cities around the world via PC or Mobile devices.


• Personalised Information Environment : A new internet application developed by a hungarian team can virtually learn what kind of tv shows and movies do the users like, and make recommendations for the following days accordingly. Musorajanlo.hu applies the latest technologies: machine-learning and data-mining, all executed on a grid.


• Hipoqih : hipoqih.com is a system composed by a Web and plugin for mobile devices that allows to record alerts and URLs associated to any geopoint in the planet. These alerts can be seen automatically in terminals with the plugin when approaching that geopoint, so that the information arrives when you get to the place that interests you.


• Nvivo.es : Gig based social network. Its main objective is that you never loose that gig again. Follow your favourite bands and coolest venues of your city, met other fans and interact adding comments, tags, joining and attending gigs and get or ask for all the gig info you need. With Musicbrainz, last.fm, Google Maps and 11870.com mashups. Live music fans never got that


• Easy.soziety : soZiety is a language-learning social network based on Skype. soZiety is a great, dead simple method people can use to have fun learning a language while meeting new people and making some bucks.


• Properazzi - the property search engine : Properazzi is a crawler-based web 2.0 property search engine for all of Europe. We launched in March 2007, and currently list 1.8 million sale and rental properties in 45 European countries, in all European languages and currencies. We're backed by Mangrove Capital Partners (Skype, Quintura, Nimbuzz). We've got a highly international team and are based in Barcelona, Spain.


• Menéame : Meneame is the leading Digg-like website in Spanish. It helps anybody promote news from any source by creating new pages according to users's votes. It was launched in 2004 from Mallorca.


• SlideBurner : SlideBurner allows you to share and discover easily slideshows/presentations (PowerPoint or OpenOffice files). Upload your files and they can quickly be viewed online in any web browser on any platform. You have full control on the security of your slideshows; you can select precisely the person who can access your data. You can also create groups around your fields of interest. Moreover, the site is multilingual; for the moment it is available in French and English.


• Sclipo : Sclipo is a Social Skills-Network based upon user-generated videos: Users can share and promote their skills through video and connect with other users based upon skills they care about. Sclipo is a platform for any kind of skills, such as cooking, well-being, technology or sports. All content is 100% user-generated and evaluated. SCLIPO stands for: Skills + CLIP + yO (=I)


• Anywr.com : Anywr is a web and mobile system that offers simple, yet powerful services for managing contacts, calendars, events and communications virtually from anywhere: using browsers, mobile devices or any other of the over 750 million compatible devices available today.


• 5min : 5min is a place to find short video solutions for every practical question, and is also a place for people who want to share their knowledge. 5min's vision is simple: any solution can be visually explained in 5 minutes. Users of the 5min platform will benefit from a visual illustration of any solution through a Smart Player. Unlike all of the video sites on the net, 5min created a video player that is adjusted specifically to the instruction field.


• QuestionForm : questionform is a web application for creating, publishing and analysing online surveys and forms.The 15 projects will have 5 minutes each to present themselves and another 5 minutes to answer two questions from the judges and the public. People coming to the event will also vote on the best projects.

The 5 best projects, which will be presented in Bilbao on May, 24th. If you want to come to the event, you can register here.

It starts at 15.00 and is followed by a networking evening party.

Thanks to Jose A. del Moral for keeping us in the loop.

Skype

Okay, I think this pretty much sums it up right?

To all of you who have asked me why I wasn't on Skype - I've seen the light and I've got with the program ;-)

Feel free to give me a call on an.de.jonghe

(Yes this is another ploy not to work on my editing)