Based on some of the conversations I have with people about networking it seems that an awful lot of people want to keep score. To be really honest I sometimes wish there was a way to keep score as well. In reality a simple score keeping mechanism would never be able to keep up with the complexities. Read more »

I am honored to be a nominee for the Texas Social Media Awards. The Texas Social Media Awards is a brilliant idea brought to us by the Austin American Statesman. The Statesman is truly leading the way not just in Austin, but nationally when it comes to traditional media's usage of social media. They're not eligible for their own awards, but I would argue that its the Statesman who really deserves to win the Social Media Award. With nearly all of their reporters on Twitter it's now possible to truly have a dialogue with the daily paper. They really understand that the power of social media is creating community and conversation, and that's just what they're doing. Currently there are 125 nominees. The top 25 will be chosen and displayed by Feb. 18. An overall Statesman winner will be awarded at a party on March 15 which coincides with SXSW. It appears that much of the selection for the finalists will be based on the public comments about each nominee. Hopefully this doesn't turn into too much of a popularity contest. I'd much rather see the individuals who set the best examples of social media usage be finalists, not just those who receive the most comments. That being said I'm personally not beyond doing a little bit of campaigning, and would like to ask for your help. If you've benefited from the events and networking tips I share in the NetworkInAustin.com Newsletter or from any of the hundreds of blog posts I've written over the last 3.5+ years I hope you'll share your comments about the specific value you've received. Also if you have learned anything from the way that I utilize LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter I hope you'll share that as well. Share your comments on Scott's social media usage: Help me become a finalist! I'm probably not the only nominee you know. Please also considering commenting on the nominations of some of the other nominees who you feel are deserving. Here is a list of some of my friends and others I'm quite familiar with who certainly deserve a nod: Andy Meadows Bryan Menell Bryan Person Connie Reece David Davenport Elizabeth (Liz) Handlin Eugene Sepulveda Jay Ehret John Erik Metcalf Joshua Baer Kay Bell Doug Ulman (Lance Armstrong Foundation)   Michelle Greer   Mike Chapman Sam Decker If you really want to learn what social media is all about spend some time understanding what these folks and the rest of the nominees are doing. Something tells me your time will be very well invested. I hope to find some time to do this myself. Congratulations to all of the nominees! Happy Networking! Scott Ingram NetworkInAustin.com

The number of social/online networking tools is, to put it bluntly, overwhelming. From Business Blogs to Twitter, LinkedIn to Facebook, Plaxo to MySpace and everything in between the choices are astounding. Hopefully you're using at least one of these tools, even if it's only casually. The trick is to develop your own strategy in how you utilize these tools so they don't take over your life. If done incorrectly the time you spend on e-mail and your social networking activities will consume ALL of your available time. That would be bad, unless that's your business. So how do you develop this strategy? First an understand of what you're trying to accomplish would be very helpful. Personally I have three primary goals when utilizing these tools. Maintain or deepen connections with people I've already met. Build visibility for myself and the things I work on and am passionate about, and attract other like minded people to me through these efforts. Find appropriate contacts and make connections through referrals/introductions. Initiate new professional relationships that make sense. Once you're clear about your goals you can start to think about how you'll use each tool. I'll share with you 2 of my own examples: I've already written about My LinkedIn Networking Philosophy I encourage you to read that. Very generally LinkedIn is a way for me to maintain contact with people I have a genuine connection with. That way if they change jobs or move I don't lose track of them because all of their other contact information changed. I have a way of being in the loop. It also helps me see relational connections. For example if I want to meet the CEO of a prospective company and they're on LinkedIn I can see our mutual connections and potentially ask those individuals to make an introduction for me. Twitter is quickly becoming my new favorite tool. I avoided this one for a long time because from the outside it sounds just plain goofy and like it will be a colossal waste of time. Turns out it's the best relationship deepener I've ever seen. People I know well who I follow on Twitter I now know really, really well. Even more impactful are those that I kinda know, and have the ability to get to know at a much deeper level. It's a little hard to explain just how this works. I highly recommend you just quickly create an account, follow a few people and see what you think. You're welcome to start with my profile just to get an idea: www.twitter.com/scottingram Over time I will go deeper into the use of each of these tools (stay tuned!). In the mean time your best bet is to just begin to play with a couple of these sites. Here's a little bit of generic guidance on the order in which you should explore these sites and why. If you are a business professional this is my opinion of the order of importance of these tools: LinkedIn - If you're a professional you MUST be on LinkedIn. Facebook - It's less geared toward professionals, but it's much better at helping you reconnect with people in your long ago past. High School, College, etc. Twitter/Business Blogs - In terms of priority these are tied. However, what they each bring to the picture is very different. Plaxo/Myspace - For the professional I think these are fairly irrelevant. Plaxo doesn't really add any value beyond those listed above (it used to in the past when it was about keeping contact information up to date). As for MySpace it's maybe not my place to say this since I'm not even on it, but I don't see how it adds value for the professional. Please feel free to comment if you disagree. All others - Beyond these core tools there are probably hundreds of others. The learning curve and critical mass is typically steep enough that unless there is something in a very specific niche that would be helpful to you it's probably not worth your time to explore these. Again, I'm open to suggestion and hope you'll comment if there are other tools that have been helpful to you. I encourage you to look beyond this post. I've written at least a little bit about most of these tools, especially business blogging (as that's what you're reading now) and you can navigate these topics using the categories listed below. Happy Networking! Scott Ingram NetworkInAustin.com

I'm frequently sent LinkedIn invitations by people I don't know. Generally speaking I do not accept these connections, but have in the past written a long winded response explaining why not. Frankly I'm a little tired of doing that so I thought I'd share the philosophy on my blog and just link to this in the future. Plus it might also help you clarify some of your own thinking about how you use LinkedIn. There are two schools of thought on LinkedIn. There are LIONS or LinkedIn Open NetworkerS and then there are the rest of us. (Does that make us closed networkers?) The real debate is between quantity and quality. LIONS believe in quantity and that every connection is valuable because you just never know. I believe in quality networking and work to have some type of relationship with every person I'm connected to. Having a relationship is a tough thing to define. Typically if my fellow networker is here in Austin I want to have had some type of face to face interaction with them. Typically I want this face to face to have been just the two of us (lunch, coffee or some other one on one encounter). If this type of connection isn't possible due to geography or some other type of circumstance I want there to have been some type of meaningful dialogue. Maybe we spent 40 minutes together on the phone or have gone back and forth a descent number of times via e-mail in an online discussion. I try to hold to these standards because when someone uses LinkedIn the way it is intended and finds a connection to someone they'd like to meet where I am the connection, I want to be in a position to make that introduction. If I accept just anyone's connection it's very likely that I have little or no credibility with the person you'd like me to introduce you to. The only thing we share is our LinkedIn connection. This is simply my LinkedIn networking philosophy. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, it just how I play the game. I encourage you to develop your own philosophy. Take the time to learn about the rationale behind being a LION and decide which is best for you. If you choose not to be a LION this does not by any means make you a "Closed" networker. It probably just means you're more focused on real relationships which is where the real business and real opportunities will come from. If you are reading this because you tried to connect to me and I sent you this link you are on the right track! Many who initiate blind LinkedIn connection requests have no intent in ever building any type of meaningful relationship (and would never take the time to read all of this). The fact that you've just read this shows you're clearly not one of these folks. Now that you've gotten this far please send me an e-mail or LinkedIn InMail. I'm sure we can find a way to resolve the issue with our current lack of relationship. Happy Networking! Scott Ingram NetworkInAustin.com P.S. If we're not connected and we should be please send a connection request: Scott Ingram's LinkedIn Profile