One of the biggest challenges human resources and training and development professionals face as it relates to training is measuring the impact. How can we effectively measure the effectiveness and impact of our training efforts? There are three traditional techniques that can begin to tell you an important story about the impact of employee learning and training on organizational performance. All three methods have merit and can generate important, meaningful and very useful data. The illustration below helps explain the challenge we are trying to overcome. There might be any number of factors that explain why an organization improved performance.     External factors such as market conditions or competition may have an impact, however neither of these factors have anything to do with your employee training. Both factors could influence organizational performance.   Management might be paying more attention to the area you are trying to improve, and this focus might have a positive impact. You might have systems or process improvements that helped improve outcomes, as well. Any of these factors may have been as influential on your employee training. Conversely, your employee training may have been the single most critical factor in the improved performance, but you won’t know unless you can isolate its impact from the impact or influence of other factors. Trend Line Analysis This is a great way to get a big picture perspective on how your organization is doing before, during and after training initiatives. The key to an effective trend line analysis is to examine performance along a long enough time frame to provide a complete picture of success and gaps both before and after training initiatives start. Start your trend line analysis at a meaningful time interval before you launch your training effort. In order to do this, you need to be committed to measuring the business impact of training using existing key performance indicators. Here is a specific example of how this might work. Let’s assume that we are working to reduce the time it takes us to fill job vacancies in the organization. Training offered - An HR recruiting team improved skills on sourcing candidates, screening candidates and basic interviewing. The organization also offered basic interviewing skills training to all hiring managers with openings to fill. The training program launched in Q2 of 2012. The objective was to reduce the average time to fill open positions from the 70 day range to less than 55 (three full business weeks). The trend line illustrates that the time to fill open positions showed a steady improvement from the poor level of performance before the organization initiated the training program with the organization hitting its stated goal six quarters after launching the training program. While the trend line analysis tells us a good story, what is missing? What we cannot understand clearly is whether the training program is the sole cause of the improved performance, or whether there are outside factors that might also be influencing the improved time to fill vacant positions. But - from a high level, this trend line method is a great starting place. We can gain further value from this method if we’ve established an actual BUSINESS value to this improved time to fill vacancies. For instance, this analysis would be far more powerful if we knew that for each day saved in filled a vacancy, we gained a set amount of value, we would be able to make a strong business case for the impact of the training program. Control Group Setting up a control group is an excellent way to truly isolate the effects and influence of your training program on improved performance. In our example where we are trying to reduce the amount of days required to fill vacant positions, a control group might include a team of recruiters and hiring managers who do not participate in the training. Comparing the performance of this group to the performance of recruiters and hiring managers who participate would help illustrate exactly how the training influenced improved performance. This works well, because both groups would be influenced by the same external factors, so the difference in improvement should be tied pretty directly to the training. The drawback to this method is that you will have some population of your workforce that you deliberately hold back from improvement to prove a point. While this may sound good in theory (and it really does), the reality of implementing control groups can be messy. You have to be prepared for some management and communication challenges if you choose this method.   Other methods: Participant And Manager Estimation Of Impact. This method can provide some useful information that is close to the point of performance. The issue is the reliability of the data generated. Without training and clear evaluation guidelines, the estimations will only be as good as the employees’ ability to provide the information. Senior Management Estimation . This is another method that can be filled with data problems due to bias and simple human error. The more removed you are from the employees actually affected by the training, the less reliable these sort of estimates become. Success Case Method . This method comes from the book, Telling Training’s Story by Robert O. Brinkerhoff. Assuming that one single person was the focus of our inquiry, we thought we would really only need to have answers to three pretty simple and fundamental questions to make the case for a training success: What, if anything, did this person learn that was new? How, if at all, did this person use the new learning in some sort of job-specific behavior? Did the usage of the learning help to produce any sort of worthwhile outcome? One of the biggest disconnects we continue to see between learning and development,  employee training and the c-suite in organizations is at the strategic level. We see too many employee training efforts that don’t directly address organizational strategic initiatives, and as a result these same programs cannot deliver the type of business results crucial to success for the organization or employees. Organizational perspectives and metrics are very helpful. For instance, trend line analysis provides indicators of success, but the traditional methodologies that remain virtually unchanged in over 40 years don’t really help us understand what is happening at the employee level. And it’s at the employee level where we are trying to improve performance and change behaviors. By shifting our focus away from just organizational metrics and looking at the success of employees, we can develop a far more accurate picture of the effectiveness of our training efforts. Click here to download the ebook: Employee Training and Development: Measuring Effectiveness and Impact

Who have been the world's most influential (e-)learning professionals in 2013? CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE LIST!Please vote for the ones that have influenced and inspired your learning and teaching in 2013. The list includes learning professionals from the corporate, primary, secondary, and tertiary (higher) education sectors (One world, one list!). You are free to vote (up) multiple learning professionals. To vote you are required to create an account in Listly (easily using either your Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or Google+ account).  Listly is fun and a cool curation tool (with voting features), so it is worth the hassle!Also, if you feel I have missed out on any learning professionals (sure have!), please suggest them in the comments section, or help me to build the list. The interesting thing about Listly, is that it empowers a transparent and open voting process in a visually attractive manner. For example, Bob Little's annual top ten e-learning movers and shakers is an example of a closed voting system only for people selected by his research team.Tools like Listly, make it so easy and transparent for everyone to participate in the voting fun, it is perhaps time for Bob Little's research team to change their strategy. Anyway, unless we have a clear criteria with some proper measures (besides opinions) regarding the e-learning movers and shakers (e.g. social media presence, revenue generated, number of views, people influenced, enrolments, certifications, courseware developed, bla, bla, bla), we might as well make it open for all to participate. Right?  Here we go, and be a sport by participating with your precious votes :)Top e-Learning Movers & Shakers in 2013View more lists from Zaid Ali AlsagoffLISTLYListly is a free service (with a commercial buffed up version) that lets you easily create lists of the things you want and share them with people. It empowers you to collaborate on lists, and anyone can add or vote on your lists. The lists can be shared easily (URL), or embedded into your blog or website.It is actually an innovate way to social bookmark or curate interesting resources, and empower readers/users to vote on what they like. Click here to view videos and tutorials on getting started with Listly.ONE MORE THING...If you think you deserve to be nominated as a top e-learning mover or shaker in the world, please buzz me or add yourself to this Listly list. More importantly than the popularity test of ranking (by votes), these kind of lists provide great opportunities for people new (and existing for that matter!) to a field, area or topic to discover new learning resources, people and treasures. This particular list, provides us with wonderful opportunities to discover (one another), connect, network and collaborate with 100+ awesome educators around the world. So, in that context this Top e-Learning Movers and Shakers in 2013 rocks already :) 

Welcome episode #5 of our new podcast entitled "This Week in mLearning." In case you missed previous episodes, you can find them HERE. Great news, our Podcast is now live on iTunes and you can subscribe HERE. Please let us know your comments by leaving a comment here and thank you in advance for listening and for helping us spread the word about this Podcast on Mobile Learning. Below is a summary of topics we discussed this week. 1- Highlights of the week a- Adobe Creative Suite (CS6) went live. First impressions: fast downloads, seamless installation and PC/Mac version. b- RIM´s BlackBerry World 2012: Public preview of BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry Mobile Fusion,  an enterprise mobility solution and RIM’s entry into the multi-platform Mobile Device Management (MDM) marketplace. Among the management capabilities BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will provide, security is one of the highlights. c- Big companies start to think about their mobile strategy: The Financial Times moves away from its native app over HTML5, Facebook doesn’t know what to do with mobile users and LinkedIn makes use of a hybrid app. d- Google+ iPhone app e- Great excitement about mLearning at ASTD 2012 International Conference & Exposition f- The eLearning Guild Research: "Mobile Learning: The Time is Now" by Clark Quinn g- Book release and blog book tour: "The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: Game-Based Methods and Strategies for Training and Education" by Karl Kapp h- Pebble: an example of the power of crowdsourcing. Pebble is a customizable e-paper watch, promoted by Kickstarter, a funding platform. 2- Articulate Storyline: killer features and performance limitations. 3- Articulate Community 4- Articulate Storyline´s mobile story and challenges for the future (SCORM support, security, etc) 5- Articulate Storyline compared with Adobe Captivate. 6- Apps of the week: Wolfenstein 3D (free game) and Zite (personalized magazine).    

by Jen Weaver   ¡Hola! Let's journey down to South America and explore some common cultural facts about Ecuadorians and their expectations when it comes to training and development.  Test Your Knowledge of Ecuadorian Culture: True or False. Ecuador is South America's second largest producer of oil. What is the official language of Ecuador? What currency is used in Ecuador?  Tips for Training & Development in Ecuador1 Don't discuss other Spanish-speaking countries with Ecuadorians. Ecuador lost half its land to Peru in 1941 in an invasion supported by the United States, Argentina, and Brazil. Ecuador was previously conquered by Spain and has also faced many border disputes with Colombia. Similarly, be careful not to exhibit a sense of American superiority, as many Ecuadorians are sensitive to this attitude. Ecuadorians tend to make decisions on a case-by-case basis rather than using universal laws or standards to guide behavior. Accordingly, an individual's faith or personal feelings may be viewed as "truth" independent of facts or data. Research alone will not gain buy-in from Ecuadorian learners; you must engage them on an ideological or emotional level. Family gives Ecuadorians a sense of stability, but personal achievement and individual status are more important than the success of a group as a whole. Despite government efforts to promote punctuality, most Ecuadorians view arriving 15 to 20 minutes late as still being on time. As a foreigner, you are expected to be prompt to all business meetings. At the executive level, many business professionals arrive at the office after 9:00 a.m. Keep this in mind and avoid scheduling meetings or classes before 10:00 a.m., if possible. Address Ecuadorian contacts by their professional title or formal name until invited to do otherwise. Ecuadorian time is the same as Eastern Standard Time, so if you're traveling there from the United States, you may be tempted to schedule meetings the same day that you arrive. However, allow yourself at least a day to acclimate if training on location in Quito--not for the time difference but for the high altitude. Trivia Answers: True. Spanish. English is commonly used in business settings, plus there are many indigenous languages still used by the Amerindian population. Be sure to clarify the language needs of your audience before finalizing training materials. The United States Dollar. References: 1Morrison, Terri, & Conaway, Wayne A. (2006). Kiss, bow, or shake hands (2nd ed.). Avon: Adams Media.   *** Developing international training and development materials? Contact Jen at Carmazzi Global Solutions.

SharePoint in Corporate Learning One of the hardest things for me to find are good examples of how people are really using web 2.0 inside organizations. This is a great opportunity to hear lots of examples of what they are doing with SharePoint around Corporate Learning in a wide variety of organizations. Live Sessions: Tuesday March 10, 8 - 10 AM PacificThursday March 12, 8 - 9 AM Pacific Community discussion will occur in between. Register Here. If you are interested in attending, go to the Learn Trends Ning Site and sign-up. Make sure you register for the event. We will make announcements through that site. Michael Palko Solution Education ManagerThe Healthcare Business of Thomson Reuters Michael will talk about how he's using SharePoint to manage The Training Space, an internal learning community that connects and "cross pollinates" teams. Community members contribute their own unique experience and draw from the group’s collective intelligence using all the tools that web 2.0 has to offer. Allison Anderson Manager Leadership Learning Environments Intel Using SharePoint as a one-stop-stop for our Career Development instructors around the globe, to access the tools and resources they need. Instructors teach in pairs, so this site helps them find partners around the globe. Includes a corporate calendar to show where the workshop is taught worldwide, and a discussion board for sharing best-known-methods. We’ll talk about what has worked… and what has not. Cindi Wiggin Manager Leadership Learning Environments Intel Tom Smith Faculty of Education Technology, Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi Women's College SharePoint and its development in Staff Training in an overseas tertiary college environment Michael Glazer Dean Burson-Marsteller University Sharing examples of social learning features in a training program. How the university is beginning to make connections between training collaboration and knowledge-sharing. Andrew Smith Learning Technology Specialist Tele-Atlas How Tele-Atlas uses SharePoint as a platform for informal learning. Celia Bohle Advanced Learning TEchnologies Program Manager HP SharePoint for a Marketing Online Learning Community Kevin Kussman IPG Go-To-Market Learning and Development HP Dominika Merzenich Workforce Development Specialist/IPG Go-To-Market Learning and Development HP Anne Adrian Associate Director, ACES-Ag IT, Auburn Extension Internal and External use of SharePoint with Feeds, searches, aggregatred feeds. Anne will describe how SharePoint is used and impl;emented to prduce public blogs and web sites based on feeds from categories and locations. She will also describe how SharePoint internal collaboration sites are used and the value of authnticated searches in SharePoint. Brian Dusablon Performance Consultant Administaff The role of SharePoint in our onboarding process including: early access, easy to find key information, well of resources and anniversary profiles.The role of SharePoint in New Supervisor Orientation including: Training programs, Templates and guides and Testimonials. Other possible participants are from Valvoline/Ashland and Microsoft Learning. eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording. Learning content strategies 032614h from BizLibrary

Voting for #TEMS13 will close on Monday, January 27, 2014.*TEMS13: Top E-Learning Movers & Shakers in 2013' CLICK HERE TO VOTESPONSORS*TBD = To Be DeterminedInternational Medical UniversityiBerry - The Academic PortholeWizIQListlyAWARDSThe nominees are in the running to win two Mega Awards:Top e-Learning Mover & Shaker of the Year (2013)  1st Prize = £100 (British Pounds)Top 3 will get free (commercial) Listly accounts for a year.The nominee with the most votes, wins this special award with bragging rights for one year.e-Learning Super Hero of the Year (2013) 1st Prize = £200 (British Pounds)Top 3 will get free (commercial) Listly accounts for a year.The nominee with the highest score (based on the gamified points system revealed below) wins this award, which is the most prestigious of the two awards, because it takes into account who is voting, besides the number of votes. Also, it requires the nominee to show pro-active professionalism and appreciation of the other participating nominees.Besides that, we will announce the Top 10 for both awards based on the big Continents in the world (North-America, Europe, Asia, Africa and South-America).  Please join the fun and vote!CLICK HERE to know the reasons for creating this poll (Part 1), and instructions on how to vote (video tutorial).CLICK HERE to subscribe to the Twitter List following all the nominees (using Twitter). CLICK HERE to view and update the #TEMS13 Padlet Wall, which is where share something positive about the nominees.ONLINE AWARD CEREMONYCLICK HERE to attend (and for details). When? 12 February (2014): 10:00 PM Kuala Lumpur time!(The 2 award winners and all the e-Learning Super Heroes nominated will be celebrated before my MOOC talk exploring 'Creative Super Learners'.) REALITYLet's face it, polling is really a silly way to decide on who was the Super (e-)Learning Hero of 2013. For example, in a professional learning community, would a vote (of appreciation for someone's work) from your Grandmother, or 5-year old son be valued with the same respect as a vote from Stephen Downes? Of course not!  In general, if you can play the game and be a shameless self-promoter (Been there and done that before...unfortunately!), who wants to win at all cost (of dignity), it is quite easy to get easy votes from friends, students, colleagues, etc. If you are really smart, you could even buy votes to show to the world how great you are. But, I believe none of the nominees in this #TEMS13 list would steep so low for a moment of fame, right?GAMIFIED SCORINGWell, I still believe that polling can be used to decide the Super (e-)Learning Hero of 2013 in a fairer way. So, here is a gamified scoring algorithm I put together to filter out the wannabes from the real Super (e-)Learning Heroes. What do you think? You are most welcome to suggest improvements, or other scoring items to be included. Please use the comments section below, or tweet your idea using #TEMS13 Twitter hashtag. Thanks!Here we go:#TEMS13 Gamified Scoring Algorithm This is how you check who has voted for who:Since, Listly has no tool to automate the gamified scoring algorithm proposed, I will have to calculate the scores manually (unless some programming wiz could help me code an automated solution). However, I don't mind doing it to get a fairer and more meaningful result. Though, since I am stuck with a lot of work related activities in January, I will only be able to provide the final results for the 'e-Learning Super Hero of the Year' award on February 12, 2014.Another way is to set-up a Google Spreadsheet and invite all the Nominees to calculate their own results using the finalized gamified scoring algorithm. If someone is willing to help out with that, or something even more efficient, I am totally open for brilliant ideas!  NETWORKBesides being annoyed with all the crappy e-learning related polls out there, the other hidden agenda with initiating the #TEMS13 list was to connect awesome educators around the world from all sectors (primary, secondary, tertiary and corporate sectors).  To cut the story short, we have so much to learn from one another, and in this increasingly disruptive world of learning, we seriously need to communicate and collaborate more to stay relevant.By looking at the competitive spirit of many of the nominees, I believe #TEMS13 will go seriously viral in the coming weeks. Why? #TEMS13 is clouded with Super (e-)Learning Heroes. And any sane learning professional or educator would want to check out this awesome list, right?     Here it is:Top e-Learning Movers & Shakers in 2013View more lists from Zaid Ali AlsagoffHave fun discovering some pretty amazing educators in the #TEMS13 list!So, what does the winner(s) get out of this? Well...British PoundsBragging rights for one year!Surely their networks will grow.Admiration from new fans.More invitations to give talks and/or facilitate workshops.Etc.What about a trophy or monetary award (or a digital badge)? Anyone, interested to be or find a sponsor? Or design the digital badge(s) of glory?Now, is the time for you to show your Super (e-)Learning-hood...Anyone Game on :)

En nuestro quinto episodio, abordamos los siguientes temas: 1- Historias destacadas de la semana a- Adobe Creative Suite (CS6) ya está disponible. Primeras impresiones: descargas rápidas de aplicaciones, instalación sin problemas y versión para PC/Mac. b- Post: "The New Articulate Storyline iPad App and mLearning" Artículo, demo y 2 videos. 2- La Comunidad de Articulate: la importancia de la asistencia y la colaboración. 3- Articulate Storyline: funcionalidades destacadas (gráficas de personajes, objetos interactivos, capas de diapositivas, estados, grabación de pantalla, adaptación de la presentación de contenidos, posibilidad de crear y traducir proyectos en distintos idiomas, etc) y algunas limitaciones. 4- Articulate Storyline vs. Adobe Captivate. 5- La historia para el aprendizaje móvil que propone Articulate Storyline y desafíos para el futuro (SCORM, seguridad, etc)   Your browser does not support the audio element.  

I'm happy to report that the first meeting for the "Adobe eLearning Community: Maryland, DC, and Virginia" on the books: July 9, 2014 at Adobe HQ in McLean, VA. Address: 7930 Jones Branch Drive Suite 500, McLean, VA 22102Time: 7-9 p.m., Eastern. We'll be posting information about the meeting via our Meetup space and our LinkedIn page. I'm really excited to meet all of you in person (and online... we will be running virtual sessions for all of our meetings).

Last week I did a webinar with Mark Sylvester of Intronetworks - Tapping the Social Grid. There's a recording available here.The crux of the talk was:Why being able to tap into the social grid is important for concept workers.A few of the tools and methods I use to tap into the social grid.Unfortunately, chat was not enabled during the session, but they did have the ability for attendees to ask questions. Somehow, like other attendees, I couldn't see the questions. It made things feel a little disconnect. I also couldn't see poll results, but Mark did a great job of letting us know what was happening in polls and asking questions during the session. He also sent me all the questions so I could think about them.In terms of the presentation, most of the presentation, I've discussed before in various places:Crowdsourcing in the SmallKing William's College - General Knowledge Paper and Crowdsourcing - Know Where You Can Find AnythingConcept Workers - post information work and workersEvaluating Performance of Concept Workers - realities of how concept workers are evaluated by managers who know less about the answer than the concept worker themselvesValue from Social Media - aspect of work problems that are classically hard to fully address with search, i.e., where search stops and other solutions need to begin.Leveraging Networks is Key Skill and the most important Knowledge Worker Skill Gap.Tools and Methods for Networks and Communities - Discusses specific tools and methods for using Networks and Communities as part of Knowledge Work.Twitter as Personal Work and Learning ToolMy LinkedIn Open Connection Approach - Treating LinkedIn like a massive, virtual cocktail party.There's a lot there, so if you were going to choose two, probably Crowdsourcing in the Small and Tools and Methods for Networks and Communities would be the two.Other Ways to Tap into the Social GridIn the session, I discussed the use of LinkedIn, Twitter and Blogging as my primary tools for tapping into the social grid. I asked via Twitter and in the session for other tools/methods that people use for Tapping into Your Social Grid.Here was the original tweet:tonykarrer: Please help - online session going now: How (other than twitter) do you Tap Your Social Grid to get help with your problems? #tysgResponses: SocialHound: @tonykarrer I also use twitter to comment on topics that I have knowledge in to broaden my scope of netwokers SocialHound: @tonykarrer I use twitter to reach out to people with knowledge about things I don't understand TamiSchiller: @tonykarrer #tysg LinkedIn, various Ning groups and industry specific organizations. ranellem: @tonykarrer I've found old friends via Facebook that have become professional contacts as well. gammill: @tonykarrer I use facebook for 'normal people' market research and LinkedIn for BD and hiring #tysgannemscott: @tonykarrer I also use Facebook (comments on status) and Facebook Groups for help. #tysg prawsthorne: @tonykarrer I also use Skype, MSN, Google Chat, Google groups, Wiki talk pages to tap my social grid. I believe tap is the keyword flaviofusuma: @tonykarrer Forums, Email, Linkedin. #tysg EmmaWho: @tonykarrer facebook groups cammybean: @tonykarrer Blogging. Email. Facebook. Tools for quickly getting the question out there. #tysg assistivetek: @tonykarrer I rely on Skype and LinkedIn to reach out to others as well as my blog moehlert: @tonykarrer #tysg Yammer. Blogging. Facebook. Linkedin. They're all just tools to build relationships between people and people and data From participants.FacebookNingBlogsSocial Bookmarking (delicious and Diigo)PlaxoFacebook pages for organizations/businessesLinkedIn pages for organizations/businessesWordPress blog as part of business websitePhotosharing sites - smugmug and flickryoutubeemailMySpaceBeboPublic speakingYammercompany tools of tagging, sharing bookmarks, web profilesMeetupIRCComments in blogsForumsVirtual Book ClubSlideshareslideshare - leads me to someone's blog or websitearchived webinars - lead me to someone's blog or websiteMovie recommendations on NetFlixWhen you think about it, there are a ton of other recommendation or social grid type things out there that we tap into without thinking about them as tapping the social grid.See also:Tools and Methods for Networks and CommunitiesNetwork FeedbackQuestions and ThoughtsThe following are questions or comments from the audience.Q: If you have unique content for a specific area of business, like brand marketers, is a group on LinkedIn better than creation of your own business to business network?To me, LinkedIn is very limited in it's ability to set up communities. Yes, you can create a group. And then you have threaded discussions. However, when we just did this for the LA CTO Forum, we created a LinkedIn group so that members could search profiles and created a private Ning community for discussions, events, and communication.The question mentions "unique content" ... I often find that Ning isn't that great for specialized content. I'd need to know more to understand what would work for the particular situation.Q: Do you remember who/what organization researched memory and found that those under the age of 27 remember less than older folks? I really like this idea and would like to read this research.Couple of places that discuss adaptation of memory and technologyMemorizing FactsBetter MemoryIn Your Outboard Brain Knows All, Clive Thompson talks about how our need to remember is changing.Neuroscientist Ian Robertson polled 3,000 people and found that the younger ones were less able than their elders to recall standard personal info. When Robertson asked his subjects to tell them a relative's birth date, 87 percent of respondents over age 50 could recite it, while less than 40 percent of those under 30 could do so. And when he asked them their own phone number, fully one-third of the youngsters drew a blank. They had to whip out their handsets to look it up.Q: Is what we consider ""Collaboration & Networking"" in the enterprise is what academia calls ""Plagiarism""?Two articles (1, 2) that discuss the case of a Facebook study group that was considered cheating when other study groups are okay.This is a really challenging issue!Q: what's a "hash tag"?Q: what's "#tysg" he typed in twitter search boxhttp://twitter.pbwiki.com/Hashtags#tysg - It wasn't really a hash tag, but close enough. It was a tag that I put in my original twitter post that allows me to find related posts.Q: Curious--when he does a follow-up conversation w/ people on linkedin that respond to his inquiries, as in the ex. he showed, do people expect to be paid for their consulting time? or does it depend on the extent of the consultation?I've never had someone who accepted a request for a 30 minute conversations ask to be paid for that conversation. I have talked to a few consultants who clearly were not going to tell me anything of interest without being paid. But that is rare - 5% or less. Obviously, after a first call people (including me) might suggest an engagement is in order to dive into more detail.Q: Do you feel LinkedIn Answers is as valuable for introducing a completely new technology vs. something that people are familiar with?I'm not as familiar with using LinkedIn as a marketing / sales tool, but I use it all the time as a market research tool. It certainly is good at reaching influencers. But I have to be honest and say that I get lots of LinkedIn requests to look at someone's new product in order to try to get me to blog about the product. I generally am not a super early adopter so I'm less likely to dive in with a new tool. Plus there's just a lot of those requests. My guess is that there are others who would be more likely to dive in if it's something interesting. Probably the best approach is to be even earlier and truly be asking for expertise - where do we fit in the market.Q: How to you handle negative comments on Linked in or other SN sites?I've not dealt with negative comments on LinkedIn. Do you mean in Q&A and discussions? I've found it to be pretty civil as compared to threaded discussions in other places. Maybe because people want to look good.For a better answer, I would go to:Communities and Networks Connection - Negative CommentsQ: Will the questions be open to everyone in LinkedIn or is it only open to those in your category or having connections?I believe you can limit it, but normally you would use a message instead if you wanted to limit the distribution. In my mind, the question is a public mechanism. Messages are the private mechanism. Or maybe that's just how I use it.Q: I often hear people say they are concerned about potential vandalism in user-created content. I suggest that they have a recruiting problem.I agree. Or you could think of this as an opportunity for natural selection. A bit like the cartoon that I really enjoyed from Dilbert (sorry I'm repeating it, but it's too good to pass up).Q: Do you ever feel too "spread out" between LinkedIn, Facebook, blogging, twittering, etc.?Fantastic question. And yes. I'm constantly evaluating where I'm going to focus. I'm still somewhat unsure about Twitter and Facebook. They are definitely secondary mechanisms as compared to LinkedIn for me. Blogging is a different animal.I think everyone has to evaluate what works for them. But you need to find the tools and methods that work for you.Q: How is Twittering more effective than Facebook status updatesThey are very similar. In fact, many of my updates I post to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn via Ping.fm. That said, because Facebook I generally am doing more social things, I'm not going to mention every blog post. People following me on Twitter are choosing to listen in and are not expecting a mutual friend. So, the dynamic is a little bit different.Wow, not the best answer - can someone explain this better?Q: I hear a clear delineation between the social and professional uses of these sites, but with them all so available and searchable... can they really stay that separate?I'm sorry if I suggested that there was any such delineation, especially on something like Facebook. I have a tendency to mix business and fun. Most people find this in their social networks (both in-person and online). LinkedIn has a tendency to be more directed and professional - but there's still a "social" side to it.Q: So are people helping you with customer situations for free? Is this stuff they'd normally get paid to do? Are they doing it because you'll mention them on your blog?Free yes. Most of us consultants do initial discussions for free. Some consultants are very concerned about giving anything away. For me, if I can help you in 30 minutes, it's not worth trying to sell you a consulting engagement. And I believe that's most people out there. I should also mention that I'm often not talking to consultants.The "mention me in your blog" is normally only with people who seek a conversation with me ... not when I'm seeking a conversation. In fact, they might have the opposite concern - is he going to blog about what I'm saying?I will say that being approached by people who are looking to get their name in my blog is a bit problematic.Q: Why does tony prefer linkedin to twitter?Twitter is an open conversation. It's great for quick hit questions with nearly real-time response. It's a good way to stay connected with people. It's much more social than LinkedIn.LinkedIn is much more directed. For me, it's there to create the right conversations. I might broadcast a need on Twitter for a certain kind of conversation. But, I'm much more likely to go see who I know or who I can reach who will have expertise. A lot of the folks who follow me on twitter are people I'm linked to.Hold it, is that true? I'm going to send a twitter message right now see if I can find out.The response so far has that about 2/3 of the people following me on Twitter are connections on LinkedIn. So, there's quite a few people who I might be able to reach with a tweet that I would not reach via searching on LinkedIn. There's also a larger number who I reach through my blog. As well, discussions on groups and other places can reach out beyond your connections.Q: Are there tools for doing online brainstorming with people in different locations.I mentioned the great session with Robin Good using MindMeister. More on this ...Real-Time Collaborative EditingRemote CollaborationQ: Define ""Open Networker""See: My LinkedIn Connection ApproachQ: Is LinkedIn mainly for professional purposes only? That is what I have seen in my limited look at it a while back.Yes it's definitely professionally oriented. Facebook is far more social.Q: We use a Virtual Book Club to share ideas and solve problems. What are your thoughts?Love the idea.Q: How about calling it micro crowdsourcing?I like the term. Not 100% sold.Q: Do you feel Linkedin is best suited for a certain age group?I'm going to guess that it skews older. Certainly older than Facebook. The cultural norms on LinkedIn are similar to networking norms in real life so I think it will feel better to an older audience.These are guesses, does anyone have data to back this up?Q: As a business owner, I have concern about employee abuse, i.e. loss of productivity. Social networking proponents say productivity can actually increase. I have doubts. What's your opinion?We discussed this in the session. Employees definitely need to be coached to not abuse their time at work on things like Facebook. LinkedIn I would have far less concern. Although be aware that everyone on LinkedIn is somewhat seen as a passive job seeker. Actually, everyone is a passive job seeker even if they aren't on LinkedIn.Q: Tony, your comment on blogging that ""writing forces learning"" is another way of demonstrating the old aphorism that ""teaching something is the best way to learn it.""Well said!Q: What are the attributes of very successful communities...(long answer expected!)Wow, this is way too big for me. You might start with:Successful CommunitiesCommunity and Community BuildingQ: Is NING used more for professional or for private/social?BothQ: how valuable do you find the groups in LinkedIn?It's funny, because I find value in the groups in a different way than I expected. I definitely get value from a broader searching capability. I expected that. But, I didn't expect to meet a lot of interesting people through discussions. I never took the opportunity in forums in the past to meet members. Because I'm so used to 30 minute conversations as a result on LinkedIn, I naturally do that with folks who are saying interesting things in LinkedIn groups.I would say that groups are way lower value than being able to search for expertise.Q: What does it mean that Tony's blog is his outboard brain?Basically, I forget details of stuff all the time. And so I look back at my blog to find out what I used to think about a topic.Q: How much time do you spend in LinkedIn weekly?I've not really thought about it. When I get an email from someone or run into them on a web site, I look at their profile - maybe 30 minutes a week doing that. And then my use is heavily dependent on what I'm working on. I would guess it averages an hour a week. However, I would guess that I have about 4, 30 minute conversations a week as a result of LinkedIn. Of course, all of this is really work, and extremely high value work.Q: How would you rate Twitter for tapping the social grid?I'm still not 100% sold, but it's growing on me. If you are relatively new to all of this, start by creating 30-minute conversations on LinkedIn.Q: Do you see corporations using LinkedIn Groups for employees to seek mentors/coaches within their organization?I don't have enough data points on this. Can someone else weigh in?Q: Any comments on Nour's book: Relationship currency?I'm afraid I'm only vaguely familiar with it. Thanks for the pointer. Oh, and he's a 2nd level connection and a fairly open networker on LinkedIn.Q: will it be possible to save the ""templates""The template that is being asked about is what my message generally looks like when I reach out to someone via LinkedIn.It's almost always an expertise request.Hi ,I'm hoping you'll be open to a brief conversation. From your profile you have a great background and it seems like you'll have lots of thoughts around my issues.I'm working on XXX.I've spent a fair bit of time researching and have been finding YYY.I'd like to set a time to discuss this with you and get your thoughts.----It's critical that your question show you aren't still at square one. If you come and ask me - I need help selecting an authoring tool... I may or may not be interested in talking to you. If you tell me that you are debating this tool vs. that tool and are particularly thinking about reusability - now I am likely much more interested.Q: Does LinkedIn offer any sort of rating system to vet the value of an individual's advice?During the session, I botched my answer to this question - so luckily two people came to my rescue....Q: LinkedIn Answers does offer the opportunity to rate based answers which is indirectly a rating system.Q: But you could RECOMMEND someone on LinkedIn for those who's advice has been greatI would add that in "real life" you don't get much help in vetting someone's advice either.Q: ""Bedstefar"" is Grand Dad in englishQ: Christian IX, king of DenmarkOkay now I wish everyone could have seen these in the chat! That's pretty dang good whoever typed this in. I'm just not going to tell anyone how this relates to anything. ;)Q: How do you work with a management/political culture that states "my ideas, right or wrong"?I'm not 100% sure what this related to in the presentation. Most of the time, I'm looking for input, answers, outside the box thinking that I can't get internally. If your culture doesn't want to hear what other people think - hmmm - What was I saying about passive job seeking? Actually, I believe LinkedIn is pretty good for active job seeking as well.Q: People are not only asking questions, but looking for like minded people who connect with for future reference in searching Q&AGreat point.Q: So search engines (social networks) tend to lessen the need for individual memory?Yes - that's exactly true. See Better Memory.Q: I'm new to introNetworks via LinkedIn discussion grp invite. So, how does introNetworks compare?Mark was just getting into this. LinkedIn is much more keyword, profile search across a very large network. introNetworks is generally a smaller group (although they can be pretty large) and uses a more limited set of keywords to do matching of people. Having been the CTO for eHarmony at its start - I think of introNetworks as the eHarmony for business-social networking with given groups of people.My challenge with introNetworks and other social networking tools is that unless I have a specific problem I'm trying to accomplish or a plan for how to connect, then I just end up swimming around. See: Social Conference Tools - Expect Poor Results. Still, I'm a big believer in Prenetworking before you go to an event - find people you should connect with at the event. And, I'm still learning about all of this. eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content