#controltheobsession

Having spent year one in our new guise as a limited company getting Anthony fully inducted into the world of IB Project Management, October this year saw us ready to start moving the Company onwards and upwards into the world of 21st century business. We approached with some trepidation but with a grand new website delivered by Vicky and Craig at Clicky Media and a session on Linkedin with Sean Liddell of Unity Associates, we have the tools for the job, we’re ready to roll and this is our inaugural blog!

Being honest, the world of social media has somewhat crept up on us – as parents we find ourselves forever telling the kids to ‘get off that Facebook’ – Sean’s session was therefore one we felt we needed rather than wanted; but I have to say, I think we’re converts!

What did we learn that day? Well, (and forgive me if I’ve not got the stats quite right) about 60% of you are between the ages of 25 and 54 with about 65% of you in what are considered higher than entry level positions; the year on year increase in Linkedin users in the UK currently stands at about 40% and in Turkey that number is almost 100%.

We didn’t find out if there are still 9 million bicycles in Beijing, but we could have because we learnt that you can ask a question, any question, and put it out to over 174 million people worldwide and know that somebody, somewhere will read it, consider it and offer a response. There are obviously some obligatory comic responses – thank you to the person who, in response to our question ‘How is the House of Representatives in America made up’ let us know that it wasn’t in fact made up, it is real! – but, in general responses are considered and informative; and a daft question no longer exists! We learnt that with just a few minutes investment a day we can share the stories of our customers and we almost learnt what a hash tag is and how to use it – but that was perhaps a step to far – even for Sean! More than anything, we learnt that Linkedin is a world of people who are working hard in business but are still happy to help each other out, and that it’s OK to ask, and that’s a really good feeling.

Our difficulty now? Avoiding spending every non-working waking hour on the thing searching out colleagues of years gone by and seeing where they’re at now. I can honestly say that since Sean’s session I’ve not been to sleep before 2am and I’m up again by 5 to see what’s news! But, we also learned that Linkedin is, more than anything, a business tool and not just ‘Facebook for Grown – Ups’, and that staying awake most of the day achieves nothing – so, tonight, it’s lights out by midnight and back to business tomorrow! #controltheobsession …………….. or is that a different social media platform?