Posted by crunchy on 5.31.09 at 9:57 am
The one thing the Internet has been great at - for me anyway - was showing me how many enterprising women there are out there.
Women are taking control, creating their own businesses, staying on top of trends and jumping in where they can showcase their skills and qualifications.
In Vancouver, this seems to be very true and very real.
I am in awe of the enterprising women I keep meeting here.
Thank you to things like TWITTER!
Thanks to twitter, I have discovered more women - moms and non moms who have embraced the internet and ‘Social Media’ to use for their own needs..both personal and business.
Two moms who found me on twitter had the opportunity to speak at a MOMCAFE event - yet another organization I would not have heard of unless through Twitter.
MomCafe is a great organization for networking. They seem to be VERY professional and have great speakers and great topics.
I was quite humbled to be in a room full of savvy business owners, etc to listen to Sue Sinclair of Raspberry Kids and Annemarie Tempelman - Kluit of YoYoMama, speak about their experiences with Social Media, Twitter, Facebook and the many other sources out there.
Having chitchatted online and in person with both ladies, I LOVE their approach to social media and what it can do for them and their businesses.
They get it.
I mean they really get it.
There has been a bit of rumbling going on in cyberspace lately…not so much about web-based businesses but about sites - specifically mom bloggers - that do reviews about products for business.
PR folks have been courting the mom bloggers in an almost unprecendeted way, sending them on trips, lending them cars, and shipping out tons of products in the hope of glowing reviews.
There are a bazillion review sites out there..some are very professional and others are more personal.
And now the FTC in the US is wondering about how regulated this should all be.
On top of that, many non reviewers and reviewers are out there are speaking THEIR minds about what they think about the review bloggers, ethics, and so on…it has gotten quite heated.
Anyway, the opinions vary from STOP THE REVIEWS to THERE IS PLENTY OF ROOM FOR ALL TYPES OF BLOGS, and I am somewhere in the middle.
People do fear the saturation of blogs and websites in general that just are selling products. I can’t really see that happening.
Blogging and the non-monetary usage of the web is hear to stay.
Business sites and so on have been around for ages and will carry on too.
We all find our niches.
We all use the web for our own needs.
The blurring and merging of the two that we see now is because of sites like Twitter and Facebook.
I gotta admit I am sick of the barrage of tweets demanding I check out someones latest giveaway. I have started unfollowing a LOT of review sites because of that. I am also hesitant in following any purely business tweeters because of this.
Folks like Sue and Annemarie get this. They realize that places like Twitter are ‘community’ based. People network and post because it builds ‘connections’ and not just business connections. That is what LinkedIn is for.
For them, social media is about reaching out in as many ways as you can. Friendship is just as important as pushing a sale or adding members, etc. Connection building for them is about community building.
Connecting to people via social networking can’t be a one way street. It has to be a back and forth and work on many levels.
I think this is especially true when dealing with mom’s and women in general. Women - even in business - tend to reach out in a more personal level.
I think that is why women of all stripes have really embraced social networking and blogging.
It works for us.
Twitter works best for those that follow back. It works even better when you speak to people about more than your latest post, deal, sale and so on.
Showing awareness of WHO you are tweeting to is really the key.
No matter why you tweet or blog, being aware of you potential readers, thinking about them makes you a lot more readable.
And, as events like MomCafe and the impromtu VANCOUVER MOMS NIGHT OUT proved, community building online leads to community building offline and IN REAL LIFE!
Vancouver is chock a block with ‘tweet ups’ and ‘Meetups’….If you want to meet bloggers, or social networkers, you name it…you will find them….especially on Twitter.
And we all know that connecting in real life can lead to all sorts of opportunities….new friendships, employment, business contracts or contacts….the possibilities are endless.
I feel truly blessed by the friends I have made through the internet.
I also have been inspired and am filled with confidence in myself, my writing, my blogging because of the connections and all the potential I see out there.
People bemoaned the loss of community due to our hectic and spread out lifestyles.
People feared that the internet would produce billions of antisocial loners…instead it has in many ways rebirthed the concept of community.
People ARE connecting again.
It is up to you to use it all to your full advantage.
I just wanted to add the ‘SlideShare’ for Sue and Annemarie’s presentation…
http://www.slideshare.net/suesinclair/slideshare-moms-are-all-a-twitter