So there has been quite a bit of hoo-ha the last couple of days over an article published yesterday by Antonia Senior at The Times Online titled: ‘Why women are such bad networkers‘.

Apart from the fact that this has opened us some interesting debate particularly in the women’s networking circles, it seems that headline of the (original) article has confused the issue from the offset.

Are we talking about the aggressive tactics of corporate ladder climbing or women’s inability to network? The headline suggests the latter however the content covers networking in the broader sense. In my humble opinion the article merges two very separate issues into one.

Sadly we can’t argue the stats that so few women reach the top of the world’s largest corporations, but that is a debate on women and the glass ceiling and not on networking. I don’t profess to be an expert in this area, however as this comment thread highlights, it is a sensitive issue and there is still much work to be done in terms of finding the right balance.

My definition of networking however is creating connections with people to build long term relationships for mutual benefit and success. There is no argument whatsoever that women are naturally excellent at this, in the social and business sense. Women that have never heard of the term networking do it brilliantly without even realising it.

We may not (as a general rule) be as good at blowing our own trumpets as our male counterparts but we make up for it by being fantastic at raising each others profiles, providing support and inspiration (and being open to it) and collaborating. This is a clear example of how as women, we can be outstandingly successful by leveraging our strengths rather than trying to emulate the competitive techniques that work better for men.

I agree that some women are not comfortable in the testosterone driven male dominated networking world. That said, neither are some men. I don’t lack confidence but I do need to be in the right environment. There are a number of different networking platforms – informal, structured, social both online and offline. Everybody will have a different style of networking that suits their personality and regardless of your gender; one of the important factors for networking success is to attend the right networking events.

Ideally this should be with a group of likeminded people, where you feel comfortable and you can be yourself. When we are authentic it is easy and fun to build relationships that have integrity and therefore long term value. Make sure you have a well thought out strategy, follow through with disciplined execution and have a genuine desire to help others.

And yes networking can also be about asking for what you want from others, but first you have to earn the right to ask for it by proving your ability to deliver.

Most importantly networking should be fun. If you aren’t enjoying your networking activities AND getting fantastic results – then talk to me

Here are 10 of my top tips for networking success:

1. Listen, be sincere and responsive (strong eye contact and open body language puts people at ease)

2. A warm smile and a firm handshake go a long way (remember first impressions count for a lot)

3. Focus intensely (there is nothing worse than talking to someone while they look around to see if there is someone better they should be/could be talking to)

4. Show confidence (I believe this comes with being authentic and being in the right environment)

5. Have conviction in your own expertise – but don’t bullshit (if you aren’t convinced that you know what you are talking about, why should anyone else!)

6. Think about long term connections not short term gains (consider at least one thing you could do to help each person, this is a skill that develops with time)

7. Pay attention, have genuine interest and an open mind (we all need tone willing to learn something new)

8. Set goals and create a strategy to reach them – they do not have to be selfish ones! (otherwise it’s not networking it’s just chatting)

9. Follow up – but not just for the sake of it (please don’t clog up my mailbox to tell me the same thing you told me when we met, unless I have asked you to)

10. Authenticity is the best networking virtue – be yourself, relax and have fun (if you aren’t being genuine it will show and if you aren’t having fun, you aren’t doing it right)

I welcome your comments.

Ok first of all, I’m a girl geek. This post could terrify you if you are not an iPhone mad Twitter addict and I just want to say now that you do not have to go to these extremes in order to Tweet productively & efficiently. However, if you are as geeky as I am, love iPhone, and effective Twittering is an important (and official) part of your job description then you will understand that 1 app is really not enough. Neither is 2. So I run a total of 3 apps.

These are the 3 different iPhone Twitter apps I love and why:

1. Echofon Pro

My primary app at the moment is Echofon, which I switched to last weekend having used Twittelator for the last 11 months.

Features I love about Echofon are:

- Sleek user interface, simple navigation
– Conversation view for DM’s
– ‘In reply to’ button on tweet which shows the conversation thread
– List management (add user to list via user profile only)
– Lists tab easily accessible via navigation bar
– Push notifications (I love this feature & it really is a MUST HAVE in my opinion i.e. number displayed on icon like SMS, pop up message notification & sound alert)
– Auto completes @usernames (brings up the picture & Twitter Id of common contacts) and #hashtags in compose tweet box

It also has a simple but really useful Mozilla Firefox add on for when you are at your desktop, this syncs with your iPhone app too. It’s a pretty stable app but does tend to crash sometimes when navigating lists etc.

Admittedly, I am a lunatic and I work this baby hard.

It doesn’t have:

- Comprehensive list management (such as view members, edit members)
– Drafts management (although Echofon saves a tweet or message closed in progress as a draft, it does not allow more than 1 draft to be saved)

Nb: This is a shame because I use drafts as my ‘read later’ area and sometimes I save thoughts or quotes and links to be shared another time. The lack of the save/manage drafts feature almost lost me to Tweetie which is very similar to Echofon but less intuitive in my opinion.

2. Twitterlator Pro

My secondary app is Twittelator – a feature packed app which I have happily used over the last 11 months. I love it because it has a comprehensive drafts management tool, as well as many, many other cool functions such as:

- Built in list management (all the way down to view & edit members)
– Über handy built-in ‘Twitlonger’ feature (so if you want to post anything longer than 140 characters but don’t want to post a full blog, this is a great alternative.)- A configurable navigation bar (choose which shortcuts you want at the bottom of your screen)
– It also has built in emotes, smilies and image icons to jazz up your tweets.

Unfortunately although it offers the convenience of being feature packed, the payoff is an app that hangs and lags. *Note: I have just upgraded to the latest version and this has improved.

The interface navigation also takes a while to get used to but this is mainly due to the vast amount of features and shortcuts.

All the same I still have a soft spot for this app & its creator the eccentric Andrew Stone, an interesting Twitterer, who fondly Tweets pictures of wild & wonderful garden finds & freshly prepared gourmet dishes for the delectation & delight of his followers.

3. HootSuite for iPhone

And finally the new HootSuite for iPhone is one other Twitter gadget that I like to keep handy.

Recommended by social web geek @LeeSmallwood, this app is highly configurable with the ability to create personalised streams of feeds including searches, lists and favourites. You can also create new tabs and set them up with streams as you wish them to appear. In my experience Hootsuite has the most customisable interface I have seen yet.

It has built in stat tracking but only on your ow.ly links, and … coolness of coolness a ‘post later’ option with built in date and time picker. Sadly, the HootSuite developers have omitted the option to send later without selecting a specific time which means that there is no save drafts function. Sync support is offered with the Hootsuite desktop client, however since my Twitter useage is restricted to my iPhone this is not something I can comment on at the moment.

The HootSuite app has potential but for now there are too many key features missing for me to consider a complete switch.

In a nutshell

I use Echofon for all my Twittering except saving and managing drafts, editing Twitter lists or long tweets for which I revert to trusty Twittelator. If I ever needed to schedule tweets in advance or post a URL that I would like to track stats on, I would use Hootsuite.

Of course if @echofon are reading this and integrate the missing functions into the gorgeous Echofon app, my heart would be theirs. For now.

I welcome your comments.

The Fun Theory: The theory that fun can change behavior for the better.

Really, what can I say about this video that isn’t abundantly apparent? What’s not to love about this fun-filled campaign? I’ve always believed that a little bit of fun can change the world. As humans we can’t help but be moved by positive activities and the impulses that bring entertainment and amusement. As this socially savvy ad by Volkswagen cleverly displays, fun is enough of an incentive to change the way we act and respond.

The fact that the ad has nothing in particular to do with Volkswagen is irrelevant. Just knowing that the fun theory is a Volkswagen initiative is enough. This campaign tells us that Volkswagen is a socially conscious, forward thinking company that best of all, can appreciate the value of a little fun.

Girl Geek Blogger: “What flavour did you pick?”

Green Nerdy Girl: “Green tea with Cranberry.”

Girl Geek Blogger: “Me too. All that rummaging around and we picked the same one.”

Green Nerdy Girl: “I’m having honey with mine. Do you like honey in yours?”

Girl Geek Blogger: “No.”

Green Nerdy Girl: “Have you tried it?”

Girl Geek Blogger: “No. I’m against it.”

Green Nerdy Girl: “On the basis of what?”

Girl Geek Blogger: “On the basis that it’s bee poo.”

Success. In our society we hear a lot about success. Successful people, successful companies, successful projects, success strategies, methodologies, formulas.

But what exactly is success? According to webwords:

~ Success: An event that accomplishes its intended purpose.
~ Accomplish: Cause to happen; complete successfully – achieve.
~ Purpose: An anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions.

So if success = achieving an anticipated outcome for an intended purpose
Then the formula is: (S) = achievement (A) + purpose (X)

By the very definition of success, in order be successful we need to have an outcome or purpose in mind.

In the movie Jerry Maguire, Rod Tidwell refers to ‘The Kwan’. Jerry: “Kwan. That’s your word?”, Rod: “Yeah, man, it means love, respect, community… and the dollars too. The whole package. The kwan.”

This definition rings true for me because material gain alone has never been my outcome in mind. My personal measurement for success is based on achieving a set of defined goals coupled with my purpose, which is contentment.

~ Achievement: The action of accomplishing something.
~ Contentment: Happiness with one’s situation in life.

So my personal success formula is as follows:

Achieve Kwan (love, respect, community and money) + Contentment = Success

Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks - my all time favourite song, inspires me in my personal quest for success. Why? Because success doesn’t necessarily come wrapped in fancy car or a big house.

The song inspires me because Terry and Julie have found their Kwan.

“Millions of people swarming like flies
round Waterloo Underground
But Terry and Julie cross over the river
Where they feel safe and sound
And the don’t need no friends
As long as they gaze on Waterloo sunset
They are in paradise”

Have you defined your measure of success?

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Dedicated to Bobby - my partner and my best friend - for our 9th anniversary.
Follow your heart darling.

There are many environmental issues that we hear about on the news these are just some of them:

- Global warming and climate change
- Natural resources being used up
- Deforestation
- Animals becoming extinct
- Waste

You might think that caring for our environment for the future is something that you can’t do anything about, but there are lots of small things we can all do to help. Greener living can also help us to have better health. Here are 10 examples of simple ways we can be more environmentally friendly at home.

10 ways to help the environment from home

1 ) Spend more time outdoors. This will help you to be healthy and helps lower the amount of energy you use at home for electrical appliances, heating and lighting.

2 ) Buy organic food and products as much as possible. Try growing your own organic foods or buy local products and fruit and vegetables that are in season rather than those that have been imported. This helps local farmers and reduces the damage on the environment caused by air transport.

3 ) Reduce the amount of processed foods that you buy. When you buy food always read the label. The longer the list of ingredients the less organic the food is.

4 ) Try to reduce the amount of rubbish you throw away. Recycle things. Glass, cardboard and plastic are recyclable. Put food waste in a composter to re-use as garden fertiliser.

5 ) Use second hand materials whenever possible. Don’t buy new if you can re-use something you already have. Buy environmentally products and don’t buy in bulk just because it’s cheaper because you may just end up wasting them.

6 ) Try buying toys that don’t use batteries. School fetes, car boot sales and charity shops are a great place to buy second hand toys cheaply and donate to a good cause.

7 ) Walk and cycle more often rather than driving. Car sharing and public transport is also a good way to reduce fuel consumption and damage to the environment.

8 ) Swap clothes and baby equipment with friends rather than buying new ones. Children and babies grow out of clothes very quickly. Lots of baby things are hardly used and get thrown away or put into storage. Sharing helps reduce the cost of buying new ones and the damage that manufacturing has on the environment.

9 ) Reduce your shopping trips by buying more in one go and shop online where possible. Buy from companies that support the environment and offer cheaper organic products.

10 ) Keep up to date with environmental information, read the newspaper, use the internet and watch the news so you can find out how to do your bit. Get involved with organisations that support environmental issues (like Friends of the Earth) and volunteer to help if you can.

How refreshing, how Heineken is one of my all time favourite ad campaigns. This ad in particular has, in my opinion all the elements of a brilliant advert – it grabs attention, holds interest, is culturally relevant and appeals directly to the target market.

The result – a clever message wrapped up in British tongue-in-cheek humour with a great punchline, finishing up with a memorable campaign slogan that ties it all together.

Girl Geek Blogger: “Shaolin Monks. They’re not even human are they.”

Green Nerdy Girl: “Maybe they’re gravity defying robots…“

Girl Geek Blogger: “Or Gods…”

Green Nerdy Girl: “Or robot Gods…”

Girl Geek Blogger: “What other Gods are there?”

“Names are an important key to what a society values.  Anthropologists recognize naming as ‘one of the chief methods for imposing order on perception.’”  ~David S. Slawson

Coca Cola and Google are companies who’s brand speaks volumes. But what about their names?
If you’re a company with that much sway you probably don’t need to worry about it. Google could be called Snitzel and it wouldn’t change a thing. But for SMEs a name can say it all. A name can endure or speak for today. It can be bold or claim modesty. A name can portray caliber, a sense of humor or values.

As a picture says a thousand words, a name can bring to mind a thousand images. It’s possible to pick a name that encapsulates your perception, your voice, your story.

When picking a name, be original, be authentic, be you.

Sunken Beauty

I recognize in thieves, traitors and murderers, in the ruthless and the cunning, a deep beauty – a sunken beauty. ~ Jean Genet

In business misplaced trust comes at a high price and being open and transparent is a vulnerability. On the other hand, how many opportunities have you lost to fear?

So do we need harden up & close ourselves off over time, building an inpenetratable forcefield to protect us from potential risks? Must we become ruthless and clinical to survive and succeed in the dog-eat-dog business culture? Do we stop sharing and collabourating out of concern that someone will steal our idea and do it bigger and better?

Bad experiences may hurt us but they do not need to change us – unless for the better.

Steve Jobs summed it up beautifully when he said:

“.. almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

So I choose good faith over paranoia, vulnerability over cynicism and integrity over self preservation. And if this means I end up as the dog chow of the business world then so be it.