Wednesday 27 June 2012

Online networks


I like getting to know new people, so you'd think networking would be easy for me. No. I get shy. I prefer others to make the first move, though once they have (especially in person), I'm usually easy to talk to. I prefer getting to know people in person, rather than impersonally online, but sometimes, needs must.

I’ve been using social networks now for many years – I first joined Facebook back in 2006 – but I’ve only recently been thinking about how I can use them professionally. I must say, I have to agree with Reid Hoffman (check the Thing 6 blog) in that LinkedIn is the office, Facebook is the barbecue in the back garden. In which case, I’ve only just started working in an office.

I really can’t see many people using Facebook for professional networking. In my own mind, it’s for keeping up with friends, for outside-of-work stuff, and I don’t know many people who’d use it in a professional capacity (I certainly wouldn’t want to like too much stuff that links with my job, but then I try to keep my work and home lives as separate as possible). Granted I’ve made friends there from previous work places, but once again it’s meant to be in a social way, not a work way.

We’re also back to the old problem of access to the sites. I have joined LinkedIn and LISNPN (though I don’t actually remember doing that one), but I’m unable to access them from one of my work sites due to social network restrictions. My other site is more lax, so I can update things as and when I remember, but that’s the crux: I’ve got to remember to do it. On the other hand, given that I have joined them, please feel free to find me and join my circle on LinkedIn (or whatever you call it). Regular readers of my blog will know my real name from Thing 3. For everyone else, and I’m assuming that’s everyone else in the entire world except for me, it’s Steve Collman. Or you might try searching for Community Outreach Librarian.

Now that I’ve got a Google+ account, I tried to search for people that might be good for networking purposes. However, once again I keep forgetting to check, so the one person I’ve put feelers out for, I don’t even know if he’s responded. And I don’t know if it really matters, because he’s been a Facebook friend of mine for about a year or two now, and if he’s got anything interesting to say, he usually links to it from there. There’s also the problem with Google+ that it just isn’t very widely used, as far as I know (it was marketed as the main competition to Facebook, but it hasn’t quite turned out like that). Again, if you want to find and add me, please do so!

I haven’t really tried joining any other networks so far. Mainly because I tend to forget when I’m at the one work site I can get to them (and obviously I don’t bother at the other one), and I just forget when I’m at home. I’ve got far more important things to do, such as play games, and try to finish the novel I’m working on. It’ll come, one day.

Friday 22 June 2012

Reflective practice


The hardest part about this Thing for me is trying to decide what to reflect on in the first place. There are several possibilities, but I don’t feel I can evaluate any of them as fully as I’d like to. However, I’m guessing one of the tricks of reflective practice is to learn how to do so with situations that, at first thought, you can’t think of anything to write about. Maybe with practice an experienced reflective practitioner can write something about any given situation, and this is what I should aspire to. Sounds good in theory. Let’s give it a go.

The most obvious situation to try writing about is a meeting I attended recently, where I was introducing myself to potential users of my services. I had to impress upon them why it was a good idea to use me as a resource (a source of medical information that could be called upon to meet them and discuss their needs, them being GP practice managers and their staff).

I learnt that they have another source of information they can tap into so I had to quickly think of reasons why they should use me as well. Thinking on your feet can be essential in this job, and I’m beginning to discover.

I enjoyed meeting with them. They were all really nice people, and part of my job is going out and meeting people. A large part of my job is going out and meeting people for various reasons, and while I don’t like using the telephone, meeting people in person is one of my great strengths, I’ve found. As is modesty, apparently.

What worked well – NHS staff all have access to large amounts of information online, if they so wish, but they have to register to access it, and a lot of people don’t even know about it. When trying to get them to take up registration, I pointed out some of the resources that they could get access to, which interested them.

What went wrong – this links in to the thinking on my feet bit above. They told me they already had access to an information source they could draw on, and I didn’t even know about it, which I probably should have.

I don’t think I’d change anything about that particular meeting – it seemed to go very well, and the only down points were over things I couldn’t really have done anything about. However, there have been many other occasions, during meetings, training sessions and so on, where I would have changed a lot of things!

The potential impact could be quite big – this is possibly a good source of work for me, and so it could add to my workload greatly (which it’s supposed to!), plus the fact that I may have gleaned another contact from the meeting so as to expand even further!

I’ve already taken action: I took the contact detail from the last point and emailed this new person. I’m hoping to hear back by next week – if I don’t I may have to call to try and set up a meeting.

As I was writing this, I noticed that it’s stuff I tend to do anyway after meetings, training or other work. I’m always on the lookout for ways to improve my working, so I tend to ask for advice on what I did badly, what I did well and how I could improve whatever I did from the people I work with.

Wednesday 20 June 2012

My thoughts on Thing 4:


I’m getting behind in doing CPD23 and these posts, but I’m now trying to catch up. To be fair, the reason I’m behind is that I went on my (long-awaited) honeymoon, and I had a pile of work to do when I came back. So bear with me, dear reader (if there are any…).

This blog is about Thing 4 – Twitter, Storify and RSS feeds. Well, I’ve learnt how to use RSS feeds through Google reader because my job has just started to demand it, for gathering information for current awareness bulletins (now all I’ve got to do is get into the habit of actually using them).

Twitter. I set up an account a few months back, with every intention of using it. Problem is, I can’t think of anything to say on it. Being restricted to 140 characters is off-putting; as people may have noticed, I’m not exactly known for my brevity of writing, which is linked to trying to describe things in detail in my story writing. Even if I were to use Twitter more, the people I really need to get through to on it (my client base, as it were) might not use it, being busy community-based healthcare professionals, who probably don’t have a Twitter account themselves, and if they do, check it less than I do. So what I need to do is figure out is:
            1: how to reach those people first, so that they know to set up accounts if needed and then follow me
            2: how to get round the restrictions my trust has on using social media (yes, we’re back to that problem).
            3: what’s worthwhile to tweet.

I could get round 2 by doing it at home, and part of my job is making contact with the people in 1, but getting busy professionals to take time out of their lives to read my blatherings is going to take a miracle. Mind you, you’re doing it, so maybe miracles do happen…

I’d never even heard of Storify before I started this Thing. It looks like quite an interesting application, though it seems to do the same as other online programs such as Facebook (especially now that the new Timeline has been introduced). It’s also blocked in my trust, both of which mean I’ll have to think hard about how I could put it to use (if at all). 

My branding on Google


Ok, so I tried to do a Google search for my name. I know my spelling’s unusual (you can blame the Irish part of my ancestry for that), but the first thing it tries to give me is Steve Coleman. Nope, I’m not having that. You spell it Collman or not at all. I also had to narrow it down to pages from the UK, because there is apparently at least one Steve Collman in America.

Now, once I’d done that, the top search result is from facebook. Problem is, it’s not me; I intentionally don’t make my personal facebook page viewable because of privacy measures – I don’t want any old person having a look at my profile and seeing what information they can scam. I only make my information available to friends of mine, who I feel I can trust.

However, I’ve started to become available further down the page – the next few results are from LinkedIn, which I’ve set an account up on to try and make professional contacts. Only problem with this is, I don’t use it enough…Plus, there’s someone called Steve Collman-Hole there stealing all my thunder. Ok, well, he’s second on the list behind me, but for some reason he’s first on the list if I click to actually go into LinkedIn.

Looking further down the list, it seems there are several Steve (or Stephen, with this – my – spelling) Collmans in the UK. At least one of the hits is me, because I can see my job title of Community Outreach Librarian, but I’ve no idea who this guy on Twitter is. It’s not me, because I don’t use my Twitter account that much (ok, ok, at all. I know I should, but I’ve just got nothing to say).

It’s also just occurred to me, I’ve only just set up a professional Google+ account. Why is that not listed? It’s not listed in the first three pages. Does it not get a Google hit of its own?

I think I’m going to have to strengthen my online presence somehow. I’ve just got to figure out how first.