Ok, so some of you have been wondering why I sent you an invitation to connect. Well, it really is twofold – first I got to thinking that we as IAAP members were not taking full advantage of our membership dues, let me explain a little more – we pay to attend a conference or a seminar and we generally hope to meet others to develop our networks a little more in addition to the educational aspects, it is just a given when we attend, why not connect virtually and get to know more people I thought, hence my journey has begun. During the beginning of my quest I thought maybe I would be able to expand my network by 25 over the next three months. A very modest goal to say the least when we have over 20,000 members. I have been very pleasantly surprised at the response and it has been a wonderful journey that so many of you have decided to join in the fun. I truly believe that we have so much to learn from each other and share with each other that even lurking on the web community gets you more involved.
How I started was going to a chapter in a different state than I reside and looking for someone with a picture, obviously they have been out to the web community and if they accepted, I connected to someone on their list. I also decided one day was a Kelly day, a Sue day, etc., since you can search for contacts by first name, I invited everyone with that name. Again, it has been a wonderful journey seeing where everyone is from or where they are employed just in the short invite area and I am working on reading the bios-- all of my connections.
Second, and I have to admit I love to see statistics and love a good challenge, Ben posted something on the home page that said “Want to move up this list? We’re changing the point values for different activities here on the web community so you can earn more points fast! Until Feb. 8, you’ll get 25 points (normally 5) for sending or accepting contact invitations! So get everyone you know on your list and move to No. 1 with a bullet!” This was just the motivation that I needed to step out and just do it! The IAAP web community is only open to IAAP members so I find that this is a very safe environment to accept connections versus my facebook account that says someone is a friend of a friend of a friend type invite. However, Ben is not really sure how the points work and he is looking into this further.
So, are you in with me? Let’s put that Kevin Bacon six degrees of separation into effect and use the web community to the fullest potential starting with connecting with one another! The more we all use it, the more we will benefit from it.
If I haven’t gotten to you yet, please send me an invite! Looking forward to connecting!
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