Extra, Extra – social network all about it!

How do we “advertise” our information on the Internet and further develop our networks? Simple – more social networking!

I did not have a “pre-packaged audience” for my site – The HR Connection, so I need to creatively market the site. Here are some of the things I plan to do or have already done:

1. email my contacts
2. post on Facebook
3. Twitter
4. write these reflective blogs and invite my readers to join my network and contribute (Please join my network!)
5. invite others to contribute and invite other people in their networks to join
6. add it to del.icio.us
7. add it to the class wiki under Participant Directory
8. add a link on my Mom Reality page

Any other advertising ideas?

Cha-Ching – A Ning is Born

I really struggled to develop an idea for my Major Digital Project for my EC&I 831 grad class. Since I am not a teacher/administrator as most of my classmates are and actually not currently in the workforce, since I am on maternity leave, brainstorming ideas was that much more difficult. I met with Dr. Alec Couros to discuss my options. He left things pretty open and understood my unique situation. I told him about the e-learning software that I had implemented just prior to my maternity leave and we decided that I could design some on-line learning lessons and exercises. Unfortunately, there were too many barriers to the option and after I gave it more thought, I REALLY wanted to try more of the tools that Web 2.0 had to offer which we are learning about in class.

In a previous post regarding my frustration, Laurie and Jennifer suggested the topic of Mom/maternity leave. I thought that might be a good idea, but after joining Mom Reality, I did not know what I could possibly add or do different since this site was so great already. Cindy told me about her project where she is combining two projects.

Eventually, I decided to focus on human resources and produce something around that. My next hurdle was in deciding what format I wanted to use: wiki vs. ning. Since our other class project is a collaborative wiki and our class is hosted on a wiki, I decided to try out Ning ( where you can create your own social network relatively easily and at no cost). I also like the design features of Ning a bit better than those available on wikispaces, which was likely where I would have created a wiki.

After a lot of brainstorming, a fair bit of frustration, and a lot of support from others, cha-ching! A ning is born – introducing….The HR Connection.  Please check it out, become a member (you don’t have to be an HR professional to join), and hopefully you will learn something new.

Stay tuned for further developments…