Pecha Kucha
The misuse, overuse, and abuse of powerpoint has really caught my attention over the past few months. It seems everywhere I turn - the WSJ, a co-worker, or the blogosphere - people are talking about how they just can't take it anymore!
One interesting finding is that people read faster than you speak. No, the solution is not to just speak faster :). If you are going to put a bunch of text in a slide then read from it, people have already finished reading while you're speaking, and your speech is only blurring their understanding of what they're trying to read. Reading is a left brain activity, while listening and relating to the speaker is a right brain activity. When both sides try to work at the same time you get that blank stare from your audience...

Pecha Kucha is an interesting twist on giving presentations. Pecha Kucha is a format to keep presentations focused, speakers on track, and questions held to the end. The format is twenty slides, twenty seconds per slide, giving the presenter six minutes and forty seconds to present and then sit the heck down! :)

While not suitable for all presentations, I think corporate america should consider the idea of time per slide limits or slide limits in certain meetings where information or concepts are shared? I think the results could be surprisingly good.

Make the Most of Being LinkedIn
You’ve probably heard of it. You may have already signed up. But how much do you know about the social networking website called LinkedIn?
You may be thinking the following:
- That’s probably a great tool for 20-somethings to take advantage of
- Sounds interesting, but… really. Who has the time for something like this?
- Networking through a website? How does that work?
- I have already registered, but I’m not seeing valuable results. Am I missing something?

If any of the above thoughts represent you, I encourage you to read on for a crash course on this essential networking tool for anyone interested in growing their professional and personal network.

For starters, it is important to understand the concepts behind online networking. To best explain how LinkedIn works, allow me to paint a quick picture. Imagine that you are at a party where everyone walks around with a list of all of the people they trust in their social network. After quickly scanning a few of your fellow party-goers lists, you see names of friends you have in common or names of people you’ve been dying to meet. A friend of yours has someone on their list that would be a perfect business partner for you. Another person lists a key contact at the company where you are applying for a job. At a normal party (without lists), even if you can really work a room, you leave without realizing the small degrees of separation between you and the people you would like to meet. LinkedIn helps you see these degrees of separation and allows you to ask your primary connection if they would introduce you to others. Instead of cold calling people, you now have an intermediary who can introduce you.

Seeing other people's networks allows both parties to have a richer networking experience, and that's what LinkedIn does for you. This level of transparency can be frightening at first. You have spent years building your trusted network, so why would you want other people to leverage it so easily? Don't worry...you have control over who gets to see your network and you can choose whether or not to pass on an introduction. Features like this are why LinkedIn has become so popular among business professionals - you can be as inclusive or exclusive as you want.

For a website that has only been in existence for several years, it already has quite an impressive list of members. All 500 of the Fortune 500 are represented in LinkedIn. In fact, 499 of them are represented by director-level and above employees. So, how can you tap into this invaluable opportunity? Here are three tips to make the most of being LinkedIn:

1) Complete your profile
Nothing is more important to building trust and getting noticed on LinkedIn than completing the profile template after signing up. A profile with only a name and current employer gives the wrong impression. Did this person ask their teenage son to sign them up on the site? Does this person really value their networking relationships? Could they be hiding something?
Here are some quick tips for completing a profile that will get you noticed:
- Enter all of your employment history with a brief explanation of your responsibilities and accomplishments at each employer. Be detailed in areas you want people to notice.
- Make each word count. All words are keyword searchable using LinkedIn’s search page.
- Add your education details to make it easier for you to connect to your school’s alumni. This is great for job searching and finding old friends.
- Leverage the tool to promote your business. If your business has a website, you should add your URL to your profile. That way, someone who looks at your profile can quickly navigate straight to your business and you’ll get more page views.
- Select to make your LinkedIn profile public and it can be found with a Google Search. The more information it has, the higher it will appear when someone “Googles” you.

2) Critical mass is 20
People with more than twenty connections are thirty-four times more likely to be approached with a job opportunity than people with less than five.

This handy statistic from LinkedIn is the number one reason that people either leverage the power of LinkedIn or give up after logging in a few times. Getting started can be slow and you might start wondering what all the fuss is about. Make it a goal to link to at least 20 people you know and watch your network grow quickly from there. If you have a service or area of expertise that interests people, you’ll soon have people requesting to connect.

3) What’s your networking objective?
After reaching 20 connections you’ll quickly see the power of the network – this is exciting for some and scary for others. If you’re like me, your reasons for networking can vary week to week. Sometimes I’m looking to meet new people in a field of interest and I leverage my existing network to seek new people I’ve never met. Other times I’d rather lean on old friends and colleagues (my first degree connections on LinkedIn) to accomplish my networking objectives. The good news is neither approach is better than the other. In fact, most people use both approaches on LinkedIn.

For example, you can connect with only the people you know best, but unless you have a very diverse group of close friends that vary widely by age, field of expertise, and geographic location, it will be hard to get access to a broader network. On the other hand, if you connect with the Gen Y new hire down the hall that you just met, you now have access to a whole new group of people on LinkedIn that you wouldn’t normally run into at a cocktail party. Try responding to that person requesting to connect from Europe that you may not know very well. Why? Because you would then be able to view not only their primary connections, but more importantly, you’ll have access to search three degrees of their connections (which could be tens of thousands of people), vastly diversifying your searchable LinkedIn network. The more connections you add, the more people you can search for, and the more likely you will find that one person who can help you achieve your networking goals, whatever they may be. This comes in really handy when you’re looking for a business partner, new job, or referral.

Give LinkedIn a try. With a small initial time investment, you’ll quickly grasp the power of this unique networking tool.

Social Networking in Plain English
Here is an excellent video explaining Online Social Networking for those that may just be discovering it or wonder what all the hullabaloo is about.