Safety Consulting Corner

More on LinkedIn

If you have been using LinkedIn awhile, you might know many of the things it is good for but just in case, here are a few more ideas for you to consider. Click here to read a LinkedIn blog posting about ten of the ways you can use this social networking site.

You Can't Get Much Easier Than This

If you are like me, you are probably used to paying someone to create websites for you and depending on what you are looking for, you will be paying anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of dollars. Freewebs is a website that does exactly what it's name says - provides free websites - with the added benefit of being really easy for regular people who aren't web designers. If it sounds too good to be true, you really need to check it out for yourself. Visit FreeWebs at www.freewebs.com and try it for yourself.

Lock In Your LinkedIn Contacts

I love LinkedIn. I use it all the time and I encourage other safety consultants to use it too. I have over 300 contacts in my LinkedIn account whom I actually know. LinkedIn gives you a great way to stay in touch with people regardless of how many times they change jobs or move houses. While I have written about LinkedIn before (click here) I want to talk about the security of those contacts that you have worked so hard to get but first I'd like to tell you about a personal experience. When you are on LinkedIn, you might see a link that encourages you to invite everyone in your AOL or Gmail or other address book to link to you on LinkedIn. I did this one time and while it did help me to reconnect with many old friends and acquaintances, it also got me temporarily locked out of LinkedIn all together. Why did this happen? Because a significant number of the people that received this invitation from me via LinkedIn's own program, responded that they didn't know me. If enough people report this (I think the threshold is 5) then LinkedIn locks you out. What I didn't realize was that LinkedIn sends the invite email to everyone in your address book and that may include everyone that you ever sent an email to or received one from and I will be the first to tell you that I don't know all of these people. While the batch invitation option that LinkedIn encourages is tempting, it can also be dangerous. I would suggest to most people that they stick with building their LinkedIn contact list one by one. On the other hand, if you are like me and are afraid of getting locked out again (I still have 200+ invitations outstanding) then I would suggest that you export your LinkedIn contacts to a secondary contact manager. I just discovered an easy way to do this. (Click Here).
Although this will not solve all of my problems if it happens again, I have a little more comfort knowing that I do have most of my LinkedIn contact information somewhere else.

PS - If you want to link to me, click below.

Cha Ching

http://www.e-junkie.com/

If you have been looking for a super easy way to sell your products online, you will want to check out E-Junkie. Although I am not crazy about the name, I tried E-Junkie and love it. It was extremely easy to set up and within minutes I had uploaded a test product and had it ready to sell online with automatic delivery. There is a free 14 day fully functional trial but after that, you can use the site for only $5 a month. Awesome!

DimDim

Seriously cool - that's about all I can say about this online web meeting application that my friend Bharat told me about this morning. I recently wrote about Twiddla, an online (free) whiteboarding site. DimDim can do what Twiddla can do and so much more. I signed up for a free account and was immediately able to start hosting meetings and sharing PowerPoint slides. Sign up is easy and fast. Visit http://www.dimdim.com.

Still Confused About LinkedIn?

Many people still don't understand social networking. One of the best social networking tools for consultants is LinkedIn. If you are just getting started with it or want to see what it can do for you, check out the following YouTube video. I think you'll like it!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IzT3JVUGUzM

Twiddla

If you have ever sat in on or conducted a webinar and were able to use an on screen whiteboard for others on the call to see, you will be impressed with a new program called Twiddla. Twiddla is free (always good) and lets you invite others to "whiteboard" with you. For consultants, free is nice but Twiddla is something you would want to check out even if you had to pay for it. For example, you could bring up a photo of a work area and invite others such as your clients to mark it up with you. For example, where there are hazards are other concerns could easily be highlighted. You could use the whiteboard to lead a brainstorming session where everyone could easily participate. I have just started playing around with Twiddla myself but it looks like it will be very useful. Check it out at www.twiddla.com

Web 2.0

If you have been reading this blog for awhile you know that I often write about Web 2.0 applications, mostly because I think they are pretty cool but also because many of them can be a great help to safety consultants. An article I wrote recently on Web 2.0 is now online. If you would like to read it, click here

I hope you enjoy it!

Welcome ASSE friends

Hi there! If you are visiting this blog for the first time because you heard of it at the ASSE Consultants Practice Specialty Technology Roundtable - WELCOME! You will see that there are close to 100 posts here on everything from book recommendations to website reviews. Most posts are tagged so if you are looking for something particular (like web/technology issues) then just click on that category (they are listed under the Categories section on the left). Also, please don't hesitate to add your comments in the comment section, especially if you have a great recommendation to share. I'll be looking forward to reading your postings!

A new SafetyFUNdamentals Forum

View my page on SafetyFUNdamentals Forum

Since I spend so much of my consulting time providing training, or telling other safety trainers how to use games and activities in safety training, I have set up a social networking group for people who have attended my SafetyFUNdamentals sessions or who have received the free eBook, "Seven Keys to Using Games and Activities in Safety Training" or who have purchased my book, "SafetyFUNdamentals: 77 Games and Activities to Make Training Great!"  If you would like to brainstorm, share ideas and learn from your peers, please consider joining us in the SafetyFUNdamentals Forum.  Hope to see you there!