Periscope

So do you use Periscope? I discovered periscope and live streaming soon after periscope was launced and was introduced by my son, Tristan, who is also my business partner in Allthingsnetworking.com I love the new platform and can see the benefits of using this for business.

In September, Tristan, who lives in Sydney, joined me on an exhibition stand at the Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce business expo . Whilst there, he connected again with one of his college tutors (having trained as a chef at the Isle of Wight college years earlier) At the time, he suggested that the College should embrace live streaming.

Today, I had been in Newport for the Bus Users meeting and was just leaving when I got a notification on my phone showing me the College had gone live on periscope . Now being the proud owner of an “all you can eat data” plan – I was able to jump straight on the broadcast . I was delighted to connect with the same tutor who was actually cooking – long story short – there was a college open day and free lunch was being given . Now who says there is no such thing as a free lunch? I saw it as a golden opportunity to go and periscope the event which you can see here below

 

I was delighted to meet Aaron – the social media manager for the college and had quite a long chat with him and he was delighted when I shared with  him that he could save the periscopes via katch.me . I now looking forward to catching all their scopes either live or on replay. If I can embrace periscope at the ripe old age of 65 then I am sure anyone can. I’m now teaching our Allthingsnetworking members as I see it as such an awesome platform that increases engagement and grows an audience very quickly.  I’m loving the new platforms and apparently I’m crushing it – so I have been told.

Out with the old and in with the new

Out with the old and in with the new

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As I saw out 2015 with friends and welcomed in 2016, I reflected on what had been quite a difficult year. I left my church, I also left a voluntary group where I helped to feed the hungry and the homeless and I left my Rotary group. These were not things I had intended to do at the beginning of the year but sadly there are those who thought it wise to try and bully me. Having spent 30 years of my life as a teacher during which time I worked very hard to discourage all bullying, there was no way I was going to succumb to adults  who should have known better – long story short – I removed myself and took my skills with me. In my church I had been holding 6 posts (not something I wanted but posts were not being filled) including social media manager. One of those organisations had others who managed the social media, but the other two didn’t and as noone came forward – those facebook pages and twitter streams now lie dormant.

 

These situations occurred during the early part of the year and as they weren’t among my happiest memories, I will not continue further discussion as it will serve no purpose. The only reason I mention them were they happened during 2015. It is so good to see them go – out with the old and in with the new.

 

On a much happier note, my son Tristan and I have continued to build our business Allthingsnetworking.com For those who don’t know, for 5 years I ran Wightbuzz – a networking and business support group and in 2014 my son. Tristan suggested we put our skills together and create a global network group – Allthingsnetworking.com

 

 

As with all businesses it hasn’t been without it’s challenges however, we ran a very successful conference in the UK in September when Tristan flew over to join me.

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We had some glowing testimonials and have been asked to run another one. We continued to build the group both on and offline.

 

I am pleased to say we enter the new year, I am delighted to say we have a string of  new clients wanting to join us . I am having great fun learning all the new social media platforms – periscope, blab and now snapchat and my son amuses himself watching me – at the ripe old age of 65, teaching 20 and 30 years olds all the latest platforms. I love teaching others – it is in my blood! I used to teach little people now I am a business mentor and digital strategist teaching the bigger people. I look forward to 2016 with great excitement as my son and I plan for an awesome year helping our clients to grow their businesses. At a time when most people think of retiring – I can’t wait. – I am very much looking forward to out with the old and in with the new . Times they really are achanging – and very much for the better.

 

 

This is post 1 of the thirty day blogging challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

Can you afford not to?

30 day blog challenge post 3. Can you afford not to?

I have run a low cost networking group Wightbuzz for businesses on the Isle of Wight for 4 years.

SAMSUNG Now in its fifth year, I have linked with my son and his graduate friends to add to the local brand. We have created Allthingsnetworking.com to take our brand to a global level. As we start expanding, I have been reflecting on the past. I have been very mindful of making sure my group was affordable. Some people pay a years money up front without batting an eyelid. Others haven’t joined because they say they can’t afford it. I find this very interesting. Many of those who say they can’t afford it will happily  have coffee in local coffee shops that are part of national chains

 

Frog and snake in CostaThey think nothing of paying £3 per cup and some of them will do this several times a week – I know I have seen them (social media reveals much) I wonder why then, do they not see the value of business mentoring, networking sessions, one to ones, social media training, ferry discounts, loan of business books, plus much more as excellent value at £12.50 per month? The equivalent of just over 4 coffees a month.  It is clearly down to mindset. If they are running a business what about a marketing budget? I’m hard pushed to think of any other marketing they could get for this price (and they get me too!!) It is all about return on investment. Surely, if they gave it careful thought, they would realise that if they invested in putting in time to interact with members either in our online group or in person at meetings, took advantage of the business book loan system, or the ferry discounts etc. they couldn’t fail to benefit their business. I think I will add to my video trainings with a video about mindset.

I have to admit that recently, I was almost guilty of this (as I was in my early business days) There was a black tie, business to business event, recently with quite a high ticket price. I decided I couldn’t afford to go but after a little more careful thought, I realised I couldn’t afford NOT to go. I run a business networking group! All the attendees were connected to/ran local businesses – sheer madness not to be there. One of my members was also on the short list for an award so it was important to offer support. That was it, my mind was made up. I purchased my ticket (after a slight panic when the system told me no tickets left!! – I emailed to go on the reserve list and was rung next day – system was not correct  –  phewie!!)

I am so glad I went. My son, who works with me now (albeit from the other side of the world) asked me to trial an app which would actually put our skills in front of the attendees via the displayed twitter feed . We dominated the feed all night and it was noticed.  Result!

Suffice it to say, I am now in follow up conversations with several people who I met that night. There is much interest in Wightbuzz and our social media skills. The results will generate far more than the ticket price. I’ll make sure they do. So what do you think? Can you afford not to?

Blog Post #4 It’s party night as we celebrate Wightbuzz’s 4th birthday

Blog Post #4 It’s party night as we celebrate Wightbuzz’s 4th birthdayHappy Birthday

I can’t believe we have already reached our 4th Wightbuzz birthday and what a way to celebrate – with the launch of our global brand Allthinksnetworking . It is a very exciting time for us and so I take a few minutes to reflect on why I started Wightbuzz and how it is making my dreams come true. – So a quick flashback in history to bring you up to speed.

I am a teacher by profession and spent 30 years nuturing little people and then slightly bigger people and helping them to achieve their potential. My first jobs were in the primary sector in the state system until my first born,  Toby arrived on 24th November 1975. I spent 18 happy months at home being mum. I decided I wanted to work but didnt want to put my son in care so what better than open a nursery school and take him to “work” with me. Perfect! Baby number 2 , Natasha, very obliging arrived on 24th March 1978, (19 days late and very conveniently made it to the Easter holidays and was born on good Friday and mum and baby were back at “work” 2 weeks later – perfect!) baby number 3, Tristan was born on 15th October 1981 (would love him to have been late and arrived on 24th – do you see a pattern here? – and it would have been half term too) but as Natasha was 19 days late and a 10lb plus baby, they were taking no chances. And here they are now taken at a recent family gathering.

my gorgeous three

Well 21 years later, I began to lose the will to live as the council and government were changing my role.Had I wanted to be  secretary – that is the path I would have chosen!!!

I continued in teaching for another 7 years but along the way I had become a book seller by chance so when teaching had lost all of its appeal, I decided that full time book selling was my preferred option. I had a home based business with a children’s book publisher and I had enormous fun travelling the country in my van laden with beautiful books (I could write my own book about that too!) I won awards and had a lot of fun.

Party Plan Shining star awards

I joined a local referral  network group where I became the top referrer connecting people and introducing thousands of pounds worth of business to the group. Eventually I decided to walk away from the book company as they moved the goal posts and I wasn’t prepared to have my business compromised. Therefore I had to leave the networking group as I no longer had a business for which I needed referrals. .I then decided to take the #ecofriendly route and joined #wikaniko. I needed to find a network group so went back to the one I had been in before.  I went to visitors day, then to two trial days before filling out the application form. I got a call -The conversation went like this!  We are NOT accepting your application. Do you mind telling me why? Oh no I can’t tell you why.

Well when you are a networking guru (as the county press called me – ) or a connection queen (as Veronica Pullen so nicely named me ) you tend to have a big network so I used the network to find out why and sure enough it gave me the answers. I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice it to say those who didn’t want me were doing a huge disservice to the group by denying them my skills. However, not to be deterred, I decided the only way was UP!! I opened up my own network group and Wightbuzz was born. Over the years I have helped very many businesses. People have come and gone and many have stayed. Sometimes, like most businesses , the ride was bumpy but we have arrived in a fantastic place as we celebrate birthday number 4.

When I started Wightbuzz, my facebook friends wanted me to bring the networking to the North Isle as we, who live on the Isle of Wight, so lovingly call the mainland. I tried but clearly the time was not right. I continued to network as hard as I could across the Island connecting many people who continue to do business together whether they are still members or not. I had the vision of helping many people. The Island is quite deprived and unemployment is high. I wanted to see more people get into work through Wightbuzz and to help and serve the community too. My perserverance has paid off. I am starting to see some wonderful collborations between members. Members support members in times of crisis and are also there to shout from the hilltop when praise is due. I love my wightbuzz family. They are really doing me proud. When I won my mumpreneur award in 2010,

and the winner is

(when I was in a very dark and long tunnel) I came back to the Island , proudly displayed it on my cabinet and determined to make good for the Island. Tonight I will be celebrating with those who have helped to achieve so much of this. Recently, my son, Tristan, who has also been through a long and very dark tunnel, suggested we join forces. He graduated from Bournemouth University last year and now lives in Sydney. No problem there though as with modern technology we can shrink the world and in fact we talk more now than when he was in Bournemouth. What he and his graduate friends don’t know about social media simply isn’t worth knowing. So together with them and my other son Toby, of Cubic Mushroom we have set up AllthingsNetworking – our global brand. Wightbuzz stays as it is unique to the Island but all my members will also benefit from being members of Allthingsnetworking. ATN will  allow us to go national and global .as we network across the world. We will be able to deliver networking skills and business mentoring and training online. What a journey it has been but I can truly say tonight I will really celebrate as we start that fantastic new journey beyond the Island. I do hope many of you will join us as we start that journey. Pop over and sign up for our newsletter and see what we are doing. We do hope many of you will join us if you like what we are delivering. Yes it has been a bumpy ride and I am sure there might be the odd hiccup but the future is looking very bright. What is this thing called retirement. It certainly isn’t for me. I’m having way too much fun and meeting so many lovely people and now I’m even learning to blog!!!!

Susan and Lyn at the B2B expo

 

 

Social media training – can you keep up?

In the very fast moving world of social media, there is always something new to learn and as I want to keep ahead of the game I follow the experts. This way, I can help my Wightbuzz members keep up to speed with their social media training. One such expert is Jo Barnes of Jo Barnes online and she always has new information to impart. Why not check out her online academy here?

 

you will be glad you did. She will help to guide you through the maze.