Well kids, we made it through another Lotusphere, haven't we? Every year leading up to Lotusphere, I come up with my yearly guide to get us all ready and revved up for another week of drinking from the fire hose of knowledge. This year, I'm going to start a new tradition. The what to do after Lotusphere. At least my opinion.
First things first. GET HOME SAFE.
Get home. Kiss your spouse or significant other. Kiss your kids. Kiss your pet. Unless it's a goldfish, kind of gross. Unpack. Hand out all the gifts that you got them at Lotusphere. Put all the stinky clothes in the wash. Soak your feet, you know you need to. Take a nap. You've earned it.
With that done, what are we to do? Simple.
Get Social. Do Business.
Sound familiar, doesn't it? Well, settle in because here's my take on it.
Get Social:
I know IBM's take on Get Social is aimed at business implementing social networking tools both internally and externally within their environments and I agree with that. But for you, dear Lotusphere attendee and even those at home that couldn't make the pilgrimage, take that one to heart. If you haven't yet already noticed, the Lotus community is social. Very social. And I'm not just talking about everyone hanging out in a bar. I'm talking about the social networking aspect of the Lotus community in general. So many people that I know of at Lotusphere have some form of social networking presence. Join us! Friend request people on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. Join BleedYellow or Greenhouse. It's easy. Just do it. Here's something easy to find. On Twitter, search Lotusphere or #ls11. You will find LOTS of people with the #ls11 hashtag. Now start looking through their tweets. If you see things you like, follow them. Then see if they have a Facebook account. Follow them on there, too. See if they are on PlanetLotus.org. Well, just follow PlanetLotus.org. Start your own blog. Submit it to PlanetLotus.org to be picked up. You don't need a domain name. Get a Wordpress or Blogger account. They are FREE.
With that done, what are we to do? Simple.
Get Social. Do Business.
Sound familiar, doesn't it? Well, settle in because here's my take on it.
Get Social:
I know IBM's take on Get Social is aimed at business implementing social networking tools both internally and externally within their environments and I agree with that. But for you, dear Lotusphere attendee and even those at home that couldn't make the pilgrimage, take that one to heart. If you haven't yet already noticed, the Lotus community is social. Very social. And I'm not just talking about everyone hanging out in a bar. I'm talking about the social networking aspect of the Lotus community in general. So many people that I know of at Lotusphere have some form of social networking presence. Join us! Friend request people on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. Join BleedYellow or Greenhouse. It's easy. Just do it. Here's something easy to find. On Twitter, search Lotusphere or #ls11. You will find LOTS of people with the #ls11 hashtag. Now start looking through their tweets. If you see things you like, follow them. Then see if they have a Facebook account. Follow them on there, too. See if they are on PlanetLotus.org. Well, just follow PlanetLotus.org. Start your own blog. Submit it to PlanetLotus.org to be picked up. You don't need a domain name. Get a Wordpress or Blogger account. They are FREE.
On a personal note, I've had a few people that came up to me at Lotusphere and introduce themselves to me saying they recognized me from my blog. One even thanked me for blogging. Wow. That was pretty cool. I mean, I'm just a Domino Administrator that works for a company in Northeast Ohio. Sure, I have a passion for the Lotus product line and I love what I do with it. I like being able to have a forum like this so I can put my thoughts and feelings down on electronic paper. It's both therapeutic and good as a place to remember things for future use. But what I want most out of my blog is to share what I've learned both through mistake and discovery. I've got nothing to gain from it. I HATE public speaking, actually fear it, so I use this as my way to share and educate. I just hope that it makes sense. But by getting social and interacting with people, a strange thing occurs. You make friends. You build a network. Isn't that what Getting Social is? There has been several times that I've had a problem with something in Lotus, I tweeted a question and got an answer back in a couple of minutes. It's worth it. So as an effort to get ready for next years Lotusphere, sand a way that can help you in your daily work, start getting social!
Do Business:
Ok. This one way require work. If you've read my blog at all this past week, you know that there was a couple of things that I felt IBM could have done better. You know what I'm talking about. Marketing....branding. Okay, I didn't get everything that I had hoped for this year. So, while I don't agree with it fully, we need to Do Business. The business of getting the word back to those above us that need to hear what's going on with IBM and the Lotus product lines and how we could possibly integrate more of it in our environments. Without going into detail, I know that's a huge task in front of me when I return to the office next week. But we also need to engage IBM and our local reps to help us do the business of spreading the word. The "other guys" do a great job of getting the word to those above us. Hopefully the new ad campaigns that are coming out will help fight that. But, and I'm not 100% on board with it myself, WE need to fight the good fight and spread the word. Share links of the streaming videos that are online from the OGS and other sessions. I so very much want my overlords at the office to see the Mike Rhodin general session from Tuesday on social networking in the enterprise. It was such a good session and the message was straight forward. So while it's not as fun getting social with your peers in the Lotus world, it's something you have to do.
So there you have it. Surviving the post-Lotusphere world. For now, it's past my bedtime and my eyes are growing weary. It's been another great year. So much brain dumping I need to do.
So, goodnight Lotusphere. I hope that I have the chance to come back on January 14, 2012 for my 10th Lotusphere.
Oh, and one more thing. Nerd Girls rule. 'Nuff said.
1 comment:
Thanks for your update.
I'm interested in learning more about being "Social" at work even if my company goes with another vendor. Do you know if any of this past weeks content, like the Mike Rhodin's video, will be available?
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