1/4/2010
If you are my age or a little older you may remember a series of TV commercials that used the tag line "You can pay me now or you can pay me later." I think the ads were for an oil filter for your car. The message in the ads was that you can spend a little money on a new oil filter now or spend a lot of money on new engine later. Must be a lot of people were deciding to forego oil filters. Funny how things stick in your mind even after all these years.
Why, may you ask, am I mentioning an ancient TV ad? First of all, because I am ancient. Second, and more importantly, because it seems applicable to something I ran across over the New Year Holiday. You see, I had 4 days at home with my wife and teenage kids. After about three days of me at home my wife and kids had clearly had enough "dad time" to last them the rest of 2010. So, taking the hint, I retreated to a corner with my computer. Being the modern computer-age guy that I am, I have joined several social networking sites over the last year like Facebook (to keep an eye on my kids), LinkedIn (as a business tool) and Twitter (because I like to say I "tweet"), and I thought I would spend some time looking them over. The one that really drew my attention was LinkedIn, probably because it is the one that I have spent the least time on. So, on LinkedIn, in addition to connecting with business contacts, you can join "Groups". LinkedIn has a lot of great groups that I bet are very valuable resources. As a matter of fact, I am a member of several of these groups, like one called MSU Alumni Association. These things are great—lots of great discussions with lots of great ideas. There is also a bunch of stuff for our HR friends. Again many great groups, some of which I belong to, with many great discussions about benchmarking and best practices and lots of other HR buzz words. What could be better? Answers a few key strokes away. Ask a question and get access to not one answer, but lots of answers. How great is that?!
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