Lo and Behold, LinkedIn added a section where others could identify your skills; little gifts from above dropped onto your LinkedIn profile.   One should really be grateful, n’est pas?  But……. I noticed that I was being given credit for skills I would never have given myself credit for.   Here comes the double-edged sword!!!

One very sharp side of the sword says never give yourself a skill you can’t defend in an interview, giving real life examples in the behavioral interview format.  If that is truly the case, about 2/3 of my skills should be deleted.   And yet…..

Perception is reality.   If others think I have these skills, then perhaps I do.  Or I could fake them until I learned them.  In the words of my darling Diana Vreeland, “Fake it until you make it”!!!!

Then skill envy took over; here’s one example.   I started out a networking queen, and added on a social layer in the last couple of years, until social networking is something I eagerly lay claim to.   And yet no one endorsed me for social networking.  What to do, what to do???

I decided to take the bull by the horns; I emailed 5 friends that I was bemused by LinkedIn’s skill system.  Would they be willing to endorse me for the following 5 skills that I truly believe I have, but that others have not yet selected for me?

So far that’s working.   Oh, and I did ask what skills they had that they wish someone (moi!) would credit them with.    So.   All better now.

What do YOU think?   Was I proactive?  Or did I game the system?

Kay Roseland       @KayLoire

Shareology notes we are thisclose to April and several of her favorite events, including #minnebar, #wordcampmsp and #Inforum2013.  So of course, you are polishing your Before, During and After tweets, n’est pas?

What are Before, During and After tweets?  Shareology is more than happy to….share…her recipe for event success.

Before Tweets take place BEFORE the event.  With only 13 days left until minnebar, now is the perfect time to be looking at #minnebar on Twitter.  Those in the Twin Cities who are leading a session are already tweeting the topics they’ll present.  Other first-timers are tweeting to introduce themselves to the group and start conversations before heading to Best Buy HQ on April 6.  Before Tweets help you meet people who you can meet IRL in just 13 days.  One of the most fun Before Tweets for me resulting in meeting a great PR guru dude in the making at Alphabet Bash.   It’s been great fun ever since to meet him for coffee and follow his career through Padilla and Target!

During Tweets are tweeted during the event.  RTs or retweets are super cool, too.  Try to pick those tweets that are insightful or funny; retweeting everything is spammy behavior.   One of the best tweets (Was it mine?  Was it another woman’s?) was at #minnebar, marveling that it is one of the few events in the world where the line is at the Men’s bathroom.   Yay for fewer women nerds and no lines!!!

After Tweets allow you to follow-up with the people you met at the event, or even better, to follow-up with those you missed and want to get to know. Very powerful!!

So if you think events are using twitter only during the event, expand your horizons and add in Before and After Tweets to your mix!!! You’ll enhance your appreciation of the event and your relationships, both old and new.  Now if you’ll excuse Shareology, she has some Before Tweets to publish before #minnebar!!!

Kay Roseland @KayLoire

One more from the streets of St. Paul!

Ahhhh…..Shareology can feel the warmth of Spring returning already!!!

Kay Roseland   @KayLoire

Great Networkers ensure that they are using their time effectively; gistr helps you plan your networking week and month.  You can also follow them at @GistrMN

Let the networking begin!!

Kay Roseland   @KayLoire

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 12,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 20 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

whatdya mean it’s the off-season???

Best eight graduate credits EVER!!!

The theatre is still there, the snack shop is still there, the dining room is still there…and the creek still runs through it.  At least three from my season hit Broadway and one ex-BHPer still memorizes vast amounts of dialogue for audiences in New Hampshire; lucky NH!!!

Another day found Shareology wishing for views of vast herds of tatanka….and she found them:

ever been to Faulk County???

There was also deer, wild turkeys, and a big horned sheep named Curley…..

Paha Sapa lives….

• Pahá Sápa in Lakota is The Black Hills
• Tatanka is a Lakota word that literally means “bull buffalo”

Kay Roseland  @KayLoire

The store features a marvelous selection of 50′s and 60′s decor; Shareology’s eye was drawn to the wonders of teal:

Can’t find the teal in the above?  Well, there are other looks:

Couldn’t resist one last Teal Triumph!

Follow them on Facebook or on Twitter at @MidModMen.

2401 University Avenue West
St. Paul, MN 55114-1507
- From I-94 take the Hwy. 280 exit North
- Quick exit at University Avenue heading East
- Store is on North side of street
- 1/2 block West of Raymond Avenue
- Street parking on Raymond Avenue

Every Saturday | 11 AM – 5 PM beginning October 20
Plus, special 3-day sales in November and December

Kay Roseland @KayLoire

In the next few weeks are:

• Minnesota Blogging Conference       September 22       #MNBlogCon
• WordUpMpls  (WordPress)                October 13            #WordUpMpls
• Product Camp Minnesota                 October 20            #PCampMN

And don’t even get me started on the glories of the UnSummit and MinneBar!!!!!

MNBlogCon is sold out, but you can still grab tickets to Product Camp at:

http://mnproductcamp4.eventbrite.com/

S0:   Get out there and learn, Twin Cities!!! (Ya might enjoy the superb networking too!)

Kay Roseland    @KayLoire

Turns out the pics were just too much fun not to share!!

Find out more at:  www.preserveminneapolis.org

Kay Roseland  @KayLoire

Here’s what the tour organizer had to say about this year’s tour of mansions on lower Park Avenue in Minneapolis:

“Originally designed to be a stylish promenade of large urban estates offering oversized lots, wide boulevards, and generous setbacks, at the turn of the last century Park Avenue was ranked as one of Minneapolis’s most prestigious residential streets. The city’s business and social elite—many of whom were magnates in the then booming lumber and flour milling industries—commissioned top architects to design 35 of the city’s most opulent mansions along the 10-block “Golden Mile” between 18th and 28th Streets. By the end of the 1960s, “urban renewal,” in the form of demolition, had claimed 27 of them. Experience the remaining eight mansions up close—including some interiors—and discover those that have been lost through historic photographs and information about their famous first occupants.”

The sad thing is that only eight of these jewels are left.  However, we did tour the outside of the eight ghosts, and actually got inside two of the remaining eight.  We’re of to have fun!!

First, let’s introduce our guides, themselves residents of Park Avenue:   Ryan Knoke and Montana Scheff

Did I mention 500 people signed up for this tour, and that it was sold out?? The first house we toured the inside of was the Anson Brooks home at 2445 Park Avenue.  Shareology was too dazzled to take photos of the inside; however the outside is — Venetian Gothic!!!

The tour concentrated on houses between 23rd and 26th Streets on Park Avenue in Minnneapolis.  Average square footage in those days on the Avenue?  30,000!!!

Our last inside tour was of the former Cowles mansion:

For Park Avenue Part One, 2010, From Queen Anne to Classical Revivals:  Park Avenue    click here

For more wonderful tours of Minneapolis, see www.preserveminneapolis.org

Kay Roseland    @KayLoire