We Are Orange County! But Sven Started It.

The first is about a guy named Sven who lives in Orange County, Ca and started a new Linkedin group. Its purpose? To get our county recognized by Linkedin as a separate place from “The Greater Los Angeles Area”.  And while this effort is not quite as emotionally charged as the city of Anaheim’s fight with the Angels baseball team, it means something. To those of us here in California.

To join Sven’s Linkedin group and, by default, the cause click here.  He’s up to 1,350 members in just a few weeks.  Also, if you know any big shots at Linkedin, tell them about Sven’s effort.

Now, the second topic relates back to a blog post I wrote in December 2008. Quick Tip – Looking For Work? Become A “Must Have” Connection discussed the value of, well, creating value.

As a job seeker, it is sometimes hard to stand out.  So the advice was to find a way to add value to your network.  The article provides a few suggestions, but I’d like to let Sven’s effort stand as the example for today.

Although Sven is no longer looking for work (he arrived at his new job a few weeks back), he has now become “someone to meet” at local networking events.  He took action (a small risk) and took some of his valuable time to create something new.  Who knew how people would react?

As a result, there are 1,350 people in Orange County, CA who will arrive at local meet-ups and networking events thinking . . .

And that is a powerful way to build a network – for the long term.

How will YOU do it?