Keith Grover, NiS Founder's Blog (179)

In her latest newsmail, NiS Member and Social Media Expert Veronica Pullen has some great tips about the new Facebook hashtags feature (shamelessly copied from Twitter!)

Read the whole article here...

As you’ve likely…

Here's a scary prospect!

Plans are afoot to produce a new reality TV show about glamorous young things who live in Surrey. You could be a star if you can answer these questions in the affirmative...

• Are you young, ambitious, glamorous & popular?
• Do you lead an exciting and fast paced lifestyle?
• Are you a successful career person…

I'm a free Member of Marketing 'Guru' Robert Craven's Director's Centre Business Club (signed up for the 'Lite' Membership). 

It's a great way to get free access to tons of practical, growth-focused …

OK - there's a guy called Darren Shirlaw I saw about three years ago presenting at a Refer-On Networking Jamboree at Mercedes-Benz World (about 200 yards from where I'm sitting typing this now, in fact). It was the early days of the downturn and he was forecasting the progress of the coming economic slump, based on looking back at past recessions and identifying the patterns on financial charts.

Yep, I thought it sounded pretty…

The irresistible rise of LinkedIn continues... although I suspect that around 200 million of those with a LinkedIn profile rarely visit the site!  It has become a major player on the networking scene, and certainly the most important forum for career advancement and headhunters.  

Whether it can move on and realise its plans to become a general purpose business forum, and thus generate massive revenues, is an interesting question - especially as Networking in Surrey is a kind of…

More evidence that Google+ is aiming for the Facebook market?

At the Google I/O conference this week, Senior Vice President of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, announced new photo features for the Google+ social network, which he claims "sets it apart" from other social networking sites .

"Our goals are to make people happy and get technology out of the way," Gundotra told ABC News. "You know what makes people happy? Great photos…

I just received a link to a blog post which I thought you might find interesting about websites and how we use them. What does it say about the NiS website, I wonder? Read the first two tips here, then there's a link to read the rest of the post on the…

Hrees a great article with an illustrative infographic from US web content brand specialist agency Brafton:  (click here to visit their blog to read the whole thing and see the infographic)

Officials from Google and Bing have consistently emphasized their focus on the user experience, with Google’s Amit…

Ivan Misner is the 'Big Daddy' of networking...  As Founder of BNI (Business Networking Institute)  "the world's largest referral organization", he virtually created the concept of business networking as we know it today. Without him, Networking in Surrey wouldn't exist - so I'm always keen to hear his thoughts and wise words on networking.

There's a great article by Ivan in the…

I didn't know that there was a number you can dial in the UK and in many other countries that is often a better bet than good old 999 (especially for mobile phones)? I was sent a link to this video on the MicroNavigation YouTube channel and I checked it out here on Wikipedia because I couldn't understand why I didn't know this stuff already!…

Follow our link to the Surrey Life site (on NiS Home Page) for a 'What's on in Surrey calendar' - just to prove we're not 'all work and no play!'  Coincidentally (?) that's the title of another link box on the Home Page which takes you to some light-hearted YouTube videos if you need a two-minute break from the grindstone...

Here's the What's On…

Don'thca just love good news stories in these often gloomy times (if the press is to be believed!)

Veronica Pullen, long-standing NiS Member and Social Media diva (and all-round good sport:0) has just been voted Small Business Coach of the Year at the Association of Professional Speakers, Trainers and Consultants 2012 Achievement Awards…

Here's an interesting take on the budget by Tony Robinson (no, not Baldrick - the other one!) which I found on the business zone website - see the full article here: BusinessZone Budget What do yo make of it all?

Tony Robinson writes:

I was appalled by the poor behaviour and lack of humility shown by all political parties in the House of Commons during the Budget announcement. They didn't seem to understand the effect…

I'm always glad to hear from local business guru Robert Craven as a free Member of his Directors' Centre Business Club, and here's a timely post from him today. You can check out the whole article here on his website, which explains each point in more detail, but here's the list:

10 Ways To Improve Your…

Just received an email with link to a blog post from Aurelius Tjin (crazy name, crazy guy!) - some really good stuff in amongst this lot, including several of my own favourites...

See the original bog post here

1. The way to get…

 Please CLICK HERE to go to the video)

This week I headed over to Simon Twilley's small studio in Ashford to make a quick video…

A while ago I conducted a Webinar with NiS Members Sian Grinter and Yvonne Roberts, two pretty switched-on Accountants (and all round good eggs!)

It was recorded and the replay is available online here:

http://bit.ly/WVCKz7

There are a couple of 'technical glitches' along…

I'm grateful to Rachel Bennett, one of our newest Members, for taking me up on the offer of some free advice on networking strategy, and posing a question I'm often asked: 

"Which of the many networking groups out there should I attend?"  …

Last year I delivered a few seminars (which several NiS Members attended) on Google Places - the worst-kept free advertising secret in business! That was before it was 'sucked into' the Google+ World and became Google Local. I was delighted to be sent a link to the following article by Dave Llorens in the Fast Company ezine.

It certainly gave me food for thought, as was firmly in the 'failed…

A bit of silly season nonsense which must be true, as it comes from the Daily Mail!

Picturesque: But behind the leafy highways and byways, Surrey is a hotbed of sizzling S&M sensuality. The county has been revealed as the biggest devourer of the erotic Fifty Shades books...

The original book has…