LearnHub

Well, this point is mentioned in the 30 tips on meeting etiquette. However, thanks for adding it, JohnPhilip.

Thank you very much for your support and praising words, Kathy. I highly appreciate it.

There are many social networking websites out there now, but how many of them make you really -> say: WOW! -> feel: WOW!—> look: WOW! ? Learnhub I would say is already doing a great job, involving members as much as possible and allocating authority points so that it could also be used as a good personal PR tool. I would say, the key to success in this case is “empowerment”. The more community leaders are allowed to do on their community, the better and the more outstanding the whole network would be. The more tools are at disposal, the better, so that the use of other websites can be made superfluous, e.g. for online teaching, selling your educational material etc. Well, since I’m running three communities I see it a bit more from the community leader’s perspective, rather than from the occasional user. However, there should be some useful tips.

Further ideas, to the ones I already submitted earlier are:

• Sales video for Community Leaders: Community leaders should have the opportunity to upload a Video CV or a sales pitch in which they let other users know what services they can provide for them. Something like “I’m offering ….”—> career advice, IT consultancy etc. could be set up.

• The Expert Corner: What about giving members the possibility to find an expert for their particular need. For example: Let’s assume I would like to create an interactive Etiquette Game and know that on Learnhub there are lots of IT people, but don’t necessarily know who the right person is to ask in the first place, without wasting a lot of time. Learnhub could set up something like “I’m looking for ….” -> a freelancing Game Developer who can create and design an interactive Etiquette Game for a certain budget. If there is nobody who could do this job then maybe someone could at least refer you to someone he knows.

• Live courses/lectures: Live courses/lectures should be offered, so that community leaders wouldn’t look anywhere else, such as wiziq.com, etc.

• The Birthday email: When you sign up (I don’t remember if it was just as a normal user or if you need to be a community leader) then Learnhub asks you to enter your date of birth. Well, this might be for statistical reasons I guess. But since this personal data is already shared when registering why not using it also as a tool to surprise their members and wishing them “Happy Birthday” via email or even showing it on the website? For example “Today’s birthdays …..” Well, I would understand if not everyone would want to share this information, but it could be offered as an option. Members might feel a bit special and I could imagine that it might also lead to some funny (astrological) communication among members.

• The Praise Book: Each community should have a feature called e.g. “Praise book or Happy Fans” with positive comments and feedbacks that can be posted by all members. This I think would be really invaluable for each leader. Well, similar to the idea of having testimonials…..

• Members Rank List: I would be interested in seeing a Rank List in which you can see at what position your own community is compared to other communities regardless of the category, this regarding the number of members you have. This exists in terms of different sectors on the main page I’ve noticed, but I would like to see it by looking at all communities. It could be motivating for community leaders to look for further members and achieving a better position.

• Blog: What about providing the possibility to publish also your blog on Learnhub, so that you don’t have to set up one on wordpress, blogspot, etc.?

• People with similar interests: You might find randomly people who have similar interests to you, but what about providing a field in which you can enter your interests and it would show up which other people have similar interests (similar like on blogspot.com)? It could help to gain more like-minded members easier.

• “The advanced” Marketplace: Not just courses and tutorials should be offered in the marketplace, but also the possibility to sell eBooks, dissertations, eLearning Courses, interactive CD-Roms, etc. as long as it is educational and there is a link to the topic of the community.

• Instant notification via mobile phone: What about providing the possibility to get instant notifications about what is going on in your communities via mobile phone with an sms? Currently I have to wait until evening to know what was going on in my communities during the day, therefore it would be great if I would get instant notifications via sms, without having to switch on my computer earlier.

• Tell a friend button: A member should have the possibility to forward a lesson, a course, a test, a discussion, a debate, whatsoever to a friend by just clicking on a button at the bottom of each single page. This would definitely help spreading the word even more! Sometimes you might know people who would be interested in something you just found on Learnhub…..

• For Learnhub management team: An official “WOW Blog” could also be offered on the main page in which every member has the possibility to leave positive comments on experiences made on Learnhub. These comments could later be used as testimonials for corporate PR material, obviously with their permission only .

Maybe you can extend your own ideas based on the ideas I mentioned or you come up with some additional completely new ones….. It would be great if you would share them. Thanks.

Well, getting comments like these are truly motivating and inspiring …. Thanks again, Krista.

Great experience, Adam! I think we can learn a lot from these “human experiences”. By the way, thanks for joining so quickly my new community. WOW!!!

My husband would fuuuullllllllyyyyy agree with you!

What a nice experience, Krista. Thanks for sharing it in this discussion forum.

I always appreciate your positive feedbacks, Krista. Thanks again.

Interesting opinion. Well, I’ve heard about this fact of Bollywood copying ideas from other movies. Apne, for example, reminded me strongly of “Rocky Balboa”. However, I would not really call it copying but being a bit inspired by other movies. However, I think Bollywood should deserve a “Boscar” (Bollywood Oscar, how I would call it….)

Well, different countries, different customs :-)

Having some kind of (at least basic) understanding in Finance/Accountancy (rather than maths) would definitely be essential in my opinion, but you don’t need to be an expert in it. If your strength as a businessperson lies, for example, in Marketing, then you just need to hire the right person who can do the Finance/Accounancy part for you.

Let me give you some ideas:

1.) Think about a topic you feel particularly interested in, passionate about. That helps you to stay motivated throughout the process of writing your dissertation. Nobody would have to motivate you in a particular way, because you are so excited about it that you just love doing it :-) When you decided to write your dissertation in marketing you must have had some kind of idea what you would be particularly interested in this topic….. Considering that marketing changed so much in recent years it’s difficult not to think of marketing online….

2.) To get in touch with various topics I would suggest you should: read current newspapers (articles), have a look in marketing discussion forums and see what people talk about nowadays, read marketer’s blogs, listen to marketing podcasts (audio or/and video), talk to people working in the marketing sector, discuss with marketing student fellows, visit your library and have a look at various books and see what resources are already out there. Try also to find past dissertations that other students wrote on this particular subject of marketing.

3.) Remember, you might have a great topic but if there are no resources, no literature available it might be very difficult and might demotivate you initially. So, once you decided on a topic, make sure you have sufficient literature resources, otherwise you are just wasting your time and you might have to work very hard to get your facts first hand.

4.) Look for a niche. Be it either in terms of a target group (e.g. buying behaviour of women, senior people etc.), geographical area (online marketing in Asia), particular sector (e.g. online marketing in the real estate industry) or whatsoever. By the way, have you ever thought – being Indian – of doing some research on Bollywood Marketing Strategies abroad?????

5.) Now, my Top Tip!!!! Think of your future job, the one you would like to have after completing your MBA….... What do you think could benefit your prospective employer by reading your dissertation? So, don’t just think in terms of writing about a nice topic, but try to find a topic which might add value to your job search later on, too. I wrote my disseration in 2004 “Recommendation marketing: The creation of a word-of-mouth marketing strategy” because I was so curious to see what companies come up with in order to get people talking about their business. It helped me to increase my creativity skills, and also to differentiate myself in a job interview when I was applying for a Business Lecturer Job, since I was able to provide examples how they can increase the number of students for their college. Therefore, if you apply for a job don’t forget to mention the title of your dissertation, if you think that there is definitely a relation between your research paper and the job/company you are applying to.

Hope it helps you a bit further.

I’m so pleased to hear that you find it so useful. I would like to remind you that as I announced earlier I would create by July the new, more structured version “114 tips for an effective presentation”. It is divided into 3 parts (what to do before, during and after the presentation) whereby part 1 and 2 have further sub-sections.

Then it seems that you might be one of the few lucky ones :-) All the best for the future to both of you. I discovered your website some time ago from twitter and was quite impressed I must say….

Well, if you really hate ties then there is already someone out there who had another solution to this problem. Unfortunately I don’t know who came up with it but I’ve seen it once and loved the idea. A t-shirt which has a tie printed on it. Well, only if you approach the person very very closely you actually realise that the person is just wearing a t-shirt and not a t-shirt and a tie.

Thanks, a helpful word. I consider it a compliment too …. :-)

Interesting point, Randy, which I think is absolutely valid when it comes to discrimination. But in terms of pictures attached to resumes there are several European countries in which it is absolutely normal that candidates send a picture, sometimes it is even required/expected (e.g. flight attendant). There is a German website in which people can give feedback on their CV picture in order to make sure that it is appropriate.

Well, I would say that the lessons that I’m going to describe are not all lessons that “I” learnt, I always try to keep it generally for everyone. That I will never call my child “idiot” or that I would ever miss a performance of my child would never happen. That’s not something “I” had to learn, I just want to keep the lessons in general for everyone. And yes, you are right, KANK was – from the learning point – extremely good, even if apparently there were a lot of critics. And I’m sure that also in Om Shanti Om and Jab We Met there would be something to learn, as usual.

I can’t open the “contacts” link. I guess someone might have invited me to become a contact but unfortunately it always shows up that I caught a bug. Yesterday and today again. So I hope it can soon be fixed.

Interesting…. My 9 1/2 month year old baby requires since birth on average 8 diapers a day… so x 365 days would be almost 3000 diapers a year.