Social Media Girl Power

Something which is fascinating me for quite some time now – there are a heck of a lot of girls kicking ass in the social media space. Just look at the number of female guest writers on www.mashable.com, and you too will be surprised! Is it sexist to be surprised? I hope not, ’cause I know where we girls come from. Working the last 10 years in big Tech Companies like Siemens and EDS, I definately know that there weren’t so many girls around some time ago. Even during my studies, as a commercial engineer – specialised in informatics, the numbers were something like 5 girls and about 35 boys. Good for our sense of popularity in the classroom but it does demonstrate that the recent uprise of female power on the internet and social media sphere has come a long way!

More importantly, we’re being taken seriously and considered as true experts on the issue of social media. Not only by perception, but also backed by numbers – women outnumber men when it comes to sites like Flickr,Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed,MySpace and Bebo (http://mashable.com/2009/10/03/women-rule-the-social-web/) There are a tremendous amount of female bloggers around, talking about the obvious things – friends, family, kids but gradually creating this ‘fun’ blogs to effectively profitable businesses.

With more and more businesses showing real interest in social media, and trying to turn it in an actual ROI – this might just be the perfect timing for all these fanatic cool geeky girls to put your own social media knowledge to good use.

Sincerest apologies

Seen I am a proximus customer, this weekend I was among the lucky ones who got a message on my mobile saying “Onze oprechte excuses voor het mogelijke ongemak dat u donderdagavond heeft ondervonden met ons netwerk. Michel Georgis, gedelegeerd bestuurder.” As you might have noticed, last thursday evening the proximus network experienced some difficulties and the majority of proximus customers lost all connectivity on their mobile network. So at proximus they thought, let’s be customer oriented and send all our clients an sms  in which we express our sincerest appologies.

Mmm, they got me puzzled – is this a good or a bad thing? I am sure they are really sorry for the inconvenience, but it is necessary to send me an SMS about it? Aren’t they inconveniencing me again – cause when my gsm bleeps i expect something nice from family or friends, not Michel Georgis a l’appareil.  Besides, how well would they react when i would call them to say that i am really truely sorry about the inconvenience my non payment might have caused? Not so well, i can tell you – apology or no apology, in that case they would or shut me down or give me a steep reminder cost on my next bill.

So, however well intended the sms was, give your customer some real value to make up for the problems on thursday evening. Cause like my dad always told me, it is too easy to say sorry afterwards  – just make sure it doesn’t happen so you don’t have to say sorry.

Gathering Thoughts

As some of you might have noticed, i took some time off in writing on my blog. Sometimes you need some distance to get some perspective on things. As a young mum i was shocked about what happened in Dendermonde, and even untill this day i get chills down my spine just thinking about it. I’ll spare you my first reactions but they weren’t pretty, more instinctive…. Cause when something so unthinkable happens, your instinct is the first thing that takes over – even if it happened to people who are perfect strangers. 

So much has been written about it, that i won’t add anything further – sometimes words just aren’t enough….

I apologize

Can’t keep on thinking about the situation in the Middle East. At my defense, they make it hard to do so seen there was a manifestation sunday afternoon with about 30.000 people right in front of our appartement – literally. Nothing so impressive as an angry mob passing in front of your door. But as with all manifestations, nothing is as white or black as presented – and in such a manifestation, there is little room for nuances.

Since the beginning of the bombings, i have seen and read a number of newsitems and articles trying to understand what’s really going on over there.  None of them as good as the editorial of the Economist Jan 3th though. It is true, Hamas ended the ceasefire at 19th december, yes Hamas has since then bombed Israelian villages and cities, yes I too would protect the ones I love but… why are we then all so outraged by the war which was started as the result of this?

They outline three reasons, which I can only underline. First of all, beginning a war should be a last resort – when all other means are tried and failed. In this case, there were still things that could have been done before deciding to bomb Gaza in such an aggressive manner. Second, do we really believe this war will have some positive outcome? Very doubtfull. Third of all, is the reaction in proportion of the aggression? I think we all agree it is not – however sad and absolutely painfull for the ones left behind, the bombings on Israel resulted in 12 deads while the dead count in Gaza was today 975 and counting.

Again a warm call to the world that reason hopefully will prevail one day soon…

Gone Baby Gone

No need to say – the situation in Gaza is awful, and it doesn’t look like it will improve any time soon. A father who puts his children to sleep in different rooms in his house to avoid that all of them will be killed when the house get bombed. It just goes beyond my imagination, and I can not even begin to grasp the horror of it all. Even if you survive such a horror, the traumas will last a lifetime and will create enough volunteers to continue the fight untill eternity.

In such a conflict, it doesn’t even goes about right or wrong anymore – there just is no innocent party except for the people trying to build a live for themselves in this difficult region, palestinian or israeli.

One thing that is painfully apparent in this all, is the lack of power of our international organisations that are specifically created to prevent such atrocities. If even UN schools and UN workers aren’t safe any more – there is definately a border getting crossed here… Even in war, there is a code of honor – a code that protects innocent bystanders. Mothers, children, aidworkers – no cause can justify their deads.  The UN will hopefully vote a resolution this evening, but it’s doubtfull that this will actually put an end to it all.

Maybe a power shift in the states can contribute in finding a solution? In the meantime, pressure from governments all over the world will hopefully get through to those responsible….

Searching for the goal in your life

Nowadays everybody has to have a “goal” in life. What do you want to do in your life, make it meaningful, create happiness, have lots of friends, … .

Having a goal is almost becoming a goal on itself – what the hell is the purpose of that? I must say, I also struggle with it. What is my big goal in life? Is raising my beautifull 11 month old son a goal? Is being happy with Bart and trying to care for my loved ones a goal? You tell me…

But then I saw Guillaume Van der Stichelen with Thomas Siffer on Kanaal Z and he described it so eloquently:  ” a goal is a dream with a deadline”. Described like that, i do agree we have to have goals in life cause everybody deserves dreams…

So one wish already for 2009 – let’s all find our dreams and let’s try getting  a little closer in realizing them

Thank you Becksie for always “nagging” about this to me – it just means you want me to have dreams and to realize them, it took me a while to realize this…

Sleeping is an issue

Seen that we are living in a world with crashing stockmarkets and an upcoming recession, a lot of people are suffering from sleepless nights. A friend of Bart and me is specialised in sleeping techniques and actually ‘teaches’ people how to sleep again. One sure thing, it’s a booming business in these uncertain times.

Is this really the world we want to live in?

Shouldn’t there be a little bit less greed and consumption, and a bit more compassion or just passion tout court? Don’t forget, it’s we who make this world, so we do have more power than we give ourselves credit for. Use it!

It’s the end of the world as we know it

This weekend I spend quite some time talking with a friend of mine about the way people live their lives nowadays. Every morning we get up at an indecent early hour, rush through the house and bathroom, hurry to get the kids to school, hurry to get to work – only to get stuck in traffic after 5 min on the highway – reach work, give the best of ourselves or at least try to during most of the day, rush home again to fetch the kids on time, hopefully – best case scenario – play a bit with them and finally end up in the sofa – exhausted… And this joyfull routine repeats itself untill there is the long awaited weekend where we rush ourselves to the highstreet to buy lots of things to create an illusion of momentary happiness.

I know, maybe exaggerating the situation but still…. I see around me so many people just struggling to stay afloat that i actually cannot ignore it anymore. And still our society promotes the fact that we all should be busy, busy, busy and trying to exell in every aspect of our lives. Nothing wrong with exelling, but we shouldn’t we be living instead of surviving?

Easier said then done