I have been meaning to write a guest post here on the Renegade Conservatory Guy for some time but I have never quite got round to it – until now. With the standard of RCG’s posts always being so high, professional and informative I felt a little bit intimidated. After all, I might know a bit about the industry but measured against a proper conservatory man, and a renegade one at that, I feel rather outclassed.

So, rather than showing myself up I thought I would start off with a short, informative and useful piece about networking. We have just last week had the second GlassTalk networking meeting at Daresbury Park and one of the questions that always comes up is how do we stay in touch with everyone. If you made a good connection with someone in particular that is easy but you can’t do that with all of the 150 people there. So, in order for everyone who wants to stay connected we have some options.

The GlassTalk Social Network

The first options is to get registered on the GlassTalk web site, at http://www.glasstalk.co.uk, and start using our very own social networking site under the community menu.

It is rather similar to the Facebook web site and has several benefits. I am going to list a few so that you know just how good it is:

• Members are very likely to be involved in the double glazing industry so could be useful contacts
• It is a great way to keep in touch with like minded people
• There will be special interest industry groups on there as it grows
• It is a way of advertising yourself to the industry
• It is not Facebook so you don’t need to worry about it being frivolous or time wasting
• It does not have lots of games and distractions on
• You are unlikely to bump into past girlfriends, or old friends you don’t want to thus avoiding unwanted trouble

Sounds irresistible? I thought so – get registered on the GlassTalk community social network today at http://www.glasstalk.co.uk.

The GlassTalk Online Forum

There is also a forum on the GlassTalk web site. So far no one has taken any notice of this at all so unless lots of people suddenly start using it in anger it may well get pulled soon. We can’t get everything right now can we.

Linked In

For Linked In the GlassTalk directors can stake no claim at all. It is a worldwide business professional networking site. It is open to anyone and is a great way to keep in touch with friends and colleagues around the country and the world. Of course Linked In is not double glazing specific but if you want to maintain links with people in the industry and beyond, especially those with similar areas of professional interest as yourself then Linked In could be for you.

To get the industry started with Linked In, Ian Finch of IFCon Ltd, who attended GlassTalk has very kindly created a new group on there for us. The group is called, very imaginatively, “UK Glazing Industry Professionals”. To get started using Linked In go to:

http://www.linkedin.com/

Once you have registered be sure to look up your colleagues and acquaintances who may be on there already. And don’t forgot to connect to Ian Finch and myself, Jon Twigge. We look forward to seeing you there.

It’s not what you know – it’s who you know !

Get connected.

Jon Twigge is the Sales Director of Roofwright Software. For more information visit:

http://www.roofwright.com/