Sunset Stories

It takes a village: using cross-functional social media engagement to run a non-profit network

We're already super busy people: we're moms, corporate executives, students; lawyers, entrepreneurs, high-tech workers.

We have a thousand commitments, a family to support, many interests, and probably a long commute. So how could we possibly find the time to add yet another thing— social media networking— to our to-do lists? Because we can't afford to not to! Otherwise, it'd be impossible to connect, stay connected, and participate in the conversations both in person and online.

And, it'd be impossible to run a networking group for women in business, without EVERYONE socializing online. As founder of the non-profit business networking group WIB for German-American women in the Bay Area, the group could not run without social media engagement. Organizers, speakers, moderators— we're all volunteers— and every "department" builds this community through social media: "sales" reaches out to members, partners and sponsors via the LinkedIn and Facebook groups; "product management" collects feedback after events via SurveyMonkey; "marketing" posts event photos and videos to Flickr and blip.tv, and announcements to Twitter. And nearly every operation to create and execute the quarterly panel discussion sessions, involving dozens of women, each with very busy schedules and living in various locations, uses social media.

It makes sense that businesses would discount the need for social media to be cross functional. Better to outsource than involve every single department, right? Wrong. The online conversation affects every department, each customer, all constituents. And whether corporate or non-profit, entrepreneur or individual, no one can afford to "outsource."

What do you think about the current state of social media, and should it be cross-functional? Please share!

* Illustration courtesy of cartoonist and social media panelist Betsy Streeter

GABA Women in Business: international career transitions

GABA's Women in Business group hosted "Your Transition Toolbox: International Career Changes, Relocation, and Other Stories" featuring Katharina Rock, SAP Labs, Nyna Pais-Caputi, Upwardly Global, Susanne Babbel and Susanne Stolcke, European Counseling, Lara Abrams, Lara Abrams Communications LLC, and Bettina Jetter, Mindjet LLC.

Attendees from various working and ethnic backgrounds were engaged by the speakers-- with several inspired to tell their own stories-- all led by our thoughtful moderator, in a beautiful setting.

Check out this video of our discussion at the event.

Women in Business: celebrating 1 year anniversary with an event on Communication

Over 40 business women, consultants, students, and even five men (the most to date), attended Monday evening's GABA Women in Business event, American Forms of Communication.

Professional Business Communications PhD Angelika Blendstrup started the roundtable with introductions to your neighbor, examples, and slides visualizing the American versus international methods of communication, and concluding with stories about female versus male forms of communication which sparked some very passionate discussion.

Herta Schreiner, Director Marketing Operations for Synopsis, said the communication nuances depend on the field in which you're working. Katie Renati, who runs the SF International Career Fair, begged to differ ("of course," acknowledged by Blendstrup with a smile "because  [Renati] is French.") A German woman who works for an Israeli company said she "learned how to jump in" from the last WIB event on negotiation for women. Later, Blendstrup noted that she liked the fact there were men in the audience, it helped get their ideas as well.

The roundtable was clearly engaged. And at the end of the evening, which marked its one year anniversary, the Women in Business dispersed into an enthusiastic networking reception, highlighted by camaraderie between friends, and new connections made.

Women in Business, Nontraditional Negotiators

On Tuesday evening about 40 women professionals in tech, alternative energy, non-profit, mobile, software and law, gathered in a sunny, beige conference room in Palo Alto for the quarterly GABA Women in Business event series, to share stories about "nontraditional" negotiating.

Some were in business for themselves, some worked for Bay Area companies, large and small, and nearly everyone was multinational.
Helena told her story about salary negotiation in the legal industry and advised on starting a negotiation by getting to know the other person first; Beate encouraged the audience to challenge assumptions and approach negotiation as creating something with the other person; Daniela is right in the middle of a negotiation together with one other woman against a group of men; Susie just negotiated a job that beat out the undercut bid and she still got paid to design the opening of a high-end bar in Santa Rosa; Kristen, daughter of a "radical [Iranian] man" who told her she's equal to any man, noticed that the women resent her for making change together with male CEOs at companies she consults for; Alexandra asked how to deal with a Persian male negotiator who wants to "put the birka on her;" another woman earned the trust of her male Japanese colleague after they went out drinking together; and Barb told the group about how she came up with the topic and ended up hosting the group that night.

I organized the event because I saw the need for internationally-minded women professionals, in any industry, to come together as a group to share their stories and learn from the professional experiences of others. I want to build a community professional and personal development. And because cross-cultural means people coming together to do really cool things.

All the times I heard from successful women at FWE&E, NAWBO, and PWBC were great; but it's even better to connect with a woman who has a success of hers, to share with me. The stories shared that evening were about power and control, techniques about preparedness, and the emotions involved with everything, but what resonated with me the most is that negotiating as women means negotiating as PEOPLE -- remembering that we are each human, after all.