Social - Blog - HEDGEAnswers

To Linkin or not Linkin – That is the question…

August 17, 2011

Lately, it seems that I am getting bombarded by requests to be added to this person’s network or that person’s network by people who I have no interest in networking with. It seems that people from as far back as my elementary school days – I went to Brophy Elementary School in Framingham, Massachusetts — have found me on LinkedIn and other social networks and want to be “friends.” Many of these folks are people I wasn’t friends with 20-odd years ago, so I don’t know why they want to be my “friend” now. Nonetheless, the requests continue to come.

Here is the problem: I don’t want to LinkIn to these people and become their “friends” and I bet I am not the only one who feels this way. If I wanted to be connected to them, I probably would have made an effort to find them before they found me. After all, getting in touch with people and talking to them is sort of what I do for a living. It is not that I am not curious about what is going on in their lives, how many cats they have, what they had for dinner or that their kids are now being toilet trained – OK, I am not curious about this or anything else about them. The problem, I have found, is that in an effort to not be rude I end up accepting these people into my network and becoming their “friends.”

Is this wrong? Perhaps it is not being social-network honest – I’m not sure that it is right – but nonetheless it is what I have been doing, so if you want to get in touch, find me on LinkedIn and we can connect – but please don’t tell me about… Read More »

Inspire Oscar de la Renta

February 18, 2012

TAGS: social, social, design

World renowned couture designer Oscar de la Renta launched a digital inspiration board for anyone that wants to inspire his next resort collection.

Oscar is asking for you to be his muse during the next three months. All you need to do is upload images or videos on The Board (not be confused with HEDGEAnswer's The Board which is for job postings, investment pitches and selling/swaping stuff like apartments -- you are also invited to pin anything). His plea is simple "Don't Tell Me, Show Me," however he explains it more eloquently here.

The blog Luxuo notes, "de la Renta’s original take on crowd-sourcing via The Board comes after Mugler’s creative director Nicola Formichetti asked his Facebook fans to offer style advice ahead of the label’s presentation at Paris Menswear Fashion Week back in January" and "follows the increasing popularity of online bulletin board Pinterest, where de la Renta’s OscarPRGirl shares her latest passions with fans."