I wrote most of this blog a long time ago, but I've been wanting to update it and republish it for a while, as it feels relevant.
If you've read the Knowledge Hub Team new year blog, you'll know that one of our key aims for 2014 is to grow the membership of Knowledge Hub. One way we can do this is to spread the word...
Does anyone remember these British Gas adverts...?
(Wanted to embed it here for you to watch, but embedding is disabled on it.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nedVpG-GjkE
Anyway, I seem to remember these adverts for British Gas shares running for months sometime in the mid nineteen eighties. If you haven't looked at the video and don't remember the adverts, it was always a string of people passing on the message about the fact that you could get hold of shares in British Gas and letting you know the phone number. No matter who the message was passed on to, they always finished with the reminder... "Tell Sid!"
I was reminded of it for two reasons when it comes to the Knowledge Hub...
Pass it on!
The first is the element of recommendation – and even better a recommendation from a friend. We do it all the time – we might recommend the restaurant we visited last night, or the book we’ve just finished, likewise online, most social networking sites offer the opportunity to recommend, share or send stuff to friends. Indeed, there are share options all over Knowledge Hub too.
This is very much the way we've always worked in the Knowledge Hub. We’ve relied very much on keen, regular users, such as group facilitators, as our ambassadors. We’ve encouraged these people to pass on the message about using Knowledge Hub and we’re really grateful to everyone who has done this. Thank you!
Of course, I realise that not all the recommendations will have been completely positive! We are often even more likely to pass on negative comments about places we’ve visited than to make a positive recommendation. I know some people have found getting used to Knowledge Hub hard at times, but we're always listening to your feedback and we’ll be looking at a lot of improvements incorporating your suggestions this year.
So, I would encourage you to keep liking stuff and keep sharing what you like with others.
A trusted friend
The second reason the British Gas adverts struck a chord is that the message about the shares seemed always to be passed on by a friend, or someone they knew or saw regularly – in this instance the trusted postman who’s been doing the round for years.
A key element of Knowledge Hub is making connections. The Knowledge Hub enables you to follow the activity of individuals who you think have interesting things to say. It also lets you make connections with people – by mutual acceptance – so that you can have more detailed conversations with them.
I read an article a while ago about a study by Ordnance Survey that suggested a third of people in the UK don’t know the names of their neighbours. I know my neighbours – not that well, but I know their names – when it was snowy and icy last year we went to fetch our elderly neighbour’s newspaper for her and we’re always taking in parcels for other neighbours when they're out. They all regularly do the same for us too. The point is that being connected to our neighbours even in a small way means we trust each other a bit more.
Making connections on Knowledge Hub is designed to help you build that kind of neighbourly trust, so that you feel you’re sharing information and learning in a safe environment with people you know. I realise you won’t be able to get to know everyone on a personal level, but it will help you develop your professional networks and bring you into contact with like-minded colleagues around the country who might just have that nugget of information you really need in your work.
So, tell Sid (and all your other colleagues) to log into Knowledge Hub and start making connections:
After all, you never know who you might meet here! Maybe the elusive Sid! Did anyone ever actually manage to tell Sid in the end? I don’t remember! Still, they told a lot of other people along the way and I guess that’s the point!
