Friday, June 26, 2009

A Case of Mistaken Identity

These days, social networking sites seem to be making the world turn. For instance, the news last week about the sad and premature loss of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett spread like wildfire over Twitter and Facebook. The general public knew of these events, before the news stations could even broadcast reports on TV or update stories on web pages. This past week, people around the world have been able to show their support to the protesters in Iran by coloring their Twitter icons green. Even a year or two ago, we could not have imagined that social networking sites would give us such fast access to current events and so many opportunities to make our collective voices heard. This is why one quickly growing Linkedin group, "We Are Orange County!," has been attracting so much attention in the media.

"We Are Orange County!," formed just over a month ago by Sven Johnston Business Development Specialist with Escoe Bliss, has over 2,100 Linkedin members and is continuing to gain momentum as the word spreads. Sven's mission is to get the thriving business community of Orange County the geographic recognition that it deserves. Linkedin currently classifies Orange County as the Greater Los Angeles area and many Orange County business professionals view this geographical oversight as a challenge to their networking initiatives. Sven Johnston states in the Linkedin group profile that, "Networking in its core is about building a community and we want to be able to easily identify our OC neighbors in an easy fashion instead of wondering if they might live 50 miles away in Burbank."

Presently Sven and many members of "We are Orange County!" are working to build a strong case in order to sway the powers that be at Linkedin. Members are getting coverage from local media, posting various blogs, and continuing to spread the word to their fellow OC professionals via their Twitter networks and other Linkedin groups. A productive response from Linkedin corporate becomes more promising, as the evidence from various Orange County sources mounts.

If you are interested in reading more on the progress of the movement and joining in on the momentum of this Linkedin group, then take a moment and check out the recent media coverage below. If you are an Orange County professional yourself and you believe in the movement, by all means, join us at "We are Orange County!"

Media Coverage:

"We are Orange County!" was included on the Daily OC Metro Minute this past Thursday. You can listen to the story if you fast forward to 1 min: 20 secs on the link below:
OC Metro Minute, Thursday, June 25th, 2009

A recent feature in the Orange County Business Journal:
Linkedin Effort in OCBJ

A feature from the Orange County Register:
Jan Norman Blog


Blogs from "We are Orange County Members!":
Experience Unlimited
Neal Schaffer


Participate in the Linkedin Poll and make your voice heard:
I want Linkedin to list Orange County, California as a specific location!

Here at Escoe Bliss, we are Orange County! Are you?

"Committing yourself is a way of finding out who you are. A man finds his identity by identifying. A man's identity is not best thought of as the way in which he is separated from his fellows by the way in which he is united with them." ~Robert Terwilliger

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