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Professional Networking and Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
There are many reasons to engage in professional networking, particularly using online communities such as iStadia.com, but one of the most compelling of these may be the contribution that it can make to Continuing Professional Development (CPD).What is CPD?
Professional development is something that should be of interest to most of our members - whether students going through an intensive period of learning; professionals in training; or experienced, qualified professionals. CPD as a term applies specifically to the latter of these groups, and refers to the process of managing one's own development and growth as a professional, but the content of this article is pertinent to anyone who is interested in developing their knowledge, skills and competencies in any field.
What is professional networking?
Professional networking (as opposed to the purely 'social' networking that is offered by websites such as facebook) is the process of creating trusting, mutually beneficial relationships that will ultimately help you in some way to access new skills, knowledge or opportunities. Professional networking is not, despite the availability of social networking websites, purely an online activity. Indeed, it's history is as long as any profession's! It happens through training courses, conferences, informal conversations, and many other acitivites. However, technology has provided the opportunity to greatly accelerate professional networking, given access to much larger, global professional communities, and made it easier to keep in touch with one's contacts.
How can iStadia support the Development of Sport and Exercise Professionals?
As has been alluded to earlier, by actively networking you can gain access to new sources of knowledge, learn new skills and develop competencies.
The word 'actively' is important here. Think about this: If everyone in a community gives something of themselves to that community, the result is a rich body of knowledge and experience, that can easily be found, and contact made.
With iStadia we are moving, perhaps slower than we would like, in that direction - but it is happening both online and offline. I've personally talked through client issues, shared ideas, and started collaborating with people that I didn't know before iStadia. I also regularly share referrals. James Beale recently blogged about his experience of solving a novel client problem by asking a question on a club forum. He got the answer he was looking for, and developed new relationships at the same time.
But networking isn't just about asking for help. It's no coincidence that the motto and philosophy of Business Network International (BNI) is "Givers' Gain". Networking is about sharing, too. Sharing knowledge, sharing contacts, even sharing business opportunities. But let's focus on sharing knowledge for now.
Within this community, there is a tremendous amount of knowledge. Imagine if we could completely unlock that knowledge and make it available to each other. How powerful would that be?
iStadia is designed, essentially, to allow you to share knowledge. This can be done through blogging, writing articles, and through clubs and forums. By sharing your knowledge, whatever that might be, you open yourself up to new and potentially fruitful relationships. Sharing with the community allows people to get an idea of what you can contribute in terms of knowledge, skills and competencies, and helps them to decide whether to network with you. But it also, of course, adds to the overall knowledge of the community.
Case Study: Blogging Teachers
You might still be wondering what you might gain from sharing. You might be sceptical that by giving, you will also receive. I came across a really interesting blog that gave me an insight into the possibilities for blogging (or writing articles) and professional development. It referred to a programme for teachers that gave them the opportunity to blog their views and reflections on teaching.
Blogging brought a number of benefits to the teachers. First of all, it was a reflective activity in itself, and therefore supports reflective practice. That's where you benefit from writing the blog. Then, the rest of the community of teachers benefited from the insights and thoughts of the other teachers. Then, and here's where it gets interesting, because the blogs are shared, there is further benefit to the blogger, from the critical insight of others shared through comments. Further still, this process helps people to feel more 'connected' with each other (in the human rather than technical sense), facilitating further discussion and relationship building.
Imagine how powerful a tool that could be - a community of professionals sharing in a reflective process, sharing each other's lessons and insights, challenging and supporting each other.
Wouldn't that be great? Well, the good news that the potential is right here at your fingertips. All you need to do is exploit it. You don't need to write a thesis. A good blog can be a few sentences long. Anything longer than about 500 and you are probably writing an artice. But blogs and articles are also living documents. You can post your initial thoughts, then go back, edit and develop them as your ideas develop further. They are not set in stone, therefore they don't have to be perfect?
Here are a few different examples, from Amanda Owens, Mark Helme and David Harrison.
What's stopping you?
Time? Dedicating a little time each week to sharing your thoughts with the community might even save you time through the connections you make...
Confidence? Just ask for help, and it's yours. Start now and you'll get the hang of it - whether "it" is using the technology or finding the words...
Anxiety? Of course you might feel nervous about opening up. But you are in control of what you share...
I don't know anything special? I'm sure that every member has something to contribute, whether a professional, a business owner, a student (you are probably never more 'up-to-date' than you are as a student), an athlete or an exerciser.
Isn't it about time you started to share?
If you aren't currently a member, join now and start sharing.
What makes for a good blog post - when blogging to get noticed?
My April fool's blog, New Research Suggests Cheese Diet Improves Performance by up to 60% has, in the space of 4 weeks, become iStadia's most read blog post with 649 views and counting.Of course, the blog itself (posted below) is complete rubbish. But is has been viewed a lot of times in a short space, so what can we learn from it?
I don't know what the secret is. Perhaps there is a very popular set of keywords in there, such as "cheese diet" that I have stumbled upon. What I do know is this:
- It has a descriptive title that uses words that are also contained in the text of the post, such as "cheese" and "performance". Google seems to like that. It likes that more than it likes clever titles.
- It has all of the potential keywords from the body text repeated in the tags list. So, there's more repetition. Title - text - tags. Get your keywords in all three.
- Some of the keywords are pretty irrelevant, but probably help - such as "Saint Nectair". So, if you are blogging about some aspect of sports performance, for example, why not try to incorporate names of sports people, brands or other words that are likely to be popular search terms?
- I've used a picture. I don't know if that helped at all, but I know it to be true.
- It isn't long - and it doesn't have to be. 500 words is about the most you should have in a blog post.
- I "dugg" my own post, and tagged it on del.icio.us and stumbleupon and probably some other social bookmarking sites. I also posted a link on twitter. This is all very easy , as we have put a button saying "addthis" at the bottom of every blog and article post for you.
- I put my signature in it, with a link to my own site, embedded in a key phrase "sport psychologist". Even if no-one like the blog itself, it is a valuable link that helps my own site gain rankings.
- The blog itself, as I've already acknowledged, is nonsense, as it was intended to be. You don't have to blog about serious things, but the more you blog, taking the lessons above into account, the more you can attract traffic to your profile or your own website.
There's a basic rule on the web. The more "stuff" you put out there, the more people you will reach. Don't wait until you think you have something desperately important to say. Just get on there and share.
