How Technology Can Facilitate Global Networking

By Nigel Cliffe

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Technophobe or tech whiz isn’t technology amazing in 2018?

In my last blog post, I shared how I had the privilege of chatting to a LinkedIn Coach colleague, Bruce Johnston discussing different aspects of LinkedIn. Zoom Video Conferencing was the tool we used to make our conversation happen…despite Bruce being based in Ontario in Canada and my being located in the UK.

More recently I had the similar pleasure of catching up with fellow LinkedIn trainer and professional networker, Jeff Young. This time it was appear.in which facilitated our conversation (pictured above!). Appear.in is a platform that allows you to create a ‘room link’, which can be your company name or whatever you wish it to be. You then share the link via email, a messaging platform or on cloud-based collaboration work-flow tool Slack and let the conferencing, chatting and collaborating commence!

Both of the above are brilliant examples of global networking. LinkedIn, as with all social media, was and still is designed for sharing ideas and insight, learning, motivating and brainstorming. With LinkedIn being the biggest business-to-business platform, it boasts added value for professionals looking to share their experience and knowledge of their specialism and niche within their field.

But who’s to say that cooperation and dialogue can’t transcend language barriers to truly become global networking?

While external video conferencing platforms offer smooth and sharp visual and audio communication, LinkedIn isn’t allowing itself to fall behind with the global networking trend. My good friend and LinkedIn Connection, Roger Masterson, founder of the award-winning castle booking company, Celtic Castles published a post on LinkedIn recently which included the French phrase ‘le petit déjeuner’ and LinkedIn helpfully offered me an accurate translation (‘the breakfast’) in real-time to aid my understanding. LinkedIn translation on the fly! Impressive!

While this is a much-appreciated feature on LinkedIn, helping to facilitate global networking through the written word, a Connection of mine, Vivienne Staniforth commented on my post on this topic warning:

“Automated translation can be fine for small bits but won’t necessarily be accurate or authentic.”

Indeed, it’s a warning we should heed. LinkedIn’s real-time translation feature is great for reading and learning from the articles shared by speakers of a different language on LinkedIn but it’s not advisable to rely solely on the feature. For more in-depth, serious business conversations learning the basics of the language or hiring a translator might be a valuable investment to enhance your international business relations.

In the meantime, bonne journée and enjoy reading some translated LinkedIn posts originally written in other languages…you’ll be surprised at what pearls of wisdom you pick up!

Have you experienced a good example of global networking on LinkedIn or elsewhere? Share your experiences with me on Twitter and LinkedIn!

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