I had lunch recently with an ex. rugby colleague Ed Cutting, he started Fulcra a while back and is in financial services. He has an extensive network in Brussels. While he isn’t blogging he was interested in what this could bring to him. What additional benefits would it bring if his offline network is so strong? But of course this is an augment to his existing network and a way for people who know him to catch up with his news. He has a lot of interesting content around being a small business or being an “independent” in Belgium and this is a way to share this knowledge and build up the network even further. This will also help with search engine optimisation and he can point to it as a resource. I look forward to seeing if he tries it out.

On a connected note - having been involved in social media for over 4 years now, it is great to see that the “hype” that surrounded blogs has died away but the real applications of building an online network and sharing information through blogs, forums and social networks is still growing very nicely. I can remember only 18 months ago trying to explain at dinner parties why this was important, now everyone seems to know this and the discussion seems to be about whether people think this is something they would want to do (have the time for etc.) - that’s a good place to be…