Now it´s Sönkes turn to introduce his department (click on the image to enlarge).

Last week we welcomed Julián from Neurona up to Hamburg for a visit. We jumped at the chance to interview him, asking him about his experiences with Neurona and Spanish networking practices. Here he describes his personal attitude towards communities, and explains how Neurona members can benefit from XING.

Julián, you studied theatre and cinema. How did you end up at networking for professionals after such dramatic beginnings?
Almost by chance really, although I was drawn in this direction by my interest in technology. With cinema you automatically become interested in digital video, then in 3D and very soon after Flash.  Indeed , I widened my scope, becoming interested in everything to do with web concepts. When I first began working at Neurona, the challenge was to widen the scope of the “Former Colleagues’ Communities”, developing it and moving it in the direction of business networking as we know it today.

What do these two fields have in common?
Maybe not that much;) The fact is that I was always very interested in the ways in which people interact; the dynamics of it. And the ability I had to strike up relationships with people by means of stimuli. Creating features, modifying them in response to feedback, a continuous flow of actions and reactions, it's something I find really exciting. I suppose that in some ways you could say that the two fields are quite parallel in that respect.

How did these experiences help you to develop Neurona?
I could give you quite a complex answer, but basically it is the ability to always keep listening to the end user. There are distinctions, which aren’t always clear to people, between what actually goes on on your site, what you think is going on and what you want to be going on. I would like to think that I have developed a clear idea of all that. Obviously, my experience as a small-scale entrepreneur in advertising and online communities has helped a lot, but that’s another story ;)

How would you characterize Spanish networking habits? How do they differ from those in  Latin America and the rest of the world ?
In a way, professional networking can be seen as a personal component of professional life. A lot of emphasis is placed on how things are done; there is a greater need for interaction compared to people from English-speaking countries, for example, who are usually more practical and direct. More importance is also placed on a trusted group, whether we have friends or colleagues in common and what people who already know you think of you. As for Latin Americans, there’s maybe a mixture of influences. You can see the influence of the US, and in spite of the emphasis on interpersonal aspects of business relationships, these are quite direct, and speed and effectiveness are important.

Globally,  native Spanish speakers now outnumber native English speakers. The Spanish economy is also growing at quite a rapid pace. What role does social networking  play in all this?
It’s true that it’s already the third largest language on the Internet. There is a sizeable growth, and an additional factor, which is very important, is that Internet penetration in this market is still very low compared with other countries. Whatever happens, there’s still a long way to go. At the same time I believe that networking will grow as a channel for everything happening on the Internet and will continue to grow exponentially.

Neurona is the largest platform for professional contacts in Spain and Latin America. How did you manage to become the market leader?
With a great deal of hard work! As well, I think, as taking into account various factors which were very well received by our users. Firstly, we have always believed that networking is something which affects all professional industries and levels. At first our targeting was restricted to the professional world but that has enabled us to reach a sufficient critical mass in a much shorter time than usual for a site with these characteristics. Secondly, we applied a model which was very appropriate to networking. First you have to give, the more the better, but with time you then reap the rewards. We have always worked with sincere purposes in mind, trying to ensure that the platform functions in the best possible way and with the best possible features for our users. And finally, another golden rule for networking: treat your users as you would like to be treated. We have a very close relationship with our members. In fact we use the platform in exactly the same way as anyone else, and this means that we are one living community in a way, where the needs of users are treated like our own, in the first person.

What benefits can XING bring to Neurona users? How will Neurona users be better off?
The first meetings we had with the XING team were quite amazing. It was very funny to realize just how many things we had in common, how similar our situation was in terms of what our future requirements and functionalities would be. We are working to adapt some Neurona functionalities to be used by XING, but on the other hand there are areas which Neurona has not been able to develop completely, where XING already has a breadth of experience. I think that internationalization, events in the offline world, and many other aspects of XING, can really enhance the users’ final experience. I’m sure that when everything goes to plan we have the potential to create a really powerful tool at the core and then our two platforms can develop around that.

What has the Neurona team been developing recently?
Well, we have been working very closely with the XING team. As I mentioned before, we want to make as large a contribution as possible so that users will see the benefits from the best aspects of both platforms. Meanwhile....we keep on growing. In August we beat our own record and reached the symbolic figure of 1  million users and are still growing at a fantastic pace.

Julián nos visitó en Hamburgo y aprovechamos la ocasión para entrevistarlo y pedirle que nos hable de sus experiencias en Neurona y otros aspectos que despiertan nuestra curiosidad, como es el comportamiento típico de los networkers hispanohablantes. Nos describió la relación que mantiene con la comunidad y comentó las ventajas que XING puede aportar para los usuarios de Neurona.

Julián, estudiaste teatro y dirección de cine, ¿cómo se llega desde el teatro al networking para profesionales?   
De una manera casi casual, llevándome por el interés en la tecnología. Del cine pasé al vídeo digital, de ahí a 3D, multimedia y en seguida al flash. Rápidamente amplié el abanico hacia todo lo que significaban los conceptos web.  Cuando entré en Neurona lo hice con el reto de ampliar el concepto que tenía el site de "Comunidades de Antiguos Compañeros" hacia el "Networking Profesional" tal como lo conocemos hoy.

¿Qué tienen en común estos dos campos? 
Puede que no mucho ;) La verdad es que siempre me interesaron mucho las dinámicas de las conductas de las personas. La capacidad de relacionarme con ellas mediante estímulos. Crear funcionalidades, modificarlas de acuerdo al feedback y tener una corriente continua de acción y reacción. Es algo realmente excitante. Supongo que, de alguna manera, podríamos considerarlo bastante paralelo en ese sentido.

¿En qué modo te ayudaron estas experiencias a desarrollar Neurona? 
Es muy sutil, pero posiblemente lo principal es saber escuchar al receptor, al usuario. Hay unas líneas que no siempre tienes claro entre lo que pasa en tu site, lo que crees que pasa y lo que deseas que esté pasando. Me gusta creer que he desarrollado una buena percepción de todo esto. Evidentemente mi historia como pequeño emprendedor en publicidad y comunidades online también me ha ayudado mucho, pero eso ya es otra historia ;)

¿En tu opinión, ¿qué es lo que caracteriza el comportamiento del networker español? ¿En qué se diferencia del latinoamericano? 
De alguna manera se entiende mucho el networking profesional como las relaciones personales en el mundo del trabajo, que se le da mucho valor a cómo haces las cosas, que necesita más interrelación que por ejemplo el anglosajón, que suele ser más práctico y directo. Por otra parte se da mucho valor al círculo de confianza, si tenemos gente en común o no y saber cómo te consideran las personas que ya te conocen. El caso del latinoamericano, puede que sea una mezcla, se nota la influencia de Estados Unidos y, a pesar de que también se basa mucho en el trato y en las maneras, es bastante directo; busca velocidad y practicidad.

Los hablantes nativos de español ya superan en número a los de inglés. Además, la economía española está creciendo a un ritmo considerable. ¿Qué papel puede desempeñar el networking social en todo esto? 
Lo cierto es que ya es el tercer idioma en Internet. Hay un crecimiento importante y también un factor muy a tener en cuenta, la penetración de Internet en estos mercados es aún muy baja si la comparamos con otros países y en cualquier caso le queda aún mucho recorrido.  A la vez creo que el Networking será cada vez más un aglutinador de todo lo que pasa en Internet e irá creciendo exponencialmente.

Neurona es la plataforma de contactos profesionales más grande de España y Latinoamérica. ¿Cómo habéis conseguido liderar el mercado? ¿Con mucho esfuerzo?
Bueno, además de eso creo que hemos tenido algunas cosas en cuenta que han sido bien recibidas por nuestros usuarios. Por un lado siempre hemos creído que el networking es algo que afecta a todas, absolutamente todas las capas profesionales. Partimos de un target sólo ceñido al mundo profesional y eso nos ha permitido que la masa crítica necesaria para que funcione un site de estas características sea conseguida de manera mucho más rápida. Por otro lado pusimos en práctica un modelo que creo que es el mismo que funciona justamente en el networking. Primero has de dar, y cuanto más mejor, con el tiempo ya recibirás las compensaciones. Siempre hemos trabajando muy sinceramente buscando que la plataforma funcione de la mejor manera posible y con las mejores funcionalidades para nuestros usuarios. Y por último otra regla del networking, trátalos como quieres que te traten a ti. Tenemos una relación muy cercana con nuestros usuarios, de hecho nosotros somos usuarios de la plataforma como uno más, eso hace que de alguna manera seamos una gran comunidad viva, donde las necesidades de los usuarios son entendidas en primera persona.

¿Qué ventajas ofrece XING a los usuarios de Neurona? ¿De qué se van a beneficiar los usuarios de Neurona?
Fueron muy curiosas las primeras reuniones que tuvimos con el equipo de XING. Era divertido ver cuántas cosas en común teníamos y sobre todo, lo alineados que estábamos en cuanto a las próximas necesidades, funcionalidades, etc. etc. Estamos trabajando en adoptar algunas funcionalidades de Neurona en XING, por otra parte hay zonas donde Neurona no llegaba a desarrollarse completamente y que XING tiene mucho camino recorrido. Creo que todo lo que es el mundo offline, la gran implantación en el resto del mundo y muchas otras cosas que tiene XING pueden mejorar mucho la experiencia final del usuario. Sin duda, al final, si hacemos las cosas bien ;), podemos crear una herramienta realmente potente que vertebre cada vez más todo ese potencial que tenemos entre las dos plataformas.

¿Qué está haciendo el equipo de Neurona últimamente? 
Bueno, estamos trabajando mucho con el equipo de XING. Como te comentaba antes queremos aportar lo máximo para que los usuarios se vean beneficiados de lo mejor de cada una de las plataformas. Mientras tanto...pues seguimos creciendo, el mes de agosto batimos el record y superamos la mítica cifra del millón (1.000.000) de nuevos usuarios cada mes.

Susan says
When Horacio E. Coronado strolls through the doors of XING’s Hamburg headquarters, he calls out a friendly hola and buenos dias to everyone in his path. Though Spanish has always been a widely-spoken language here, recent developments have elevated the world’s second-most-spoken-language to XING’s langue de rigeur. (The XING Group Hispano-Alemán <-> Deutsch Spanischsprachiger suggests that this may be a German-wide phenomenon.) Evidence includes the surge in native Spanish-speakers in our offices: Spanish-speakers Coronado and Daniel Benjumea Martinez recently joined the Members Relations team and Joaquin Moreno moved to Hamburg to serve as a TLC team leader.  Daniel Silva, Antonino Avarello and Gloria Claros have been with XING for a while now. Learning Spanish, furthermore, has become a major XING pastime; once-a-week, in-house courses are packed every week.

The rising popularity of Spanish at XING is hardly a surprise. The language is the world’s second-most-widely-spoken tongue and, as an international, multilingual platform, it only makes sense for XING to take an interest. The more concrete reason, however, is XING’s purchase of two Spain-based networking platforms (eConozco and Neurona) last June. The aim of the move was to welcome one million or so Spanish-speaking members who live in Barcelona, Mexico City and everywhere in between to XING. eConozco’s members have already moved to Hamburg and Neurona’s members are on their way soon. Neurona team members, in fact, will visit XING this week to devise final plans for the “migration”.

Community Relations has played a major role in the Spanish love affair. One of Ulrike Gruel’s many tasks, for example, is to help coordinate the smooth move of Groups from the two Spanish platforms to the multilingual XING. She and Daniel Silva have already successfully overseen the integration of eConozco Groups and are currently working on the details for the Neurona shift. Thanks to their hard work (which also includes taking part in Spanish courses) Spanish will play a decidedly more prominent role in the XING Community. Indeed Groups like the Barcelona Community, Mexico Business Network and Negocios de Latinoamerica reveal that all things related to the Spanish-speaking world are caliente topics. If this trend continues, it is only a matter of time before hola replaces moin as the greeting of choice at XING.

 We’ve already heard from Luis and Melanie, who told us about the professional etiquette in their countries. Today we have Dean, who’ll tell us a bit more about regional differences in America, why the West Coast is more relaxed than everywhere else, and what it is about calling people by their first names that’s so appealing...
Curious yet? Read on to find out more!

1.    What do you do professionally?
At Sachi Studio, I help businesses explore the new Internet goldrush that is taking place. Sachi is a web design and online marketing consultancy. We help businesses with web and blog designs, consulting on blogging best practices, and localized search engine optimization strategies.

2. What does the Chief Web Evangelist of Sachi Studio do exactly?
Good question. The title is more symbolic than anything else. Calling myself a web designer or owner sounded boring. I see myself as a catalyst to get clients excited about each new web project that I take on. I help evangelize the potential that new Internet technology such as blogs, local SEO, and content management systems can bring to their businesses. In essence, I evangelize the new web and its potential.

3. Where do you conduct most of your business?
Everywhere. I have clients that are on the West Coast of the United States to as far away as France. Welcome to the World Wide Wow!

4. You’re from Kensington, Maryland; have you noticed any differences
when it comes to business manners, let’s say in comparison with the West Coast?
Kensington, Maryland is part of the greater Washington DC metropolitan region. I’m only 10 miles outside of downtown Washington, DC. Despite the level of affluence and the opportunities that are present there, I joke that Washingtonians are just too busy to say hello to each other because we work so much. People are perceived as more laid back on the West Coast, which is mostly due to the state of California. Simultaneously, they are perceived as a bit more materialistic and, well, fake, relative to the East Coast. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, but that has always been the consensus among many Americans.
Let me give a very subtle example of the differences between regions. Here in DC, the most popular question someone will ask you is, “So, what do you do for a living?” After a while, some of us get tired of being asked that question and would prefer not to be sized up. If you travel to a state like Texas (which I absolutely love), people there will not only say hello but talk to you for five minutes. People are just friendlier in the South and Midwest. We could all use a little bit of Texas in us!

5. Americans often have a reputation abroad for ‘risk taking’ and their ‘willingness to take chances’. How are these attributes reflected in American business culture?
That is indeed true. This is due to the high spirit of entrepreneurship that is encouraged by our country’s socioeconomic policy making. It has been often said that entrepreneurs are the backbone of the American Economy. Our dreams and our risk-taking help fuel this. While it’s beyond the scope of this interview, risk is really all about perception. Our country’s infrastructure and policies help mitigate some of the risk, which in turn encourages people to take on more. In our country, it only takes a few weeks to start up a business. In other countries, it can literally take months of paperwork and a lot of money to start up a similar business.  By providing as little barriers to entry as possible, our country is able to encourage and harness this reputation of ‘risk taking’ that we have in the global business world. A very common phrase used in our business culture is “No pain, no gain.” American business people are well aware that to achieve any thing of significance means that we must sacrifice something in return.

6. Meeting business partners at home, being on first name terms – if this happens in Germany it represents a high degree of trust in the other person, a strong bond – almost friendship. Would you say the same about American business partners?
Thanks for pointing this out about German culture. I guess this would explain why all the German members on XING keep addressing me as Mr. Hua rather than Dean  .
American business culture is a bit more casual relative to German culture. In the workplace, it’s quite common to see employees address their manager on a first name basis. It feels strange when someone calls me by my last name. So much so, that I encourage them to call me by my first name.
Our business culture is driven by geographic regions as well. Here in DC, it’s common to see people in a suit and a tie. In Florida, it’s not uncommon to see people wear polo shirts and khakis. This is due to the hot weather down there.

7. What are the most frequent mistakes that foreigners make when in the U.S.?
It depends on which country you are referring to when you say foreigners. If you compare us to an Asian culture, then Asian business people may see Americans as too disrespectful. If you compare us to Spanish culture, then they may see Americans as too uptight. As they say, “It’s all relative.”

8. Are there any specific small talk topics that will be able to save me if all else fails?
In my opinion, if all else fails, it’s most likely BECAUSE OF small talk. I prefer to do “big talk”. Big talk is about stuff that the other person may actually enjoy. It’s about seeking commonality before we get down to business. Topics such as traffic, the weather and other trivial matters really bore me.
For example, I had a new client meeting the other day. I walked into their office and I had briefly mentioned that I was organizing a ski trip for New Year’s Eve. The client and his wife absolutely loved skiing. So much so that he spent the next five minutes teaching me how to actually ski by focusing on the footwork. It was quite fun and enjoyable to watch him be so animated. He did most of the talking. After that, we got straight down to business.
I encourage people to seek commonality or learn of the other person’s interests. If you can do that, then small talk becomes a trivial matter.

9. You should have seen their faces: Which particularly amusing situations from your previous years on the job spring to mind when you hear this phrase?
I’ve learnt that when we talk about time, we're not always talking about the same thing. This is true from one culture to another, but it can also happen within the same culture. I remember once when I was setting up a business lunch with a business contact of mine—it was a Wednesday when we emailed each other. We agreed to meet for lunch on Friday. Now for me, it was clear: I entered Friday of the following week into my planner, and that’s when I showed up at the restaurant. No one was there. I thought OK, maybe he’s late, and waited. And waited. Still no one. I felt stood up.
As it happens, he was at the restaurant on Friday, too: on the Friday the week BEFORE… So both of us had thought that we were both stood up but it turns out that we were thinking of different Fridays. When we finally met again, we had a good laugh together. We hit it off, despite the difficulties at first. As I said, “it’s all relative.” Even time. 

This week, Tobias from Finance is up (click on the image to enlarge). He'll introduce his team.

Have you ever been to a Christmas party in Germany on the beach? Over 2,400 XING members did exactly this on the evening of December 4: The XING Live Hamburg community organized an official XING event in Hamburg’s beach club "Club del Mar" right on the banks of the Elbe river.

The beach club was especially kitted out for the event to ensure that guests didn’t have to suffer the wintry Hamburg weather. Tents with heating, bars and a stage for the band were set up on the sandy ground, providing ample space for the networking party crowd. Some networkers preferred the real beach feeling though and decided to spend their time outdoors instead. And thanks to the outdoor bar service there was enough Glühwein (for those of you who haven’t tried it: a typical German Christmas drink, hot red wine with spices) to make sure these outdoor enthusiasts could keep nice and warm in the chilly night air.

The great thing about this event was that it was not only an excellent opportunity for guests to make new personal and business contacts but also a good way of supporting the social “Hinz & Kunzt” project in Hamburg. A part of the entrance fee was donated in support of this initiative – meaning that a final donation cheque of €5,000 was handed over to Hinz & Kunzt on the evening.

The entire XING team would like to express a special note of thanks to those who organized this huge, special event.

A big thank you to Steffen Ehlert, Melanie Schmitz and the rest of the organizational team, as well the Hamburg Ambassadors!
Photos by Cornelius Kalk. For more pictures visit Bewegende Bilder,  Jakobsen Picture Work (password: Xing) or Arne Vollstedt .

An intriguing new feature went live today: “What’s new in my network”, a new infobox on the XING start page, gives you live updates on the latest developments within your own personal network. After deliberating about what best to call this new infobox, we went for “What’s new in my network” because that’s exactly what it shows. From today onwards XING members will be able to see at a glance whenever a direct contact joins a new company, gets promoted, connects to a new contact or edits their profile data.

I have to say I’m already quite addicted. Now the first thing to do after logging in to XING each morning is to check what’s been going on in my network. The feature is completely user-configurable – both in terms of the information you wish to be informed about and the updates you wish your contacts to see. You can configure your privacy settings here.

The new feature is also available as part of the XING Powersearch and as an RSS feed. And even on the move you won’t miss out on the latest news: It’s accessible on any Internet-enabled cellphone, including the iPhone, PDA and Blackberry.