It was a significant year of growth for us, and we couldn’t have done it without our members’ contributions! I personally appreciate your continued support of our growing company, and your input, ideas, and comments have been invaluable to us. We read every bit of feedback that we receive. User feedback has greatly contributed to the success of UPworld and will continue to do so in the future.

In less than one year’s time, UPworld has grown to provide quality professional connections to individuals all over the world. This year, UPworld was recognized by GlobeSt.com as the leading relational capital-building resource in the real estate industry. As the CEO of UPworld, I had the honor of being named one of RealEstate New York’s Women of Influence for 2008 by Incisive Media.

I also had the privilege of speaking about social media at this year’s InfoCommerce Conference alongside McGraw-Hill Construction and Property Research Partners. This year also marked key notices for UPworld by press such as Commercial Investment Real Estate, Architectural Lighting, RIS Media, Elevator World, and Globe Street.

UPworld was also able to bring new valued offerings to our members through partnerships with great conferences, events, and organizations. We partnered with both the BuildingsNY show and CityScape to offer free trade show passes and host a special networking event for our members.

In September, we traveled to Toronto for the IIDEX design and construction show to spread the UPworld network to Canada. Our networking boat cruise with the Young Real Estate Professionals of New York (YREPNY) in August was a particularly special event that we plan to make an annual occurrence. We also partnered this year with Perspective Magazine to bring their monthly publication to UPworld members online at no cost.

Even with all of these noteworthy accomplishments, we are looking even more forward to 2009. We are planning an exciting new release to the UPworld site early in the new year. This will include an upgraded user interface and new tools for marketing yourself online and building valuable professional connections.

This is also the year that UPworld plans to launch our Green Building Projects Initiative, which we are currently busy developing. I will be able to share more on this exciting initiative in the months to come. Finally, with these tough economic times, we are working hard to bring you new business opportunities, so stay tuned for the introduction of new project leads into UPworld.

We love helping our members find new business and make valuable connections, so I’m personally thankful that even in struggling economic times, UPworld continues to grow stronger and is poised to continue to do so. And as we are all learning, it’s more important than ever to be networked into the right professional community.

As we go into the holidays, I sincerely wish you all the best and have a very happy New Year!

Warm regards,
Jennifer Magee
UPworld, Co-Founder + CEO

MediaPost released an article earlier this month entitled “Picking and Choosing What We Pay Attention To.” Everyday, we are bombarded by tons of advertising messages, all seeking to catch our attention. The key to winning our attention over is engagement, or breaking our “selective perception filter.” So how can your profile engage other UPworld members?

The answer is emotion. We seek to maximize positive emotions and minimize negative ones. Emotions shape our perceptions of experience and behavior. Thus, in completing your profile, you must keep this in mind and connect to your intended audience. How can a business relationship benefit both you and your prospective partner? A new business opportunity must seem attractive on both ends in order to draw attention.

Whether you would like to market your company, project, or event, reassure your reader that it will be a positive experience.

Read MediaPost’s full article here.

If you have any questions regarding how to set up your profile and how to use UPworld to effectively market your business, please feel free to email me at christina@upworld.com. I would be more than happy to help you make the most of your UPworld experience!

Everyday, I encourage UPworld members to use the site to its fullest and to refer friends and colleagues to sign up too. If asked, “What is UPworld?,” I oftentimes find that the easiest answer is, “UPworld is like Facebook or LinkedIn, but it’s specifically for real estate, building, and design professionals.” However, with over 11,000 members, I think UPworld can break away from referring to other networking sites and make its name stand on its own.

So the purpose of this blog post is to provide the most accurate and concise information on online networking. This way, you can fully understand the world of online networking sites and how UPworld remains distinct from the rest of them.

What is online social networking? Online social networking (often referred to as either online networking or social networking) is a means of meeting and maintaining contacts through cyberspace. Online networking is made possible through social networking services, such as UPworld. There are social networking services for almost every interest and activity you can imagine.

What makes UPworld unique? Here at UPworld, we seek the perfect blend of broad and specific, providing our members with the opportunity to network both globally and locally, as well as within their specific profession and across an array of related industries. Real estate, building, and design professionals from around the world can easily find one another and stay in touch through UPworld.

Furthermore, although UPworld is an online networking service, we have not forgotten the importance of face-to-face social interaction. Thus, we not only provide a platform for online networking, but we encourage local events for offline networking as well. We believe that online and offline networking act to reinforce one another, allowing you not only to meet new business contacts, but to maintain these connections and make them truly valuable.

What does UPworld have to offer? UPworld can help you connect to people, projects, and events. You can use your profile and portfolio to market your professional services. You can post to the Marketplace if you have a specific job or project that you would like to get the word out about. Also, you can contribute to UPworld’s calendar, Event World, if you have an event you would like to publicize.

In addition to marketing your business, you can search for connections by browsing the Marketplace and Event World. You can also find professionals in a particular location or industry. Stay tuned for future blog posts that will include detailed tutorials on all of these UPworld features and more!

The monthly newsletter is also a great way to see what’s going on in the UPworld community. Every month, we let our entire membership know about a featured member, project, and event. If you would like to feature your business, a particular project, or an event, contact me at christina@upworld.com with the subject line “Newsletter Feature Request.”

So it’s time for you to take charge of your online persona. This is Part 1 of a 2-Part Series to get you started.

1. Set Up a Profile

Present yourself honestly to any online community you are part of and share your assets - that is, what makes you special regarding the services or expertise you offer. The more specific you are in your profile, the more real you become as a person.

Only include the information that is relevant to introducing yourself to new members and don’t forget to share some of your personal interests - people love to connect over shared sports or travel.

2. Upload Images

Upload an image of yourself and add a company logo to your profile. Don’t skip this step - it is critical that your photo is online - this is what makes you real, easily identifiable, and approachable. Invest in having a semi-professional photo taken of yourself. Note that I say semi-professional. You want to be perceived as a credible person, so don’t let the photo be so ‘professional’ that it neutralizes all your personality. Present yourself honestly and be yourself.

3. Invite People You Know to Join You

Invite others that you are already networked with in the real world to join you in the virtual. This helps you build some initial connections and creates the opportunity to share your online experience with people you already know.

4. Be Selective

Network with the same type and quality of people online that you would network with in the real world. Take time to research prospective people you want to contact and actually do business with. Always contact them through the networking site you found them on. Don’t go around and find them by some other means.

5. Reach Out and Introduce Yourself

The goal is for you to build relationships so don’t reduce yourself to a one-liner sales pitch. Approach people as you would in the real world - find out about their expertise and work experience. Identify areas where you can help each other.

Utilize these beginning 5 tips and you’ll be taking the first steps towards generating online leads and business. Next time I will share more particular insights on how you can significantly increase your online networking IQ.

How do I intend to achieve this goal? Well, by creating this blog, which I plan to contribute to monthly, I’m hoping to make you as familiar with UPworld as I am! So, to begin, I would like to first introduce myself.

My name is Christina Tu, and I am a third-year Electrical Engineering student at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Attending an academic institution at the cutting-edge of architecture, art, and engineering, I naturally gravitated towards a professional setting with the same aspirations.

At UPworld, I find that the most rewarding aspect of my job is taking an active role in the site’s innovative application of technology to the building process. Networking sites seem to be a dime a dozen nowadays, but UPworld remains distinct in its ability to bridge the fragmented building-related industries. With a professional focus that is neither too narrow nor too broad, UPworld is the perfect platform for professionals in real estate, planning, finance, development, design, construction, fabrication, and products.

As mentioned earlier, every month I will be adding an entry to my blog. Topics will range from Online Networking to Green Building to UPworld tutorials to Upcoming Events, and more.

Please post comments! I would really appreciate your feedback, as well as suggestions for future topics. Thanks!

We have the usual design, construction, real-estate crew making contacts, doing business and drinking $4 beers or $5 well drinks. Plus a whole new group of glamorous Asians is joining us!

Click here http://www.upworld.com/events/networking/UPworld-and-Oriented-Networking-Event
RSVP now and save money at the door. Only $5.

What with a rapidly globalizing economy and unprecedented Urbanization in the Far East surely this group will have a lot on interesting things to talk about!

Mixing UPworld professionals interested in design, construction and real estate with a group of Asian professionals with a global reach just makes a lot of sense.

For those interested in the future of how business is transacted Globally there will be strategic connections to be made on Thursday.

Oriented has simultaneous events in numerous cities around the globe on the last Thursday of every month. Check them out at www.oriented.com

Click here http://www.upworld.com/events/networking/UPworld-and-Oriented-Networking-Event/attendees
to see who is coming already. (put your photo up now so people can find you at the party!)

Click here http://www.upworld.com/events/networking/UPworld-and-Oriented-Networking-Event
to RSVP and save yourself $5 at the door (its $10 at the door, $5 if you RSVP).

Click here http://www.katranyc.com
to check out the venue. It’s easy to find. It’s on the Bowery between Rivington and Stanton Streets.

Or just show up.

I will be at the door to greet you!

We are excited to partner with Oriented and provide UPworld members with new networking opportunities to the Asian market. This UPworld-Oriented Happy Hour will be “simultaneously” held in more than ten cities around the world, providing international networking opportunities and global guanxi for all involved!

So RSVP to this event early. It will be $5 in advance, $10 at the door.

Check out our Event World space to sign up:

http://upworld.com/events/networking/UPworld-and-Oriented-Networking-Event

The New York event will be held at the Katra Lounge on the Bowery from 7-9 pm.

If you are at all interested in the Asian market, you can’t miss this event! To pique your interest, here are some interesting facts on the rapid urbanization and rate of development happening in China:

“By 2004, 183 of China’s 661 cities had plans to position themselves as ‘internationalized’ metropolises—modern cosmopolitan cities like New York, Paris, or Tokyo. . . It is now common for cities to seek to meet 20-year planning guidelines in as little as five years.” (Worldwatch.Org. Check out more: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4148 )

“The high and steady economic growth of China’s national economy has continuously fueled the development of cities. Today, about 660 cities accommodate more than 500 million people, which is about 40 percent of China’s 1.29 billion population.” (Unhabitat.Org. Check out more: http://ww2.unhabitat.org/hd/hdv10n1/17.asp )

We created Event World to help busy industry professionals like you maximize your return on attending an event. You can now come to UPworld prior to an event, find out who is coming, view each attendee’s professional profile, contribute to the online discussions, and view exhibitor’s portfolio images. Event World helps increase your opportunity to develop real business from an event!

We are offering this great new Event World feature in partnership with Conferences and Trade Shows. We have partnered with BuildingsNY and IIDEX to start with more to come. So if you are attending an event or planning one that you would like to have featured on Event World, just contact us.

And if you have any comments or suggestions for the new Event World space, just post them here and we’ll respond.

We are interested in writing about topics that you would find valuable. We are going to start by focusing on Online Networking, Best Business Practices, Sustainability & Green Issues, Trends, Collaboration, Web 2.0 & Social Media, and Industry News & Events. If you are interested in contributing to the UPworld Blog or have a topic you would like to see discussed, just contact us.

We are also going to be featuring Guest Bloggers each month who will share their Industry expertise and insight. So let us know if you have a Guest Blogger we should invite on! So check in with the UPworld blog regularly to find out about the latest news and features - and don’t forget to contribute too - just add your thoughts to any of the blog postings you find relevant to you and your business.

The article was entitled “UPworld.com Membership Passes 2,000 Mark.”

“RISMEDIA, April 14, 2008-The membership of UPworld.com - the first on-line professional networking community for the real estate, architecture, and construction industries - has reached 2,000. Announcing the milestone, Jennifer Magee, UPworld Co-founder and CEO, commented, ‘The explosive growth of the UPworld.com community has vastly exceeded our initial expectations. Since the network’s launch just nine months ago, our members have enthusiastically embraced the idea of professional on-line networking and taken advantage of the business, career, and social opportunities offered by instant access to representatives of all specialties in the real estate and building industries.’

Established in April of 2007, UPworld serves as both a real time social networking tool for professionals and a platform for knowledge exchange among experts that allows for easy and fast development of deals, projects, and advisory teams at virtually any location in the United States or overseas. UPworld connects representatives of all professions involved in the real estate, building, and design industries, which combined comprise the second largest industrial sector in the world, valued at $3.2 trillion annually.”