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About every two weeks, I have Skype meetings with the social media team of CISV International. It is usually during the afternoon for me, so that Jerry from Guatemala does not have to get up too early, and Angela from the Philippines does not fall asleep on the keyboard. We are of different age, different chapters in life, and we live in three completely different parts of the world.

I have been a member of CISV Sweden since 2005, when I went to Lyon, France through a program called Interchange. It was the first time I ever traveled without my parents. Instead I traveled with six friends my age, a “junior counselor” and an adult leader. I lived in a French boy’s house with his mother and sister, whom I had never met before. Four weeks (two in France and two in Sweden) later, I had grown from an insecure, shy boy who never talked to girls, into being able to actually have a conversation with girls my age. And I could do it in English as well! Pretty cool, huh?

In 2010, I was elected National Junior Representative (NJR for short) for CISV Sweden. With our several hundred “juniors” (members aged 14-27), it is a huge responsibility, and of course one of the most awesome experiences I have had. As an NJR, I’m constantly keeping track of all levels of the organization, and it’s giving me insight into how an international organization with nearly 60,000 members works.

So what is CISV? To put it into the Golden Circle à la Simon Sinek, starting with why:

• The organization strives to create peace through friendship.
• We try to educate and inspire our members (and others) to take action on any level, local through global, for a more just and peaceful world.
• This is mainly carried out through projects and camps all over the world, aimed at people ages 11 and up.

CISV is one of the most important parts of me, and the energy and passion I feel while working with all my volunteer colleagues all over the world is something I rarely get anywhere else!

Typical image from a Media Team meeting

Fun fact: While the average Facebook user has 130 friends, the average CISV member on Facebook has 390 friends. That’s the power of international friendship and social media!

This is what our weekly meeting looked like this morning. Croissants, a bottle of champagne, a lit candle, and most importantly: smiles and #high5 all around! Today, Awoque celebrates another great week of inspiring new meetings and great partners, both current and incoming.

Celebrating success is key for any company, business or organization. It’s important to be able to say “Good job!” and be proud of what you’re doing, because if you don’t feel good about your job, well, why would you do it?

Remember though, that celebration is something you want to do more than once. After a toast and a few minutes of fun, it was time for us Awoquians to get back to work! What are we working on at the moment? Keep an eye on our Twitter account and you will find out soon!

We have a had a lot of questions from clients, partners and prospective colleagues with regards to who we are and what we stand for. So we thought we would provide you with a snap-shot of Awoque.

How did these guys come up with the company name Awoque?

What’s in a name?

• Ahlén + Williams* recognize that social media begins with “Why”
• Evoke you
• QUE = we know “who” you should engage with online to create your ripple in the water effect

Why do we do what we do?

Because:

1. We believe in developing your organisation’s “Why”
2. We understand that fans are a brand’s best asset (pull not push)
3. It is about continual and sustainable community building

Our values

We work with great companies, in fun projects with inspirational people. Oh and we enjoy High 5 moments with our clients and fans.

So from all the team at Awoque, we trust this answered some of your key questions. If you have any more questions, by all means give us a call, we would be more than happy to hear from you.

PS Read this post from Social Factory as well on Social Media Experts (in Swedish)

*) Paul Williams founded the company with Victoria in August 2010 and was a part of its success until October 2011.

I was one of fifty bloggers invited to Lane Bryant Bloggers conference during Full Figured Fashion week in New York. It is no understatement to say that I was very excited to meet all my fellow bloggers/friends from other countries and they all looked fabulous of course!

At the fashion conference, I was eager to find out more about Lane Bryant’s and their collection for fall 2011. However, I was also very interested to see how Lane Bryant would communicate with their key influencer’s because a) it’s part of my job at Awoque and b) I like to think that my fashion blog(BeyondSizes) for plus size girls is somewhat influential.

Lane Bryant began in the early 1900′s and have been making clothes for a long time, so it’s true that they know what they are doing. As a brand they are constantly trying to improve their clothing lines for the plus sized girls. I like that and High 5 to them.

First up was Robert Rutkauskas, Director Trend and Color, followed by David Albow, Senior Design Director of Sportswear. They presented the up coming collection for the fall season and all got a good lesson in clothes fitting. We then had the pleasure of listening to Gill Heer, the Senior Designer and Director for Intimate Apparel. Gill, introduced the upcoming fall Cacique collection inspired by pin up style.

During the day Lane Bryant revealed some interesting information. The best news for me personally was that Lane Bryant will begin to ship their clothes internationally in September 2011. The event finished with a nice lunch, which also gave us a chance to mingled with the presenters and my fellow bloggers.

It was a good, professional event but Lane Bryant could have gotten so much more out of it. As a company Lane Bryant could have gotten information from their audience of key influencers that could be useful in social media, in future designs, marketing and importantly get insight into how to connect and engage with the plus size community.

So, if you have an upcoming event think about how you can use it to obtain valuable information for your brand, product and services through your fans?

If you want to more on how to use social media at your next event, give us a call.

Vårens andra månad igång. Min son kör aprilskämt om snö på marken innan jag fått upp ögonen. Kul Ute brister snart knopparna och det känns i hela kroppen.

Denna första nya dag på en ny månad blickar jag tillbaka på en vecka som innehöll massor med positivt för mig som person, oss som gött gäng på Awoque och för oss hemma som familj. Jag skickar ut tankar av High 5 och tacksamhet över alla dessa härliga människor och roliga projekt.
Nu pausar sociala mediafabriken en vecka för lite paus på varmare breddgrader på Riad Flam i Marrakech.

Just nu är det mycket spännande i görningen på många plan och timmen är sen. Fingrarna smattrar över tangentbordet sedan bra många timmar tillbaka och jag ska inte förneka att jag jobbar. Livet som entreprenör är så här ibland.

Mina drivkrafter är min nyfikenhet och en magkänslan som säger att det här är rätt väg att gå – härliga människor, roliga projekt med mycket “High Five”. Vilka är dina?

I somras lovade jag mig själv att köra, våga tro, verkligen tro på mig själv och bara göra. Jag är stolt över nuläget och är så tacksam för all fin feedback jag får längs vägen.

Du kan följa med virtuellt där jag är nu är, på Webcoast. Du kan delta, dela vår glädje och lära dig massor. Hur många High Five får vi till denna helg? Är du nyfiken, önskar att du var här, följ oss på Twitter #webcoast. Awoque och eWebbyrån finns i rosa soffa (från Smällkaramell).

Du har säkert en kandidat för vår tävling/jakt på en ung/ungt sinnad person som jobbar med sociala medier för samhällsnytta/social good. Tipsa mig här i kommentarsfältet eller på @victoriaahlen

Wow, what a week of “High Five” at the office -new team members recruited, new clients signed, many lessons learned. We will tell you more about them shortly.

Our Friday Fun this week is about that great laughter that I hope you share with your collegues, fans, clients and your family. These people enable your passion, enable your “High Fives” . I am so lucky to work with the greatest people to be found and smile as much as I do -thank you eWebbyrån, Cre8, Localito, Monica Mulder, Miku, Intro Inred and My Estate.

Next week, we will talk more on how to to enable B2B commuciations through social media, talk more about current business cases and share some more of every day experiences. I hope you will join us. Maybe we will actually meet up with some of you at Webcoast March 18-20 in Göteborg?

Enjoy the weekend! What were your highlights for this week?

Jag älskar att bli berörd. Få reagera. Både positivt och negativt. Jag gillar att få vara den jag är och stå för det jag gör. Vilken vecka det varit från den ena ytterligheten till den andra.

I somras skrev jag ett blogginlägg som hette “Nu kör vi“. Den varma försommardagen i juni lovade jag mig själv att verkligen göra det jag älskar – härliga människor, roliga projekt med mycket “High Five”. Jag lovade mig själv att jag skulle våga gå till ytterligheter. Ibland slå näven i bordet, ställa mig upp i en folkmassa och säga tvärtemot om så krävdes, allt för att skapa en positiv reaktion, skapa positiv utveckling.

I veckan har det varit starka känslor, mycket “High Five” med nya och befintliga kunder. Den vackraste och starkaste upplevelsen var ändå att äntligen få välkomna ett efterlängtat barn till några av mina nära vänner på Landvetter i onsdags kväll. Floder av tårar och lycka. Äntligen, rättvisa.

Var du än är vad du än gör. Jag lovar att det är värt det, att bestämma sig att köra. Njut av helgen.

Time to sum up another “High Five-week” at Awoque. Each day, we learn new things and evolve with them. That is what an entrepreneurial company does. We try though, to stay focused on great people, gathering positive energy, to deliver fantastic results . Then we shorten the link between our client’s and their fans through appropriate communication channels, social media tools and technical devices. But sometimes, just sometimes, funny things happen.

If you use a smartphone, you will know what I mean, especially if you have auto correct on. Sometimes the function helps a lot but sometimes (or even most times) it creates fuzz and misunderstandings. I have been frustrated many times since I recieived my Iphone on this point. However, I finally got the hang of it – simply tripple check everything you write

Here are some stories that show my point, enjoy and happy weekend ; )!