The acclaimed queen of networking Jill Lublin who phrased the sentence “It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you”, has put together some amazingly simple tips on how to work your next networking function, take a look at the article, called The Anatomy of Networking Events.
Meetup.com helps people find others who share their interest or cause, and form lasting, influential, local community groups that regularly meet face-to-face.
I recommend that you sign up to the meetup.com list in your city. It’s a great way to meet new people and broaden your professional and personal network. If you cannot find a group that has your interest, then create your own.
Networking and gaining new knowledge is all about thinking outside the box, and doing something you might not usually do. So go meet up…
The following is an excerpt from The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online, a new book from David Teten and About.com Entrepreneurs Guide Scott Allen on building business relationships online.
How to Use Online Networks for Marketing
Here are some of the ways that you can use social networks to market your company and you:
Research your market. You have two ears and one mouth; listen more than you talk. Through participation in these communities, companies can learn about consumer interests and reactions with a candor rarely found in focus groups and surveys.
Create Competence. If becoming an expert in your field is part of your marketing strategy, social networks give you a much more accessible outlet than the media. You can speak up in a mailing list, discussion forum, or blog, and reach hundreds or thousands of people. Say something useful, original, and profound, and you will get quoted and linked to, reaching even more people.
Build and reinforce your brand. Every signature in an e-mail or on the Web, and every profile online, is an opportunity to reinforce your brand.
Unveil a human voice. Networked markets demand openness from the companies who want to sell into those markets. Organizations should have more people participating virtually than just professional marketers. A happy employee is a more powerful brand evangelist than almost anyone in Marketing. This is one reason why Microsoft has approximately 1,200 bloggers out of 55,000 employees.
Associate yourself with a not-for-profit cause. People are much more willing to gather around a cause than a company.
Microtarget. If you have identified a particular narrowly-defined groups to target, the odds are good that you can identify a virtual community where they are already gathered. Are you selling consulting services to independent bookstores? If it doesn’t already exist, just create a virtual community for your target pool, seed it with your closest relationships, and watch it grow.
Ignite word-of-mouth buzz. If you have a new product or service, word-of-mouth—satisfied customers talking about you—is one of the most effective ways to establish your Competence. Word-of-mouth flows through social networks; Leaders of networks are excellent lighthouse customers. If the most prominent blogger in your field likes what you sell, you will create a powerful evangelist.
A common mistake many marketers make when dealing with online communication is in thinking that it can be turned on and off like an advertising campaign. Online networks are generally not very receptive to marketing messages from brand new members. You must earn the right to talk about your product through participation in and contribution to the community. Similarly, you cannot simply leave when the campaign is over, or you will be seen as shallow and a “user.” People do not want to be used; please do not use people.
Most people acknowledge that networking - creating a fabric of personal contacts to provide support, feedback, insight, and resources is an essential activity for an ambitious manager. Indeed, it’s a requirement even for those focused simply on doing their current jobs well. For some, this is a distasteful reality. Working through networks, they believe, means relying on who you know rather than what you know, a hypocritical, possibly unethical, way to get things done.
But as INSEAD’s Herminia Ibarra and Mark Hunter point out in this article published in the Harvard Business Review (January 2007), even those who understand that networking is a legitimate and necessary part of their job can be discouraged by the payoff because they are doing it in too limited a fashion. On the basis of a close study of 30 emerging leaders, the authors outline three distinct forms of networking.
Read the short version at the Havard Business Review or the complete article here.
Having an updated contact list of everybody in your network is crucial to stay connected. Linkedin does a great job at enabling online networking and staying updated on where your contacts work, how their experience progresses and who is in their network. But one thing is lacking, and that is fully updated contact information. Plaxo is the perfect solution, and with 30 million users, it is a tested technology. Go to www.plaxo.com and sign up for a FREE basic account and get the following benefits:
- Update your address book when friends change their contact info
- Update friends’ address books when your contact info changes
- Sync your contacts, calendar, tasks, notes across Plaxo-enabled applications
- Get reminded of a friend’s birthday just a few days before
- Receive a Plaxo alert whenever a contact’s info has changed
And be sure to install the Plaxo Toolbar for Outlook, it works great. It keeps your Outlook and Outlook Express address books up-to-date. Install the Plaxo Toolbar on multiple computers. Syncs your address book, calendar, tasks and notes everywhere. You can build your address book from sent and received e-mail. Now, Plaxo members can detect AIM presence information from Outlook.
Never heard of this C-Title, don’t worry it is still taking its first baby steps towards acceptance. But the concept is interesting and worth considering, maybe not as a full-time functions, but as a focus area for the executive officers, to better understand how networking can be used at all levels of the company and to the company’s benefit. Read more about the CNO at thenationalnetworker.com
When looking to join a business networking group, keep in mind that in most cities you’ll have many different options to choose from. You can generally divide the choices into seven different groups, however, which will make your final decisions much easier to make. See the groups here.
In an article written on ABC News, Tory Johnson writes about taking control of your digital identity. Create a free digital identity to advance your career. By raising your online profile, you can make yourself more employable. If you’re an employee or entrepreneur looking for a job, a promotion, new clients or better business opportunities, there are several smart ways to create and enhance your digital identity.”
Tory gives some good tips:
Three tips for maximizing your success with LinkedIn:
1. Select “full view” of your “public profile.”
2. Claim a “vanity URL” using your name.
3. Invite friends and/or desired professional contacts to link to you.
- create a free profile at ZoomInfo.com
- Subscribe to Google alerts
- Create a blog
- Post expert opinions
Read the reasons behind the above tips and more at ABC News
At DABGO we hope that 2007 has been a successful and wonderful year for you and your loved ones. Now is the time of year to make your New Year resolutions, and in addition to your goals for your personal life and work life. I have created a list that will make 2008 a successful networking year.
1. Get to know your network better - You cannot even begin to network, unless you know who is in your network. Make a complete list of everyone in your network, that being family, friends, coworkers, sports, organizations and online communities etc. Make notes on everything relevant you know about each person. If you have people in your online network that you do not know that well, then write them an e-mail and get updated on their current agenda. Know understand and appreciate your value to the people in your network. We all have unique interests, talents, and experiences which can be used to help others. Revel in knowing that you can touch the lives of everyone you meet if you are prepared to share your knowledge and resources with them.
2. Make introductions – When you meet new people or existing contacts, then ask them about their current challenges and then think creatively and remember what other contacts have told you about their business and expertise. If no one in your network comes to mind, then write down the challenges and keep it on your desk for a few weeks, in case you should stumble upon a possible candidate that can help. Use the new e-mail feature on Linkedin to make the introduction. You can get instruction on how here…
3. Update your Linkedin profile - So that it matches your skill set and experience. You can get some tips & tricks on how to update your profile by Linkedin employees here…
4. Arrange a lunch, dinner, event, meet-up for coffee etc. - Create an event for the local DABGO members where you live. Take the network offline locally, and connect in person with other members. A big part of networking effectively is keeping you visible. People will see you as a connector if you hold your own event.
5. Budget time for networking - Networking will not pay off instantly. So make a networking schedule (goal) for yourself that fits your schedule. Here are some examples of what could be included:
• Reach out to “X number” of people in your network via e-mail and phone every
• Have lunch with “X number” of new contact/s every month
• Have lunch with X number old contact/s every month
• Attend “X number” of networking event/s every month
• Check the www.dabgo.com site “X number” of times every month for new articles and your local network websites for upcoming events.
6. Pace yourself - Get involved in online and offline networking groups and communities at a pace that you can maintain. It is better to get involved gradually than to make a big splash and then fade away. Let your involvement and presence is a process that grows in momentum, visibility and value over time. This gives you and others a chance to develop trust and rapport. It doesn’t matter what you decided to do to get yourself noticed. Just do it, and do it consistently. You’ll find it’s a low cost way to build your business; you’ll learn a lot from others and have fun at the same time.
7. Your Introduction - Plan and practice your introduction of yourself and your company, also known as the elevator pitch. Check this YouTube movie on what an elevator pitch is here… (it is meant for venture capital, but works for any product or service pitch to a potential customer or network contact to understand your business)
Also check the following link to a fast pitch approach to generate interest here…
8. Follow up – Very few people follow up when meeting a new person and receiving a business card or contact details. Make sure to follow up within 24 business hours it will make you stand out, and increase your credibility. Your follow-up displays your level of commitment to relationships.
9. Help DABGO grow – The strength of DABGO will have a direct or indirect impact on the opportunities and wisdom you will receive in return from the network. So please go through your contact list and see if there should be any Danes living abroad or living in Denmark with two or more years abroad. Please send them the www.dabgo.com link and invite them to the network, or send me their names and e-mail addresses and I will do it for you.
10. Recommend a person - Write a Linkedin recommendation for a colleague or business partner that you value. It is a great way to say that you appreciate the person. A public recommendation is much better that sending flowers or wine with a card. It will also last longer and strengthen your connection with that person. Get some tips & tricks on how to write a recommendation here…
“Haven’t made a dime on LinkedIn? A lot of people on LinkedIn haven’t made a dime from it. Chances are you haven’t made anyone else money either. In expanding your network, the main point is to help you phone or meet someone who may be able to help you in whatever it is you are trying to do. The flip side is you need to help others meet their needs too. Until you think of helping others get what they want, you won’t likely get what you want.”
Read the rest of this interesting article posted on lifehack.org
