After you meet someone for the first time, you should immediately write some notes on the back of this person’s business card. It is important that you remember some key take-aways from your conversation. Things to write down could be the person’s birthday, family information, interests, or Website mentioned. Read more at networkinginsight.com (also check the comment below the article about Asia).

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.

ROR - “Return On Relationships is about maximising your Reputation in the Marketplace through the effective use of your network of contacts - and vice versa. It’s about building a network of people you Like, Trust and Respect, who will advocate you - and you them.” Writes Mr. Murray on his blog

Here is a few more good tips from Return on Relationships:

ROR as a Sales Tool
making yourself memorable – helping people to remember who you are and what you do….. if you want them to help you, you have to help them(!) and the first step is being memorable……Let’s face it, if I can’t remember who you are and what you do, how am I ever going to recommend you? Even worse, if you tried a hard-sell on me, even if I remember the horrible experience, why would I recommend you anyway……?

ROR – The Essential Elements for Success

1. A clear personal proposition
It’s important that people you meet and network with, both face-2-face and online “get you” – understand who you are and what you stand for. This is basically your Personal Brand.
2. A clear value proposition
If people are going to recommend you, they obviously need to understand what you do, what you’re good at.
3. Invest Your Time Wisely
“Like, Trust and Respect”, it’s critical that you invest your time with people who fulfil these criteria and, if your network’s any good, there should be a steady stream of new people being introduced to you by others who already meet the “standards”.
4. Make the effort with everyone you meet
In the same way you are always improving your own messages and your network, take the time to do the same for others – help them with their propositions and share your experiences to ensure that they remember you and feel they gained value from your time.
5. Invest time in maintaining your network
Updating, refreshing, cleansing and contacting your network should be something you actually spend time on and schedule into your diary on a regular basis. Remember that your network can become the vehicle that carries you throughout your career – like any vehicle, the better you look after it, the more reliably it will serve you.
6. Your network is your Route to Market
You should never consider your network to be your market, it is your route to market – never try to sell to your network……. If you explain what you do and someone wants to buy, that’s different! But don’t SELL! You are unlikely to make an advocate of someone you have “pitched” and lost.
7. Network internally as well as externally
Networking is just as important inside your organisation as it is outside, whether you’re an employee, contractor or consultant. Take the time to build strong relationships and to assist people whenever you can. The better people understand what you do (and you, them) the more effective and valuable you will be within that organisation.

I can recommend spending some time reading Rory Murray’s blog, he has a lot of good networking Need to Know advice.

PairUp matches business travellers headed to any destination.

How it works? Members start by uploading their current contacts from Outlook or other contact management tool they use, and can build their network from there. When planning a trip, users enter their travel data: departure and arrival dates and cities, and if relevant, the trade show or conference they’ll be attending. They can then select the contacts they’d like to track or meet up with: people in the destination city at the same time, those attending the same event, flying on the same day, or working for a specific company or in a particular industry.

Before you book your next trip, check Top 10 Business Travel Gadgets and get it cheaper and upgraded with Travel Tips & Tricks.

Have you ever accepted an invitation for an event and then just few hours before, something comes up and you can’t make it. Now you are in trouble, because how are you going to explain this to the person who invited you, and still be cool? Mr. Tannebaum gives some good tips on how to “Blowing Off An Event Without Looking Like A Complete Loser” Read the 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 15 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.

“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

When companies experience organizational pain, their first response is often a structural fix, such as decentralizing, breaking down silos, or shifting to a matrix organization.

* Many such efforts have only limited success because formal organizational charts mask the invisible networks that employees use to get things done.
* Investing time and energy to understand networks can help companies measure the effectiveness of major initiatives and make organizational changes stick.
* In many cases, a key to success is focusing on “brokers,” who serve as bridges across a number of subgroups in a network and are easy to overlook because they occupy the “white space” of organizations.

Read the complete article by subsribing to the The McKinsey Quarterly

When building the foundation for your network, remember to always focus on one very important word “help”, this is the part which will define the success of your network and put the word ‘work’ in ‘network’ to its test. There are three fairly simple rules which revolve around “help”, in becoming a successful business networker:

1. Forget about yourself at network events. Talk as little about yourself as possible, even when asked about what you do, keep to your 30 seconds elevator pitch and then asked sincerely and interested to what the other party does.
2. Genuinely care about helping others. When you positively care about helping others, you start learning as much about their business to see how you can help. You start asking questions. You start learning about his competitors, customers, employees. As a genuine networker, you’re driven to help others reach their goals.
3. Provide value. Now that you understand the other persons business needs, you can start helping him/her generate value. That could be taking time to personally introduce key people, help with a business proposal free of charge, or something as simple as emailing relevant article links to help their business. The key is to provide value, freely.

Follow these simple rules, and you will soon experience the very essence of the win-win philosophy. The great thing about human nature is, we always return favors. So the secret to a successful network is to just that, helping people.

DABGO is a free network, where helping is the key foundation and the main reason for the network’s increasing popularity.

If you want an example of how not be, then read this post at Okdork.com

Everybody, networking will benefit the company and employees and it can be used at all levels. Executive officers should focus on understanding how they, and the company’s employees, can benefit from the use of the network. People can achieve extraordinary results when they team up with other people and engage in active networking. The skills in networking will also add value to the management of social capital within an organization. It should be managed and funnelled through the organization not only by the CEO, but also by functions like “VP of Business Development,” “Director of Human Resources,” “Chief Information Officer,” and “Business Relationship Manager.”

As evolving companies begin to better manage their social capital and understand the value of tapping into the networks of their employees, changes will take place. Major considerations when hiring will be based upon whom the prospective hires know. Networking skills will become a new “must-have” for getting the best jobs, as computer skills have been it for many years.