Earlier this month I talked about networking being key if you want to become a well known blogger, on another blog of mine called Blab Web. Networking goes more for than just blogging, if you want to become well established and known.
“What is key in order for people you network with to care enough to listen to what you have to say?”
Most of the time, people who meet up, will probably exchange business cards or phone numbers and be out of contact for a long period of time. This is probably the most worthless type of networking because there is no follow-up contact, basically making the connection between two individuals virtually worthless. There should always be contact between people you meet, so by keeping touch with them, they are of value to you and vice versa. When there is follow-up discussion with anyone you network with, they will be interested in knowing what you are working on and will look into it. In the long run, you have to get to know people at a personal level, with a personal touch in order to get the most out of networking.
"Where are awesome places to get to know people?"
- Conferences
- Meetings
- Over Social Networks
- Creating a Blog (Web Identity)
- Charity Fundraisers
Depending on what kind of business you are involved in, there may be numerous conferences that you can attend to get to personally interact with other people in your industry. The cost of attending some conferences can be expensive, but there are probably some inexpensive ones in your industry as well. It might take a little research to find the right ones, but you never know what kind of connections you will be able to establish with new people in your industry. You might narrow down conferences to attend, by finding out which key players in your industry are attending and attend the same ones.
Company or work related meetings can be also another great way to connect with people that you may or may not know already. Even though, you may know of someone working with the same company as yours, you may not have gotten to know them more in detail yet. Meetings are great to find out more about the people you work with; not closely, but in the same company.
Social Networks such as MySpace or Facebook and even microblogging platforms such as Twitter are great place to informally get to know people. Adding a friend to Facebook or MySpace might be if you already have interacted with them previously, so it may not be appropriate in some cases, but following someone in the same industry as you on Twitter, might be the first step to breaking the ground. I wrote a post on how bloggers can actually use Twitter to drive quality traffic to their sites before. Twitter can be great to informally start conversing with numerous people at the same time. Many people might start following you and you can probably get to know them more personally over a period of time. When you already establish connections over social networks, it is much more interesting to talk to the same people when you meet them at conferences.
I don’t know how many of you reading this don’t blog, but creating one can definitely help in identifying you on the web. I originally started blogging because I wanted to create a web identity for myself that people can keep in touch with me over, as well as me being able to share some thoughts. Instead of people getting to know me for a venture that I am involved in, then forgetting me after I sell a venture or move on from it, a blog will always have a connection to me.
Charity fundraisers can be a phenomenal way to converse with people that may or may not be in the same industry as you. Everyone at fundraisers support a cause and it is great to start discussing how the fundraiser is related to each individual. Whether it is through work or a personal connection, most people at fundraisers have a connection or reason for being there. Some of my greatest connections to people have come from fundraisers and I still keep in touch with the people who I’ve met because of fundraisers.
Maybe not all the ways here are for you. I network using all of these ways and find every way extremely useful for creating different types of connections to numerous people. My question to you: “How do you network?” Leave your thoughts on your favorite way to network with others or add any other way of networking you feel works.
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