Many people turn to networking when they’re looking for a job, but the best time to build your network is before you need something; and the best time to keep that network strong is always.
Q.) But what is the best way to do that?
- Simply collecting business cards.
- Attending events may expand your number of contacts.
- You must know how to make your network work for you.
- How you can work for your network.
- Interact frequently.
“People tend to forget about the importance of long-term credibility because they’re so focused on making an immediate sale,”
Experts Say:
“You should always ask new contacts to tell you about a business challenge they are confronting,” “That way, you might know someone who can help, and that’s the start of a relationship.”
“Failure to live up to expectations — to keep both explicit and implicit promises — can kill a budding relationship before it breaks through the ground,” he warns.
Networking well makes for a brighter future, “People tend to forget about the importance of long-term credibility because they’re so focused on making an immediate sale,” “But with that approach, you only eat what you kill that day.” Focus on becoming known and trusted instead; a long-lasting relationship is more beneficial to both parties.
“Favorite follow-up methods is to send someone a relevant article, photo, anecdote, marketing tip, or other resource via email,”
Make People Know You
It’s not enough to be an expert on something if nobody knows you well enough to think about calling you. Creating an inviting image for yourself can generate business and opportunities.
While Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other online networking sites can become time drains, online networking is useful for strengthening connections. By posting Facebook or Twitter links to relevant articles, you can provide value to your virtual friends and show your engagement with pertinent business issues. Writing original articles or posting commentary keeps you on other people’s minds and enables them to see how involved you are in your industry. It is an efficient way to continue a relationship with those you know.
But online communication is not enough, especially for newer contacts. The true benefit is that it often leads to in-person contact because people feel more comfortable initiating a meeting with someone they “know” electronically. It’s especially important to seek and accept face-to-face meetings with newer contacts because technology can never match a human connection. In-person check-ins are useful for contacts you already know too, but given people’s busy schedules, it is most pressing to push for personal meetings with contacts you haven’t spent much time with outside of a group gathering.
Grow and Maintain the Network
In building your network, Professor Contractor believes that it’s vital to reach out to a diverse pool of people. Those who come from different fields, different socio-economic backgrounds, and different countries can offer creative solutions and contacts that a colleague in the neighboring cubicle cannot.
Contractor has his students engage in the following exercise to assess how well a person maintains her network: Students come up with a list they call their Board of Directors, a roster of people they know whom they can call up on important professional matters. Contractor then prompts his students to write out who introduced the people on the roster to the student. “They will discover that, often, there are just a handful of people who introduced them to the most important people in their lives,” he says. “These are people who ought to be cultivated because they are helping to broaden a network. One must make sure to continue to connect with those people.”
Some of Contractor’s students go through this exercise and find that they have been introducing themselves to their most valuable contacts. “That’s not a good sign,” Contractor says. “That means you’re not using your network well and you’re not tapping into the virtuous cycle.”
Principles to Remember:
Do:
- Be genuine to gain credibility and keep long-term relations
- Feed the network (via Twitter, Facebook, emails, etc.) to pass on useful information and show you are engaged
- Offer to help using humor and tact
Don’t:
- Focus on getting something from a new contact immediately
- Hide behind technology and avoid face-to-face networking
- Forget to read your audience and provide a personal approach
Source: http://bit.ly/Niftydirect
