Develop Networking Relationships for Mutual Benefit

Building Networking Relationships

On the whole it could be said that the human race is by nature “Borderline Narcissistic”.

Generally speaking we enjoy knowing that the things we do make a difference, hope that people notice our achievements, possibly even envy our brilliance and agree with our opinions.

let’s face it, if this wasn’t the case would Social Media have become the phenomenom that it is today..?

Of course we all have the freedom to have our own opinions and some will go to great lengths trying to change peoples minds, open their eyes, show them the error in their ways, etc…

OK, so where are we going with this..?

Researching a person can go along way to help you understand more about them and any mutual reasons you both might have for connecting. This can be on a business or personal level, and avoiding or putting aside your own opinions in the early stages of a relationship can prove very beneficial in the long run.

Just like any relationship it takes time to build a mutual respect. As time goes on your differences will be of less significance and give you the ability to see how others approach business. This is a great way to help overcome issues in your business as well as helping others, after all the best relationships are a two way thing.

LinkedIn

If you’ve not got LinkedIn, get it, then connect with all the people you’ve just met. LinkedIn is based more on individual business people than a business as a whole and they may not be very active members but will almost certainly be on LinkedIn. It’s like a professional Facebook and can really go a long way in helping you and your business even if it’s just by referral.

Get Permission

Ask your connections if they would like to be added to the email listings? – Permission rather than just adding them to it, very important. Thank the event host Look for people who are influencers rather than just people who will hire you or you can hire.

Note down all those contacts you’ve met and where you met them.

When appropriate you can email people with useful content articles, for example if they, mentioned a problem to you, then if you send in some way an idea for a solution then it can be gratefully received as well as showing an interest in them.

Keep in touch

Don’t just think I’ve emailed once that’s me done. Make contact fairly regularly so that you are maintaining the relationship. When you go back to or go to another networking event, you’ll know more people so you’ll feel more comfortable, however though this is good for you it may not be good so far as your business is concerned.

Seek Out New Connections

Yes it’s important to maintain contact, say hello to those you have already met, however don’t spend all of your time with them! You’re networking to meet new people! I have to repeat that networking can be an increasingly uncomfortable experience, awkwardness can be currency of some events, but remember it’s not just you.

Don’t panic if someone doesn’t respond immediately or takes their time to respond, it doesn’t mean they’re not interested. The business world can be a busy place, it can take time to build trust so don’t just give up!

Keep reaching out..!

Networking Etiquette: Some Do’s and Don’ts

Networking Etiquette: Some Do’s and Don’ts

There is nothing like the inner fury of British people when the queue system is not adhered to. You’ve been there, seen the queue cutters, the queue ignorers and the very notion offends you. Why does it? It’s etiquette, an expected social norm. Not surprisingly then, networking has its own social norms and thus its own etiquette.

Networking etiquette can be divided into three categories. Before, during and after.

Before

Provided the event isn’t supplying a meal, eat before you go. You don’t want to be in the middle of a conversation when your stomach starts to emit a whale call, causing you to dive for the nearest peanuts and snacks. Additionally there’s nothing worse than being asked a question when you’ve stuffed your face with canapés.

Next, check yourself out! Make sure you’re presentable in every sense of the word, maybe smart and casual or suit and tie. Confidence is everything so preparation is key. It is imperative you arrive on time, fashionably late doesn’t fly at business events, even 7am ones! Do you want to be that person that walks in whilst the host is introducing the event..?

During

Don’t panic. Remember, you’re the boss. Set your handshake hand free and introduce yourself to someone with a smile; they’ll be grateful that you made the first move! However, be sure not interrupt anyone or attempt to join a conversation that is clearly intended to be private. Introduce yourself as a person with a history rather than a company with a sales pitch. There’s no you in networking, so don’t make it all about you. Listening is a highly valued quality you shouldn’t underestimate it. Treat people as people and not as objects. You’re not simply there to make your services known but to connect with others and see what services they have to offer you. People like to be called by their names, try your best to remember the name of the person you’re talking to. To make it easier some like to wear a name badge, this may work for you. It’s ok to apologise and ask again!

Do not; whatever you do, check your phone during a conversation, not even as an excuse to leave the conversation, its plain rude. Phone goes on silent..!

Speaking of exiting the conversation you need to do so gracefully. Don’t make an excuse and run off, unless you actually have a valid excuse to run off! Conversations do come to a natural end, its ok to want to go and meet more people, that’s the point after all. Phrases such as “Name, it was great to meet you, I know we’re both here to meet people so I won’t take up any more of your time” work really well. Or you can offer to introduce the person to someone else, which is mutually beneficial.

After

After the event, you’ll have big wedge of business cards, so why not connect with the people you’ve met at the event via email, social media maybe give them a shout out on twitter. This is a great way maintain casually with no pressure until you meet again. Networking is not a one-time thing; it’s a process which requires commitment.

If you’ve managed all this socialness give yourself time to recover; Netflix is wonderful for this.

Now get back out there you etiquette wizard you!

Which Networking Events are Best for You?

Which Networking Events are Best for You?

Ok, so you may decide, after an amount of deliberation, that networking is for you. You’re psyched up, you’ve told yourself you can do this, grabbed a handful of business cards and walked out the door.

This is a great, but wait..! Where are you going..?

Research the type of networking events available to you, where they are and who’s going. For example if you run a plumbing business it may not be effective to go to a wedding fair! You can start by Googling networking events in your area as well as contacting your local chamber of commerce to see what events they’re running.

Also, if you really want to get proactive you can join a local business organisation such as the local Trade Association for your industry. These organisations are tailored to certain demographics, such as Photography, I.T or Retail.

From these associations you can find out about events that might help grow your connections and your business. Networking takes patience. It takes time to build meaningful relationships which is why it’s so important to be committed to networking.

On the flipside don’t spread yourself thin and go to every event out there. We know, as business owners, that time is precious, don’t waste yourself on events that won’t be beneficial to you.

That is, be selective about which events you go to. Ask yourself questions such as: How will this event grow my business? Will I connect with new people that use my services? Will I be able to learn something from going? Will I be able to grow my business by using the services of other attendees..?

If the answer to all of these questions is no, skip it and order a pizza…

Networking events come in all shapes and sizes! As do businesses! If you’re a start- up company with a smaller budget you don’t want to be paying a high attendance fee just for one event. Find the right fit for you; there are loads of free or low cost networking events around where you can quiz the serial networkers for knowledge on what might work best for you.

Networking events take place at different times of the day, so whether you’re a morning person, an evening person or an all-day person there will be a networking event to suit you.

Is Networking Right for You?

Is Networking Right for You?

Networking: The Why

Networking. Do you feel it? The sheer horror at the thought of having to interact with people you don’t know. If you are hit by despair when confronted with a networking event, don’t worry you’re far from alone.

Though a slighted outdated phrase, who you know still holds precedence over what you know. As a business owner you will, without a doubt, be ambitious, intelligent and knowledgeable. That being said, so are your competitors. New businesses are opening all the time so your skills and knowledge may no longer be worth as much as they once were.

By networking successfully you set yourself apart from the crowd and show that you are a valuable contact. The most successful people are the most connected people. Having a large network means more people and ultimately more potential business. It may be a hurdle but it will be worth jumping.

 A networking event is a purely social arena and it is important to recognise that you’re there to be social! Often it is through informal interaction that we gain official contacts. Social conduct obviously is critical when networking. For example would it be rude to introduce yourself and talk about you and your business the entire time..?

 

If you’re not willing to listen then why should anyone listen to you. We need to focus on a relationship centred rather than self-centred. If we treat people as means to an end, then why should they treat you any differently?

By building genuine relationships with your contacts, they are more likely to spread the word about you and your business as well as referring business your way. 

So could networking help grow your business?

The Facebook Conundrum

The Facebook Conundrum

Ten years since Facebook began. Ten years and the world has been turned upside down.

Facebook has 1.2 billion users, over half of which log in every day. It is an intricate part of our lives, and it is almost impossible to conceive of a world prior to Facebook. I mean, what did we even do?

Facebook is the most searched term on the internet. The Facebook revolution has changed every single aspect of our lives. Everything we speak, think and do has been influenced and manipulated by Facebook and other social media platforms. Even if Facebook were to disappear tomorrow it wouldn’t matter, as we have all been inherently changed by it.

Every minute 100,000 friend requests are sent. Society as we know it is no longer the society we know. It can be argued, on many levels, that Facebook has to an extent replaced community, intimacy and yes, society itself. Back in the days we smiled when we liked something or rang a friend to update them on our lives, we lived in community with one another. Yet now we are inexplicably caught in isolation that expresses itself as a fully fledged community. In reality, though we appear to be interacting with our social networks, we are sat by ourselves tapping away at our keyboards.

Now don’t get me wrong it’s not all bad. Facebook has allowed us to connect with a whole range of people which has never before been possible. That old childhood friend you wished you’d kept in contact with, or the pen friend across the world, these are all people you can reach at the click of a button. We have larger and more diversified social networks, we are ridiculously connected and can use social media platforms to implement real change in the world.

However it is now increasingly important to remember your organic connections. Facebook though societal in structure, should not act as a form of replacement, rather an add on that intensifies our social networks.

To read the second part of this article, click here..

Why we need to learn to love someone else’s…

Why we need to learn to love someone else’s worm

Do you think we live in a very ‘me’ centred world, where the focus is upon the ‘I’ in so much of what we say and do?

With so much attention given to being fitter, stronger, better looking, more prosperous etc etc, it’s easy for us to be that way.

But how does the ‘me’ & ‘I’ culture translate into the way we market our businesses? Are we more concerned with getting attention than giving attention?

The ‘me’ culture is perhaps most visible when businesses try to market themselves through social media.

Sometimes social media is called social networking, but true networking is often well off the agenda. Social ‘broadcasting’ is perhaps a better description.

Face to face or in your face?

Imagine a face-to-face business networking meeting where someone comes in and all they do is talk about themselves or their products and services all of the time. Rather than drawing interest and positively influencing the behaviour of the potential customers they court, their ‘in your face’ approach will very quickly turn them away.

The same can happen online. Through social media we see a world of opportunities where our marketing messages have the potential to reach far and wide with little cost or effort. But all we create is noise. No one wants to listen because we are not listening. No one wants to engage in conversation with us because we are not engaging.

It’s a bit like strawberries and worms – they don’t go together, but worms and fish do.

Fish prefer worms

Born in 1888, Dale Carnegie was the son of a poor farmer with few prospects to be successful. But Carnegie made a way for himself first through sales and then through teaching about public speaking, later leading to him becoming an author.

One of the central ideas Carnegie taught and which proved successful for him is that it is possible to positively influence other people’s behaviour towards you by changing your behaviour towards them. By following this principle online in social media and paying attention to the conversation of others ahead of our own, we can positively influence the attention we receive from others towards us.

In his best selling book of 1936, “How to win friends and influence people”, Carnegie wrote:

“I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So when I went fishing, I didn’t think about what I wanted. I thought about what they wanted. I didn’t bait the hook with strawberries and cream. Rather, I dangled a worm or grasshopper in front of the fish.”

So, yes, fish prefer worms. What is it your customers prefer? What will the focus of your next conversation be? Don’t let it be you.

We need to learn to love someone else’s worm.

What is the missing ingredient in your online marketing?

What is the missing ingredient in your online marketing?

The business world is ever changing. It’s hard to keep pace. Yet, for businesses wanting to promote their products or services online there has never been a time where it’s been possible to reach so wide and so far. We have the potential for more connections and more opportunities than ever before.

So what next?

With all of these new possibilities, it is very easy to get caught up in technique and technology and forget that at the end of any promotional communication we make there will be a person. That person is also more empowered than they have ever been. They too have more connections. They have more choice and therefore as a buyer they can be more independent and ignorant of your online marketing messages.

Yet, there is a secret sauce, a special elixir that will give your online marketing an extra dimension and added spice and make your marketing much more effective.

Actually, to be truthful, it’s not really a secret and in case you think it’s the next new thing to hook your marketing into, it’s not new either. BUT, it is very important!

What is it?

RELATIONSHIP…

Yes, that’s it. Was that disappointing to you? I’m sorry to let you down. When you read the headline to this article, were you perhaps a little optimistic, expecting to be given an inside track on something new to keep you a step ahead of the field?

Like I said, it’s not new. In fact, relationship been around since the beginning of time, but actually it is something that is badly missing from a lot of today’s online marketing. So, maybe, in terms of something to keep you a step ahead of your competitors, this is your missing ingredient.

We are hard wired

Relationship is in our DNA. It’s an essential part of the way we are made. We are hard wired for relationship.

Almost everything we do involves relationship in some way. Just think about your day so far. Whether you have been at home, in the office, out at the shopping centre, surfing the web or checking social media, you have almost certainly been making connections or having conversations.

Yes, of course, those connections and conversations have been on different levels. In terms of defining them as relational, some may have been close, some more distant, some even remote, but each connection you make, every conversation you are engaged in, involves you in relationship at some level and in some shape or form.

How do you feel?

Whether we realise it or not, the output of every relational connection we make provokes an emotional response in us.

How did the last one make you feel? Happy, sad, optimistic, pessimistic, confident, discouraged, frustrated, supported? Insert your own list here…

But how does all of this relate to business and in particular, how you can better market your business online?

Customer Service because customers care

In an age where consumers buying power is probably more powerful than it has ever been, a lot of marketing is focused on competitive pricing. However, a survey conducted by Oracle of 1400 online European shoppers found that 81% (that’s 4 out of every 5 people) would be willing to pay more for better customer experience.

The fact is customers care. It matters to customers, even when online, how they feel. As a result, many larger brands today have dedicated customer service departments. They have learned that customers care and what customers say and do as a result of their engagement with that company can impact their future business.

But a lot of times customer service is seen as what happens after an event, it’s retrospective, maybe dealing with how a problem is resolved. That’s not to say that isn’t important. Of course it is, but what about before the customer even came on the horizon, when in sales terms they were just a prospect? That sounds kind of cold, doesn’t it, and where is the relationship in that?

Building customer relationship into your online marketing

Just because a potential customer is remote, even a speck on our marketing horizon that doesn’t mean we should be disengaged in the way we try to reach them. In fact, with the Internet and social media, much of a customer’s connection with our business will come long before any direct connection with them. So, the better we can make that, the more relational in a postive way it is for that customer, the better it will be.

People buy from people, they know, like and trust.

That’s a saying I have heard a lot. No doubt, it’s been around a long time, but as a principle, it’s been around since trade began and it’s something that should be woven into the way we market our business online.

Opinions matter

As people we are quick to form opinions. There’s a saying that we should always trust our first impression. Whether we can genuinely always trust that, I’m not so sure. If we are truthful our first impressions of someone are often wrong, but in business, perhaps most often with our marketing, we only get one chance to influence the opinion a customer makes of us. It’s true that you never get a second chance to form a good first impression.

So, with our online marketing, it’s through the way we communicate with customers that they form an impression about our business and the seed of their relationship with us is sown. What will that mean for your business?

How does your marketing communication make your potential customers feel?

Why social media for business is broken and how…

Why social media for business is broken and how you can fix it

These days, even if you are not involved in social media, hardly a news bulletin is broadcast or newspaper published without all of us hearing some reference to the subject.

We tend to think of social media as a modern phenomenon, but in fact social media has been around a lot longer and actually the principles of the why and how of social, really date back to the dawn of the human race.

The problem is, as we look at what we call social media today it, in many cases, when we use it for business, bears no resemblance to what the market traders of old knew to mean “social”. Instead social media for business has become something we do rather than what we are and because of that much of what we call social media in this context is broken.

Social media broadcast

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+ and the “Uncle Tom Cobley and All” social media channel, all offer us an opportunity to engage, to converse, to share, to know and be known. But the problem is, with social media for business, many want to bypass the preliminaries and just shortcut to being known.

There is lot of talk of the importance of social media engagement, but in practice, what is seen more often is social media broadcast. It shouldn’t be that way. It’s rather like as people, when we get behind the wheel of a car in busy traffic; our personality changes. In the fast lane of social media, we forget who we are.

Let’s take ourselves out of the fast lane of the Internet for a moment and think about how we should communicate offline. Social media is often called social networking. So, let’s consider how you would behave and expect to be successful in an offline, face-to-face business networking meeting.

Rules of engagement

Imagine turning up to the meeting, dressed appropriately. Everything is set. You walk into the room. What do you see? People are talking to each other. Sharing business experiences. Listening. Learning. Making small steps to know and be known. If you are new to the group, you introduce yourself to people and make sure you are attentive to the dynamics of how people are conversing.

A guy enters the room. He is carrying a large and important looking bag. He opens it and out falls lots of his “stuff” – the things his business sells, his products and services. He’s there to meet lots of people, but he’s not really interested in joining the conversations. He pretends to listen, but he really wants to present his stuff. He wants to arrange a meeting with you. To help you solve a problem you haven’t got. He’s not listening.

It’s an awkward scenario. Everyone in the room feels uncomfortable. Many try to be polite, but everyone wants to distance themselves.

OK, I may be talking in extremes, but if you have ever been to a face-to-face business networking meeting you may have experienced something of the awkwardness when someone doesn’t follow the unwritten ‘rules’ of what it means to be social and is proven to work.

Taking this back to the online world of social media/marketing/networking for business; are we like the man with the bag? Are we fast tracking our stuff, in people’s faces promoting it all the time, but not really engaging with anyone?

This is very important…

The role of social media in semantic search

In the developing semantic web, where the connections between people will become as important if not more so than the connections between websites and web content, social media will be an essential component to marketing your business online. However, for social media to work for business in the social web, we need to learn to be better at being social online than doing social.

Author and social media speaker, Neal Schaeffer, uses the phrase, “New tools, old rules”. Social media opens up fantastic possibilities for business, but whilst the tools are new, the old rules of social engagement are as relevant today as they have ever been. Just as in the offline face-to-face networking world you earn credibility and favour as people begin to know, like and trust you, so it needs to be like that online. We gain authority within our business sector when others authenticate not only what we say as a result of the conversations we have, but also who we are. This is not one-way traffic. As we engage with others, so they will engage with us, and it is through the authenticity of our online conversations and behaviour within the ‘social layer’ of the semantic web, that positive signals are sounded both with those we network with, but also in semantic search.

Social changes everything

In the days pre-dating Semantic search this didn’t matter so much for your business. Whilst the dynamics of how social media for business worked (or rather should have worked), haven’t changed, it wasn’t as important. Apart from people clicking through to your website from links you posted in social media; your website, in the most part, ranked because of other factors such as how well optimised the pages were for keywords and how many vote-like links they received from other websites.

With semantic search, what will work has changed. David Amerland, in his book, Google Semantic Search, talks about how the Internet has shifted from a Web of websites to a Web of people where the authentication of your website and its content by Google comes from the outside.

David says that Google’s evaluation regarding the quality of a website still involves links, “but also the way those links are created in social media networks, how they are shared, by whom, what the person is known for generally, how widely they share those links, and what happens to them once they are shared.” (Google Semantic Search, pg. 112)

How you act and engage online in social media matters because it affects how the Web of people engages with you and how they come to know, like and trust you and what you have to say, not only in social media, but through the content you produce.

Social in the new town square

These principles, as we have seen, are not new. They have been played out offline in the business world ever since there was trade, in town and village squares, at least that is until the advent of the 20^th century, when big brands came into prominence and the loudness of their voice conveyed an expectation of authority.

But as we enter the new age of semantic search, a shift has taken place and a new currency valued on trust has been minted. We have returned to an age where smaller businesses, and more importantly (remembering what was said above), people from smaller businesses online, can shake hands, engage and begin to make valuable connections with other people and potential customers – from anywhere.

In this new age of semantic search, a new town square of social media has been constructed and it is shrinking our world. You need to be there!

This is the third in a series of three articles on semantic search:

• • Will you be ready for Semantic Search in 2014?
  • Why great website content is critical for semantic search
  • Why social media for business is broken and how you can fix it