Archive for Networking
This past weekend I attended Podcamp Toronto. It was an amazing weekend, in part because of the people who were there and in part because I had a plan. I went into the weekend knowing what I needed to get out of the event and how to get it. My personal event strategy is one that can be used for any conference you may attend.
1. Choose Your Sessions
Unlike some conferences, at Podcamp you didn’t have to register for individual sessions ahead of time. Even so, I spend a good bit of time looking over the sessions and the speakers. Before I got there I had a list I really wanted to attend.
However, I didn’t carve that list in stone. I know from past experience that sometimes the best sessions are not the ones I was expecting. So I kept my ears open. There were a couple of sessions I attended solely because some else said the speaker rocked. In each case, they were right. Being flexible about the sessions made for a better weekend.
2. Plan Who To Meet
Registration for Podcamp is public – you name goes on a wiki when you register. There was also a LinkedIn group and Twitter hash tags for the event. In spite of this, I didn’t see anyone who I really felt I needed to meet.
However, I didn’t just throw up my hands. I decided one of my goals for the weekend was to meet five interesting people who I would want to contact later and continue the conversations we had.
Setting this goal was very important for me. Although many people who know me personally may not realize this, I’m actually very shy. My natural inclination is to sit in Read More→
I’ve been seeing a disturbing trend on LinkedIn; a trend that is making me angry. People are starting their relationship with me by lying.
Let me backtrack. LinkedIn has a much more rigid code of conduct than other social networking sites. On Twitter you can start following anyone you want: celebrities, politicians, brands, random strangers. It doesn’t matter how or if you know them. You can start following them and they don’t have to approve you.
Facebook is slightly more formal. While you can invite anyone to become Facebook “friends” they have to approve you before you can be connected. Slightly more formal than Twitter but less than LinkedIn.
However, on LinkedIn they’ve put up barriers that make it harder for you to connect with people. In order to send an invitation to connect, you must already have some sort of relationship with that person. You need to work together, belong to the same group, have worked at the same company at some point in your history. If you don’t have any commonalities in your profiles, you have the option of choosing “other” at which point LinkedIn will ask you for the person’s e-mail address. The idea is to cut down on SPAM and ensure your LinkedIn network is of true value to everyone.
That being said, it doesn’t mean you can’t connect with people you don’t are ready know on LinkedIn, it’s just a little harder to do.
On LinkedIn I’m what’s known as an Open Networker. I am happy to receive appropriate invitations from people I don’t already know. I like meeting other business professionals because I never know who will be my next great customer, a great referrer or who I might be able to help.
The problem is Read More→
If you are using Facebook as a business networking tool, you’re probably trying to build a broad online network. Many people on Facebook only connect with people they know in the real world. Business people who are using Facebook as a virtual networking meeting however, need to be more of an “open networker” rather than a “selective connector”.
If that’s the case, why would you ever “unfriend” someone?
I personally have only done it once. I received a very polite, and personalize friend request from a gentleman who seemed to be interested in business networking. After accepting his invitation I checked out his profile. He stated he’s looking for “sexually adventurous women”. I unfriended him immediately.
This got me to thinking. How many other people have “unfriended” someone? So I did what I always do when I have a business question. I got online, asked my Facebook friends, asked my Twitter friends and went to the ever trusty Google and “asked” it.
Liz Lynch wrote on her blog that she unfriended someone who “was trying to friend everyone and their brother by sending invitations to connect to people in my network (and who knows who else’s) without explaining how he knew them or why he wanted to be their friend.”
This harkens back to my number one advice when sending invitations on Facebook. Always include a personal note telling this person why you think you should connect. The is doubly true if you don’t know this person outside of Facebook
There are lots more stories of unfriending however. Read More→
One of the reasons social media has become so pervasive is that we all prefer to do business with people we know, like and trust. We’ve become suspicious of marketing and advertising; too often people don’t deliver what they promise. We can’t afford to spend our money on the unknown. But if I know you, I can trust my money won’t be wasted.
But we can’t always be intimate acquaintances of everyone we need to do business with. That’s where networking comes in. I may not know you, but if my friend Mary knows you and vouches for you, then I’m willing to trust that you’ll do what you say.
The internet changes networking – a little
However, the world has grown. As the internet makes Marshall McLuhan’s global village a reality, we want and need to do business with people who are further afield. We can’t meet everyone we do business with if sometimes they are in different cities, time zones, countries or even continents.
That’s where social media (also known as social networking) filled the gap. Read More→
