“Your network is your net worth” is one of my favorite quotes to say whenever I’m doing talks to colleges and companies. Networking leads to new connections, that can lead to clients, new business opportunities, mentorships and more. Here are seven tips to make you think you’re networking and believe you’re connecting people.
- LinkedIn activity – LinkedIn isn’t what it was years ago, a job hunting social media platform. It has become the facebook for professionals and business minded people. When people go to LinkedIn, it’s to be on a professional mindset, not to be entertained or just have fun. It’s less crowded than most social platforms. Make sure your profile has a nice professional looking headshot of you and you alone. None of those cartoonish pictures or a picture of your basketball idol or you with your significant other. Write a catching summary of what you do on the bio, then take advantage of the site’s ability to find connections via email. Your goal is to post content that is a piece of the industry news at least once every day, follow people you admire, request to connect with people in the same industry as you and engage in the posts of people that show in your feed. I went from less than 300 connections to 5,000 connections in less than a year on this platform, and it continues to grow exponentially.
- Attending seminars, conferences and webinars – Since it’s pandemic now, there are no physical seminars and conferences now, so there are more webinars now. Bring your smile, your elevator pitches and get your social media business cards ready to pop any time. As a bonus, you get to have your mind full of new useful knowledge and ideas to run through.
- Attending Alumni events – Whether it is your High School or College reunion, find time to reconnect with your schoolmates and make new ones. You never know what you can get out of it. You may find that your 1st year HS seat mate now is the Marketing Head of the company you’re trying to pitch your product to. Attending events can open doors or windows that were previously closed to you because you shared the same school history together!
- Become a member of an association that you’re interested in on social media – Joining groups on facebook that is niche will open up new connections for you. Like for example, I joined a specific type of car group a few years ago, and I met a lot of same car owners in my city. Some of them now are either my clients or a connection to other business opportunities today. Since your common bond is a common interest, it’s easy to open up conversations based on your interest.
- Organize meet-ups or attend one – Find groups on social media that have events scheduled and try to join them. Or you can actually organize one yourself that can attract new connections with one common goal in mind based on a common interest!
- Be a Twitterfly – I love connecting to people worldwide using Twitter. Most of my business connections globally started with Twitter. It’s huge when it comes to industry info and easy to DM someone you want to engage with. Your favorite business didn’t reply to your DM inquiry? Move on to the next, and the next, until you get an engaged reply! Twitter is an insane goldmine for entrepreneurs like us. It has access without the layers to the biggest personalities in your industry. I invest 30-45 a day to just engage in my business and personal Twitter accounts, commenting on those that I am interested in that are trending.
- Ask for a connection – There is no time to be shy, ever. The first circle you need to reach out to is your innermost circle of friends, then to the next circle and so on. Ask them for someone they can recommend that shares the same interest as you that you can connect to. It could be a phone call, a group chat on a social media platform or a group chat via coffee (which you will have to pay for everyone’s coffee and anything they want to nibble on).
That’s it. If there’s another way to network for you, add it in the comments section below!
Question of the day: Where did you network with your biggest connection to date?
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