Does Networking Really Work? (Sounds like a lot of work!)

It depends how you do it.

Going to cocktail events and social hours, grabbing business cards and tossing yours around, brief handshakes while looking over that person’s shoulder for the door or the next person in the room.

Nope, that doesn’t work.

Connecting, helping others first, taking a sincere interest in them and their business, helping them see opportunities they may not see themselves.

That’s what I’m talking about.

And yes, it is work. Just like building any relationship, it requires commitment, follow up, and heart.

And it’s worth every minute.

Do you make networking a regular part of your business and marketing strategies?

Are you connecting in person (or over the phone if geography is a challenge) with people you meet online?

How are you contributing to your networking relationships? Just this morning, on a call with a colleague, I thumbed through my mental Rolodex for a connection that will help her grow her network and her business.

Easy, peasy, Japaneasy. It took about 5 minutes to make the connection and a warm introduction. She’s off and running, with gratitude, and I feel very good about it.

How’s that for honoring a “Givers Gain” philosophy?

How do you use networking in your business? How has it helped you? Tips to share?

Tags: business, Marketing, networking, social networking

This entry was posted on Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 8:57 am and is filed under Business Management, Business Start Up Advice, Marketing, social networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.