Published on 3/07/2007

Networking.

"Establishing an informal set of contacts among people with common social and business interests as a source of prospects, for the exchange of information, and for support." – Marketing Dictionary, Monash University

One of the biggest questions about networking is how to start or how to potentially find the right contacts for your business or personal needs.

If the majority of people sit down and write down all the contacts or people they know you would be surprised to find out how many different people you know and what type of fields or business specialities they are in. This is a fantastic starting point and place to begin being proactive and starting your networking ability.

Think of Networking as Personal Branding

Think of Networking as being a personal branding exercise, whether it is your own services you are promoting or the services that your business is excelling and achieving great things in. Within the networking exercise you can utilise many differing mediums to achieve the desired outcomes that you are looking for.

·Job boards

·Industry web sites

·Magazines that are based around your industry and needs

·People and contacts that you have met within your industry

·Industry events and launches

·Friends or colleges of friends or family members

·Old employers and employees

Go out there, start to promote yourself and your business; show people why you're different and why they should do business with you. Start setting the trend and start seeing the difference it will make to your business and the confidence levels that you will start to achieve.

Networking Tips

Make a achievable list of people that you wish to contact and other people that they know
Create and maintain your database (contact details, special interests, major achievements, industry mile stones, regular information on contact made).
Make contact with current clients and prospects on a regular basis, they might have opportunities coming up at all different times.
Attend networking functions regularly and become known as one of the key people in your industry, company and the level of service that you facilitate.
Build a positive profile in your community and industry – ensure that you try to remember names and introduce and call people by their names .Remembering what they do and what company they work for will also be beneficial.
When you receive a referral, acknowledge the referral in writing – phone call, email, at the time of receipt. Then get back to the person and let them know how it went. Even if it is a good or bad outcome.
Refer someone to your network when you find it necessary and you will find that what you give out in future you will receive back.
Be open to all types of opportunities how big or small that those opportunities may be.
Practice your communication skills to ensure that you can communicate on all different levels within your industry
Always introduce yourself to those sitting next to you at a business dinner. If possible, meet everyone at your table before you sit down. Sit next to someone you don't know rather than someone you do know.

Networking Errors

Networking errors that we should be on the look out to avoid.

Always try to be sincere

Don't ask for favours in return if you have done a great job in networking these will follow, although you have referred and given business / information to someone in your network they may not be in the position to give it back to you at the same time.
We are all time poor so make meetings and calls beneficial to both parties and be well planned.
Make sure you follow through on promises, we are all aware on how disappointing it is if someone does not follow through and we easily become sceptics of these people very quickly.
The referral of friends is something that you should be very selective of, unfortunately some times friends do let us down.
Try not to be judgmental about situations that you may not know the entire content.
Practice a self-introduction, you may never get the introductions that you are wishing for meet the right networks.
Remember to say that you, we all liked to be thanked no matter how little or big the achievement or referral was.

Effective networking is particularly important when building relationships with clients, customers and the media. Superior communication and making all meetings and conversations interesting will leave a lasting impression on parties that you meet. Even small talk and getting to know your networks on a personal level will encourage them to promote you and your business to there industry partners and grow your networking opportunities. through education, motivation and experience.