Networking Without Power: Going Old School

Susan Baroncini-Moe is an executive coach and business concern leader with over 16 years' experience. Read full contour

Remember the old days of Rolodexes, earlier mobile phones had every gadget and gizmo now known to homo (and woman)? Recollect when we didn't have Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to connect with other businesspeople and had to actually, you lot know, talk to people?

The way many of us network today, using online social networking and keeping track of things via Blackberry, iPhone, PDA and other "smart" devices, is superior in many ways to the "quondam" manner of doing things. However, there's a lot to be learned by going "former schoolhouse" with your networking and heading back out into the existent world. Today I'll talk nigh some of the reasons old school networking outweighs the new two.0 version, and how you tin can reconnect with your onetime schoolhouse networking roots.

Online, you can reach more than people, merely the connections yous build in person are stronger.

Sure, in the Brave New World of online networking, you lot can generate infinite LinkedIn connections and five thousand Facebook "friends," but are they actually friends? Are the folks y'all've just connected with people you want to know and do business organization with? How well tin y'all get to know someone and their business without actually talking to them?

In the ii.0 world of networking, something's been lost in the connection. These days, a lot of people connect with y'all just to increase their list of followers. But who are they? Connecting with someone on Facebook or LinkedIn without talking to them and getting to know them is alike to throwing a concern card at someone equally you walk past them. It's neither effective nor does information technology represent your business concern well.

Bob Burg, author of Countless Referrals (a volume I highly, highly recommend),  writes this golden rule of networking:  "All things being equal, people will exercise business with and refer concern to, those people they know, similar and trust." When you run across someone in person, don't y'all get a better sense of whether or not they're for real than if you run into them online? When you run into someone in person and accept the time to get to know them, you lot can tell if you tin trust them and if they're someone you lot'd similar doing business with, as a potential client, in a joint venture, or if they're someone you want in your Rolodex to refer business organisation to in the hereafter.

Bank check your marketing plan: you may not need to reach the masses.

There are tons of statistics that propose you can accomplish millions of potential buyers online. Merely if you're a solo professional person or a modest business concern owner, you may not need to accomplish millions. Yous may not even want to accomplish millions. If your business organisation is local or if you're a consultant, reaching the international masses online may non brand even the slightest sense for your business.

Erstwhile Schoolhouse Networking And You

In the former days, people saturday downwards and talked to each other. They got to know one another — not just in terms of business organisation, but personally. They continued with each other's families, spent time together, and when you threw business concern someone's manner, you knew and trusted the person and could actually count on them to handle the business concern you lot sent them.

Get Involved.

Then how tin can you get back to basics and go "sometime schoolhouse" with your networking? For one, the kind of old school networking I'grand talking about isn't the kind you find in networking groups and events. Information technology'south about enriching your life while also enriching your business. At present'south the fourth dimension to volunteer and get involved and active in your local community. Get to know the other volunteers and their families. Expand your net of friends and business organization associates. Connect with your alumni group from college, join your local Bedchamber of Commerce. Sign up for just-for-fun sports leagues. These are the ways in which people used to network and these connections are stronger and further-reaching than those of your Twitter followers.

Yous Never Know Who Someone Knows.

Stop worrying about "qualifying prospects" and instead, become to know people. And as you hang out afterward a ball game, nursing a beer with your fellow players, remember that while you may not be talking to an actual prospect at that moment, you never know who that person knows. You may non take a direct business connection with someone, merely you could very well proceeds indirect concern through that connection.

Throw Away Your Technology.

Ok, then it'southward dandy to take your phone or PDA upward-to-date with all your networking contacts at the touch of a fingertip. Only if you're going to get erstwhile schoolhouse, consider really going old school.

Believe information technology or not, studies have shown that engineering can create social barriers in interpersonal interactions. First, information technology can disrupt the catamenia of conversation. Imagine your phone ringing while the person you lot're with is talking. Non only are they distracted by the ringing, but they don't know if y'all're going to answer the call or not.

Second, it tin get between yous and the person. Did you e'er notice the way people transform when they bring out their engineering to schedule a meeting on their digital calendars? Instead of going tech to book a time, keep a small-scale Moleskine calendar handy and schedule it in pen. Not but volition the meeting seem more than important considering it's in indeliable ink and tin can't be deleted, but y'all won't be disconnected from the social interaction. If you really need to take notes during a meeting, don't utilise your Blackberry. Instead, keep a Moleskine notebook and a pen in your pocket and bring it out when y'all need it.

On the surface, technology seems great, because information technology promises a great time and personal energy savings. And then we think information technology fixes everything. But sometimes, using technology for things we used to do in person tin reduce our effectiveness. Although I've argued for an onetime school arroyo to networking in this article, I personally prefer a hybrid approach to networking. Employ technology to support and follow upward on your in person networking. And if y'all tin can't network in certain locations in person, utilize the online world to bring those places to you. But never forget the fundamental component to networking: getting to know people. Build relationships and you'll reap huge rewards.

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Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/networking-without-power-going-old-school.html

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