If you are one of those dedicated people, who invests a lot of their time developing a network of contacts, I have a question for you:
“How valuable to your business, (in financial terms), is your network of contacts?”
I ask this because in my experience, many small businesses focus almost exclusively on developing networks of people, with little influence in their marketplace!
A VERY low leverage activity!
You can end up wasting thousands of pounds worth of your time and money on local networking events and joining networking groups; whilst simultaneously limiting the time you have to actually RUN YOUR BUSINESS! A lose-lose situation.
Although a local Accountant or Bank Manager can be an excellent source of credible referred business; not everyone in your local business community has credible access to your target market.
Without credibility, a lead or referral is worthless!
This is because when a person who lacks credibility recommends your business to someone, you become associated in their mind with that ‘non-credible’ person. I wrote recently about a Lawyer whose law firm has suffered terribly; after he joined a networking group and had his good name associated with some hard-sell tactics, used by a few of his fellow networkers to generate leads!
Of course, one of the most effective ways to network today is from your desk! Millions of people have totally ditched traditional, time-consuming networking, for free online networks. I use one myself called Twitter which is excellent!
There are also more formal online networking groups like ecademy and linkedin that you might like to explore – neither of which I use or endorse! In any case, the costs will be massively lower than traditional networking. So will the demands on your time – essential for people like us who run small businesses!
Related posts:
My style is like Christa’s, both offline and online. I don’t know what value someone else’s network has, so I treat everyone as an equally valuable contact. Sure, I target people I want to connect with who are overt influencers, but you never know who may be the favorite nephew of the person you’re targeting.
Changing the line of discussion a bit, I don’t understand the rejection of LinkedIn in the original post. With its Q&A section and the ability to establish oneself as an expert in a topic, along with its “professional online Rolodex” quality that really encourages people to utilize it specifically for networking. I also appreciate its utility for a quick update to my Outlook contact list anytime someone updates a LinkedIn profile with new contact information, and the ability to form groups.
There are more new apps that I haven’t checked out yet, such as the reading list, that can help build your professional profile if you want to approach them that way.
Since I don’t want to spend all my time updating profiles in multiple spaces, that’s my main one and I just point to it from other apps such as Twitter.
@BarbChamberlain
Agh! There is a sentence fragment in my previous comment. I started a thought, got interrupted, went on with something else and didn’t read again before posting, which is most unlike me.
I bow my English major head in shame.
–barb
Barb,
Thanks for the comment. Where did you see a ‘rejection of LinkedIn’?
I said that as I am not a member of it, I cannot endorse it. I then go on to link to LinkedIn (and ecademy) from several of my posts so people can check them out. I also say that both of these offer a better return than ‘traditional’ networking.
Whilst it would be unprofessional of me to endorse something I have never used, I am happy to state that people have told me they get a lot of value from their membership of LinkedIn.
Barb. You start off by saying that you network with anyone in case they have a nephew who will use you then say that you target people who are ‘overt influencers’.
I think you may have meant that you target people who are most likely to add value to your network, and then treat them all with equal respect. This is exactly the point John was making in the post.
Ralph,
John’s name is Jim
Hi Jim, the advice is sound, but Twitter is an exceptionally weak marketing tool on its own.
It’s still just a status update tool.
In the context of marketing, it’s a means of initiating a dialogue — one of several — and not the dialogue itself.
If the relationship progresses, then things to move towards proper chat clients, like Skype, where the real business is done, certainly for me anyway…
Wayne,
Thanks for the comment.
I don’t think anyone would see Twitter as a tool to conduct business with. It’s in a totally different space to Skype.
It’s just a great way to meet new people and find answers. I appreciate that I have quite a few followers, but I can ask just about any question and get 100 answers inside 5 minutes. This has proven invaluable to me, when seeking people’s opinions. I have also directly generated around £15,000 ($25,000 US) in new business over the past 30 days, from people who ‘met’ me initially via Twitter.
Jim, when you wrote “I neither use nor endorse LinkedIn” I read it as if it were meant negatively. That’s the kind of thing that can happen in blog posts as well as in email, given the lack of overall context. I’d still say that if you’re writing about the value of one’s network for referrals, LinkedIn’s ability to provide direct recommendations and connections is valuable.
Ralph’s restatement of my comment doesn’t capture what I meant.
My first answer is that I meant what I said–every person I meet has unknown potential in his/her network value. Time getting to know them may lead to valuable connections and if nothing else, treating people well brings good karma.
Of course there are people I’d like to meet and I seek them out. The more people I know, the easier that is, particularly in my community which seems to have about 2 degrees of separation from one end to the other.
The second answer, on more reflection, is that I’m really not that strategic much of the time. I just like meeting people and connecting them with other people and information that may help them. It’s not the least bit calculated and I’m not tallying anyone’s potential network value, let alone checking someone off in my mind as being on any kind of list.
So it’s not really what you’re writing about at all. Yet I know a long list of influencers in my community, people who know me know good things about the institution I represent, and people come to me to get connected to others, so sincerity apparently works just fine.
@BarbChamberlain
Great post Jimbo.
It’s hilarious, reading someone telling you that you are wrong about how to build a great network, especially when they themselves are only commenting here because they found you through one of your networks, twitter!
They may also have noticed how many people are in your twitter network compared to them? (70 compared to jims 4100)
Barb,
Thanks for your comment. I’m glad you find your current approach to networking is effective for you.
Helen,
Thanks for the comment.
Everyone is welcome to express their opinion here, they don’t have to agree with me.
I also don’t think the number of ‘followers’ a person has on Twitter is a very accurate way to determine their networking knowledge or abilities.
For example, although I set up my Twitter account months ago, I only decided to ‘develop’ it about 3 weeks ago, when I had just 160 followers! I attracted the additional 4000 people in the past few weeks.
I have not posted a comment here beofre but (Barb) has made my blood boil with her rudeness.
I find it objectionable for her to come here, be offensive to Jim and then use his blog to try and attract twitter followers. Whose going to follow someone as rude as that?
Wow, I managed to write things in such a way as to be taken quite the opposite from what I intended, and I’m sorry. I’ll try one more time & then that’s it.
I strove (too much, apparently) for brevity in explaining why I misread Jim’s initial statement about LinkedIn. I took his wording for a negative when he didn’t mean it that way, and merely added my own opinion about some value to be found in LI. I appreciate his gracious follow-up comment.
In response to another comment, I clarified the meaning of my first comment about how I connect with people.
Nowadays I routinely give my Twitter name in signing off, and I appreciate it when others do the same, or provide a link to a blog or another piece of their online presence. That is a courtesy from others that allows me to get more information if I’m interested, and I see it done everywhere.
You would only follow me if you had interest in Spokane civic life, a bit on social media and public relations, higher education and health care, bike commuting, and my personal caffeine habit.
Personally, I’m not keeping score, attracting people to my blog, or seeking millions of followers on Twitter because that’s not my primary purpose for being here. For some people it is, and that’s the beauty of social media: that it allows for all types of interactions, purposes, and relationships. I’m here to learn from those who are willing to engage and teach, and appreciate the resources Jim and others make available.
For another discussion of Twitter use, people may be interested in this guest post on @ChrisBrogan’s blog: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/guest-post-twitter-to-converse-or-to-broadcast-that-is-the-question/
@BarbChamberlain
Jim,
Thanks for following me on Twitter and telling me about your great blog!
I have a question on the value of one’s network. I’ve found that people form tighter bonds and communicate more effectively in person. How do you account for this when building networks based entirely on the internet? How do you establish rapport with only text, lacking social cues and nonverbal communication? Is the answer simply “great copywriting” as you mentioned in your other post, or is it something more complex?