One of the biggest mistakes people make when building a commercial network, is that they focus too much on numbers. However, the size of a network by itself is of limited value. Building a large, low value commercial network is actually a low leverage activity and counter-productive!
Networking isn’t just about numbers
This is because the value of a commercial network is always based on 3 things:
1. The calibre of contacts in your network.
2. The quality of your relationships with your contacts.
3. Having the right number of people in your network.
The reason for this is simple. Firstly, as human beings we are obviously all of equal value. However, in each industry or profession there are some people who are more influential than others. If you know these influential people, you can benefit from their influence. If you don’t know them – you can’t!
Secondly, if you network with a group of people, even influential people, but they don’t really ‘know’ you and you have no real relationship with them; they are highly unlikely to be of any tangible value to you or your business. People recommend, partner with, support (and buy from) people they know and trust.
Thirdly, you need to be connected with as many of these influential / credible people as required; in order for you to get the help, support or referrals etc you need. The correct size for your network will depend on the industry or profession you are in and what you hope to achieve.
Twitter and targeted networking
Ironically, by engaging like-minded people (rather than focusing on numbers), I’ve attracted over 18,000 followers on twitter; my primary online network! Because I tend to keep my conversations around marketing and social media, I have attracted people into my twitter network, who by default are interested in my areas of expertise.
Little wonder that I now regard my network of twitter associates, as one of my businesses most valuable assets.
Over to you!
What are your tips for developing effective networks, either online or offline? Share your tips and ideas in the comments section below.
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Very true Jim. You could have 12,000 followers on Twitter but if you don’t talk to them (and they don’t talk to you), it’s not as good as having 12 followers who you know very well.
I wrote about this a few months ago actually:
http://www.timjahn.com/blog/11/03/2008/are-you-worried-about-numbers-or-people
This applies to more than just Twitter of course.
Good Article. One thing that I would add is: You must build relationships with the right types of people. While it is great for me to know a few nurses they are not going to be able to help me fill my Referral Dynamics Class since they are disconnected from my target market. Building relationships with those who also work in your target market. If I want more business from my networking activities then I need to create the right kind of relationships.
Jim — a primary reason I “followed” you
was the no nonsense and GENUINENESS you convey in your site, posts, and writing.
As your post insightfully points out, it isn’t about just the numbers.
Engaging with “like-minded” people is motivating. Not that every associate needs to agree with us, but I believe one’s best relationships develop from those in agreement.
Growing an authentic network is my goal, both online and off.
I think it’s helpful when you have a genuine interest in helping other people, passion for your niche and a rock solid purpose behind your networking activity.
I then begin reaching out to those in my niche who I find interesting and worth connecting with. This keeps my network tight and helps me to build deeper relationships with my connections.
I continue to generate ideas and produce valuable content, which naturally attracts people of similar interest. I’ve also found it helps me to connect with those who have influence, or what I call “the juice”.
My favorite part of networking has always been the interesting people I meet and the relationships that develop over time!
I am a firm believer in leveraging marketing initiatives as filter – so that you end up with truly qualified networking.
Jim,
Some very sound advice and very well said. I think these are the concepts that businesses are finding the hardest to accept as it contradicts everything that traditional methods taught us.
I try to keep these values in mind every time I write a blog post or follow someone on twitter.
Thanks,
Dave
Hi Jim… thanks for posting.
Really? That’s a lot of followers!! I am using your same strategy, but I don’t even have 100 yet,
…haha.
Great article!
Have a great day!
Sincerely,
Edward Brown
I tend to agree with the idea that it is very much the quality of your network over the numbers. I have a small twitter follow list of about 250. (With 290 or so following me.) I don’t really want to grow it more than that as I don’t feel like I could manage that and maintain the relationships on Twitter that I have if had more people I followed… and as Twitter is about maintaining and creating relationships for me, I know that the ball would drop if I had 500 followers.
There just seems to be a degree of Twitter guilt when people follow me and I don’t follow them back. It is awesome that you followed me weather guy from New Mexico because I followed another weather guy from Chicago but I don’t care about weather in New Mexico. Yet I see so many people automatically follow those, people obsessed with number of followers in some circles, asking their followers to help others on their follow list reach a new plateau for followers. There are just people who focus on the metrics rather than on relationships… and when that metric is heralded above all others, when you see RT of the same cohort of people who are unlikely to ever add value to your relationships? Blah. I had to remove some of those power twitter folks from my follow list because they weren’t adding what I perceived as value while they created a huge amount of noise that made it harder to find that content.
I’d love to see a new Twitter Grader type tool that actually talked about relationships. Have it say require a minimum of 50 followers. From there, rank based on the amount of replies… where you want more of your network to reply to you with you replying to your network with the ideal of being 1:1. So if you have 1,000 people you follow where you’ve replied to only 5 people and 500 have replied to you, your ranking gets punished. If you have 100 followers and you’ve replied to them all and they’ve all replied to you but you have a case where 10 of those you’ve had extended discussions with where you had 100 replies each way and the rest of your network is stuck at 1 reply each week, you also get punished grading wise but not as much as others who have a ratio of less than 1:1. That would provide a much more meaningful number, de-emphasize the race for numbers and show people where you can develop relationships with and where those relationships can and do pay off. And for a lot more people on Twitter, THAT would be a much more meaningful metric because Jason Calacanis and Guy Kawasaki are unlikely to help most people who want their assistance.
One thing is for sure; Twitter is a valuable tool! There is no right or wrong way to use this application, however, the better you develop your relationships, the better results you will experience.
Ummm … am I the only one who get the irony here?
It’s all about the quality of the relationships, but you have 18,000 followers?
How ‘quality’ can those relationships possibly be? Have you personally corresponded with each of them?
There’s nothing wrong with that many followers. And it can be a ‘relationship’ of mutual interest. But it is not a high quality personal relationship.
John,
You make a good point, which perhaps wasn’t clear enough in my original post.
I wrote 2 paragraphs about my twitter network because, as you say, of the irony that by focusing on connecting with people, I have also attracted ‘the numbers’ into my twitter network.
You used the word ‘irony‘ – I used the word ‘ironically‘ – but we are basically saying the same thing.
My network of contacts and my network of twitter associates are two different things.
My network of contacts is a group of people I’m in regular ‘contact’ with.
My network of twitter associates contains many great contacts – but also thousands of people who simply use Twitter to follow my work, ask me questions etc.
That said, many of the most recent additions to my network of contacts came via twitter!
Hope that clears it up – Good question John and welcome to the blog.
Great point, I am involved with a number of networking groups and sites, and limit the number of contacts solely as I want to be able to network with people I can give benefit to and who will benefit from being connected with me.
Some of the off-line groups I am involved with are full of people only wanting to sell their wares, not offer help to others.
Most of my business comes from solid networking, which is great as it saves on my own marketing spend. But, it’s so important to conenct/network with the ‘right’ people.
Graeme
I am new to twitter and the whole marketing thing. This article was great for me to read. I want to avoid being “that guy”, but I love networking and am trying to market at the same time. I seem to not be able to get out of the gray area, you know?
My question is this; My followers to following ratio is like 10:1. Is this a bad thing? I really like chatting day to day because I love people, but at the same time need to market my product.
Laura above makes a great point. I too, like to be personable and don’t want to just have numbers, however, I know that the more people I follow the more potential sales I will have.
Thanks in advance for any help from this blog community!
PS- I don’t have a blog so that makes me feel like more of a mooch.
I am a recent convert to Twitter and it really has been an eye opener.
I initially disregarded Twitter as it just looked and felt gimicky. However once I realised how active the networks were on Twitter and how focussed each post was it has suddenly become a way of life.
I am trying to keep my postings relevant to my business and making them more like questions for people to answer. So far this is working for me.
Just have to keep blogging and keep Twittering
I can also recommend the podcast from Academy Internet – ‘Internet Marketing’.
All the best, Ian.
Thanks, as always Jim – Great post, and comments too!
I find myself in the “number quandary” as well, having connected with “Mr Tweet” recently I have a constant flow of new followers.
I am concerned with the quality aspect, but was told at an early stage to be open to following people outside my “target” market to broaden my knowledge of what’s going on on the periphery too!
I find myself working at the cross-over point between Online & Offline Networking – Twitter’s great, in 2D, but it’s also nice to have the 3D version in 4Networking meets too – being at the cross-over is how I am trying to achieve the right “balance”.
It’s perfectly possible to follow MOST of those who follow you, at least while you are growing, but you quickly learn to unfollow those that are saying nothing of interest, or trying to be “in my face” promoting their own interests relentlessly. Can’t blame them for trying, but it’s not what I, and many “serious” tweeple, really want.
Lastly, to counter what Laura said, it is still possible to tweet, or DM if you’re lucky, some of the “thought leaders” out there (you’re one of em for me Jim!) and get a response, so that is value in itself.
Thanks again, and Keep em Coming!
As a BNI (Business Network Int’l) Member, we build a business relationship 1 step at a time using the “V-C-P” model. V = visibility, people have to know who you are and what you do; C = credibility, people must know you are good at what you do; P = profitability, people will help build your business (or grow your web audience) when they like you, trust you, and know that you are going to make them look good when they tell other people about you. For more, go to http://www.bni.com or my website http://www.fast180.com
I think you make a really important point – that sometimes gets lost among skeptics of social media.
People often say to me: Why would anyone care what you ate for lunch? (on twitter)
Well, they wouldn’t, but they might. If I tweeted I had sushi for lunch, and a follower loves, sushi and responds … we have an instant connection.
People like to do business with people they like. It’s simple.
Quality vs. Quantity is a debate that many have had over the years. Many will give numbers and results on how quantity works. The internet even could do that with email marketing at one point.
It seems that times to do force those people out and bring to the surface those who have the quality focus.
To generate great success, it is really about a target list, targeted network, and targeted customers. That will go so much further than blasting what you have in front of everyone.
Twitter has created an interesting medium for a real time conversation and relationship building. While I am new to it, I am sure the techniques of building my successful business will work with it as I master it.
To Success,
Joseph Parton
Great thoughts. I think the most important piece to success is to be involved, be honest, be who you are. Dont try to think of things you should say, or say things others want to hear.