As the old adage goes, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Networking is notably one of the preeminent ways to establish new connections, and build mutually beneficial relationships with an extended group of people in order to sustain business development. Successful business leaders leverage on relationships that they have formed as the backbone for their organisation’s business network – which in turn led the organisation to a prosperous business growth.
Recently, business entrepreneurs have taken the lead to expand their networking circles to work with friends, clients, colleague, or people who are outside of their immediate geographic area. Often, it is also a time when these organisation leaders realise the importance of building strong relationships internationally via virtual networking as it helps to sustain organisation business development through the ideas shared within such business networking sessions.
As virtual networking has gradually come into play, people tend to search for your profile online, before they explore further on who you are. With that, LinkedIn has become a “dime-a-dozen” for business entrepreneurs as it is known to be an effective platform to connect with other professional individuals. Nevertheless, simply amassing LinkedIn connections isn’t the best approach in developing networks with virtual colleagues. There’s indeed more to it than meet the eye. Dorie Clark, a marketing strategist, professional speaker, and book author, revealed three (3) other ways – beyond LinkedIn – that allows you powerful opportunity to reach out to other professionals online.
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You could waste an enormous amount of time “networking” on social media, from blasting out tweets to posting on LinkedIn groups. Those activities may feel like work, but since your approach is diffuse, your results will likely be minimal (after all, your tweets are competing against 500 million others per day). With a targeted approach, however, you can see real results.
Don’t post aimlessly, justifying it as a “brand building” exercise. Instead, pick five (5) to ten (10) people you don’t know well or at all, but who seem like attainable contacts. These may be CMOs you’re trying to do business with, authors you admire, or contacts you met briefly at an industry event but would like to connect with more deeply. Follow them on social media, and take note of which channels they seem to use most regularly (there’s no point in tweeting at someone who only checks his account every two months).
As appropriate, look for opportunities to:
· Engage with that person.
· Re-tweet their posts with your own audience.
· Answer a question they may ask, or sharing a thoughtful response to one of their updates.
This isn’t a quick-hit process; you certainly don’t want to look like a stalker and share twenty-five (25) of their posts in a week. Think long-term, and strive to engage in some small way every few weeks over a six (6) to twelve (12) month timeline. The goal is simply to make your name familiar to them in a positive way, so that when the moment is right and you have the opportunity to meet them in person, they’ll be pleased to do so.
Attract Contacts To You
Even better than targeting the people you want to meet is finding a way to draw them to you. That changes the power balance and positions you as a peer they’d like to connect with, rather than an aspirant trying to get in the door. As she describes in her e-book Stand Out Networking, you can do this by writing thoughtful articles (or creating content in other forms, such as podcasts or video) that share useful information and your point of view on a given topic, whether it’s business development strategies for law firms or mistakes to avoid when doing business in Argentina. If those topics are of interest to the person you’re hoping to connect with, they’re likely to discover them and become interested in your work.
To hasten the process, you could — where relevant — even mention or quote them in your article. This way — if they have a Google Alert set for their name — they’re even more likely to find you. (Two New York Times bestselling authors reached out to me personally, leading to a Skype chat and a breakfast meeting, after I cited them in pieces I wrote.)
Develop “Bookend” Strategy to Complement In-Person Networking
If you
know you’ll have the opportunity to meet someone at a conference (the organisers
often share the speaker or attendee list), you can message them in advance via
LinkedIn, or Twitter if they seem to be active there, introducing yourself and
suggesting a time to connect at the event. Few people are that organised and
deliberate about their networking, so your message is likely to stand out.
And
after you meet someone in person, you can use social media as a way to keep the
connection alive, especially if you don’t live in the same area and wouldn’t
have organic opportunities to stay in touch. Seeing your updates regularly in
their news feed creates a sense of lasting connection and enables the
relationship to progress, even if you’re not inter
acting
directly.
Virtual
networking will never replace connecting in person. But it enables you to build
and maintain relationships with key contacts around the world — including even
local colleagues whom you may not see every day, but who are essential to your
professional success.
Inspiration:
Networking
with People You Can't Contact
Image
Source:
(1) slideshare.net
(2) parkeastgroupinc.com
(3) pandawhale.com
(4) mobilevillage.com
Chia Yi Jing | Bubbling with enthusiasm, bright ideas, and confidence, Yi Jing set foot in the PR world with Orchan Consulting, where she was offered permanent employment after a successful internship. She is determined to make her mark in the industry, and her bosses know that she will. 
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