Helping Others

Help connect people that need to know each other. The concept is simple, even the act can be simple, what’s tough is taking the time to get to know people and learn what their specific needs are. Things you should know about people you network with the most:

• Where are they from?
• What college did they go to?
• Fraternity / Sorority Membership
• Hobbies, Special Interests
• Most profitable client type
• Least profitable client type
• How they help most clients solve a problem(s)
• How they help their most profitable clients solve a problem(s)

In the current economic climate, helping someone get a job is also a great thing to use your networks for. Times are tough  – many who are not business owners are looking for their next job or worried that will have to soon. When you’re out and about, listen out for any open positions and for companies that are experiencing a growth spurt. Staffing and recruiting companies make great friends in this regard, for both getting friends a job and for helping fill positions for those businesses that you know are hiring. My friend is Larkin Dailey, owner of Snelling Staffing (http://www.snellingatl.com). She has helped me get numerous friends jobs, even in this tough economic climate. Remember, staffing and recruiting firms need opportunities too – companies that are looking to hire – especially in mass, like at a call center. (Staffing companies have more than ample supply of resumes given the current economic climate, so be discerning who you send them for placement. People with rare skills sets are obviously more valuable)

Form Strategic Alliances

Finding prospects while networking is good, finding strategic partners that open up fields of prospects to you is better. However, it does not always have to be business development related. More and more companies are looking to differentiate themselves by creating “mash ups” which might be a reseller or affiliate model relationship, and outsource relationship or something else a little more subdued.

Personal Branding & Social Media

I have become acknowledged as something of a defacto expert on this and I’m not sure why. What I do feels like common sense to me. Show up in all the right places at all the right times with all the right people and seek to help others which will make you more known. Translated into literal terms:  “If you belong to an association, get on the board – for more recognition, try actually doing something of value for the organization – avoid boards where you are a “rubber stamper”. Don’t feel bad about joining a board for exposure if you are providing value… it’s an expected trade off. When you are networking, make sure that events that you are going to have the right kind of people, i.e. people that you need to meet or people connected to other people you need to meet. It blows my mind why businesses continue to go to networking functions that they have long since outgrown and then complain that networking does not work. Know the demographics and psychographics of your customer base and adjust your networking accordingly. If you don’t know what I am talking about, seek the advice of a marketing expert.

How does social media tie in to all of this? Well, I’m no “expert” despite popular opinion, but here’s what I think: Social Media, simply described, is a marketing medium (platform) -  you have radio media, TV media, social media, and countless other platforms upon which to market. Whether or not that is what you use FaceBook for, it is still Social Media (how do you think FaceBook makes it’s money? not from you obviously! from Advertising). That being said, how do you use it? Simple, as an online extension of your physical networking world. When you come back from a networking function, immediately pull out of your business cards and connect to the people on those cards on whatever your mediums of choice are. I like Linkedin & FaceBook. Now, whenever you do status updates, they see you what you’re doing. You stay in front of them as long as you update. So what do you say in your updates?

• What are you doing that is interesting and might generate conversation?
  • Good: Headed to Networking in Atlanta tonight to network with hundreds of other business professionals
  • Bad: Going to a network event (too simple)
  • Bad: Taking kids to soccer practice (no offense, but no one cares about your kids but and whatever family members you connected to on FaceBook)
• Industry related news that people you’re connected to care about and can understand. Here some actual article titles from InformationWeek, a newsletter I an subscribed to:
  • Good: Laptop reliability study: Asus & Toshiba Come Out on Top
  • Bad: Roll Your Own Ubunto Private Cloud
    
    

Tags: larkin dailey, networking, personal branding, snelling staffing, Social Media, strategic alliance

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