A couple of nights ago I went to the Late Late Breakfast Show (LLBS), my second networking event after co-hosting the London Bloggers Meetup (LBM) at TalkTalk’s Customer Experience Centre last week. It was a reminder that social networking needs to be, well, more sociable.
LLBS featured seven mostly excellent speakers, each talking for seven minutes. They covered all sorts of things from video production to presentation skills and there was a chance to meet with the presenters and other attendees (mostly business networkers). Malcolm Levene was a particular highlight, but most of the speakers were good.
LBM had a looser vibe, with a presentation about podcasting from Rob Ainsley, the guy behind the real cycling blog. LBM featured a broad mix bloggers covering things like gender issues, london culture, tourist guiding, book reviews and internet culture, to name but a few.
In both cases, I got loads out of actually meeting people and a lots of new followers on Twitter – not the usual spammy follows, but quality people I’d actually met. Social networking really comes into its own when it goes offline. In other words, it’s sociable networking.
Networking can be time-intensive and if I’m honest, I find it difficult to fit it in with work and trying to cram some sport into my week, but it’s well worth the effort. Here’s some things that I’ve picked up so far:
Top 10 business networking tips
- Join Meetup and LinkedIn groups: These sites are great for finding events, many of which are free or just charge a small fee.
- Try before you buy: It’s worth experimenting with a few networking events to work out which formats you like best and which crowd you get on best with.
- Network outside your own industry: Apart from getting a new job, for me there’s not a great deal of value in networking to other PR people, so I find it more interesting to meet people outside of public relations that might help me do my job better.
- Smile and say hello: Let me tell you a secret: I hate going to parties where I don’t know anyone. I find the whole thing really embarrassing, but business networking is different. Everyone’s in the same boat and nobody ever minds you walking up to them and introducing yourself. It’s a great confidence builder and less scary than you might think.
- Don’t sell: It seems counter-intuitive doesn’t it? But there’s nothing worse than people trying to desperately flog a website to you at these events. Thankfully, they seem to have been consigned to networking Room 101 and people are more subtle about it. Follow their lead and be in a listening and learning frame of mind.
- Get business cards: I’m not contradicting the advice above, but having given your time to meeting and chatting to a few people it makes sense to get their details - business cards are a great way of doing this. These days Moo cards are very popular. They’re cheap to print and you can personalise them with your own photos to make them more interesting than regular business cards.
- Follow up: I’m not talking hardcore sales follow ups (unless you do get a proper lead), but just sending a LinkedIn invite (with an explanation of where you met) and/or following on Twitter makes sense. If it’s a Meetup event, be sure to leave your review and a comment on the event page.
- Don’t get glued: It sounds harsh, but don’t spend all night talking to one person. You’re there to meet lots of people and no-one minds if you use the time to mingle. If you get stuck, introduce that person to someone else you’ve met earlier or invite a third person to join the conversation and make your leave after a few minutes.
- Join the online conversation: OK, it can look a bit sad playing with your iPhone at an event where you’re supposed to be meeting people, but it’s ok to spend a handful of moments on Twitter talking about the event. Use a hashtag so that others can find you too.
- Enjoy it: Yes, sounds obvious, but you’re giving up your personal time. If you leave the event and feel that it was a bit of a chore, then it’s not the right one for you.
Thanks to Andy Bargery and Bernie Mitchell for making me feel welcome at their events.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hi Phil,
Hope to see you at the next event! Let’s make sure we chat a bit more next time :)