Online
and Offline Strategies that work!
There are various ways to stayed connect in
the 21st Century from attending networking events to getting
connected online. Key question to ask is
what works for you? and how could this create long-term relationships that you
can leverage and even monetize!
Offline Strategies
I have been meeting people for many years,
in 2003 when I made to the decision to go out and learn more about business,
life and success and I met my 2 mentors who had significant impact in my
journey of success. Quickly realized that I need a strategy to connect and
engage when I was networking and meeting new people at events. Three areas are below
Presentation
What you say and how you dress are extremely important in making a great 1st impression, in the end you do only have one
chance to do it!
What you wear is a great start, being aware
of the type of event you are attending and who will be there is important
information to know prior to attending. You can do this by emailing or calling
the organizer, to checking out previous photos of event online.
Having a business card (information card)
is important tool to have. No matter if you are professional in transition or
season entrepreneur it’s important to have connection point.
Start with the conversation and introduce
yourself and engage in the conversation. If you feel there was a mutual you can
ask to exchange cards and so you can connect online or send them some
information you promised (ex. Book, Nice to meet you card)
Attitude
There is great statement “ Attitude is
everything” not matter how you feel, check your attitude at the door and be
open to have a memorable conversations.
What is the first thing you do when you
meet someone? You shake hands right! It’s important to do that correctly. I
have had many situations where I have “fish” handshakes, don’t think that
requires further explanation to heavy handed hand shakes. Important to
implement that the strategy below
Mirror and Matching which is exactly what
it sounds like, you merely match what they do to you. It may seem challenging
in the beginning, the more times you do it you will begin to find the rhythm
and connection point that works for you.
Lastly what you say and do is important,
having energy and little enthusiasm will go long way in bringing energy to the
environment. It will be “contagious” with others and you see it them smiling
and have more engaging conversations
Response
This the 3rd and most important
step this not effectively used in most cases. It’s about asking questions and
creating meaningful and engaging conversation.
It’s about asking great second question is where the magic begins. You
may introduce yourself and then ask a question, such as “Is this your first time at the event?” If they say
“No, it’s my first time” You can responded in congratulating them and
letting them know what will be happening for the evening. This make you host
and leverage tool for the entire evening. You can ask what they do and how they
got started in that industry.
As you do this process over and over you
will feel more comfortable and become an amazing networker!
In the next section will learn on to
leverage contacts from offline to online
Online
Strategies
Having an online presence is important tool
to have in the 21st Century, from leveraging the people you meet to
creating online connections to continue the conversation.
LinkedIn
This social networking site started in 2003
is very popular for many professionals and entrepreneur to be connected with.
Facebook and Twitter may get all the attention, LinkedIn is the social
networking to be a part of.
You can apply the strategies below to have
a great profile.
Connections
We can add connections daily online and
offline. We meet people face to face
every day at social gathering, events etc. Simply asking “’Are you on
LinkedIn?” during the conversation is a great way to add value.
Recommendations
Great feature where we can ask our networking
for recommendation. It can be from recent connection who heard you speak at an
event, to a previous employer you can give you recommendation.
Groups
You can share you expertise with various
groups and be part of the discussion forum. Most of them are open groups, there
are some which are closed and require to be invited to join.
Applying the above online and offline will
yield you success in growing you network in the long term and creating
relationship that could result in meeting future mentor, business alliances and
resource you can use in the future.
Make you connections work for you in the 21st
Century!
Jim Pagiamtzis