50% of the time, You’re wasting your time.

Networking

It’s a scary word to many. Irrelevant word to others. Your network is your future, without one you cannot grow.

Over the last three years I’ve grown my brands through several different companies, businesses and events. Most through in-person events. I’ve collected thousand of business cards and spoken hundreds of hours with those who I’ve meet. Personally, without networking and growing from those I’ve met, I would be nowhere.

Not one to do the networking thing? Are you on twitter? Follow someone, or comment on LinkedIN or Hacker News. Networking is the same whether it’s in person or not.

People ask me weekly how I’ve been able to be so successful at a young age. I say luck. And while that’s true that I’ve been lucky, there’s more too it than luck. Hard work, being visible and standing out.

I didn’t wear a suit, I was doing something most people in Norfolk weren’t(startups) and I was uniquely different(age) than 75% of the people who were in the space I was.

Be genuine to those you meet. Seriously. Care about those you meet and mean it when you talk with them. I love sports, roller coasters and young startups. I tend to talk about those topics, not about selling my business to others. Why? No one really cares about your business. They care about the relationship they can gain with you.

Take a look back at the last 50 business cards or meetings you’ve had. Were they your targeted users? Meaning someone who directly would purchase what you are selling? My guess is less than 50% are. Off the bat, if you are pitching business rather than finding a common interest, your probability has been cut in half. Rather, ask what they enjoy outside of work or find something compatible to you. In my case, it’s almost always sports. Hey did you see that Cowboys Game last night.

Find the immediate connection!

Once you meet someone. Get their card. Have a card to give them and follow up via email and LinkedIn and tell them you enjoyed chatting about x.

Then don’t contact them again until they post something on their network that was relevant to your conversation, you find something of interest to them or have business opportunities for them. A great example of a follow up is, “Hey Johnny, I recently met up with Mary and she said you were partners, friends, etc. that’s awesome, she/he were great. I hope you are well.”

And that’s it. Don’t be pushy!

Be specific. How many times do you meet someone and there’s no interest and they hassle you nonstop. Telemarketers FTW!

Networking is like sales. The more you educate and help others(who may buy from you later), the more trustworthy you become. Trust is what you are trying to accomplish. If you need to takes notes during the conversation do it.

Finally, attend and communicate as much as you can through as many channels. But don’t be salesy. Become a friend. Give them something for free. Rinse and repeat and be heard.

If you are one that doesn’t like to go out and meet people in person, educate via webinars or blog posts. Don’t know where to start? twitter.com/search and type the type of industry you want to focus on. Find someone of relevance and follow them, when you read something they tweet, retweet it and comment back to them. This should cause them to look into your profile in more detail. In your posts, make it easy for people to learn more about you with a Call To Action. I recommend collecting an email in return for additional educational pieces. Think of it as passing out your business card as data in return for their email. Score!

The more active you are the stronger your network will become.

Remember, be memorable, be honest and don’t be a used car salesman!