As the President of our local Chamber of Commerce, I meet new people all the time and learn so much about networking just from watching people who visit our group.\u00a0 Let me share an experience I recently had, which applies to networking both offline and online.<\/p>\n
We had a new guest at one of our luncheons and just from listening and watching her; I would make a guess that she was new to networking\u2026..!<\/p>\n
I introduced myself to her and was instantly bombarded with information about her and her business, even before I had chance to ask what she did.\u00a0 She shoved her business card at me then proceeded to walk away, on to the next person, before I could say a word.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, I was a little taken aback by her approach!\u00a0 I watched as she jumped from person to person, handing out her business card and just trying to get to every person in the room, without stopping to make any real connections.<\/p>\n
This is a classic example of someone new to\u00a0networking.\u00a0\u00a0But the story continues\u2026<\/p>\n
I saw her the very next day at another networking event.\u00a0 She was hanging around the entrance, practically jumping on everyone who passed by her.\u00a0 As I approached, I took a deep breath and extended my hand to shake hers and greet her with \u201cHi, great to see you again.\u00a0 Thanks for coming out tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
What happened next astounded me\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n She said, \u201cOh hello, have we met before?!\u201d<\/p>\n I felt so shocked and was offended, I quickly had to stop staring at her, with my mouth open, and let her know that we had met the day before and reminded her who I was!\u00a0 I excused myself as, again, she began talking about herself and how she could help me, sounding like a pushy salesperson.<\/p>\n I suppose I shouldn\u2019t be shocked really.\u00a0 Most people who are new to having their own business have not been trained in how to network correctly and how to make genuine connections.\u00a0 This is one of the most valuable skills you can learn and practice until you get it right!<\/p>\n Here is the advice I gave to a woman who recently asked me for help on how to network effectively.\u00a0 The same rules apply, whether online or offline:<\/p>\n The value of your network is in quality, not quantity.\u00a0 We can easily forget this when we hear about how we can get more followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook.\u00a0 Unless you follow the steps above to really develop a connection with the people you meet, online and offline, you will never achieve your business goals.\u00a0 You may well force people to run in the opposite direction whenever they see you coming or make them ignore any messages you send them online!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the President of our local Chamber of Commerce, I meet new people all the time and learn so much about networking just from watching people who visit our group.\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n