By Susan RoAne, Author of several books, including the Silver Anniversary edition of How To Work a Room®.
Myths of Database as a Network
There seems to be some confusion between a database and a network. You may have collected 200,000 names for your database but you don’t have a network of 200,000 people. These people are in your database because you may have an opt-in list on your site or you may have purchased them from a provider or they used a shopping cart on your site to buy your products, books or trinkets. You also may have met some of them. The people you have met, with whom you’ve had a face to face conversation and entered their data are more likely to be a vibrant part of your network because there has been personal interaction.
The term network implies some relationship or, at the very least, some connection. The basis of the social and business networking sites is that we are connected to the people we know and to those whom they know and so on and so on..
“Mighty” Slim Connections
My grammar school friend had a connection to former Mayor Daley of Chicago, whom she has known for years. Therefore, I am “connected” to the former Mayor of Chicago, although separated by a degree (person). While he might have “taken a meeting” because my friend may make the introduction and request it, he didn’t know me at all although we had a link. The people who join my database because they opt in to my list or who follow me on Twitter.com are people who know me but I don’t necessarily know them yet we have a connection…albeit a slim one.
In order to build a successful practice, business or down line, we need to be partake of social networking sites that provide those “medium to weak” links because that is a way we expand our networks in this internetworking world. But we must continue to develop and nurture our off-line networks of “real people” who really know us.
Face To Face Contact
Some ideas to nurture the network:
1. Attend sponsored events.
2. Talk to others at these events.
3. Bring enough business cards.
4. Follow up with an email, text, call…or a note.
5. Stay in touch… when you need NOTHING!
Above all, go to have fun! And you will meet more people who are interesting.
Susan RoAne, keynote speaker and author of the Silver Anniversary fully updated edition of How To Work A Room, The Secrets of Savvy Networking and Face To Face: How To Reclaim The Personal Touch in A Digital World. Her clients include the US Air Force, Chase Bank, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, Boeing, Wharton School of Business, Procter and Gamble, Hershey Foods, UnitedHealth Group, Stanford University
©2014SusanRoAne Reprint only with the permission of author susan@susanroane.com
Visit: www.susanroane.com Follow: @susanroane
About Susan RoAne
