The article was originally titled “Social media Training with Joe”, but for the audience it was changed to “Biznik Relationships- shaking hands to co-hosting” I wanted to share it with everyone here on Biznik because part of the story expands outside of my main readership and touches upon a key fact of building relationships with people within the community.
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My friend Joe Hage and I did a marketing workshop last night for a small group of professionals. Normally hosting a marketing workshop wouldn’t be a noteworthy event, but in this case it is a wonderful case example of starting a connection using social media and developing into a trusting business relationship.
Who is Joe Hage?
As a professional, Joe is one of the few marketers I have met that has an extreme grasp of both tactical and strategic marketing. He has a sparkling resume of working with companies like Cardiac Science, 1-800-Flowers, Kraft Foods, Jell-O, and Safeco. When he originally met me, Joe didn’t know a huge volumes about my specialty in social media, and he immediately rolled up his sleeves and began devouring information. In any line of marketing work, the ability to absorb new concepts and create new strategies is essential to exceeding expectations. From a business perspective- Joe is the “full meal deal†when it comes to marketing strategy.
How did we meet?
I originally met Joe by being a casual member of a local online community here in Seattle called Biznik. You can view both of our friendly profiles here – Joe Hage and Barry Hurd. In terms of the relationship between us, Joe and I would simply not have met in real life if not for Biznik. Realizing that two extremely busy professionals such as Joe and I can form a strong and healthy relationship using online networking is an eye-opener for other professionals like us.
How do we interact?
Joe and I use Biznik as a place to shed some of our daily job duties and dive into a creative problem solving mindset working with independent business owners. While I cannot speak entirely for Joe, planning the occasional workshop with a different group of professional personalities allows me to really flex my brain and bring my marketing mind to bear. While some topics in such a class may seem very “101″ to either of us, the unexpected difficulties and obstacles our attendees have require us to think outside of our own box.
What was our workshop about?
The official positioning statement: “To Biznik members in the real estate and related industries, Joe and Barry’s Real Estate Marketing Workshop is your opportunity to learn and apply strategies you need to better stand out in a market crowded with half-hearted real estate professionals.â€
In our two-hour session, you will:
- Apply recommendations from the real estate marketing article to your own business.
- Share and learn best practices used by fellow Bizniks in the space.
- Get Barry’s counsel on which search engine optimization key words are virtually impossible to get.
- Walk away with some of Barry’s best tricks to get your name on the Google searches you are targeting.
What did people learn?
A lot more than those four bullet points above. The attendees had a chance to hear relevant and like-minded marketing problems analyzed and trouble-shot by two marketing veterans. However the real value only becomes apparent when the audience and the mentors agree to see things from different angles.
In the normal world most of us accept our problems and obstacles from our own point of view. When we see a wall in front of us, most of us see an option to steer around it or stop.
Joe and I do not see things from the same angle. Yes we are both marketing professionals. Yes we both have a lot of experience.
Yet we each have a fundamental viewpoint and core to the way our mind works.
In an interactive workshop, attendees have the ability to utilize the wisdom and talent of the entire group. Joe and I may lead the discussion, but we cannot see how anyone else perceives the same problem. We can only observe how we see it, along with how we view the interaction of the group members.
By utilizing skill, talent, experience, and different perspectives – a team of professionals working in unison can creatively offer solutions to maneuver around almost any obstacle. With only a few extra viewpoints, the team may also benefit from knowing what is behind the obstacle before they even decide to expend the effort to get around it.
Conclusion – What does this mean in regards to social media?
Simply put= When used correctly, social media allows any professional to use the wisdom and talent of the entire conversation. They may be smart and talented in respect to a certain field of focus, but the intelligence, talent, and return on effort is magnified significantly by the ability to accept that they may have a perspective that is hindering progress. (I.E. truly wise people can admit that they are wrong, not “the bestâ€, or simply need help.)
As a professional who utilizes the online world, every day of my life is exposed to the benefit of having hundreds of experts in my network that serves as a sounding board to my own ideas. That exposure is not just simply readership and promotion for my business, but results in the benefit of my ideas interacting with the talented viewpoint of professionals like Joe and all of you.
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If you haven’t caught my main company blog at 123SocialMedia.com business social media promotion, I suggest you come on over and check out the original copy of this article Social Media Training with Joe and leave a comment on it (and visit a few other articles)
I’ve been busy busy busy, and yes this blog has been left rather unattended- but for good reason. I decided to write more around an educational idea on social media @ 123socialmedia.com promotion and branding. My newer articles cover a wide range of different topics and I hope that everyone learns from my experience. In the past two weeks here are some samples of my articles:
Enterprise Social Media Measurement and Analysis – I receive plenty of feedback from peers in the social media space about “reporting and analysis†of the metrics behind online conversations. How do you measure buzz, authority, perspective, bias, trending, cost? All of the above? A mixture of it all?
Seattle SEO and search engine optimization? – So many companies are trying to get on top of Google for different keywords, and I have often pondered the great question of “is it worth it?†All too many companies want to define themselves by phrases such as “Seattle SEO†or “Seattle Search Engine Optimization†but the truth of the matter is that less than 20% of our traffic comes from keyword search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Sure we may be in Seattle, but SEO is only a small fraction of what we do.
Social Media Measurement and Brand Control -Social Media Measurement usually refers to tracking online communications and networking patterns that occur on blogs, podcasts, videos, social communities, and the various commentary that exchanges between them. Many companies are struggled with the task of analyzing when and why people are talking about them online, or if there is something a company needs to be aware of relating to the industry with competitive companies and products.
Social Media Influencer Marketing - Influencer Marketing is the act of targeting specific thought-leaders, critics, industry giants, celebrities, and just plain interesting personalities. Wikipedia currently has it defined as “a form of marketing that has emerged from a variety of recent practices and studies, in which focus is placed on specific key individuals (or types of individual) rather than the target market as a whole.
Ethical Media Consulting – As a marketer I am responsible for helping my clients promote themselves, as a public relations contact I am responsible for helping them strategically maneuver, as a professional I am responsible for making sure that I do not sacrifice my clients well-being for my own, and as a thoughtful human I must hold myself responsible for everything else.
A lot of people ask me things like:
When was the last time you used the Yellow Pages? Probably never.
Simply put, the bricks and mortar business model is changing. I spent a good portion of my career at the largest directory company (Verizon), and was constantly examining how social networks, business networking groups, home office technology, video conferencing, inexpensive video blogging, and the general acceptance of online and virtual companies was forcing everyone to reconsider basic business models.
The branding and reputation is moving more and more online: Google, Facebook, Digg.com, YouTube….
Consider this brand new networking group we are starting here: all that is required to do so is a website, a club membership (The Columbia Tower Club provides us with all the faciltites necessary to do business, not only in Seattle, but in any major city, at a small fraction of the cost of an office) and the search engine placement that we already have after just one week:
Seattle Networking Club Google Search
Seattle Business Club Google Search
Seattle Networking Google Search
This is the new model:
- You join the Columbia Tower Club (I have the premium membership which makes all Club Corp clubs worldwide available to me!)
- You have search engine placement and placement in social networks which feeds you business
- Your office is a website, your meeting place is online and at the club and at events, your books are online; CRM…
- You work from wherever you are, at any time of day and night!
As business professionals, many of us have extremely busy and sometimes hectic lives. Our daily routine usually involves handling the immediate tasks at hand, overcoming the “here and now†obstacles, and depending on our workload- some of us manage to make time for a networking event: sometimes ranging from a casual friendly dinner or an intensive conference.
The end goal of these events: finding new clients and professional contacts.
The problem: there are only so many hours in the day.
In the real world, many of us would be happy to have a professional dinner where we have the chance to share who we are with twenty-five professional contacts or prospects.
Imagine if you had the power to spend the same one hour a week sharing that information with a hundred, or even a thousand contacts and prospects. Suppose for an instance you could take the greatest party of your life and share the detailed conversation you had with that one lucky person with everyone who attended…
That is the “Economy of Scale†found within social media and online conversations. Professionals of all types (not just real estate professionals) are multiplying intellectual and conversational communication a hundred-fold by using community oriented online networks. Rather than coordinate new groups or shaking hands in the physical world, professionals are marketing themselves in digital communities and social groups. For some, this simply has the benefit of having more informational available to qualify an introduction, with such basic features as profile information. For others, they understand the online power the communities have in search engine marketing and other online marketing efforts.
An additional benefit of this online version of networking is historical conversation.
Historical conversation is what happens when an article is taken from a social media site and is indexed by the major search engines. Very popular phrases and search terms used in a conversation will continue to pull up an article that was written years ago; along with all the commentary and discussion surrounding it. These phrases and search terms can be very precise or sometimes be two to six words in length. Marketing professionals refer to longer search phrases as “The Longtail†of searching.
A new visitor finds the conversation by looking for a phrase in a search engine and finding the article. When a new visitor arrives and reads it for the first time, they have the ability to add additional remarks to the previous conversational thread of the article. In the conversation system (blogs, forums, as well as the search engines), this new comment resurrects the old article and brings a discussion ‘back from the dead’.
Many popular bloggers note that very popular articles continue to pull in high amounts of traffic six to twelve months after they were written. By noting what articles tend to draw visitors, you can watch your stats and when the article seems to be forgotten you can even resurrect the conversation yourself by writing a more current article that links back to points in the older article. This allows visitors to benefit from past experience and conversations, and it saves you from rewriting the same idea over and over again.
If you have ever heard or witnessed “the perfect conversation†in real life, you can understand the value of being able to browse through the best of the best conversations you have been involved in and using them as points to leverage for your business. With the right steps, a professional can perfect an ordinary idea they had into an ever-evolving conversation that becomes better and better with time.
To learn more about leveraging your conversations, see 3net Search Engine Marketing Blog
About the author:
Barry Hurd is president of Social Media Systems, an online marketing and advertising consultant group working with search engine marketing and leveraging social media communities. He has over 15 years of entrepreneurial Internet and online marketing experience. As an author and prolific blogger, he has reached online audiences around the world. Since the mid-1990s, Barry has been involved in numerous efforts to bring forth technical innovation through online business models. Past projects have included NIKE, REI, TMP Worldwide, Monster.com, Verizon Superpages, Intuit, and RISMedia.
For more information, visit www.socialmediasystems.com.
Daily Blog Tips is a great “how to” blog site. Every now and then they have a good idea about something.
Here are a few great articles that you should take a gander at:
30 Traffic Generators is 30 different tips from thirty different pro-bloggers around the net. Some of these ideas are simple and straight-forward, while others require a little brain power.
101 Blog Tips is a slightly more comical bullet list of blogging ideas. It deserves a once-through simply to jump-start your blogging brain and make sure you didn’t miss anything.
5 Tips for Writing Timeless Content covers a few points on not dating your articles so that they remain “fresh” forever.
And lastly 10 Professional Looking Themes is a quick list of some decent themes that both new and seasoned bloggers can use.
LinkedIn is a huge network of millions of professionals. They range from IT professionals and corporate CEOs, to urban bakery professionals and auto mechanics. By using search tools and filtering options, you can find people from nearly all of the Fortune 1000 as well as your friendly neighbor down the street.
Virtual networking tools like LinkedIn do not replace regular networking tactics. They are merely magnifiers for reaching new and unique crowds of contacts. The overall function of LinkedIn is to help leverage your contacts to introduce yourself to new associates with similar interests and professional goals.
Some basic fundamentals of using LinkedIn
- Reach out to everyone you run across. Don’t be shy.
- Take time to connect with everyone you can. Think of out-of-the-box reasons to accept a new invitation and cultivate a relation.
- Consider every person in your network to be “you†supporter. Use your personal network to spread your message when you need to.
- Detail yourself as much as possible. The extra information allows other members to figure out ways to network with you.
Once you have 100 connections, begin analyzing individuals who have developed networks and leverage those connections.
- Endorse individuals you have met along the way.
- Ask your friends to endorse your profile and add recommendations.
- Add detailed employment items to remind connections of your history.
- Be real. Be truthful. Offer endorsements and commentary. If a user doesn’t like the exact wording of a statement they won’t put it live.
Take a day each month-
- Do a quick name and e-mail search for new contacts you’ve met in the real world.
- Use new introductions as a way to even more new introductions next week.
Start today. Everyone is waiting. You can find me here.
How anonymity destroys the very nature of community.
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One of the proud things that led me to blogging is that it allows a forum to share my voice and opinion with the world. With over a decade of experience communicating online through various e-mails, bulletin boards, forums, and blogs… there have been hundreds of times where I ask myself not if I can do something,
but should I?.
When I am walking down a street, my voice is kept in-check by my interpretation of how people may view my actions and words. I do not use derogatory terms and I do not curse. I pause for a moment before stating thoughts that may be damaging or hurtful, as once said they are a reflection of who I am and what I believe.
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In the past thirty days, one of my favorite print news site –
The Seattle PI, has opened a discussion via the blogosphere and has done something that I ethically do not support. I am a proponent of free-speech, but the value of a statement is weighed by the supporting experience of a person’s history and whether or not they are willing to take responsibility for what they have said.
As newspapers like the Seattle PI open up massive communities to online conversation, they fail to educate the masses on the basics of online etiquette. The following are two examples of a well renowned media voice allowing slander to be thrown across an online forum with what appears to be little or no regard to the affected parties.
I do not believe that either of these examples would ever be allowed to reach a print version of the Seattle PI, as the online discussion reminds me of granting web visitors white hoods and torches so that they can use an anonymous face to say things they would not say in any other environment. In my opinion as a supporter of blogging and social media, this pushes the very definition of slander and libel and also leaves me with a shallow feeling that a respected news source would rather have a bloody “he said, she said†fight with no accountability just for the ratings.
The first example covers a technical recruiting company in the northwest- Jobster. At the end of 2006, information was leaked out of the start-up company and several blog posts were made by the CEO indicating the company would be restructured. When everyone came back from the holiday break, a not-so-standard layoff occurred with roughly 60 employees (apparently they all knew it was coming.)
I read several blog articles regarding what was happening over a week long drama at that office. The employees and remaining staff were all thrown off-balance by a significant change to their daily lives, affected individuals were left dealing with losing a group of family and friends (Jobster was not a typical company, people actually liked one another there.) Yet the “news breaking†column of John Cook allowed dozens of unsupported comments to be made by nameless visitors. The commentary includes personal bashes of the CEO and of claims made about the internal workings of Jobster by people claiming to be employees.
I thought that it was distasteful and was an accidental editorial mistake, thinking the Seattle PI could not be that ignorant of the fact that they were aiding competitors and angry x-employees to put up potentially damaging commentary. I do not know Jason Goldberg (except for having read his blog), but I wonder if any decent person would say those things in an actual live audience or claim a business model didn’t work if it could be argued by proper business analysis.
Fifty years ago, we allowed people to put on white hoods and burn people to death under whatever pretense they cared to imagine.
Is the digital age of social responsibility falling flat on its face?
I was holding a deep hope that this was a mistake by the Seattle PI. I’m sure it had happened with other media players across the nation, but a few weeks later the Seattle PI did it again with a very similar story about another layoff at HouseValues. The commentary seemed to be less targeted against a personality, but still the CEO received numerous attacks and the remaining business was hammered by anonymous commentary.
“I am a former employee†does not hold any accountability. Claiming to be someone (or something) without providing some credible evidence or way to check your claim is bad business. If I logged on today and claimed to be Bill Gates, someone would be checking. I would hope that someone across the media footprint of the world is looking at this type of situation and asking if this blind conversation is newsworthy, or if this anonymous stone throwing is merely a way to sell a little more advertising while a fictional fight has more gasoline thrown on the fire.
In previous years, a “credible source†for a reporter extended beyond someone being able to type in some random commentary and hitting “submitâ€
People often inquire with me whether or not I have the ability to do X or Y. Sometimes I tell them I don’t do either, and that my specific specialty is Z. They look at me perplexed and usually say “But isn’t Y almost the same as Z?†and my response is “Yes it is, “almostâ€. But it is different. I am not a Y specialist, I am a Z specialist.â€
When I am not busy (which happens every third Tuesday of the month), I can dabble in Y. For me Y is web design and coding. My “Z†specialty is online marketing and social networking. Many non-industry professionals assume that online marketing is web design, or that social networking is sales. The truth of the matter is that these are apples and oranges. Yet for the most part, even industry experts fail to realize the difference of apples and oranges.
Too many times I have spoke at a conference amongst “competitors†who were ready and willing to fight tooth and nail for each and every project they heard about. Rather than accept they had superior niche expertise with “applesâ€, they also wasted time fighting for the “orange†projects too.
As someone who understands social networks, one of the strengths of a community group like Biznik is that you will find that even one-hundred professionals in the same industry each have a beautiful and specific niche talent. They may all be web designers, but Giannina may be a saint when it comes to branding design and Kelly may be phenomenal when it comes to corporate identity. Is there a difference between branding and corporate identity? There is when you ask someone who knows what they are doing.
The same holds true in my line of work. When I first came to Biznik there were several members (Israel Rothman and Dominic Canterbury) that other individuals told me I was competitive with. I thought “That’s news to me, I’m a Z guy. They do W!â€
If truth be told- I’m sure Israel, Dominic, and myself could go toe to toe on some like-minded projects. Both of them are very smart guys. Yet because they are smart, they realize that if we all stick to our perspective niches the other guy can never come close. I can refer business to either of them when it is not my specialty, simply because I make a better living focusing on my true area of expertise.
When dealing with clients this is an invaluable lesson. Many times the most common objection is “Why can’t I just do it myself?†The answer to that is very basic. No matter what my client’s industry is, I am assuming they are a specialist in the industry.
When I talk to a potential client who asks me that question, I break it into one basic train of thought for them.
- If I need a house. I get a real estate agent.
- If I need a tumor out of my head. I get a brain surgeon.
- If I need a water leak fixed. I get a plumber.
- If I need to grow an online network. I get a social networking expert.
If I don’t follow this logic… and “do it myselfâ€
- My house falls apart. I buy a lemon. The lead in the paint gives me cancer.
- My IQ drops 45 points. I find dirt funny. I may even die.
- My cherished family photos get wet and my bedroom smells like mold.
- My business goes spiraling downward, and my next business consultant is a bankruptcy lawyer.
One of the objections I often hear from people is
“I don’t have time to network online!â€
Do you have time to
- Professionally Network
- Find a new friend
- Share your ideas
- Build your business
- Market yourself
- De-stress?
What about…
- Elevate yourself as an industry expert
- Establish connections in other industries
- Increase the efficiency of your networking
- Offer introductions to your niche-experience on a daily basis?
While online networking is not the “end all, be all†of making personal connections, it has one valuable strengths that very few real world venues have- economy of scale.
If you have the time to introduce yourself to one new person a day, wouldn’t it make sense from a business perspective to take that same amount of time and be introduced to fifty?
When I write this article or post to a forum, my thoughts are communicated to dozens of potential contacts, perhaps even thousands. If I went into a coffee shop with the expectation that I would have to say the same phrase over and over again to a hundred different people as I look for a good connection, it would take me days of effort. I would spend the entire time trying to expand my network with little result. In my best real world opportunity, I would attend a networking event where I may have the chance to meet people in groups and who are willing to listen to my message.
Considering how much time I wasted in the real world trying to connect with a hundred people as I restated my statements and repeatedly asked for permission, the basis of networking online is that readers have given me permission to talk to them and they assemble in groups for me. If I am sharing thoughts of interest, they are actively engaged with what I am saying. I don’t have to approach them and get a cold shoulder, its more like I am talking to a group of people at a cocktail party and they come into the conversation by their own choice.
The beauty is, this cocktail party is happening 24/7, 365 days a year.
That has amazing relevancy. Readers choose to join the conversation. I don’t bend their arm to listen. If they find value, they start talking. If they don’t, they move on. For decades marketing has tried to force the idea of “opt-in mailing lists†for physical and electronic mail, as well as frustrating us with the need of “do not call†lists to maintain our sanity on our personal phones.
Case in point- Right now, I have no control over whether you are reading.
As an industry expert, imagine the power of sharing your ideas and thoughts. People who are interested find little bits and pieces of inspiration and insight, and they either join the conversation or move on. Blogging attracts people as it is one of the only true “opt in†medias. If you don’t like what I’m saying, go Google someone else! (or try Dan, Paul, or Kevin)
If you are interested, join my conversation.
Take Biznik.com as an example of “economy of scaleâ€. There are 2500 members browsing through the site and pondering different ways to connect. If I had to assemble 2500 people in real life, my first challenge would be to actually listen to all 2500 people.
30 seconds per introduction X 2500 members = 20+ hours of introductions.
When I think about that time, I realize that my elevator pitch needs to be refined to an exact art and that I need to remember to pack a few bottles of water.
Now compare that to writing on the community forum or blogging this article. It took me thirty minutes to write this. Over the next few weeks several hundred people will read it.
Every single person who actually strikes up a conversation with me after reading it is pre-screened and wants to have a more in-depth discussion. On top of that- they can look at my profile and read my blog to discover even more about me, and when they do contact me they have taken the burden of responsibility to find out who I am, rather than me taking the responsibility to tell them.
By taking the time to put myself out there in the online world, every real life interaction coming from this conversation is pre-qualified and interested in what I do. As time goes on, every introduction I have online becomes a growing archive that adds to who I am. Unlike a conversation I had over dinner last night, this very article will attract interest from readers six months later. Even when I am sleeping peacefully, someone may be introducing themselves to who I am.
Whether or not you find me personally or professionally interesting, I have no control over.
Yet I will never know until the introduction has occurred.
My question to you-
Will you take the time to give me the information I need to find an introduction to you?
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A lot of people ask me how to go about establishing an online network. Whether they need it for a new job or to help establish business prospects, realizing the value of your social interactions is essential. Through networking, you can discover that brief contact with an informative and friendly approach can come back years later.
Example One- Job searching two years in advance.
My current position at Blogging Systems Group is a key example of how networking works. I saw an interesting press release for Blogging Systems that included my passion for blogging and sent off a friendly e-mail. I wasn’t looking for a job at the time, just thinking about how interesting the article was. Two months later my CEO (Richard Nacht) struck up a conversation via e-mail when he remembered some comments we had shared.
While I was thinking about the opportunity, I asked him about some other people working with him as references (yes, I’m a job seeker that asks for references) – he gave me Paul Chaney’s name (BSG’s VP of Marketing.)
I laughed and thought “Sign me up!†He asked if I was going to call Paul, and I didn’t need to. Two years earlier I had exchanged a round of conversation with Paul when he was running a blog marketing firm- Radiant Marketing Group (now defunct.) I knew Paul was a good guy then, he had made some memorable impressions on me, and I was good to go.
The point here is simple- I wasn’t looking for a job. A job found me. Because I had networked properly for years, Paul’s name was all I needed to know what I was in for.
So avid learners, here are some basic lessons to growing your own online network-
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When you were standing in line ordering a cup of coffee today, did you waste three minutes of your morning watching the barista stand behind the counter? Did you spend fifteen minutes watching a co-worker sip a soda in the corner of the break room?
That is what I refer to as wasted networking time. While standing in line at the café, or waiting for the check-out at the grocery store- turn around and strike up a conversation. I promise, it won’t kill you.
I know the title of this article says “online network†so I’ll draw the comparison for you. If you are reading this and haven’t done so already, add a comment. Ask a question. Open a dialogue. Talk to me. I promise, I won’t kill you.
Wait for a second though. Ask yourself, why do I need to grow my network today?
I know everyone likes me just for who I am, but I also accept the fact that we all have different needs. Don’t be afraid to share some of those needs. If you want to ask how you can network, great. If you love coffee and want to chat about the best café in town, I’m your man.
The real emphasis is that until you communicate with someone, you don’t know how they can help you. With communication comes knowledge. Blogging allows us to express that knowledge in articles like this one, but only through commentary and inquiry does a dialogue open. That conversation creates a community, and that community overcomes obstacles by leveraging the strength of your network.
I already have a network! (?)
Really? Have you ever taken the time to sit down and map out how your network functions? Do you know the fundamentals for your professional network?Before you say
“I already have a networkâ€, take five minutes and detail it out. Most people find they have three distinct layers in a network (often referred to as the 3 degrees of separation)
Your “inner circle†– This is usually the five to twenty people who blur the line between professional network and personal friend. They are willing to do things with little or little detail based upon your opinion of the matter.
Your “circle of influence†– This is usually the 100 or so people who you directly interact with on a monthly basis. It includes the “inner circle†of your own inner circle of friends, as well as those people who generally have a good opinion of your professional style.
Your “introduction bubble†– This may be 5,000+ strong. These are typically individuals you have only been introduced to. You may have only spent five minutes with them, and it often defines people you meet in networking events or through your own circle of influence.
Most individuals have immense “introduction bubbles†garnished over years of being in a profession. The key focus with a professional network is two-fold: you must grow new associations and nurture the ones you have. Services like linkedin, ryze, and plaxo are great ways to grow your introduction bubble (I even went and created entirely new accounts on those services to show people how this process works.)
The exact nature of this “introduction bubble†is to introduce you. By detailing where individuals fall within the three layers of your professional network, you have the ability to create a game plan to nurture your introductions into your circle of influence, and your circle of influence into your inner circle. The key is to always have a handful of individuals that you are exerting effort on at all three levels. If you compare your professional network to a garden, you will realize the necessity of constant attention and love will pay-off in the long run.
In my next piece, I’ll detail some of the exact steps for becoming a more proficient gardener.
For more of my like-minded articles on social networking, take a look at some of these-
Community Etiquette – From Good to Bad : Some basic points on maintaining good etiquette in an online environment.
Building Your Brand : Establishing yourself so that you stand out from social type-casting.
