Right now, there is something that is revealed only to the few who know the right people to talk to. It is the hidden job market. Up to 80% of jobs are not advertised. They are found through recommendations from existing employees, from recruiters, through trusted friends and sometimes from the employer directly knowing the candidate. Whichever one of these routes the job information comes through, they all depend on the size, strength and reach of your personal network.

If you’re not networking, then you’re only seeing 20% of the current job market. While some statistics say it’s only 50% of jobs are hidden, you are still able to at least potentially double the number of jobs available. Just increasing the odds will help a job seeker, especially in today’s difficult economy. You don’t want to pass up the opportunity to have access to more jobs.

Another consideration is that you might be more interested in the type of jobs that aren’t advertised. While there’s no specific research showing that they are in a certain area, you might be more interested in the kind of employers who don’t advertise. Government agencies and those who take certain types of grant money may be required to advertise. You might be required to take exams and the process may be longer. The kind of company who doesn’t have to advertise, and who prefers to use face to face networking to find employees might be more agile, less tied to paperwork and more likely to have stronger relationships between employees in the organization.

But there are other ways that networking can speed up your job search. It can also make it more likely that you get the job you are looking for. When you build a network, not only are you finding out about more jobs, but also you have access to more information about the company, the position, and possibly even the person who left the job. If you make it to an interview, this kind of information can give you an edge during the meeting with the potential employer.

There’s another benefit to networking that can help you even when the job is advertised. What if someone you know saw the ad for the job position or knew someone in the company who told them the job was being advertised? If you know your contact well enough, they can hand deliver your resume and application, along with a great personal referral. Your resume will certainly stand out among the potentially hundreds of other applicants.

Because so much of the job market is hidden, networking is one of your best strategies possible for finding a job opening. It can improve the chances that you learn about jobs and can certainly improve the chance that you get the job.

About the Author: Beth Bridges is The Networking Motivator ™ and creator of the 5 Part Networking Success Plan ™, a simple networking system that can help anyone from business owners to sales agents to college students develop a powerful network. Subscribe to the weekly Networking Motivator Newsletter at www.thenetworkingmotivator.com for a quick boost of networking inspiration, information and motivation.”

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.meetingwave.com as the original source).

Have you kept in touch with your college classmates? Participated in college networking?

Building out your Rolodex of contacts can help you find new job leads or new clients. Most jobs are found through connections and most clients start with a new introduction. Networking with alumni is a good place to start. Here are some steps to take to build your college network and meet people:

1. Start making connections with fellow alumni on LinkedIn and Facebook. Search for them and send invites to connect with a thoughtful introduction.

2. Join your alumni group on LinkedIn and Facebook and become a valued member.

3. Check out your college or university alumni website and sign up for an alumni email address, the online directory and other tools they may provide to help you connect with your fellow alumni and leverage resources for alumni.

4. Join your alumni association and determine whether there are any regional associations near you. Go to alumni events and try to become active in the association.

5. Wear your colors while on vacation or on weekends. This can sometimes prompt a “Did you go to University XYX?” from a stranger and lead to conversation and new contact.

In the end, business networking with fellow alumni can create your own college network or university network whether networking for jobs, professional networking or just to meet people.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it.

If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.meetingwave.com as the original source).

Schmoozing, selling, socializing…if you use any of these words to describe networking, you might have a negative perception of one of the most powerful business and personal marketing tools available.
In today’s uncertain economy, it’s going to take every resource we have to grow our businesses, stay competitive, and keep our jobs. The strongest safety net you can build will be made of a wide range of mutually beneficial relationships.
Very few people will argue, I believe, that having people you can count on to help you with information, resources, and referrals can only be helpful. So why do some of those people actually scoff at the idea of networking. Like selling, an honorable profession, networking has suffered from the less-than-tactful application of the activity by some.
By holding a negative perception of networking, we limit our ability to develop our skills and achieve results through networking. We cannot be successful at something we secretly disdain. We don’t want to become one of “those people” so we may unconsciously sabotage ourselves, or don’t even try it in the first place.
Do you have any of these negative perceptions of networking?

It’s Just Schmoozing and Socializing

What you really mean is that you don’t think there’s a point to networking beyond self-aggrandizement or perhaps a free drink or two. Few events in the business world should be purely social. The organizer should always have a purpose and should communicate that purpose to the attendees. If you personally don’t have a specific purpose for your networking, well then, it can devolve into pure socializing. If your mindset is to meet people for the purpose of discovering how you can help them and eventually create a reciprocal relationship, then any gathering of people will have a great purpose for you.

Networks are Only for Good ‘ol Boys

Unfortunately, I have to admit this might still be true for the upper echelons of banking and Wall Street Investment firms (you cannot ignore the evidence of the pictures in the Wall Street Journal). But in your local business environment, this is an outdated belief. And, if you work in small business, even more so. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, minority ownership of small businesses doubled from 1982 to 1997, and as of 2002, women owned 30% of all businesses.
You may also feel that there’s no use networking because everyone already has their close group of people they refer to, but this is also not true. Smart networkers know they should never close the door on a relationship just because they already know someone in that business. Like parents who always have enough love for all their children, there is always room to build a relationship that helps both parties. In either case, if you’re not part of the “in crowd,” it’s now a big and diverse enough business community that you can start your own “in crowd”

Just Passing Out Your Business Card is Enough

Handing your business card to everyone within arms reach is not networking. It’s advertising. You’d be better off to spend the time at a major intersection with a sandwich board for all the good it’s going to do you. There is nothing worse than meeting someone for the first time and having them hand you five of their business cards so you can “pass them along if you meet anyone who needs my services.” If I don’t know you, I’m certainly not going to risk damaging my relationships by referring an unknown business. And whether it’s a brochure, flyer, or business card, if the information is not asked for, not expected, and not relevant, it will end up in the trash.

Only Extroverts can be Good at It

Not only is this not true, but sometimes extroverts are terrible networkers. Getting to know someone takes excellent listening skills. Extroverts tend to be people-persons, but can let their enthusiasm run away with them. They can dominate the conversation and miss out on opportunities to develop rapport and find things in common. Introverted people with good people skills can be excellent networkers who are most successful when they are helping others connect; they just don’t want to deal with too many people at the same time.
If you feel a little intimidated by large crowds, be assured that a majority of the population actually considers themselves as introverts and most people report feeling shy at some time in their life. Use the buddy system and start small until your confidence builds.

Networking is All About Selling

Well, you’ve got me there… it is about selling. Selling yourself, your image, and what you have to offer someone in a business relationship. But for actual “here’s-my-brochure- would-you-like-to-buy-something” type of selling, I think that a professional networking event is the last place that should happen. You are there to show your target market that you are willing to invest your time in them and the community, that you are interested is meeting people for the long-term, and that – while yes, you do have a product or service to sell – you understand that you need to earn their trust first.
There are unfortunately people who either don’t understand this or who are under so much pressure to sell that they ignore their gut telling them that outright selling is not welcome. If you don’t network because you think you have to sell, you are now off the hook. Don’t sell at networking events. Get to know people, find out how you can help them and earn their trust.

Conclusion

Have you dumped out any of those old, limiting beliefs of networking yet? Since perception is reality, you may previously found that your events were full of business-card-distributing, schmoozing, good ol’ boys. But with a fresher attitude and an expectation of friendly faces and successful connections, you’ll find that networking is a more enjoyable process whether you are job networking or networking for business.

Looking for more networking tips, tricks, strategies & advice? Visit Meeting Wave’s Networking Motivator Blog.

About the Author: Beth Bridges is The Networking Motivator ™ and creator of the 5 Part Networking Success Plan ™, a simple networking system that can help anyone from business owners to sales agents to college students develop a powerful network. Subscribe to the weekly Networking Motivator Newsletter at www.thenetworkingmotivator.com for a quick boost of networking inspiration, information and motivation.”

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.meetingwave.com as the original source).

Are you frustrated with the lack of results you get from your networking? Are you starting to feel like no one in your town appreciates what you have to offer? Are you thinking that it’s a big waste of time? And you don’t see what all those experts are talking about? Are you starting to think that networking just doesn’t work?

It works. Just ask Ivan Misner, Harvey Mackay, and Keith Ferazzi. And before you starting thinking “oh sure, it works for them because they are famous!” you need to realize that networking is how they became famous. And if it worked for them, it will work for you.

So why isn’t networking working for you? Here are five reasons you aren’t getting the results you want.

Your Activity Level Lacks Consistency

Ever tried to have a long-distance relationship? It’s very difficult, isn’t it? Building relationships of any kind, whether romantic or business, takes regular interaction, which builds familiarity and leads to trust. In business, building a foundation of trust means that you are likely to do business with each other and feel more confident in referring others.

Take a hard, objective look at how much networking you truly do. It is very easy to delude ourselves into thinking we are doing more and working harder than we really are. For the most accurate picture of your networking activities, take a month and write down every event, activity and interaction you have. Is it less than one or two activities a month, less than a handful of contacts with your existing network and fewer than three or four new contacts a month? You are definitely not doing enough to stay consistently visible and to deepen relationships. There is no magic number of events or activities, but a lot can happen for you if you just show up.

Try this: Work on increasing your activities to a consistent level before focusing on any other reason.

You Do Not Give First (or Enough)

Do you network with the expectation that you are going to get something every time? Is your first concern about what you are receiving from your contacts? If you don’t give first and frequently, people will see you as a salesperson, not a networker.

We might think we are giving, but sales materials and an invitation to a marketing presentation don’t count. You must give to other people in a way that doesn’t benefit you. “Wait a minute,” you ask, “how am I supposed to make a living if I give it all away and if I don’t benefit?” First, you’re not necessarily giving away your products. The new currency in business today is information, resources, and referrals.

Second, networking is all about developing relationships. If you have a reputation as a helpful person who is a resource and a referrer, people will want to do business with you and they will want their friends to do business with you. You will benefit from giving.

Try this: Give something to one of your contacts every day for a month. Find information about their industry, provide them with a new resource, or send them a business lead.

Your Networking is Inefficient

Do you have a very specific target market? Or do you know who your best client is and where they network? General networking events such as Chamber of Commerce mixers are excellent for meeting a wide range of people. And they are a fabulous way to give to your core contacts (by finding prospects and referrals for them). But if you have a limited amount of time to network, you should be spending that time in the most target-rich environment.

For example, if your product is women’s skin care, a salon, or clothing store and you have time for only one luncheon a month, you should be at a women’s networking organization event. If you market to doctors, find out when and where the medical association meets.

Another way that we become inefficient with our networking is that we spend too long with people we know at networking events. Certainly you must say “hello” and acknowledge them, but especially at general, open activities, you should focus on getting to know new people. Sometimes we enjoy networking with our existing friends a little too much and forget to not only meet new people, but also help them join our familiar circles.

Try this: Write down every event you go to and the groups you belong to. Are they the right target market for you? Recruit your well-known friends to come with you to search out new faces and help them feel more welcome at your favorite events.

You Don’t Follow Up

Do you follow up with everyone you meet, whether or not you think there’s business to be done? Like me, you probably have the best of intentions to send note, an email, or make a quick call, but as the days go by it seems less and less relevant. I know that I’ve personally missed on a lot of opportunities simply because I didn’t follow up.

The saying goes “the fortune is in the follow up” but it’s probably one of the hardest parts of networking to implement and consistently do. We’re simply overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work and information crossing our desk that needs attention now! Following up is important, but it’s not urgent, especially if the other person didn’t say “call me tomorrow and I’ll buy.” That generally doesn’t happen the first time we meet someone.

Try this: Create the absolutely simplest system you can think of to follow up. If your system is complicated, follow up won’t happen. Adopt a “do it now” philosophy, then you won’t have to worry about it later.

You Don’t Have a Good Tracking System

If I asked to see your contact database, would you show me a shoebox of business cards? Would you even know where the cards were for someone you met a month ago? The problem is not finding the tools to track our contacts. We could keep our cards in a Rolodex and there are dozens of free contact databases available on the Internet.

The problem is getting them into the system in the first place. You are going to either have to site down and type their information in or invest in a card scanner. Then, the hardest part is again, creating a very simple, hole-proof system to get everyone of those people into your contact database. Personally, I am starting to think that it would be worth the money to pay a Virtual Assistant to handle this for me. I would notate on the cards, then hand them over and let her put them into the system. The amount paid would probably return on the investment with the first sale I made because I knew where to find someone’s information.

Try this: Search for a system that you feel comfortable with, whether it is your Outlook or an online system. Decide to spend just 5 or 10 minutes a day inputting your contacts and always try to “do it now.”

Conclusion

If you are struggling to see the value in your networking activities, there are always methods we can use to fine-tune our activities, habits, and systems. Choose just one item at a time to work on until you feel that you are ready to tackle another. As you start to make changes, you’ll begin seeing better results in your networking. Your successes will motivate you to keep improving your networking skills until you are enjoying a great return on your networking investment.

Looking for more networking tips, tricks, strategies & advice? Visit Meeting Wave’s Networking Motivator Blog.

About the Author: Beth Bridges is The Networking Motivator ™ and creator of the 5 Part Networking Success Plan ™, a simple networking system that can help anyone from business owners to sales agents to college students develop a powerful network. Subscribe to the weekly Networking Motivator Newsletter at www.thenetworkingmotivator.com for a quick boost of networking inspiration, information and motivation.”

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.meetingwave.com as the original source).