Are you jealous of people who work a room with ease? Do you think the secret to successful networking is being born extroverted? Relax. Even the “natural networker” has worked hard to be at ease in a room full of people they haven’t met. Their talent isn’t inborn. You can develop business networking skills with the right preparation.

There are nine quick and easy networking tips to prepare your networking skills. If you are shy, good news, talking to other people is far down the list. Begin with these simple steps to feel more confident when it comes time to meet and greet.

1. Prepare

Know why you are networking. Have a specific purpose. Are you looking for prospects, getting exposure in your market, or positioning for a promotion? Networking isn’t selling and it’s not just for promoting yourself. You can use it to search for resources and build your brand many other things. Keep your purpose clear to overcome obstacles and excuses.

2. Know Yourself

“What do you do?” is the first question you’ll be asked at business events. Yet it’s amazing how many people fumble for an answer. The answer is a subject on which you are the final expert. Write a short self-introduction and practice out loud until it sounds natural. You’ll adjust it as you use it, but the written description is a good place to start.

3. Know Your Market

Believing that “everyone is my target market” will make your networking vague and inefficient. List the characteristics of your ideal client and focus on events that attract these people.

4. Have Materials Ready

It’s embarrassing to come up empty-handed when asked for your card. Have business cards, a small notepad, and a pen with you at all times. Keep emergency stashes of cards at home, in your office, and even in your car.

5. Choose Your Event

The business club president or event host should be able to tell you who is attending, if it’s strictly business or more social, and if it’s informal or has an agenda. You’ll be more confident in knowing the venue is right for you.

Networking is an ongoing cycle of preparing yourself, meeting people, getting to know them, and finding ways to create a deeper bond. Any new task is going to feel awkward at first. Practice and repetition of these nine networking tips will help your skills grow. Someday your “natural” ability will make someone else jealous.

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).

Networking has picked up more than a few negative connotations over the years: schmoozing, selling, card swapping and more. There is another, more subtle perception about networking that is not necessarily negative, but that limits us all the same. The idea persists that networking takes place only at large, “mix and mingle” type of gatherings.

These are usually Chamber of Commerce events, called mixers, or sundowners, or after hours, or any one of a number of creative names that still bring up the idea that all networking takes place in a very large room full of people.

Certainly a Chamber mixer can be an excellent way to meet new people, especially if your Chamber works hard to get a good mix of attendees and people are there to build relationships, not sell. But this is a restrictive opinion because networking includes activities, actions, and habits that are extremely diverse and creative. If you believe this is your only networking avenue, you are missing out on building relationships in many ways.

What else is networking besides going to mixers? It includes any actions you take: meeting people, communicating with them in a way that builds rapport, and giving them help they need (i.e. resources, info, leads). It is anything you do that builds and strengthens a mutually beneficial relationship.

This includes:

• Making a supportive phone call
• Inviting someone to coffee
• Offering a referral to a service they need
• Exhibiting at business trade shows
• Learning about their services to share with others
• Going with someone to a large social event
• Setting up a meeting between two friends
• Sending a prospective lead to someone
• Giving first, without expectation of return
• Forwarding an interesting article
• Writing a testimonial
• Conducting or attending training seminars
• Taking people to lunch
• Sending thank you notes

Don’t limit yourself in the future by thinking of networking as an event with a large crowd of people sipping drinks and “mingling.” Think about all the different actions that you can take to meet people, build relationships, and develop your network.

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).

If you’re new to town, in your first job, or ready to create a strong community of relationships, now is the time to start networking. It’s one of the most powerful business activities you can do. You have the desire, but your problem may simply be: where do I network? Even in the smallest city, there are going to be more opportunities than you can take advantage of. Here are six ways to find places to network.

Chamber of Commerce
Start with your local chamber of commerce. They are always dedicated to the success of their business community. Not only should they have a number of their own events including mixers and business seminars, but they should also know of local service clubs and associations. When you network with the Chamber, you’ll also meet people who are part of, and know of, other networking groups and activities. Your city many have several chambers of commerce because of specialty chambers such as hispanic, black, women’s, and asian chambers of commerce.

Local Paper
Pick up the paper every day for at least a month to check the business section for event listings. The calendar may not list events until the day of the event. You might not be able to attend that day, but take down group names and phone numbers to call and get their future schedule.

Business Paper
A business newspaper will be like a greatly expanded version of the business section of your local paper. They should have extensive event listings and they may even run events of their own. American City Business Journals, Inc. runs papers in 41 major metropolitan areas in the United States. You may also find locally run business papers by searching for your city name and the phrase “business newspaper.”

Phone Book
As old-fashioned as it sounds, your local yellow pages directory is still an excellent source of information. Look under the headings of clubs, associations, and service clubs.

Local Associations of National Chapters
If you are not already seeing these organizations listed in the Chamber directory, newspapers, or phone books, conduct an Internet search. Use key words to search for your area of interest (e.g., management, advertising, etc.) along with the words association, society, organization, and national. You may also find local, independent groups by including the word “network” and your city name.

Ask
You may have a very small or rudimentary network, but if you work with more experienced business people, or long-term residents, start by asking them about networking events, activities, and organizations. If you’ve started your own business, go to your neighbors in your business complex, introduce yourself and ask for networking advice. Not only might you find some great suggestions, you’ll also start building relationships in your own back yard.

Conclusion
Using the techniques in this article should provide you with many sources of information for finding out where to network. As you begin to attend events, talk to people you meet. They’ll know about more events than may be listed and they’ll be able to guide and recommend you to the most effective and friendly networking groups available. You’ll soon find that you’ll be able to pick and choose among many opportunities.

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).

You’ve worked hard to learn about people, remember their names and think about ways to help them whenever you can. But do they remember you? And are you remarkable enough that they are thinking of you when someone needs your services? While there are many ways to be remembered that aren’t good, here are positive, reputation-building ways to not only be remembered, but to become remarkable.

Be Interested in Them
It is the foundation of how to win friends and influence people and still remains true to this day: to be considered interesting (and therefore memorable) you must be interested in other people. They usually don’t remember what you say, but they will remember how you made them feel. If they feel like you listened and were interested in them, like you thought they had something valuable to contribute and that you liked them personally, they will feel great and they’ll attach that feeling to you.

Help Them Remember
Unless you have a very unusual name or occupation, assume that they need some help remembering you. Since one of the most common networking problems people say they have is remembering names, try to make it as easy as possible for them by giving them a memorable association to your name. For example, if your name is John Bridges, introduce yourself as “John Bridges, as in London Bridges.” Or “Sally Dove, like the bird.”

Remind Them
In advertising the general rule of thumb is that it takes seven exposures to a message for someone to remember it. Why should we expect to be clearly remembered ourselves with just one meeting? There’s a saying that “the fortune is in the follow-up” but so is the formation of memory. Increase your number of exposures by sending them a thank you note that includes a brief summary of what you discussed (include a reference to your memorable “hook” or one of your stories). You can continue to follow up with relevant information that they would appreciate (and that would show you are a good listener). For example, they may have mentioned that they were considering advertising in a particular publication. If you know someone else who also advertised in it, consider connecting the two together. Your new contact will get the benefit of someone else’s experience and your existing contact will get the benefit of making a new connection.

Networking is the process of developing long-term, mutually beneficial relationships. It’s hard to create a relationship if other people don’t remember meeting you or if they don’t remember you in a positive way. These are very specific methods of making yourself not only memorable, but also remarkable in a way that will grow your reputation and your business.

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).

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).

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).

Check out and subscribe to MeetingWave TV on youtube. The videos provide tips about meeting new people, how to network effectively, how to generate leads and how to blog your way to success.

Some of the videos were created by MeetingWave, but the better ones were likely created on our behalf by The Outsourcing Company, which is a great internet marketing agency.

Let us know if you have any relevant videos to add to MeetingWaveTV. We hope to have more soon.

In the meantime, if seeking new clients or business contacts, try MeetingWave or our iPhone or Android apps.

Thanks.

Here’s a sample MeetingWave invite:

“Proposed Networking Meeting About…Anyone who is interested in retaining a patent attorney.

Interested in meeting with those having similar Meeting Interests (see my profile). Please create a MeetingWave profile with one or more verified email domains (e.g.,@ibm.com or @yale.edu) before accepting this invite. Time/location flexible.
LOCATION
Meeting place will be disclosed when the inviter approves your request.
New York, NY”

Keep in mind, if another member accepts the invite, the inviter will be notified and can ignore, decline or approve. The networking meeting is only confirmed if everyone agrees to meet.

If the meeting is confirmed, the members can exchange double-blind messaging to decide where to meet and when.

It’s that easy to meet a new client, customer or business contact.

Make sure your profile has some background information including verified email domains.

Members can also offer to pick up the tab to entice more members to accept.

Remember, you decide who you’ll meet and will be buying the coffee for.

Real estate agents, attorneys, consultants and others seeking new clients should try the same.

MeetingWave helps you arrange targeted networking meetings with the exact type of people you want to meet.

We recently launched location-based business networking apps.

You can download the iPhone app here and the Android app here.

The apps allow you to set up networking meetings on the fly with new people!

Simply:
(1) Download;
(2) Create profile with some background info and meeting interests; and
(3) click “Available”.

We do not disclose specific location, name or contact info.

Others will send “meeting requests” if interested in meeting.  You can ignore, decline or say yes (and use double-blind messaging thereafter to arrange the meeting).

Both the apps and website include a patent pending verification feature.  Members can have their work or alumni email addresses “verified” by MeetingWave and display an indication of that verification (e.g., @ibm.com or @brown.edu) on their profile.

MeetingWave – Real Networking. Easy.

The video describes how MeetingWave works, it’s value to users and our simple goals which are to help members more easily meet the type of people they’d like to network with.

Simply create invites describing the type of people you want to meet over coffee, lunch or other networking meeting.  You’ll be notified by email when someone accepts.  You can ignore, decline or confirm any acceptance for any reason.

Meetings are only confirmed if everyone agrees to meet and your name and contact info are private until you are ready to exchange business cards.

Let us know what you think.