We were recently invited by Jon Gatrell to be guest posters on his Spatially Relevant blog. We wrote about networking – both online and offline.
What sparked our post is a friend of ours who says she thinks social media is a waste of time. We can see her point – she has a stable job in a city she’ll probably never leave. She’s active in her community so she does do plenty of networking. She also cares for a young family at home.
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Hear us discuss today's topic on The Bigg Success Show. Just click the purple play button.: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download.
She’s not alone in her opinion. There’s no doubt that online networking benefits some more than others. But we think everybody should at least dip their toes into the water.
Online networking makes it easy to find people that you may not have talked with in some time. Like that colleague at your first job who’s now the President of a company.
You can catch up, keep up, and meet up.
We have another friend who said that if he hadn’t talked to someone in twenty years or so, he didn’t need to talk to them now!
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I disagree. A prime example – I’m catching up with some of my old high school classmates. It’s interesting to see what businesses they’re in now. Some of them are in similar businesses to what we’re doing here at Bigg Success. So we can talk and help each other with some of the ins and outs of the business.
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It’s easier for me to keep up with people using social media. I know me – I’m not going to write a letter. I’ve probably lost their phone number years ago. Their e-mail address may have changed and I forgot to note it. Social media is just a great way to stay in touch.
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It’s also important to build relationships offline as well. We’ve learned this – Bigg Success is, of course, an online business – but we found that it’s vital to meet people offline as well.
In fact, we met Jon, and his wife Emily, at a conference. We liked them instantly! Since we met them offline, we got to know their full personalities in a way that wouldn’t have been possible online. However, we’ve been able to keep in touch with them because of the online world.
The power comes from merging the two
When we hear about a merger in the corporate world, the word “synergy” usually comes up – the whole is greater than the parts. We think the same thing happens when you merge your networking worlds.
To take this one step further, think about marketing principles. You don’t just use one form of marketing in a campaign; you use a combination to create better results.
And networking is marketing – at least that’s part of the reason we all network. By putting the two together, the results will be better than if you just use one forum. You have two hands … why wouldn’t you use them both?
The bottom line – online or off – it’s all about people and building relationships.
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(Image by bjearwicke)
Studies show that we spend about 15 percent of our work week in meetings. If you’re lucky, right? Many of these meetings are a huge waste of time … and money.
