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It is no longer enough to be the most connected person in your field. The data deluge and information overload we all experience has increased the demand for quality. You don't network with a volume intent. This involved getting as many business cards as you could from the room. Now it's as many friends on Facebook (FB) or followers on Twitter (Tw) you can get. The aim was to get as many business cards as you could so you could flog them stuff and hassle them after. I have no idea what the future of FB or Tw is, or even what's around the corner. What I do know is this… a quality network is more valuable than a large one over the long term.When I created Thought Leaders in 2001, it was driven by a double need. Firstly, the need to improve the quality of my thinking and secondly, to improve the quality of my connections. Henry Ford said that you should surround yourself with people smarter than you and get out of their way. This has certainly been my experience. Indeed the quality of my network is directly proportional to my personal growth. Better thinking leads to better conversations. From there, anything is possible.Here are some ideas for building a quality network...- Meet with people live
- Present at gatherings
- Handwrite notes
- Care a bit about their world
- Grow and learn
- Meet and share
- Discuss ideas not people
- Be your best value in the relationship
- Stay in touch
Quality networking is about who you're talking to and more importantly, what you are talking about. Network with intent. Hang out with smart people. Add enormous value to the conversation and their world. It's not just who you know that‘s important anymore, it's also what they know. It's the convergence of networks and knowledge that matter now.
M@
Matt Church
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Good morning Matt
ReplyDeleteI'm responding to your blog from Brighton in England where we have an amazing 30 degrees heatwave here. I'm in the process of setting up my own coaching/writing/presenting website and absolutely agree with you about quality of content. However my funky, young branding and website designer is very pro twitter as an essential way of expanding one's network. Maybe it's about having something interesting to blog about and some headline tweets to signpost people to the website? I don't think anyone can ignore twittering or any new communication tool the www throws up. We have to utilise all means of communication if we have 'big'messages and/or issues we want to discuss.
Cheers Penelope. Don't get me wrong, big fan of twittering with purpose. Be profound not just status updates. Use it to create forums and treat it like a mini water cooler conversation or impromptu forum discussion around a topic. Glad to hear UK is rocking in the summer time.
ReplyDelete