Networking for Business Development?

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Fri, 01/06/2012

If it were only that simple! It’s becoming much more complex all the time. As more and more wayst to network become available, it means that more time needs to be spent on determining which ways to network are most appropriate for you and/or your business.

When there were just a few groups meeting in your city and you could narrow really quickly to the ones with the most ROI potential, life was easy. Now with many more ‘appropriate’ groups meeting, layered with meetups that may or may not be helpful, you have to make choices.

The same is needed for online networking. At one point it was all about Twitter and Facebook, and now it’s almost a must to have these two, Google+ and Linked in. And again, layered on top of these behemoths are several other alternatives.

You can’t be all places at one time, so you need to really keep track of what is leading you to the best results for your personal or business needs. The minute you drop the ball on tracking, everything can easily get out of control.

My suggestion, to help you focus when networking, would be to get more involved at the director or committee level with only one group, which allows you to rotate opportunities quicker, while not letting anyone of the groups down by not fulfilling your duties as an officer or committee member.

Another way to maximize networking is to look for ‘one-offs.’ In other words, if you find a responsible person to be your networking partner, then follow this person at all times to help them and you’ll be rewarded with more in return.

Lastly, and I can’t say this enough, make this part of what you do, not an additional thing you do!

What are your challenges when it comes to networking? I look forward to hearing your comments. Until next time …