Building Your Network
Written By: Ariana Geneva
Networking is an incredible business tool that can add to the recognition of you and your business, plus can increase the longevity of your business as a whole. It gives you a chance to be the face of your business and make personal connections with like minded entrepreneurs, prospective clients, or customers within your target audience. A strong network can play a key role in introducing a new business idea or venture.
What is networking?
In the business sense, Networking is “the exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions. Specifically: the cultivation of productive relationships for employment or business,” according to Merriam - Webster. In the most simple of terms, it's building and maintaining the relationships that you cultivate in regards to your brand, business, or trade. It can be anything from a casual conversation in a restaurant between two people who realize they both work in the same industry. Or seeking out an industry leader at a conference to discuss their approach or opinion on new trends in business. I can also simply be maintaining connections and facilitating customer interaction or business opportunities to previous co-workers, classmates or even employers.
Why can networking be so scary?
For some individuals, networking is just another opportunity to sell themselves or their brand. It is second nature, like selfies and social media. However, in-person networking can be a daunting task. The pandemic has exacerbated this, but many felt this was true even before the world took a pause and a lot of work was redirected to remote channels. Emails are anonymous, and even a Zoom meeting can be paused. Face-to-face connections can bring up memories reminiscent of awkward teenage years, the first day of school and making new friends and sometimes we forget that these sensations can absolutely plague us into adulthood and the business world.
What are some ways you can successfully network?
Networking without the nerves takes practice. At the end of the day, your goal is to build your business. Sometimes keeping your business goals in your mind can help shake off some of the personal jitters you may feel. Here are a few more tips and tricks to keep in mind to help make your networking practice more successful
Get Excited
Allison Woods Brooks studied and concluded “Compared to those who attempt to calm down, individuals who reappraise their anxious arousal as excitement feel more excited and perform better.”* It can be as simple as telling yourself, “I am excited to go to this networking mixer,” instead of trying to calm down or lower your heart rate. Just lean in because physiologically your body can’t tell the difference between excitement and anxiety, it feels the same. Because never in the history of being told to calm down, has anyone been able to calm down anyway.
Be Prepared
Scar sings an entire song in The Lion King about preparedness. The Boy Scouts have always said be prepared. There even exists the quote, sometimes attributed to Benjamin Franklin, that “by failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.” What is an easy way to be prepared? Business cards! They are customizable. You can have fun with them and use them to embody your business and personality. They give you something to hold on to if you have nervous hands, fidget or like props to help you organize your thoughts. They can help you keep it short and concise. Networking and making an introduction don’t have to be long, drawn out affairs. Sometimes you can simply drop your card, say a brief introduction along the lines of, “It would be wonderful to chat with you in the future about this topic, here is my contact information,” and make a quick exit if you are pressed for time or unable to carry on a more in depth conversation.
Lean on Me (Your Friends)
Friends and colleagues are a great buffer if you have a hard time making introductions or simply cannot imagine diving into a networking event crowd. Ask a friend to help make an introduction with someone they are familiar with, they can briefly summarize why you should be meeting with them and either stay to help facilitate the conversation or gracefully exit to give you the spotlight. Not sure who to meet? Another reason your friends and colleagues can come to your aid. You can glean insight into power players and find key information to help make an introduction happen more organically.
Set a Goal
Know what you would like for your goals to be. Why are you networking in the first place? Having a clear idea as to what you would like to accomplish can help take the nerves out of the equation. Are you handing out your card to as many people as possible to just get your name out? Practice a brief intro and exit strategy where you won’t be stuck long, painfully making small talk. Do you want to pick the brain of a specific individual? Know how you are going to meet this person, what would you like to talk about, and what questions will you ask them. Knowing your why will help boost your confidence when you are approaching networking.
Socialize
Social Media is an ever growing tool that can help you network in so many ways. Your personal and business accounts can be found by anyone with access to the internet. The possibilities are seemingly endless. You can follow, comment, like and share content to help make yourself visible to like minded professionals, clients, and customers. You can easily make an introduction online with more ease than face-to-face interactions. New apps and online communities are created all the time. Its ease of use, accessibility and connectivity makes networking essential to differentiating yourself, business or brand from the competition.
Networking doesn’t have to be a daunting task. It can be a valuable tool in your belt of selling and growing your business. Imperfect practice is still practice, so if you are rusty at in-person pitches, start on social channels and branch out. Print some fresh business cards to hand out or design a virtual business card like Dot. or Popl for the tech savvy networker. Every day conversations can be valuable networking moments. Go out and grow your business with your next conversation!
**Allison Woods Brooks has introduced the idea of reappraising anxiety as excitement in her paper “Get Excited: Reappraising Pre-Performance Anxiety as Excitement” published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, June 2014.
