Quick Networking Tips

Networking lets you connect to a variety of helpful people — everyone from potential business partners to new customers — and promote yourself. It doesn’t come easily on learning how to network and build relationships with smart, successful people. But when done right, networking is genuine, comfortable, and extremely valuable for both parties. But how do you get started? And how to do it effectively.

I’m sharing the following insights on this episode.

• How can get the most out of networking events.
• Ways to connect with speakers and audience.
• Things to consider before starting.

Hello and welcome to the not so Travelling Introvert. Today, I'm going to talk about events online or otherwise. A lot of the times there are certain things that you can do in advance of an event and after an event to make networking easier.

So, the first thing is start networking before you even get to the event. Normally, when you are told about an event, there will be a list of speakers or a website with a landing page that has information about who's running the event, what organizations are involved and you can go and look and do some research on these people.

Say you're going to an event and there's twelve speakers. Go on LinkedIn, take a look at the speakers. Normally, you'll be able to find them and maybe their contact information or connect with them on LinkedIn, send them a message like, “Hello, I've seen that you are going to be speaking at this event that I'm attending. I'm very excited to hear your talk on [insert topic here] really looking forward to it’. Let them know that you are looking forward to hearing from them.

If you don't want to connect on LinkedIn, most speakers, when they're at an event or advertising for an event will have their contact details, how they prefer to be contacted. So, if they don't have their Twitter profile up there, don't go and stoke them on Twitter. Contact them the way they wish to be contacted and let them know.

Now, feel free to also email or contact the producers of the show and let them know that you're excited about the show and that sort of a thing. Review the schedule or the program before the events start, make a list of the talks that you want to hear and then put those in your calendar so you're not going to miss them. And then make sure that you have time to attend.

Also, give yourself time before and after to prepare any questions that you might want to ask or do further research. Afterwards, because a lot of the time these things run over, they'll leave time for questions and you just might need to refresh or just recharge after that event. So, those are a couple of things that you should do where you don't have to network just at the event.

Now when you're at the event, for example, if it is a Zoom event, normally you would see people's names or their organization names and their names in their Zoom window. If there's someone who's talking or someone who's asked a question that is of interest to you, go ahead, make a note of that person's name and the company they work for and then go and look at their LinkedIn and say, “Hey, saw you were at this event. I really enjoyed the question you asked on [insert here]. I would really love to connect”.  

Not only have you then connected with the people who are speaking at the event but then you started to connect with the audience there as well and if the event is using a hashtag. For example, go ahead and look up that hashtag on social media to see what the conversation is about and who else is using that hashtag because you can connect with them as well. Now the other thing is having an introduction or an elevated speech prepared.

If you get asked who are you where are you from? Or drop your links in the chat or whatever it might be, make sure that you have that information ready to copy and paste and drop in the chat so that will be a good thing to do. Now, another thing is set yourself realistic expectations. There's no way that everyone who's at the event is going to respond to your invitation or talk to you and that's okay, don't be upset if not everyone does that. It is kind of a numbers game.

When you're thinking about networking have a goal in mind. What is your goal being that you just want to add more people to your role decks? Is that you're looking for people that you want to interview for a book? Are you looking for a mentor? Are you looking for something specific? Be interested in the person and not just the opportunity and part of that is by being a good listener asking follow-up questions.

Now, after the event always feel free to follow up 24 to 48 hours later to say, “Oh hey, I really enjoyed your speech on this or this topic. I had a follow up question or [insert whatever it is that you are looking for]”.  Those are things that will be helpful for live and in person and events moving forward.

Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovertcom.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.