Sometimes, Networking is a Team Effort

Most successful business owners swear by the importance of networking and many wouldn’t be where they are today without diligently pursuing new contacts. From a business standpoint, we network for a few reasons:

1.) to connect with new services or expertise that can elevate our own business or our client’s business

2.) to connect with fellow colleagues in our field so that we can exchange leads and best practices

3.) to find that next big client.

Of course, networking isn’t always easy. If the idea of a multi-day conference event with hundreds of people makes you dizzy, you probably won’t find the most success at securing a few leads (and really, you probably won’t be trying terribly hard).

There’s more than one way to network however, and chances are there is a method that works for you. Here are a few different avenues for networking that can fit a number of different socializing preferences for your company.

Conferences

The big time socializing events that draw hundreds of people from a variety of different businesses, the connections you can make at conferences can be huge for your business. Unfortunately, conferences can be tiring, so it’s difficult to make the most of them while you’re there. Aside from the big figureheads of your company, you might choose to send the extroverts of your company and other people who thrive on conversation and meeting new people.

Coffee and Lunch

Most of us are familiar with a simple meeting over food or drink, and it tends to be a very casual and informal affair. Despite the casual nature of a coffee date, incredibly deep connections can be made (both personal and professional), and you might just stumble on to an opportunity that would have been impossible to find in another setting. These tend to occur naturally between people from different companies working in similar fields (such as IT or marketing), so encourage employees to pursue these activities as they occur.

Social Media

The latest toolset for business networking, social media offers vast opportunities for making fruitful connections for your business. Business social media sites, such as LinkedIn, are the most obvious avenues for making these connections, but other sites such as Twitter, Glassdoor, or even Facebook can be just as important for fostering connections. Making connections through social media is so ubiquitous at this point that most businesses hire an individual solely for social media marketing and communication.

One last word of advice: to fuel your networking engine and make the most out of the time you spend socializing, publicize your event! Leading up to the event, share the purpose of the event along with the date and people attending. And after the event has ended, gather feedback from those who attended and share with others what you or others in attendance go out of the experience.  When you spread the word of the benefits of networking, you’re doing your part to create an even bigger turnout next time.

And finally, almost demand the same of your staff. Just let them know: “I’ll let you go on company time if we can talk about it in advance and afterwards – as long as I know you’re getting something out of it, it’s on my dime.”

Do you have any favorite ways of networking or success stories that you’d like to share? Shoot us a line at info@quincycfo.com and tell us about it!