networking

Whether you are a job seeker, entrepreneur, or company the first step in engaging with your targeted audience is to become a go-to source of valuable information. The idea is to stand apart from your competition and be relied upon and trusted by your network. The best method to begin this process is to understand how to find information that will make a difference to your network and establish you as that go-to source. The first step is to research, read, collect, and aggregate information.

Step 1: Set up a Google Reader

RSS logo courtesy of RSS wiki

Google Reader allows you to aggregate RSS feeds from blogs and websites that contain valuable information. The reader is a storage area you can set up like your own custom newspaper. Tip: You can share parts or all of your Google Reader with your audience. This is a great method to help your network discover new information and what you are reading.

Step 2: Join Twitter.com

Twitter, first and foremost, is the resource where I find 80% of my research and value content. The strategy is simple:

• Identify your industry, niche, people, associations, companies and news sources
• Utilize the “Search” box and input names of people, companies, industry, or company names
• Follow those sources of information. Ex I follow @guykawasaki, @peterkim, @chrisbrogan because they write blogs, offer value, and offer free download resources
• Once you begin following someone or organization of interest go to their Twitter home page and check to see who they follow. This is called mining your resources resources.

Step 3: Global Social Media Network

Blogger Ray Schiel authors one of the best resources for anyone interested in valuable information on social media, blogging, and Web 2.0. Go to Ray’s “Resource” page to find the following:

• A list of 105 Corporate blogs from Rubbermaid to Clorox to Hewlett Packard
• 75+ Corporate Facebook pages, how they are set up, and how they engage their audience
• Dozens of Podcasts
• A list of over 150 entrepreneurs, companies, global corporations in every niche on Twitter

Listening is an often ignored skill with equally ignored strategies of engagement. The first step to understanding the best listening strategies to employ during a conversation is understanding the goals behind having the conversation. In “Listening Is A Skill That Requires A Strategy” we provided the first step to finding your strategy by identifying the four types of conversations:

1. Information exchanges
2. Building working relationships
3. Feeling good
4. Making someone feel good

According to Mindtools.com’s article Active Listening: Hear What People Are Really Saying: “. . . we remember a dismal 25-50% of what we hear.” So understanding how to listen and the best strategies to listening comprehension are very important.

The next step in the process is understanding the set of choices you face when holding a conversation; the most basic choice is whether to talk or listen. As explained in Bruce Wilson’s great article Strategies for Business Listeners: “Your mission is to identify, and support, your goals for having this particular conversation in the first place.”

Choices in Conversation

The most basic choice is whether you talk or you listen. Beyond that basic choice are three more choices: Do you focus? Do you clarify? Do you listen attentively? Let’s examine each one.

1. When You Talk: Focus

a.) No Focus: This simply means you say what comes to mind without any plan or prior thought. The results of this behavior can be a free flow of information but at a cost. The cost is often severe if the speaker says something inaccurate, offensive, or monipolizes conversation time.

b.) Yes Focus: Plan what you are going to say. Understand the appropriate amount of detail to include. Deliver your message in a succinct brief summary in order to make the point without wasted effort.

2. When You Talk: Clarify

a.) No Clarification: You are guessing what is important to your partner in conversation. There are two problems here. First you may be wasting your partner’s time and yours. Second you may ramble on and begin to monopolize the time in the conversation.

b.) Yes Clarification: Before launching into unknown territory, ask permission of your conversation partner.

Do You Listen Attentively ?

Yes: You give your full attention by removing any distractions. In addition you should provide body language, eye contact, and gestures of affirmation in order to let your partner know you are listening.

No: If you answered “no”, you can do one of two things:

Partial listening: This is a bad choice because you often end up understanding half the message, possibly offending your partner, or you miss a vital piece of their message creating a misunderstanding of the message.

Ask Permission: Ask to reschedule your conversation to a time when you will be able to focus your full attention on the conversation.

Listening is defined by Princeton.edu as the “act of hearing attentively.” BizJobs.com supports a business glossary definition that states that Listening is “a key selling skill, in that without good listening skills the process of questioning is rendered totally pointless.” From these definitions come the need to recognize one factor that is so often ignored it leads to a breakdown in the process of conversation: listening requires a strategy. Before you can choose a strategy, you must first understand your goals in a conversation.

Strategy #1 Define Your Goals

Often times before we enter a conversation we understand, due to the setting or people involved, the purpose of conversation we are about to engage in. Due to this advanced knowledge, it is best to define your goal(s) in having the conversation. This recognition will help you choose the best listening strategy for the situation.

4 Purposeful Types of Conversations

The following purposes for having a conversation were outlined by Bruce Wilson editor of businesslistening.com:

1. Exchange Information: these conversations are about discovering what a person “needs, or is offering.” You may be probing in order to understand whether you have synergy, “complementary offerings or needs.” As Bruce states “part of the exchange of information is often about whether someone accurately understood what they heard.”
2. Building Working Relationships: developing and maintaining a positive business connection or positive personal relationship can be a very important factor of an ongoing business relationship. Examples of these instances are “customer-supplier conversations, employer-employee conversations, networking conversations, and team communications.
3. Feeling Good: this is simply the act of conversing with someone in a productive and/or enjoyable exchange. As Bruce notes, these purposeful conversations “can be a key component of having a good day or even a good job.”
4. Make Someone Feel Good: whether you have a vested interest in a friend or business associates’ “state of mind”, good conversations can have a positive effect on others around you, bring them joy and solidify your position as a valued connection.

In my last post I described how Susan and I are establishing our branding through networking within the community. The idea is to network with a variety of groups, organizations, firms, non profits, and charities in an effort to support our community and raise awareness of our products and services.

I identified what networking is and the best method to networking success: giving value. The following are 5 tips to help you identify what you have to offer that others would find valuable.

5 Tips to Finding Your Value “Give”

1. Make a list of your accomplishments: Don’t be shy in this exercise. Give a full list with details.
2. Make a list of your contacts of influence: Prioritize this list by who you know best and who knows you.
3. List your skill sets: Again do not be shy. Provide everything that is important to building your career.
4. From the first three lists: Analyze and choose what you believe to be the most valuable things you can give to your potential networking partners.
5. Create a plan on how to deliver: Will you utilize a blog or begin a public speaking platform to help benefit your potential networking partners? Identify all of the channels in which you can deliver your value.