All businesses are different and as a result there is no single networking strategy that works for everyone. A networking strategy should be designed to specifically match how you are set up in business, hence providing the highest convenience for connect with your target audience. Remember that networking isn't about making a sales pitch; it's about building your contact list, learning information and building your reputation in a way that places you in a position of strength in the market.
Networking comes in two main flavors:
- Online networking through forums and social media websites. These are especially handy for extending your reach to people you would never meet on a face to face basis:
- Example: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook can be used to find and engage in relevant conversations that lead to gaining new contacts of interest.
- Real world networking performed mainly at organized events and later followed up with one to one meeting:
- Example: There are many business networking events held at bars and cafes that allow people in business to speak to each other. Find out where these are and attend.
Although these are two different ways to network, they are essentially the same activity—speaking with people of interest to establish trust and credibility. Online and real-world networking aren't mutually exclusive, hence a networking strategy can combine the advantages of both to suit how you need to connect with your target audiences For example, use online social networks to engage with people regularly attend real world networking events. Many of these meet ups have a presence on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, which you can use to engage conversation before the events—and identify beforehand who you would be good to speak with.
You can further split both online and real-world networking groups/events into the following:
- Generalist networking: These types of networking events, groups, and Internet forums invite businesses of any type to join, meet, and discuss. Their non-specific nature often means that they don't have a specialist theme or agenda, but are very good for meeting other people in business to open opportunities for collaborations, sales, and learning of non-specific business information such as how to deal with running aspects of your business and happenings in the local area that could be of interest to you.
- Specialist networking: This is the opposite to generalist networking in the sense that these events, groups, and Internet forums invite specific types of businesses and individuals to join. Unlike generalist networking, this is great for being able to target businesses and people with specific interests. Although this type of networking can be used as a sales channel in many circumstances, it is often a better source for finding contacts of interest and learning about industry specific news. As an example, a software developer isn't likely to find much work in a room full of other people who offer the same services, but they may find useful people to work with on future projects; thus opening opportunities to find key partners for bidding on bigger projects that require more resources than the individual developer can provide.
- Professional / trade organizations: Unlike the previous types, networking through professional and trade organizations is strictly about the skills of the trade that you operate in. This type of networking is very good for finding industry-specific information such as new technologies and laws that will affect how you work, as well as opportunities to establish your own credibility within professional trade circles. Generation of sales through this channel is the exception rather than the norm.
- Formal business networking groups: Formal business networking groups such as the many business breakfast clubs aren't suitable for everyone, but they seem to work for some people. These types of networking groups are businesses who make money from arranging regular business networking events for their group members, with their meetings having only one agenda—producing referrals for their members. To succeed at networking within these organizations, you need to know how to work their groups by establishing trust and having a simple description of what you do that their members will understand. Some services and products are much easier to get people to understand; for example, everyone knows what a website is, and the demand for new websites are fairly common, but software development services are a much harder sell because software needs and benefits are much more specific—surprisingly, many people don't know that apps are software! Joining this type of network isn't cheap - costing as much as £500+ per year, plus extra weekly fees for each meeting you attend. With today's social networking platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, the same results can often be generated without the cost and risk of losing your investment. It must not be forgotten that this type of networking organization exists only to make money from your business marketing and offers no promise of a return on your investment. Succeeding with this type of networking requires the following:
- The right group: Your business is generated entirely through referrals generated by the group's members. These people need to understand your services or product to understand what makes a good quality referral for you. It is a benefit to have other group members who work in compatible industries, as these are more likely to have access to the types of people wanting to buy your services in addition to already having a better knowledge of how to promote you.
- Strong referral generation: Many referrals from this type of group can be of poor quality, meaning anything from work that loses you money, through to leads who have never heard of you—i.e. leads will class you as a cold caller. This factor is heavily dependent on the group members; people who don't know how to create good quality leads and groups that pressure members to meet referral targets will result in members handing out any old lead to you. This is also a misleading trap to fall for, as this type of group can appear to be generating a lot of business for its members—while a bit of investigating may find that a minimal amount of the leads are converting to real business, with people losing money and time from poor quality work from those leads that do convert to business.
- A strong networking personality: With a networking personality, you can get people in the group to understand what you do in business, gain their trust you and open opportunities for collaborations the help other members—who may in return advocate you to people in their other network circles.
- The right group mentality: Avoid groups where there is too much of a focus on generating new referrals. Quality if always more important than quantity when it comes to sales leads; hence quantity often at an expense to quality. A group focusing primarily on quantity of referrals can be an indication of no quality control, with false impressions being given on the groups successes. Also avoid groups where many members only have an interest in what they can sell to the group. Your success in these types of groups depends group members taking a genuine interest in helping you with your business, which isn't going to happen if they are only there to make a few of their own sales.
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