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XING, which is Europe's answer to LinkedIn has 500,000 paying members. The site has over 6MM business networking members of which 8% are paying. This is fairly impressive considering many Web 2.0 sites are having problems with monetization.
To read more, go to XING proves business people will pay to network online.
Do you know of any other business networking sites making money besides XING and LinkedIn?
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Tim Sanders discusses the importance of spending time reaching out to people randomly in your network in his post, Refresh your network. This is great advice because we all have people within our network that we don't talk to very often.
After all, your network in an asset that you can take with your throughout your career. However, if you don't nurture it, then it may lose its value. If you are not in front of your network, then some of these people will lose interest in you, therefore, you will have a difficult time maintaining some of your relationships.
As Tim mentions, make it a priority and invest in your network. Social capital is so important in today's business world that you need to take it very seriously. Re-connect with people and show that you care.
How to you keep in touch with your network?
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Having a sense of humor is important for building relationships. It is difficult to warm up to someone who doesn’t appreciate a little humor now and then. After all, you want to build relationships for the long term so it shouldn’t be about business 100 percent of the time.
Humor can take the edge off of a serious business conversation. Of course, only use it when appropriate and keep the humor clean and fun. When you bring humor into a relationship, it shows that you are still a person like everyone else and are not always about business.
In order to get to know people on a personal level, you need to be yourself and most people have some sense of humor. Don’t hold back because you want to be conversational.
Everyone likes to laugh. It is healthy and can make people more comfortable (assuming it is in good taste).
Do you have any good stories as to how you used humor to enhance a relationship?
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Every year, you have an opportunity to acknowledge people within your network on their birthdays. You need to always find reasons to reach out to people so make sure that you don’t miss out on birthdays. Ask for people’s birthday dates so you can add them to your database, calendar, or a birthday reminder system (i.e. BirthdayAlarm.com).
Acknowledge people by sending them an email, birthday card, phone call, or take them out to lunch. Whatever you do, people will appreciate that you are thinking of them. Birthdays are also a great time to send someone a great book that you read or another relevant gift. Since it is the birthday person’s day, make sure that you don’t selfishly use it as an opportunity to talk about yourself.
Here are some good reasons to reach out to people on their birthdays:
1. Shows that you care
2. Shows that you pay attention to details
3. Great opportunity to reach out to someone
4. Great opportunity to send someone a business gift
5. Great opportunity to see someone in person
Also, I just celebrated my 35th birthday and hosted a party. It was a great opportunity for me to reach out to people within my network and invite them to celebrate with me.
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It was just announced that "CNBC has entered into an alliance with LinkedIn under which the
financial news channel will air content generated by the professional
networking site's 27 million members."
"CNBC, which is part of General Electric Co, will integrate LinkedIn's networking functionality into its website CNBC.com, enabling users to share and discuss news with their professional contacts."
This is an interesting deal and one that aims to add more user generated functionality into LinkedIn so it can compete with other large online networking sites such as Facebook.
Time will only tell if LinkedIn is successful with all of its recent alliances and additions to its service.
What do you think?
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Face to face networking is very important because you can look someone in the eyes and pick up non-verbal cues. Interacting in person is a necessary step to gain trust and comfort with people. Don’t let technology overtake face to face networking. Technology is great for maintaining and building relationships but not encouraged as the first and only way of interacting.
With the younger generations, such as the Millennials, they primarily utilize tools such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. to initially connect and build relationships. My concern is that they don’t spend enough time interacting face to face with people.
Nothing beats human interaction! Don’t become too comfortable with technology that it prevents you from meeting people in the flesh.
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The recent article, How Professional Groups Can Boost Your Career, discusses the importance of involving yourself in industry groups. It is very important to interact with people in your industry not only for building new relationships, but also for branding yourself. In addition, recruiters often look to these associations for job candidates.
"Bob Hatcher, president of Chicago area-based Executive Network Inc., estimates that 40 percent of the candidates he places into jobs are identified through trade groups."
"Along with being a constant blip on a recruiter's radar, being in a trade association allows people to connect with others in the same field. This can lead to referrals and other useful insights about the industry. Networking groups provide similar advantages."
The article further explains the following:
Joining the right organization can help you build your brand along with other benefits such as:
Take the time and effort to join one or more industry association. Better yet, get involved in a leadership capacity. You won't regret it.
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