Networking Insight

Pay Attention to Your Email Signature

Daniel Sitter's recent post, Branding Yourself in Your Signature Line, reminded me how important your email signature is to your personal brand.  This is a great opportunity to build your brand.  Each email that you send out should include a signature that tells people who you are and even provides links to your blog or Website.

My point here is don't miss this opportunity.  For me, I have a different signature both for work and personal. My work one contains my company, title, contact information, and company Website. However, my personal email signature is much different, which is what I use to brand myself.

In this signature, I include my name, phone number, email, Website, and blog. I want people to know about my Website and blog so I take this as an opportunity to share this with people.  Over time, people will remember you for this information and will expect to see your email signature.

Email is viral so people may forward your emails to other people.  So, this is another important reason to have a signature, especially if you want to get the word out about your Website or blog.

Meetup.com & Networking

Recently, I have begun to keep tabs on Chicago Meetups.  Meetups are basically gatherings of people around a particular interest.  By using Meetup.com, individuals organize monthly gatherings of people around virtually any topic and group.  Most groups are organized around a specific focus for like-minded people.

For example, there are groups for working parents, bloggers, singles, marketing, etc.  It is easy to organize an event. If you want to get some people together, then you can put together a Meetup and invite people to attend. 

I recommend that you subscribe to the Meetup list for your city so you can get a handle on what people are organizing.  If nothing interests you, then create your own group.  By participating, you will meet new people that you may not meet elsewhere. 

In networking, you need to be creative and find new ways to connect with people.  So, I am a big believer in trying new things.  While some of these Meetups may get small attendance, it is about quality, not quantity. It just takes one good new relationship for you to be convinced that you should attend a Meetup gathering.

Kids & Networking - Part II

In my previous post, Kids & Networking, I discussed how having kids can redirect some of your networking activities.   Because of my daughter, it is harder for me to attend various networking events.  Instead, I focus more energy on building existing relationships.

You just need to prioritize your life and make sure to still include relationship building as a key component in your routine.  You can make it work so take your time to find the most effective way, especially if you have kids.

Over Memorial Day weekend, I took my daughter to a neighborhood park in Chicago.  While your primary reason to go to the park is to watch your child play and have fun, it is still an opportunity to meet new people (i.e. other parents).  As I have mentioned before, relationship building can take place anywhere.

I was at the park for about 1.5 hours and met 2 dads with their kids.  In relationship building, you need to find commonalities to fully connect with people.  So, thinking about the kids park situation.  All of the dads were there for the same reason - kids.  With this commonality, conversations were born.  Both dads were very friendly and told me their names before I had a chance to properly introduce myself.

I could tell that these guys were happy to meet other dads.  While we didn't exchange contact information, we are now familiar with each other so I anticipate that we will continue our conversation when we see each other at the park again.

Establishing an initial connection is a great way to set yourself up for a future relationship.  My point with all of this is that no matter what your situation, you should always look for opportunities to build relationships.

Memorial Day Networking

I hope that you are enjoying your Memorial Day holiday.  This time of the year is a great time to relax and enjoy hanging out with your family and friends.   While you should have several days away from the office, don't miss any opportunities to re-connect with individuals.

In my prior post Re-Connect During the Holiday Season, I discuss how the holidays are an important time to re-establish and build relationships.  Your old friends should be in town if their parents still live in your home town.  In my case, I don't live in the same town as my parents anymore.  So, whenever I visit, I try to see an old friend from high-school or college.  While I know that it can be difficult to do this every time, I make an effort most of the time.

Over the weekend, I played golf at my childhood course, which is also where I worked during high school and part of college. What is amazing to me is that some of the retired guys that were working there with me almost 15 years ago are still there.  So, it was great seeing them and catching up.  They were all interested in learning about my life.  Once of the last time's they saw me, I was still in college.  Now, I am married, have 1 child with another one of the way, and live in Chicago.

Next time I come back to my hometown, Mequon, in Wisconsin, I will look them up.  They extended an invitation for me to connect with them when I am back.  It is nice when people treat you this way.  So, make sure to treat people how you would like to be treated.

Your Personal Brand Statement

As I have written in the past, Define Your Personal Brand, you need to stand apart from the crowd by branding yourself.  It can be a challenge to be seen and heard so you need to be proactive and make sure people know about you.

A great way to stand out is by becoming a subject matter expert. If you do this effectively, then others will associate you with a particular subject.   You need to be creative and diligent to make this happen.

A great blog about personal branding is Your Individual Brand.  I am a big believer in personal branding so check out this blog's recent post, Personal Brand Statement.

What have you done to make yourself stand out?  Do you have any personal branding techniques?

Open Up Your Rolodex

In relationship building, it is not wise to closely guard your Rolodex.  You should open it up when appropriate.  Just be smart about what information you release.   When getting to know people and fostering existing relationships, it is important to offer help on a regular basis.  This is where your Rolodex comes in handy. 

Offer to connect individuals together within your network.   People will really appreciate this gesture.  As I have said before, it is very important to offer to help others before you ask for help.  When the time is right, people will help you out and open up their Rolodexes.

Why do you think services liked LinkedIn are so popular?  Opening up your Rolodex provides more transparency into your network, which can actually help you to expand your own network.  After awhile, you will get to know your contacts' contacts.

Don't expect anything in return right away. Be generous and help others.  The generosity will flow back when the time is right.

Maintain Good Manners in All Situations

With all of our busy lives, we can get overwhelmed and lose our cool in certain situations.   While it may be easy to take your frustration out on a family member or total stranger, think before you say something that you will regret. 

Some of our frustrations are out of our control such as rush hour or demanding clients.  With these pressures, it can definitely feed into our personal lives and come home with us.  It is okay for these things to come home with us but it is not okay to take your frustration out on others.  We are all guilty of these at some point in our lives (probably multiple times).

My point is that you need to be self-aware and try to maintain your cool.  You don't want people to get the wrong impression about you.  Obviously, if an employee screws something up at work, then getting angry may be justified.  The same can be true for something at home.

Life is too short to let everything bother you. The other day, I was riding the 'L' train in Chicago to work and a woman got upset with a man who was trying walk around her to get to an open space on the train. She snapped at him for no apparent reason.  The only thing I could think of was that the man may have accidentally bumped into her when in reality she should have moved into the open space. That is common courtesy while riding public transportation.  You need to move and fill the gaps.

Other people noticed this rudeness, which made us feel uncomfortable.  Another reason to think before you act is that you may be affecting other people.  The last thing that you want is several people thinking negative about you.  After all, you need to maintain a positive image in relationship building.

Relationship Training Course

Keith Ferrazzi, who is a relationship expert and author of Never Eat Alone, just announced that his company, Ferrazzi Greenlight, will be offering the "Building Deeper Relationships Certificate Program".  Check out the below email that I received from Keith that provides more detail about this course:

Friends,

People have asked to be notified about upcoming training courses offered by me and my company. For those of you who have not attended one of these sessions and would like to, my team is leading a fee-based course called Building Deeper Relationships Certificate Program on June 1st and 2nd in Atlanta, Georgia.

The course, developed in partnership with the American Society of Training and Development, centers on the process of building and sustaining relationships vital to creating growth in any organization as well as to your own career success. Attendees will obtain a certificate upon completion of the course.  The course is open to the public and designed for human resources and training professionals. Feel free to share this with your friends and business associates.

For additional information, please visit:
www.ferrazzigreenlight.com/ASTDEvent

Best,

K

Face-to-Face Communication - Article in MidwestBusiness.com

Check out my latest article on MidwestBusiness.com: Face-to-Face Communication Vital to Building Relationships.  In addition, my prior post, Face-to-Face Communication Still Works, addresses this topic.

Excerpt from article:

We live in a fast-moving world that allows us to interact virtually with almost anyone. Without technology such as e-mail, social networking and blogs, we would have a more difficult time connecting with people on a regular basis.  While technology is great for maintaining relationships, though, it doesn’t replace face-to-face communication. In order to fully connect with people, you need to see them in person from time to time.   Make an effort to get together with people in your network. Be creative and think of new ways to connect in person so it continues to be exciting for you.

Read the entire article at Face-to-Face Communication Vital to Building Relationships.

Networking Made Easy by Josh Hinds

Fellow networking blogger, Josh Hinds' recent post, Networking Made Easy sums up a lot of my beliefs when it comes to relationship building.  Josh shows that he really understands how to build effective and long lasting relationships.  In his post, he shares some very simple but effective techniques that I recommend you integrate into your networking.  It doesn't take a lot to rise above others when it comes to building relationship so try out some of Josh's methods and you will notice a difference. 

Here is an excerpt from his post:

You see, at its very core networking is about making connections and building relationships -- both personal and professional plain and simple. The difference between someone who is skilled at networking and someone who is not is that one has taken the time to understand that the connection is not the means to an end -- and sadly the other hasn't. That is, great networkers don't make a connection with the thought in mind as to how they can benefit as a result. No, instead they look at it from a point of genuine interest in developing some sort of relationship with that particular person.

Make sure to read Josh's entire post at Networking Made Easy.