Networking Insight

Take a Step Back and Refresh Your Energy for Building Positive Relationships

Life can be very busy at times. Most of us are moving fast and juggling multiple hats with family and business. Because of this, you may not be managing your relationships properly or in an effective way.

Therefore, it is important from time to time to take a step back to evaluate your relationships and techniques for managing them. By doing so, you will better understand who is in your network and how often you communicate with them.  It is best to do this sort of activity on the weekends when your workload may not be as hectic. You should try to find a time to focus with little outside distractions.

So, how do you evaluate your relationships? First, make sure that your contact database includes all of the people you have met over the past several months. If not, then go through the pile of business cards that you have collected and start inputting this data. Next, make sure that all of you contacts are tagged with categories so you can easily sort each person. Categories could be based on type of job, industry, or person.

After you input new people, go through your entire database and scrub it to remove people who you don’t know or haven’t spoken to in awhile. It is good to do this multiple times each year so your contacts are up to date.

Once your database is current, think about your communication methods. Do you send out regular emails/newsletters, tweets, or blog posts? How often do communicate? How oftent do you meet face to face with people? Evaluate what you are doing and not doing so you can put together a strategy going forward.

After you have a game plan, you should have new found energy to jump start your relationship building. It should be a continually process so this will hopefully motivate you to continue.

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Social Networking Humor

 

9 Reasons to Stay Positive When Talking with Others

When speaking with others, you should try to remain positive. It can be challenging to talk to a negative person. You want to be remembered in a positive way, which will help you to build relationships. Below are 9 reasons why you should be positive when talking with other people.

1. You will be more easily remembered

2. Your positivity will enhance your personal brand

3. You will be able to continue building a relationship

4. Positivity is contagious so you will attract other positive people

5. You will make others at ease

6. You will get more introductions/referrals

7. People will want to be around you

8. You will feel good about yourself

9. You will be a happier person

What other reasons can you think of?

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Business Building Bootcamp

Below is some information about event in which I am able to offer a 70% discount.

Business Building Bootcamp

Host: Sales Results, Inc.

Date: September 14, 2010

Time: 8:30am-12:30pm or 1-5pm

Location: Hilton Garden Inn Chicago O'Hare Airport, 2930 South River Road, Des Plaines, IL

Cost: $59 (normally costs $200 but use discount code "SR59" to get a 70% discount)

For more information and to register, go to Business Bootcamp 

One of the top networkers and business coaches in the Chicagoland area is a co-presenter at an upcoming Business Building Bootcamp on September 14th.  He is not only a dynamic speaker, but has helped thousands of professional service professionals to improve their business development and networking skills. He has generously offered to give a 70% discount to his program to my entire network of friends and business associates. 

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Pay Attention to Your Words

During a discussion with someone at a networking event (or really in any setting), you want to come across as a conversationalist. It is important that others feel comfortable talking with you. Therefore, be careful not to say anything that provides a level of discomfort for the other person.

Certain topics, such as politics and religion, are usually better left alone.  The last thing that you want to do is get into a heated conversation with another person. If this happens, then you will have a much harder time building a relationship with this person. 

At the same time, word may get around about your views and more importantly that you may not be a good conversationalist. In addition, make sure to listen closely to what others say so you don’t accidentally insult someone or say something that you regret. 

Your words are an important component of your brand so treat them with utmost care. You should strive to be a conversationalist with everyone who you talk to in any environment. You never know where a conversation can lead such as a new contact, customer, or partner.

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Social Network Ad spending to Top Over $1 Billion in 2010

According to research released by eMarketer, "U.S. advertisers will spend an estimated $1.7 billion in ads on social networks in 2010, accounting for 6.7 percent of all online ad spending." Spending has grown by 20% this year and is expected to grow by 24% next year. 

Facebook accounts for more than half of this spending, which is quite amazing and it shows just how big Facebook really is with social networking. 

Do you think that Twitter's upcoming suite of advertising products will make a dent in the ad spending? Where else do you see spending taking place in the near future?

To read more, go to Social network ad spending to hit $1.7 billion in 2010.

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New Business Magazine Launches - e'lite

In August, a new business magazine launched called "e'lite", which features 10 contributors on subjects such as social media, legal, brand management, and networking. Also, in this issue is an interview with Olivier Blanchard who is widely known as a brand builder.  I am honored to be one of the first contributors to this magazine. My article is entitled "The Success of Healthy Relationships.'

You can read the August issue at elitemag.

Also, the publisher of this magazine holds a number of social media retreats called "UnGeeked Elite". Go to UnGeeked Elite to find out if one is coming to your city.

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Social Networking Humor Cartoon

 

10 Words that Describe Relationship Building

Building relationships can mean different things to different people. Below are 10 words that describe relationship building for most people.

1. Friendship

2. Partnership

3. Trust

4. Credibility

5. Connection

6. Network

7. Helpful

8. Resource

9. Branding

10. Capital

What other words describe relationship building for you?

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5 Easy Ways to Build Your Digital Reputation By Fauzia Burke

Social media has given us great ways to protect and build our digital reputations. Today we have the ease of searching conversations, the ability to set alerts to help us monitor our names, the constant availability of learning opportunities and more ways to communicate and interact with others. All of these tools, which were not available just a few years ago, now make it possible for us to be proactive in maintaining, building and protecting our good name. Here are five easy ways to do just that:

#1 Set Goals

I am sure you have done this already, but just in case, first do a search on Google for your name in quotation marks. It is important to see what comes up on the first page. The first page of a google search result is precious real-estate. Then set up a simple spreadsheet so you can keep track of your digital footprint. Do a little research and spend some time collecting numbers. How many Facebook followers do you have? What kind of traffic do you get on your site? Once you have the numbers you can then decide on your goals.

Are you interested in growing the numbers of links/connections/followers or do you want more one-on-one engagement? Or are you more interested in getting retweets on Twitter (which, as Guy Kawasaki said recently is "now the sincerest form of flattery"). Once the goals are in place, track the results in the spreadsheet and adjust as needed.

#2 Learn

To accomplish any of these goals, you are going to need to learn. The new world of communication is moving quickly, which naturally lends itself to a couple of advantages. First, there is a lot of room for experimentation, so use your talents and skills to communicate in your own unique way. Second, this experimentation has led to collaboration, and smart people are sharing information all the time. Make sure you make time every day for "learning." Look over sites and information to keep up with the developments in social media. Currently I am taking part in an online conference, called Social Media Success Summit 2010 and am learning a lot. And among the many sites I visit, one of my daily stops is: PR Daily News: Public Relations news and marketing in the age of social media.

#3 Develop Content

To communicate 24/7, which is now the expectation and the norm, you need to develop different types of content. Blogging is a great way to share your knowledge and collaborate with others. However, blogging can be a big undertaking. Blogging expert Denise Wakeman recommends that you blog 3 times a week. If that is a daunting task for you, try guest blogging on an established site or blog in your industry. Another way some of my clients have developed content is through books, ebooks, whitepapers, audio recordings, slide presentations and videos.

#4 Build Relationships

Building and maintaining relationships has never been easier. Those of us in sales and marketing have always known the value of relationship building, but now everyone needs to make it a priority. Make sure you have profiles on LinkedIn, and Facebook. Twitter is a fantastic source of information, and an excellent place to learn. People on Twitter are eager and happy to help each other. To get tips on effective communication on these sites, I look to Cindy Ratzlaff who has a daily video tip along with regular blog posts on her site. Social media is an excellent way to build relationships, but don't forget the value of face to face meetings, phone calls, hand written notes, and emails. It's good to focus on important clients and influencers, but leave room for the "accidental" connections. Social media networking can be serendipitous, you never know which person may lead you to a new connection or client.

#5 Monitor

Social media alerts (Google or Social Mention) are a great way to monitor your name and/or industry. If something important happens in your industry you'll know about it and can comment. If someone says something positive, a thank you goes a long way. If there is negative chatter starting up around your name or company, alerts keep you on top of it and you can jump in and take care of things quickly. I also use Addictomatic which is a great site for big picture monitoring.

There are many tools and resources now that can help us to become better communicators and better guardians of our reputations. I know it is a big undertaking, but the question to ask yourself is: If you are not investing in yourself, why should anyone else?

Author Bio

Fauzia Burke is the Founder and President of FSB Associates, a web publicity and social media firm specializing in creating awareness for books and authors. Founded in 1995, FSB's mission is to give authors an opportunity to promote their work to an eager, targeted audience online. FSB is based in the NYC area.  For web publicity and social media news, follow Fauzia on a new Twitter feed: @WebSnapshot, Facebook and The Huffington Post.

For more information please visit fsbassociates.com.

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