The "original" networker?

What a great idea for you to develop your own source of leads!  Form your own local business network.  Make it a point to know noncompeting businesses in your market and create a community where you can get together and discuss business ideas, local marketing, zoning issues, etc.  It’s likely your best leads will come from people outside of your industry, so court them in your networking group.  Many of your existing clients probably cater in some fashion to the local community, so make sure they are first to be invited to your group.  The best networking groups often invite a guest speaker or presenter to talk about something pertinent to the group or their industry.  Leads and referrals will happen naturally.

In addition to gathering new leads, networking can often provide a lifeline of support and can help you develop knowledge and skills.  Networking is a great way to boost your reputation and can be a key source for information relevant to your business.  You can network through social events, organized meetings and conferences, business trips, or even electronically through online messaging systems.  If creating your own networking group isn’t feasible, consider joining an already-established network.  Many industries already have networks set up that can range in size from just a few members to hundreds of members.

Learn from others who have succeeded in industry.  Reach out, swap ideas and come prepared with a notion on how the group could succeed.  Who knows?  Maybe you’ll meet a new friend to throw some business your way.

References

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junto_%28club%29
• http://www.businesslink.gov.uk

Starters
Keep questions like these in your repertoire, so they flow naturally:

• How long have you been a member of this group / club / association?
• What made you decide to join?
• What other groups / clubs / associations do you belong to?
• How did you get started as an ______? (assuming you know what they do already)
• What projects are you working on now?
• If I were to refer people to your business, what should they need?
• Have you been to this location before?
• Have you attended other events here?

Enders
Wrapping up is often challenging, especially if the other person won’t let you come up for air. So you’ll need to do your best to exit gracefully. Whatever you do, extend a handshake before parting!

• I need to see ____ before she leaves, it was nice meeting you.
• Would you excuse me, I need to use the bathroom (make sure you leave the room!).
• Before I go, could I have your card?

Things Not To Do

• Avoid “filler” conversation, like talking about the weather, a recent sports game, etc.
• If you’re into direct sales (like Avon or nutritional supplements), please don’t solicit new members, or gasp, try to sell your product on the spot

I hope these tips help you in your upcoming gatherings. What did I miss? What are your favorite conversation starters or enders?

Photo credit by Henkster.

• Check your arrogance at the door. It’s OK to be upbeat, positive and confident, but there’s no need to gloat. If you’re business is doing well, say so, but remember, you’re always looking for new and interesting clients (or projects).
• Keep business cards in your pocket at social events. Remember, the event is social, so be discreet when handing out cards. In fact, make it a rule to only hand out a business card at a social event when asked.
• Know what you want before asking for it. Be specific about the types of clients, companies or industries you work with; and also be specific about the types of problems you solve.
• Be prepared with several introductory statements. Sometimes, you only have a chance to say your name, occupation and who you help. But if asked for more information, have a situation or client story to tell which relates to how you solve problems.
• When saying what it is you do, focus on outcomes. For example, instead of a boring “I’m an attorney” try “I help fathers negotiate the divorce process”. It’s impactful, meaningful and memorable.
• Practice, practice and practice some more. If it sounds canned to you, imagine how the person hearing it for the first time thinks?

I hope these ideas help, and look forward to meeting some of you at future networking events!

Photo credit by Buckey.

LinkedIn has a store, where you can buy branded merchandise. Up for sale include mugs, shirts, luggage tags and even reusable grocery shopping bags. For me, I’ve got my eye on the lapel pin for in-person networking.

The LinkedIn blog is frequently updated with all the new and cool enhancements on the network. Writers use the content here for their own blog posts. And for those of you who like to comment on blog posts, the structure here publishes your profile URL, which is a unique twist, and may help you with optimization.

A fairly new feature is the ability to reorder the elements on your profile. Via simple drag and drop, you can move the pieces of your profile around to best highlight your skills, expertise or experiences and stand out from the crowd.

I launched my first DirectAds campaign earlier this week, and the results seem promising. The targeting is robust, but the $10/day minimum is pretty high when compared to Google and Facebook ($1/day or so). More to come on the results of my campaign.

LinkedIn also makes it very easy for you to promote your profile with badges. When logged in to your account, the badges are automatically updated to include your profile URL.

I hope you find these features useful to your networking goals on Linked In, and I welcome your comments, and connection requests.

Photo credit by ilco.

First, and without question, your profile should be 100% complete. School, work, past work and other relevant information assists others searching for contacts, and helps build your own network. Next, add a profile photo. Your picture triggers recognition and makes networkers feel like they are connecting to a real person. Then optimize your summary section with relevant keywords. Use Google’s Keyword Tool or Wordtracker for your research. This particular section of your profile is often indexed fully by major search engines.

Potential SEO Benefits?
Take a look at this screenshot, which is a portion of my public LinkedIn profile. There is speculation (and some confirmation) the items in this section helps with organic search engine optimization.

• Add your website, link to your blog and link to your company. Make sure you further “edit” each by giving it a name other than the defaults provided by LinkedIn. As you can see from my list, I’m hyperlinking phrases such as “Marketing Blog” and “Consulting Services”.
• If you’re on Twitter, be sure to add your Twitter profile, and connect the accounts together. Under your profile, click on Edit and look for your Twitter settings. You could also try this link when logged in to LinkedIn.
• Always choose a real name or variation on your name over the default format LinkedIn provides for you. This certainly feeds your organic name optimization and enhances your online reputation. As you can see, my profile link is my full name “brianjfarrell”.

Connecting with Twitter
This image below shows my Twitter settings — my account name (@findtheclient), my privacy settings, and the most important section, whether or not all or select Tweets should show on my profile. When I first set this up, I sent all Tweets to LinkedIn. Since I’m on Twitter often, this amounted to sometimes a dozen or more updates in a single day. When friends said they couldn’t keep up with me, I changed this to show only Tweets with the “#in” hashtag. Much better results, and I can leave up new blog posts or polls for a longer period of time.

Build Your Connections
Once you’ve done the above, it’s time to build your network. Start with people you know, such as co-workers, clients and colleagues. Also look for connections by company name, under the “Companies” tab. Once you’ve built up this initial base of connections, ask for and make recommendations. But before you do this, read as many as you can. You’ll quickly see what makes up a good (or bad) recommendation. It also helps to personalize your request for a recommendation rather then sending out the canned form letter provided by LinkedIn.

Finally, updated your status often, since it appears on LinkedIn as well as in network updates to your connections. Updates should be considered a professional status, not what you’re eating for lunch. And if you haven’t done so, let’s connect on LinkedIn!

First, find relevant events within your industry or geographic locations. Chambers of Commerce mixers, seminars and other local business networking events are found in nearly every community. Get over the initial inertia and just go introduce yourself to someone. Move past the small talk and ask open-ended questions with substance. People actually like being asked about their business, and what they do for a living, so ask questions such as:

• Why did you become a lawyer (doctor, salesperson, etc.)?
• How can I help you?
• How would I know if a prospect is right for referral to you?

What’s the biggest mistake you can make?
Don’t think of networking as a sales opportunity. Everyone at the event knows why you’re there, so think of it as a mission to learn something. Your sales and referrals will come later. And don’t be the one who holds up the wall and doesn’t talk to anyone. But the biggest mistake you can make is not following up with people you’ve met. Forget this, and you’ve wasted time, energy and money.

In person networking is a fun, change of pace from the frenzied world we live online (and real food tastes a whole lot better than virtual food!). Go in with a plan, have genuine conversations with the people you meet, and let networking flourish from there.

Photo credit by Murielle.

Once you get to speak in public, make sure you know your material. During one seminar, the person manning my laptop not only disconnected my slideshow mid-stream, but then skipped over my most important slide! But since only I knew it was missing, I kept going, shaken, but not completely off track. If it wasn’t for my preparation, and for rehearsing over and over again, I would have been sunk.

Here are a few more tips to get better at public speaking. We all know smiling and eye contact are important, but if you want to make the best connection with your audience, show your passion and enthusiasm for the material. Move around purposely on stage, instead of pacing nervously back and forth. And if you make a mistake, only you know it happened, so keep your cool.

There are so many benefits to better public speaking — recognition from your peers and potential clients being a few. Public speaking even helps you conduct better sales and client meetings!

If you want to see me in person, I’ll be speaking later this month on “Inbound Marketing for Lawyers” in Oklahoma City and presenting a brief search engine marketing slideshow at a networking event in San Antonio. Send me an email () or DM on Twitter (@findtheclient) and I’ll be sure to recognize you in public!

Photo credit by neosiam.