What is Speed-Networking, and Does it Work?

Fast food, fast computers and fast cars, is it any wonder speed-networking emerged?  In a click thru, on-demand, no patience world, Speed Networking helps professionals focus their networking efforts and accelerate the process of making new contacts.

Believe it or not, speed-networking is just what it sounds like – quick, focused opportunities to meet those who can propel your career and business.  And, YES, it does really work!  We all desire to accelerate our careers and get on the fast track to success, with speed-networking, you can accelerate your networking.  You can meet more quality contacts and actually have meaningful conversations in just one event than any other method!

Speed-networking is FUN and EFFECTIVE.  Whether you are an introvert or extrovert, young in your career or experienced – you will enjoy meeting people in this type of format.  Strategic Business Network is a firm believer in putting people face-to-face to facilitate direct conversation.  QuikConnect™ (SBN’s speed networking format) is set up as a series of one-on-one mini-meetings.  Half the participants stay seated, while the other half rotate in a sequential process to a new professional after each 4-5 minute exchange.

A few other different styles of speed-networking include:

Roundtable – Typically 7 people sit down at a table and each person has 1-2 minutes to share their elevator pitch. After all have spoken, each participant moves to a new table.

Triad – three people per table with one remaining seated throughout the rotations.  After 6 minutes, the other two move in opposite directions around the room.

But, how does it work to help you achieve success?

First, Without a doubt you will meet more people in a short timeframe than ever before.
Second,All those who participate are like you in that they have invested their time and energy to build their network. Third, Listen and Listen.  There is no time for selling, simply have a conversation and learn about what each new connection as both an individual and professional – ie, who they are, what they do.
Fourth and most important – Follow Up is the key.  Speed-networking delivers high volume and quality connections, but you must follow up and begin to cultivate the relationships. The initial interaction is only the starting point for each of your new potential relationships.

Consider all the new people you can now help by knowing what they do and in turn who can help you!  Imagine attending even one speed-networking event per month, you will more than likely meet over 400 new people throughout the year.  And, if you do it right, you can leave a lasting impression making sure those 400 people in your community REMEMBER you.

After nearly 5 years of executing speed networking events and creating over 500,000 new connections, the testimonials from participants who gained new clients, projects, jobs and friendships continues to amaze me. I confidently will place a properly run speed networking session against any other networking event format and feel assured the outcomes will be far greater.

If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it.  In today’s world, networking is critical from the receptionist to the CEO.  Speed-networking offers an efficient and effective tool to propel your career and expand your influence!   Never has networking been this fun and this rewarding.

Visit www.strategicbusinessnetwork.com for events and opportunities near you!

Don’t Forget to PING

The WORK of networking begins the day after your initial conversation. 80% of building and maintaining a relationship is simply staying in touch.

PINGing is the persistent art of remaining connected and in touch with your contacts.  A proactive approach to cultivating relationships, making the effort to maintain lines of communication and most importantly staying on someone’s radar screen. A phone call, a short email or morning coffee – each of these offers an opportunity to deliver interaction with your network.

In order to cultivate a relationship people must see/hear your name a minimum of three times and ideally in more than one mode of communication (email, phone &  face to face) before any meaningful recall/recognition occurs.  Vary your methods of PINGing with each person to reach them in different ways.

Once you have gained some early recognition, nurture a developing relationship with a phone call or email at least every quarter if not more often.   Early on, strive to offer resources during your PINGs – an article, a new contact, a business lead – anything that will reinforce your efforts to help.  Over time you can reach out simply to touch base and say hello without a specific reason for the contact.

To pursue a deeper connection, such as transforming a contact into a friend, you need a minimum of two face to face meetings outside the work environment within the initial 3-4 month period.  Consistent PINGing or dialogue via email/phone (once per month) will illustrate your sincere interest in them as a person and should accelerate the “trust” and “like” qualities that must emerge.  Any more frequent contact early on may quickly get you labeled as a stalker or desperate.

Maintaining a secondary relationship requires two to three pings a year, simply to say hello and catch up. Calling while in an airport, during your daily commutes, waiting on a meeting or emailing late at night before going to bed, there is no prescribed best method nor time to PING, it’s simply the action and consistency of putting yourself out there as the relationship catalyst.

You must set aside the time and seize opportunities to PING.  Harness the power of PINGing and you will experience a dramatic improvement not only in your ability to manage connection, but to transform a rolodex into a true network of relationships.

5 Keys to Success on LinkedIN

I am a LinkedIn aficionado and strong advocate.  If you are not IN, you need to be.  For those of you who are leery of dipping your toe in the LinkedIn pond or others who are just splashing around, here are some keys to success which will hopefully relieve online anxiety and accelerate your success.

LinkedIn grew steadily then reached a tipping point and in late 2007 began a sudden exponential growth trajectory, reaching over 30,000,0000 members.  With this critical mass of users, you can truly achieve some amazing results.

1. Complete your Profile. Your profile is essentially your online brand of YOU.  Your word choice and depth of your responses send a powerful signal to all your connections.  By including your previous experience, interests, hobbies, volunteer activities, education etc.. you create more potential opportunities to connect with others who share something in common with you.  You don’t want to have a half completed profile, misspellings or poor grammar – as such will signify to others that you don’t follow through, don’t pay attention to detail and even worse – don’t take pride in your accomplishments.  This includes having a headshot.  Your non glamour shot should be from this decade and not your high school yearbook photo.  I can’t tell you how helpful this simple feature has been when going to meet someone for the first time at Starbucks and being able to have a visual of  who I am looking for.

2. Recommend – Giver’s Gain and the same applies to your online network.  One of LinkedIn’s core features is the ability recommend others.   You can provide written endorsements to those whom you have worked with previously or know well.  Recommendations serve as validations to others that people had a positive experience and think highly of them. After you have given several recommendations, hopefully some of those people will reciprocate, but there is nothing wrong with asking a few targeted connections for a recommendation. No mass email of “Recommend Me” .. it’s highly unprofessional and demonstrates that you don’t value your network.

3. Join Groups – LinkedIn has a group for nearly every purpose.  Networking, school alumni, industry focused, entrepreneurial, corporate groups.. you name it, you can find it.  I recommend you join at least 1 networking group in your local area and 1 within your  industry.  Next, select 2 0r more that are simply of interest to you – where you went to school, hobbies etc. Groups offer a quick and easy platform to expand your network and connect with other like-minded individuals whom you share a common interest.  Groups offer a unique/secret capability to contact people whom you don’t know directly, but you can send a message because you share a group relationship.

4. Engage – Similar to any organization, once you join you then you actually must participate to derive any meaningful value.  Simply sitting on the sidelines and waiting for others to contact you is not a successful strategy.  The rules of the online world are no different.  You must dedicate the time and engage yourself to truly realize the benefit.  To engage in LinkedIn, a few core suggestions.

Upload your existing contacts and invite them to join your network.  This will automatically help connect you with others that you already know.

Serve as a Resource – Post questions or needs out to your network and respond to discussions and questions which others submit with thoughtful and valuable commentary.  You want to position yourself as a resource and expert whom others seek for guidance and insight.  Share articles and make introductions to connect your contacts to one another.

Set your profile for full view and public. This will increase your likelihood of appearing in search results and improve your ranking on Google searches as well.

5. Form a LinkedIn Habit – Allocate time each week to utilize LinkedIn.  1-2 hours should be sufficient when just getting started.  This should include adding new connections, replying to posts, sharing resources and other forms of engagement.  Clearly, the more you engage and are active the greater the results.  I highly recommend that you strive to incorporate LinkedIn as a follow up tool.  When you make new contacts in the offline world, invite them to join your LinkedIn network, as this can be a quick and effective manner to re-connect and stay in touch.  Once they are connected, you can view their network of contacts to glean if any may be people you would like to meet.

These are some simple tactics to get started and enhance your LinkedIn experience. Come on in.. the water is warm and the networking is quite refreshing.

Contact me with any questions. Always welcome to have new connections: http://www.linkedin.com/in/adamhsmall

About Adam:
Adam is a dynamic entrepreneur and currently serves as CEO of Strategic Business Network, a recognized leader of professional networking opportunities, expertise and resources.  SBN serves as a catalyst and champion in supporting people’s efforts to connect and cultivate relevant professional relationships. Learn more at www.strategicbusinessnetwork.com

Facebook is REALLY for Older People

Back in the day, when Myspace was cool I had my online profile.  After too many issues with people being  jealous, angry or hurt because they were not in my top 8 friends – I shut it down!  Vowing never to resurrect that virtual world.

I must admit that I recently ate my words and glad to be back in the game.  At the end of last year, I created a Facebook profile. In my defense, I only did so in order to manage our company’s Facebook group.  I started getting invites from my family members, my friends and people from college, from Highschool and others whom I had lost touch with over the years.  It was exciting and enjoyable to catch up and I truly feel blessed to have many of these people back in my life.

Facebook bar none is one of the most powerful re-connection tools that exists.  The older you are, the more compelling the value of Facebook.  The older you are  the more people you have lost touch with as opposed to kids who aren’t even old enough to forget someone’s name.   (Caveat: My grandfather who is 96 and outlived most of all his contemporaries, likely would not have a large pool of re-connections)  If you are 96 and on Facebook, hats off… you are a superstar in my eyes.

Your friends from school, from your hometown, former colleagues, relatives you don’t see/hear from much.  Imagine the possibilities of being able to re-kindle old relationships and catch up on people’s lives simply by logging in.  Facebook will even suggest people you may know, based on those you already do.  Others will find you.  No “Its too much work” excuses are allowed.

Many of you are saying “Great I’ve re-connected, so what?”  Here the opportunity:  All these people that you now are re-connected with can possibly help you. I presume some of them even like you.  Looking for a job?  Trying to make new business contacts?  Need to get acclimated in a new city?  There is nothing wrong with asking for help.  Telling people where you are in your life and asking for help is part of being human.  Most people truly treasure helping others because of the way helping makes them feel and many others believe in the karma that help will come back around.  Lest we not forget that all of us should Pay it Forward.

I get excited at the thought of all the people my dad has lost touch with in his life and where some of them might be now and what they are doing.  I am going to make my dad one of the most re-connected people on Facebook… he just doesn’t know it yet.  SHHHH

Read this article in the Time Magazine: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1879169,00.html

For additional resources visit: www.strategicbusinessnetwork.com

Art of Eye Contact

Eye contact (or lack thereof) provides a great deal of information about your demeanor and sends strong signals to your audience.  Professionals rarely take a moment to consider their level of eye contact and the message they may be sending.

You’ve likely heard that eyes are the windows to the soul.   One’s eyes are the first things people often  notice when meeting one another.  The amount of eye contact used when conversing sends a strong signal to others about you self-confidence.  Too much eye contact can be seen as very aggressive, while too little eye contact is often viewed as as being shy, reserved or even worse – disinterested.  Eye contact is critical to master for effective communication and networking.

Maintaining consistent eye contact by looking someone in the eyes during a conversation sends a subconcious signal that you are honest and interested in the other person.  Being able to look someone in the eyes and maintain eye contact  presents oneself as confident. Your audience will take you more seriously and view what you have to say as of importance. Eye contact lets people know our emotional connection and level of interest in the conversion.

Eye contact is the most important form of non-verbal communication and will often illustrate the attitudes one person may have towards another. For example, looking away while speaking implies weakness or insincerity. Maintaining eye contact when your head is slightly raised portrays superiority and staring is just plain scary.  Most people avoid eye contact because of fear or pressure, when in reality maintaining eye contact actually reduce fear and anxiety by drawing your audience closer. Making good eye contact reflects self confidence and provides direction, authority and meaning to your conversation or message.

Eye Contact Exercise:

For one day, memorize the eye color of everyone whom you engage in a conversation.  This will force you to look them in the eyes enough to make note of their eye color.   That all it takes.. Practicing this simple exercise will build self-confidence, reduce conversational stress and improve your communication.

For additional resources visit: www.strategicbusinessnetwork.com

Recession Proof Relationships

Credit Crunch.  Bankruptcies.  Layoffs.  Bailouts.   CNN constantly feeds a daily dose of  negative economic news.  With a volatile stock market still down 40% and interest rates at all time lows; seemingly there is no safe harbor for financial assets.  Job losses surge everyday and even the employed live in fear of tomorrow. What a lovely picture.

In such challenging times there is no more valuable asset than your relationships.  These connections can serve as beacons of light among the darkness and gloom.  Each relationship can open a new path to that next job, that new solution, that new idea or that new positive perspective.  Your relationships and how you elect to leverage them, differentiate you from anyone else.

Relationships are priceless resources.  They are FREE, only requiring an investment of your time and energy.  They are UNPREDICTABLE, as you never know where one new connection will lead.   Most importantly, they must be NURTURED to be effective.

3 Quick Recommendations:

Strengthen Weak Ties – Allocate time in your schedule to reach out to those whom you have lost touch and re-kindle past relationships.  Typically these people travel in much different circles, know different people and have a unique set of contacts.  Ideal when searching for a new path and reaching beyond your traditional network core. Utilize online tools such as Reunion.com, Facebook, Classmates.com or College Alumni networking groups.

PING – Every day call three people whom you have not spoken with in at least 6 months.  Simply to say hello and initiate a dialogue.  Use standard down times, drive time traffic, waiting on an appointment, lunch break.  The results will astound at how fast you can re-connect and strengthen a relationship.

Beyond the Comfort Zone – Do something new and different.  Get outside your comfort zone.  Try online networking.  Attend an event you have never been to previously.  Get involved with a new group.  Venture outside your typical geographic area and interact with people in a new part of town.  Volunteer your time for a new initiative.  Push until you feel some butterflies.  Reach out and connect to new people in a new environment.

Commit yourself to these 3 efforts for the month of February and you will be amazed at the results.  You want things to happen, then make them happen.  Shake your networking up a bit and create positive momentum for yourself.  Do more, connect in new ways and listen less to CNN.

For additional resources visit: www.strategicbusinessnetwork.com

Everyone’s A Decision Maker

If  I had a dollar for every time a professional mentioned to me that they were only interested in talking to and meeting with decision makers, I would be a wealthy man.  In fact, there should be a mandatory fine each time someone makes such a comment.

EVERYONE is a decision maker.  I will type it again slowly, EVERYONE is a Decision Maker!  Each of us makes decisions every day regarding our lives, the services/goods we purchase, the company we work for and how we do or don’t play nice with others.   Every secretary, sales rep, department manager, analyst, customer service agent, doctor, lawyer, flight attendant, housewife,  and waitress is a decision maker.  I will bet dollars to doughnuts, that each person knows at least one other person you should know.   One of the most important decisions we all make as decision makers is whether to help YOU.

Value the person, not the title.  Start treating everyone like a decision maker, because they are one.   Value your time with them, show them the respect they deserve and appreciate the interaction.   Don’t you want the same?  Others to value your time and treat you as though you are important and a decision maker?  Soooo, stop trying to figure out how to always get past, around, through or over everyone you come into contact with who don’t have stimulating titles like CEO, President, Owner as you search for this elusive holy grail of a decision maker.

Ask for help and assistance in getting in front of certain people. Doors will start to open up and decisions made.

For additional resources visit: www.strategicbusinessnetwork.com