Grow Your Network to Grow Your Business

I hope you’re enjoying your weekend.  It’s a rainy one here, but warmer than usual for this time of year so I’m grateful for that!

Today I wanted to talk to you about the importance of growing your network. That’s such a buzzword isn’t? When I say “network” I just mean the people you know and the people who know you.  I just don’t know a better, less buzzwordy way of saying it. As you know if you read my last newsletter, I spent last week attending the New Media Expo conference.

I wrote about the conference on my personal blog, where I linked to the sessions I enjoyed most.  You can read that here and follow the links to watch the talks yourself- after you finish reading this of course :)

It was a great experience. I learned a lot, and more importantly to me, met a lot of wonderful people.  Some of these people will be business contacts, some will (hopefully) just be friends.  Of course you never really know where business will come from do you?

I’ve written about the importance of growing your personal network on Startup Daddy and even though the post is old, it still reflects how I look at networking. You can read that posthere.  It’s important grow your network before you need it.  Some people separate their “personal network” from their “business network.” I feel because of the way the world is now, social networks sort of blend the two together.

If you follow me on Twitter, you will see me tweet out links to content related to marketing, social media, and other things related to starting or growing a business.  But you will also see a lot of personal things.

Facebook allows you to follow people now, so I am able to invite people I don’t know personally to follow my profile.  Since I share the majority of things publicly, if you follow my profile you will see just about everything except the most personal posts.  For example, you won’t see pictures of my kids.

When I went to New Media Expo, the reason I was able to meet so many new people is that I already knew many of them online.  The internet connects us all is ways no one could have imagined 20 years ago.  Do you need some suggestions on how to find people to connect to?

Join groups in LinkedIn and Facebook, and search for Forums online, that surround your business’s niche. Search on Twitter on a keyword that talks about your business and follow those people.

PLEASE bring it offline as often as possible.  Almost every business opportunity I have ever had started with a conversation with someone.  I make it my business to have as many of those conversations as possible.

So get out there and build your network this week. You will be amazed by the results you get from the effort.

Thank you for your time, and have a great week!