TIPS ON NETWORKING

In business, one of the ways to expand is through Networking. It's an opportunity that you can grab to make connections, build up your relationships and enhancing your group success. Through networking you may also explore new business opportunities, learn more about a new or specific industry, gather insights from peers on critical business issues and guide your business group to grow more professionally. Even you can build up your goodwill through networking.

Set Your Goal

What is your purpose or goal that you want to accomplish by joining a particular networking group. Are you just looking for friends, trying to develop a new business contact, want to expand your business ideas or just as a hub for your social activities and become known as one of the active members of the group? Everything is depending to you. You can choose to be either an active or passive member of the group, but will get the most out of the experience by regularly attending and participating in the group activities. Once you decide on the networking group that matches your goals, you can immediately increase your visibility by becoming as an active member through participation on existing or new discussion topic in the group, posting of you ideas and thought to the group or even volunteering to participate and becoming one of the group committee.

Exposure

When joining an online group, in order to build up your exposure and goodwill, create the atmosphere of …… "It's not who you know, it's who knows you." By joining a professional networking group or a business group is an opportunity for you to gain access and exposure to various people you might not otherwise meet in normal offline groups. You can establish your goodwill even more better by joining the group activities and business events. Before going to the first event, learn more about group members, their mission and focus. Armed with this information, you can go to the next breakfast, lunch, or after-hours function prepared with questions for the members and guests. Introduce yourself at the meeting so that group members will recognize you and it will create a better interaction with group members. Through internet group you can stay visible and connected to your networking group between meetings. You can search the name of the person you are planning to meet, send email, forward a link of interest and interact to members through group’s message board.

If you take advantage of all that networking has to offer, and if you have joined the right networking group, you'll find that suddenly, you seem much more visible. People will seek you out and recognize you as a valuable resource.

If you're networking correctly, you'll find you have more visibility, greater knowledge, and a wider circle of reliable contacts. Thus you can leverage those assets to further your business expansion.