Joined Up Networking

I was delighted to be invited to the launch of Heather Townsend's new book 'The Financial Times Guide to Business Networking' last Thursday evening. 

Heather's main area of focus is in 'Joined-Up Networking', helping people to understand how to make the most of networking in the virtual and real worlds together. Heather's argument, as is mine, is that you don't look at either online or face-to-face networking in isolation, or as alternatives to each other, but as opportunities that complement each other and both should  fall into an overall networking strategy. 

One of the points that Heather made was that she was meeting a number of people that evening for the first time, despite already feeling that she knew them well. The relationship thus far had been built virtually, through Twitter. 

In fact, this was the first time I had met Heather too. We had corresponded on Twitter and she had interviewed me for the book over Skype, but we had never met. 

What was interesting was my strategy for meeting people on the evening. My network is of a size that when I go to networking events I am often focused now on maintaining and developing existing relationships with people in the room rather than meeting new people. Through this approach I will always meet one or two new people through introductions, but I will also touch base with a number of people I haven't seen for a while. 

With a number of specialists in networking and leaders of business networks at Heather's launch, it was a great opportunity for me to catch up with such people. But there was another group of people I wanted to meet. A group I hadn't met before but felt that I knew. And they were people who I had conversed with on Twitter.

The next day I was having lunch with a colleague before a Professional Speaking Association event and we were talking about this very subject. He explained how he always feels more comfortable meeting people at a networking event if he has already met them online first. The initial barriers and awkwardness of that first conversation with a stranger have disappeared before you get to the event and it can be like meeting up with an old friend. 

Last night I ran a networking event for people in my own circle. I set up a LinkedIn group in advance and asked people to introduce themselves there. People reported to me after the event that others had introduced themselves to them having seen their post on the forum. I have also urged them to carry on the conversation back in the LinkedIn group. 

A 'joined-up' approach to online and face-to-face networking is very productive and certainly the way forward. Build your profile and connections online and you will be sought out at networking events. Go to the events to turn virtual contacts into real relationships. 

They don't exist independently of each other. Increasingly online and offline networking are, in fact, becoming interdependent.