Networking In The Real World ” Part 2
Careers & Jobs 15 years ago No Comments

networkingrealworld2.gifEDITOR’S NOTE: Last month networker extraordinaire James Ledoux talked to us about keeping it real, striving for personal excellence, collaborating with the competition, and sharing your talents with charities for personal satisfaction and a return on investment. He also warned us against using online networking as a crutch, explaining why there is no substitution for face time. This month James lays out six more steps to help you work your way up from shy to fly and incognito to inner circles.


7
| Pick A Tool

It does you no good to network and build up a bevy of helpful contacts if you can’t get to them easily. Plus, you need to beware of loading all of your contacts solely onto a computer that you don’t own. It is okay to access the data on a work computer but make sure you have a backup at home in case something unforeseen happens like a hardware crash or layoff.

Local Programs – installed on your hard drive:
• MSN Outlook or Exchange – affordable Windows email/contact management application
Apple Address Book – Free address book that comes with Mac OS X
Mozilla Thunderbird – free open source e-mail/contact management.

Online Applications – software accessed over the web:
Google’s Gmail – free and powerful web mail with contact management
37 Signal’s Highrise – free and paid service for Customer Relationship Management [CRM] with integrated To Do Lists; very well suited to small firms.
Yahoo Mail – free email and contact management
MobileMe – formerly know as .Mac, this $99 per year service offers online contact management, email, and data synching

NOTE: There are a million other applications I could have mentioned, and the one you use isn’t really important. Just use one consistently and back it up often.

8 | Mine Your Desk For Contact Gold
Chances are you already have lots of potential contacts in your desk in the form of piles of business cards from friends, colleagues, clients, folks met in passing at conferences, etc. Consider tapping into this potential gold mine by doing some data mining.

Card scanning tools such as NeatReceipts can be huge labor saving device to harvest those business cards. This tool lets you scan the front and back of business cards using Optical Character Recognition [OCR] technology to pull the relevant data out of the scanned images.

This tool is also a great business resource to track receipts, generate expense reports, and scan in documents. FYI: I’ll be writing an in-depth review about NeatReceipts for an upcoming issue.

TIP: If you don’t want to fork over money for a card scanner, then consider placing the cards in a handy box next to your primary workstation. Next time you are on hold you can pick a few cards out and do some good old-fashioned data entry. This is also a great task to con your computer savvy nieces and nephews into doing for spending money.

9 | Professional Organizations, Seminars, and Conferences
Every industry has lots of organizations, seminars, and conferences where meeting new folks is inevitable. Be sure to bring your own cards and attend happy hours/meet-and-greets. Don’t get too drunk or bad mouth folks you don’t like (no matter how much they deserve it) – the world is a much smaller place than you realize and gossip travels fast.

10 | Bacn In Moderation
By now you are no doubt aware of the term SPAM for unwanted e-mail, junk mail, etc. Bacn (pronounced like “bacon”) is the affectionate term for SPAM that you have opted to receive. There is no sooner way to wear out your welcome than constant bombarding your network.

Update sparingly and be mindful of being a distraction. In my own network I have a handful of work references that I only pull out during big time career changing contract negotiations. These are C-level, Senior VP, and VP level references whose time is very valuable. I don’t want to have my platinum references pestered by every recruiter or potential client that might possibly want to retain my services. For those regular requests I have three bullet-proof peer/client references that know to expect periodic reference checks without notice. Likewise, I offer the same open reference invitation to them.

11 | Make It Mobile
With the explosion of IM, SMS, and mobile applications many of the previously mentioned applications are easy to interact with from your phone. Check out each site for the mobile access features. In addition check the user guide of your phone to make sure that you have your contacts synched in case you lose or damage your phone.

WARNING: Be sure to check with your service provider to make sure you don’t rack up a hefty bill due to SMS or data charges. A few minutes and a $10 or $20 upgrade to your plan can save you the hassle of trying to convince the phone company to waive several hundred dollars worth of fees due to silly Twitter updates.

12 | Leave Some Mystery
Consider your blog, social network updates, and web shenanigans as permanently and publicly visible. While I’m not saying speech isn’t free, that doesn’t mean there there isn’t a potential cost. If you really want to divulge your inner most secret thoughts and desires, consider adopting an alias for these online antics. An online alias isn’t something that can’t be cracked, but it will keep a casual Google search from exposing your alter ego.

For example, the hosts of the popular sex podcast on iTunes, Sex Is Fun, all use aliases. Just like in the comic books, someone may eventually discover your secret identity so be mindful of the long-term image you are projecting.

Along these lines, I temporarily changed my silly blog name from Medium Pimping to something less obnoxious while working on a public sector client for a large school district in California. This isn’t something the client requested, but I didn’t want to have the conversation while training folks. (And believe me the first thing students do during an IT training class is Google their instructor’s name!)

TIP: Google your name (also known as a vanity search) periodically just to be sure nothing unseemly comes up. There are several cautionary tales of bloggers being fired from jobs for things they posted online. It is okay to say anything you want as long as you know that you may have to explain or defend it someday.

Summary
The networking ideas I’ve included here are by no means new or innovative. What I hope you take away from this article is a new attitude about networking. Start slowly to build a network that may feed your work pipeline for a long time to come. Below are some homework ideas to help get you started.


Homework

Join one networking service on the web and search for people you know.
Gather all your biz cards in one location and start mining them.
Check out one volunteer organization, seminar, or conference in the next few months.
Back your phone and contacts up just in case the unforeseen happens.
Touch base with your friends over phone or e-mail and let them know what you are up to these days (both personally and professionally). Don’t be a stranger and don’t be that person that only calls when they need something. I have a few close friends that have referred me to six-figure jobs on several occasions. With friends like that, who needs other friends”!”