The Networking Game
Networking never really stops, even when you have your foot in the door at a company. Getting out there – whether in person or virtually – and meeting other people in your profession is essential if you want to find better or additional opportunities, keep up with the latest happenings in your industry, and build a network of contacts to whom you can turn for jobs leads and support.
Not everyone embraces or finds networking easy. Some people just aren’t comfortable chatting with people they don’t know, even if they have common interests. Fortunately, networking can be pretty easy, even if you’re an introvert, thanks to the internet.
Two decades ago, if you wanted to meet other people in your industry, you had to actually leave your house. Today, with the many social networking websites flooding the web, you never even have to get off of the couch. You do, however, have to put in some work and participate frequently if you really want social networking to work to your advantage.
Everyone knows the most popular social networking sites – Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Facebook allows users to network with others in their industry by joining groups while LinkedIn is arguably the most professional of the three, encouraging users to create a professional profile, to link their Twitter accounts to their LinkedIn account, and to join and participate in groups with others in their profession.
But, the trio is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to social networking sites. Networking for Professionals offers both online and in-person networking events for professionals across all industries. The organization currently has branches on both the east coast (Philadelphia, Boston, and Miami) and the west coast (Los Angeles and San Antonio).
Ziggs offers professionals the opportunity to “take control of your online image” by posting a profile, keeping track of the people who visit your profile, applying for or posting jobs, and adding your profile to professional directories.
Xing, which describes itself as a “professional business network,” welcomes professionals from around the globe; BizNik offers both online and in-person networking events in Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin, and New York; and Fast Pitch Networking provides a platform for business professionals to market themselves and their businesses and to network. Like the rest of the social networking sites, professionals can also post a professional profile.
In addition, be sure to do some research to find out if there are social networking sites dedicated solely to your industry as most of the sites mentioned are open to professionals in all industries and allow professionals to network with and join groups in their industry.
Local groups
While social networking sites continue to add local events to their agenda, you can also join local groups to connect with other professionals in your industry. Local chapters of the Chamber of Commerce often hold monthly events while Toastmasters welcomes professionals who want to hone their public speaking skills.
You can also find local events online through online organizations like BNI International, which hosts chapters throughout the country while Networking Event Finders publishes networking events in cities throughout the United States.
In addition, keep an eye out for conferences and other events dedicated to your industry, which provide an effective means of meeting people in your profession.
Networking to connect with other professionals in your industry has become as easy as going online. Be sure that you take the time to put up a professional profile on sites that allow you to and that you actively engage in any groups you join. The more you communicate with others in your profession, the more you will benefit from your networking.
Frankie Ebsen is a career and employment writer. He is currently working with students and employers to match them with fashion colleges.
Wow! Though i knew all their was to know about social media but this really blew that though away! Really like the idea of professional networks, Xing seem really exciting and i will be sure to look into it further. After this i will also do some research on local networks here in scandinavia, or why not create one? Supreme writing as usual, Thanks!
Hi there. Thanks for sharing this. It’s a very interesting topic to share!
I totally like this stuff. Social media really worked this out for us users.
great tips i must say.. i bet every blogger should learn about this strategy so that they can get in line with the competition in online business marketing..
Social media, twitter, facebook, g+, I’m quite sure they are some of the better ways to keep you readers tied into your blog – and they essentially advertiste to like minded people for you. Awesome tips, thanks again.
Hi, Frankie!
Very well done post, I agree with all the aspects of it.The more we communicate with the people from our business area, the more likely we are to succeed and make benefits from our networking. Thanks to the internet, nowadays this is all so much easier to be done than it used to be twenty years ago or more…not to mention quicker, and better, of course.:)
Great post!!! thanks so much!
I agree with what you saying here, and I can toally use your tips. thanks 😉
Great tips! Thanks!
your tips are great.. thanks for sharing.. Social media is really wonderful for online marketing..
Great source of information about networking. I think a lot of people who try to build an online presence think that they can do that without having to go out and meet people. That is just not the case though. If you want to succeed in building an online business or in building a good presence online for a traditional brick and mortar business, you still have to go out and meet some people. The sooner you improve your networking skills, the sooner you will get the online exposure you seek.
This is great article. I heard about networking before but I didn’t try because for me it’s too risky and I really don’t know if I have a product to be sale in the market. I don’t know if this product will compete. This post really helps a lot. I’m looking forward for a partner for this. Thanks for sharing this idea.
Hi…i want to check the game here…i am used to playing games and I want to try this one…
i absolutely agree, social networking is getting more important in the business life. 10years before it wasn’t so, but since then a generation grew up and the newcomers of the business scene are grown up together with the internet, so they use the social networks. And it could be good for the business life too, for example to find somebody from the university who works in the same business.
Wow! I too thought that I had a handle on social media, where do people find the time to deal with all of these sites?
A social network game is a type of online game that is distributed primarily through social networks, and typically features multiplayer and asynchronous gameplay mechanics . Social network games are most often implemented as browser games , but are not necessarily so . They are amongst the most popular games played in the world, with several products with tens of millions of players . Happy Farm , Farm Town , Yo Ville and Mobile Wars were some of the first successful games of this genre . Mafia Wars, Farm Ville and Frontier Ville are more recent examples of very popular social network games .
Cool! Thanks for post.