DEEPENING NETWORKING THROUGH RELATIONSHIPS: Lessons From Busy Networking Professionals

I get this free weekly newsletter on networking that spends the bulk of it trying to get me to spend money on something. On occassion there is some good information on there. I found this today. Take a look…

Deepening Networking Through Relationships
with Christine Sotmary, M.S., L.Ac., CPC

I’ll be the busy networking professional today. We are having a holiday, so I gave my networking friends the day off.

I’m sitting outside on this sunny Memorial Day in the U.S.A., a day set aside to remember our military men and women. I got to thinking about how many additional groups deserve to be remembered and acknowledged. This isn’t a competition, after all, I trust that our hearts can hold all of them. Starting with the hundreds of years of soldiers leaving homes to go off to often dangerous places, we can remember all the friends and families they left behind. Then there are the loved ones who cared for those many service people who came home injured or emotionally altered by their experiences.

Why discuss this in a networking publication? Because……people like to be remembered, respected, appreciated and acknowledged. It’s human nature. When I remember the support persons that live in the shadows, behind the “main event”, I open a world of giving and receiving. Some of these contacts may be good for our businesses but all of them are good for our souls.

Christine’s 5 Networking rules for remembering the people in the shadows:

* I always get to know the support staff. They often are the ones with the “boots on the ground” information to make my life a little easier.

* When I remember, which isn’t nearly as often as I would like, I make it a habit to ackowledge people who are quietly making this world a better place, such as medical teams, office workers, and cab drivers, thereby bringing sunshine to them and often opening the doors for me.

* I find the value in the people behind the scenes and marvel at their talents and skill sets. Let’s see, in just the theater, there’s the lighting, sound, costumes, makeup, hair, stunts, special effects and the list goes on. As I work on my projects I network to find the best folks and value their roles as much as my own. I would be a very lonely bass player if I hadn’t found the talented musicians I work with.

* I love working on projects with a team. Divas are usually out front but the task of collaborating goes to the team making an event come to life. When was the last wedding you attended where things flowed effortlessly from one activity to the next? It takes teamwork to make things run that smoothly.

* I’ve learned that all of this is networking. Trying to contact a CEO without befriending their gatekeepers is a tough road to travel. I look everywhere for connections and by doing this have seen my network grow in depth and effectiveness in a relatively short period of time.

When we are able to see the value in all of our contacts and realize that it takes time to earn their trust and respect we can start growing a solid network of resources that we can count on later. It’s like having a savings account of sorts, standing ready when we need it.

Just the other day I was able to give a friend 3 referrals only minutes after she finished a conversation with someone who was going to help her double her business sphere. Their deal was based on her quickly being able to fill 6 job positions and I was immediately able to help her with 3 of them. These were all support and service slots and I had gathered these connections over the last several years of networking. I was happy to be helping so many of my contacts find work, while helping my friend expand her business at the same time. Win, win for them and a win for me too!

So the lesson for me is to befriend the folks that are often forgotten, value them, acknowledge their talents and skills, work in teams with them and take the time to grow strong relations for future connections.

How to Create a Business Development Strategy That Works

Another great article…this one from www.morebusiness.com

Successful small business owners will be quick to tell you that it wasn’t dumb luck that allowed them to have a thriving business.

In most cases, careful planning and the implementation of a business development strategy was involved.

Quite simply, strategic management is the act of developing and implementing a plan designed to achieve the objectives of your business.

Typically, this involves listing the objectives, doing an analysis of current practices and developing programs and policies to correct any weaknesses and thrust the business forward in terms of meeting objectives.

Some will develop their plans using a “bottom up” method, while others will use a “top down” approach. In bottom up management, employees will make suggestions and the best of the ideas will be passed up through management until, finally, some of the ideas are adopted.

In a top down management style, the business owner or top managers will create the business development strategy and then implement the changes down through the chain of command.

Another option is the collaborative process in which managers and employees work together to develop the best business strategy.

You’ll want to evaluate each idea based on its weaknesses, strengths, growth potential and risk potential. The initial development or review process may involve top managers or employees from every department may be involved. When possible, a business strategy consultant may be included.

Depending on the complexities of the strategies you plan to implement, there are several factors you’ll need to take into consideration. These include ensuring there are sufficient resources, assigning responsibilities and establishing a chain of command.

You will also want to develop a timeline and points at which you will evaluate the strategies to see if they are achieving the desired goals.

Here are two common types of business strategies and the areas they encompass.

Functional Strategies

These strategies focus on broad ideas and tasks for different departments within a business.

Functional strategies may include marketing, human resources, new product lines as well as legal and financial strategies.

Operational Strategies

While functional strategies incorporate broad ideas, operational strategies are much narrower.

They typically deal with the day to day operations of the business and may focus on details such as how many cashiers are needed during a certain shift or how much stock to keep on hand.

Obviously, there is not one type of business strategy that is going to work for every business. The old saying goes “there is more than one way to crack a nut”, and this is true in business, even within the same industries.

If you’re in the insurance field, that doesn’t mean that to find success you must copy the business model of the successful agent down the street. In fact, the contrary is often true.

For some businesses, trial and error is part of the process of finding business development strategies that work. You don’t want to pull the plug too quickly, however. Some ideas may require time to reach their fullest potential.

Find what works for you and if you realize that what you are doing is not working, switch things up until you find a new business strategy that is right for your organization.

Seven Steps for Creating Successful Marketing

 I found this article by Jay Conrad Levinson on www.gmarketing.com

1. Find the inherent drama within your offering.

After all, you plan to make money by selling a product or a service or both. The reasons people will want to buy from you should give you a clue as to the inherent drama in your product or service. Something about your offering must be inherently interesting or you wouldn’t be putting it up for sale. In Mother Nature breakfast cereal, it is the high concentration of vitamins and minerals.

2. Translate that inherent drama into a meaningful benefit.

Always remember that people buy benefits, not features. People do not buy shampoo; people buy great-looking or clean or manageable hair. People do not buy cars; people buy speed, status, style, economy, performance, and power. Mothers of young kids do not buy cereal; they buy nutrition, though many buy anything at all they can get their kids to eat — anything. So find the major benefit of your offering and write it down. It should come directly from the inherently dramatic feature. And even though you have four or five benefits, stick with one or two—three at most.

3. State your benefits as believably as possible.

There is a world of difference between honesty and believability. You can be 100 percent honest (as you should be) and people still may not believe you. You must go beyond honesty, beyond the barrier that advertising has erected by its tendency toward exaggeration, and state your benefit in such a way that it will be accepted beyond doubt. The company producing Mother Nature breakfast cereal might say, “A bowl of Mother Nature breakfast cereal provides your child with almost as many vitamins as a multi-vitamin pill.” This statement begins with the inherent drama, turns it into a benefit, and is worded believably. The word almost lends believability.

4. Get people’s attention.

People do not pay attention to advertising. They pay attention only to things that interest them. And sometimes they find those things in advertising. So you’ve just got to interest them. And while you’re at it, be sure you interest them in your product or service, not just your advertising. I’m sure you’re familiar with advertising that you remember for a product you do not remember. Many advertisers are guilty of creating advertising that’s more interesting than whatever it is they are advertising. But you can prevent yourself from falling into that trap by memorizing this line: Forget the ad, is the product or service interesting? The Mother Nature company might put their point across by showing a picture of two hands breaking open a multivitamin capsule from which pour flakes that fall into an appetizing-looking bowl of cereal.

5. Motivate your audience to do something.

Tell them to visit the store, as the Mother Nature company might do. Tell them to make a phone call, fill in a coupon, write for more information, ask for your product by name, take a test drive, or come in for a free demonstration. Don’t stop short. To make guerrilla marketing work, you must tell people exactly what you want them to do.

6. Be sure you are communicating clearly.

You may know what you’re talking about, but do your readers or listeners? Recognize that people aren’t really thinking about your business and that they’ll only give about half their attention to your ad— even when they are paying attention. Knock yourself out to make sure you are putting your message across. The Mother Nature company might show its ad to ten people and ask them what the main point is. If one person misunderstands, that means 10 percent of the audience will misunderstand. And if the ad goes out to 500,000 people, 50,000 will miss the main point. That’s unacceptable. One hundred percent of the audience should get the main point. The company might accomplish this by stating in a headline or subhead, “Giving your kids Mother Nature breakfast cereal is like giving your kids vitamins—only tastier.” Zero ambiguity is your goal.

7. Measure your finished advertisement, commercial, letter, or brochure against your creative strategy.

The strategy is your blueprint. If your ad fails to fulfill the strategy, it’s a lousy ad, no matter how much you love it. Scrap it and start again. All along, you should be using your creative strategy to guide you, to give you hints as to the content of your ad. If you don’t, you may end up being creative in a vacuum. And that’s not being creative at all. If your ad is in line with your strategy, you may then judge its other elements.

Social Media Marketing Industry Report

Doing some digging tonight, I found an amazing site with some great information. The site, www.whitepapersource.com, has published a 26 page report on social media titled “Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Business.” I will be referring back to this a bit for a while to cover it all, but if you want to see the whole report, go to:   

http://www.whitepapersource.com/socialmediamarketing/

This report finds that people aged 30 to 39 were most likely to use social media marketing. 72% of the marketers surveyed were using this medium for just a few months with sole proprietors being the largest group.

This was an interesting find. The more experience someone had, the more time they were spending on social media. New social marketers are spending an average of two hours a week. Whereas, people who have doing this for years spend and average of 20+ hours a week.

 According to the report:

“The number-one benefit of social media marketing is gaining the all-important eyeball. A significant 81% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated exposure for their businesses. Improving traffic and growing lists was the second major benefit, followed by building new partnerships. An unexpected benefit was a rise in search engine rankings reported by more than half of participants. As the search engine rankings improve, so will business exposure, lead generation efforts and a reduction in overall marketing expenses. About one in two marketers found social media generated qualified leads. However, only slightly more than one in three said social media marketing helped close business.”

There’s so much more to talk about and see in this report. Go take a look at it and let me know your thoughts.

Twitter Will Be The Essential Business Networking Tool Of 2009

I found this blog post while doing some research tonight and thought it would be a very important one for people to see. Six months ago the chances are that you may have never heard of the micro social media website Twitter. However, in the past few months evangelistic celebrities have started to use the service, thrusting it into the public awareness. But is Twitter just another Web2.0 way to stay in touch with your friends or does it offer a serious internet marketing application for business? David Bain, 9-year internet marketing veteran and author of the 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing shares his 7 reasons why he feels that Twitter will be the essential business networking tool of 2009. Bain says: “Twitter has been growing at a phenomenal rate over the past few months – and it doesn’t show any sign of stopping. And a significant percentage of those new users have been businesses. That’s because Twitter is such a fantastically efficient way to network. I’ve pinpointed 7 key areas why businesses need to be using Twitter as a networking tool. 1) Network with an unlimited number of people “You can obviously only talk to so many people at conventional business networking events. Other online networking sites like Facebook have limits on your number of online friends. Twitter has no limits on the number of people that you can follow. 2) Build your reputation in your own industry “Interacting on Twitter helps you build your reputation in your own industry. By continuing to grow your number of Twitter followers, you’re showing that you know what you’re talking about within your chosen field, thereby increasing your industry standing. 3) It isn’t based on pre-existing friendships “You don’t have to know people before you start networking on Twitter. If you follow someone because they may be of interest, and they post a tweet that is particularly relevant to you, that’s an ideal time to strike up a conversation. 4) Great source of referrals “Once you start to contribute valuable tweets on a regular basis your followers will pay grater attention to what you’re saying. They’ll be more likely to ‘re-tweet’ your posts and their followers will then be introduced to you and your message through the re-tweet. 5) Search for contacts based on industry segment and location Thanks to Twitter user directories like Twellow.com, WeFollow.com and GeoFollow.com it’s now easy to search for and find fellow Twitter users that are the most relevant for you and your business. Users are commonly ranked by number of followers. 6) Easy to stop ‘following’ people “If you end up following someone who tweets too many posts too often it’s easy to stop following them. Services like Tweepular.com allow you to review your followers en masse and choose to ‘unfollow’ those who either haven’t tweeted for a while or chosen not to reciprocate your ‘follow’. 7) It’s free! “At the time of writing the Twitter service is completely free – and they don’t appear have any plans to charge for their service as it stands. If your business budget doesn’t extend to attending as many conventional business networking events as you want to it’s probably time to give Twitter a go. “Just bear in mind that your focus should be on networking – not selling. Other users will be able to find out more about you should they wish by viewing your profile. Just let your tweets do the talking by continually adding value for other users.” David Bain’s ’13 Pillars of Internet Marketing’ e-book can be downloaded free-of-charge from http://www.13pillars.com/. You can also follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DavidBain.

Career Transition Assistance Program

The Professional Network Connections

Career Transition Assistance Program

 The current economy has gotten more and more difficult every day. Businesses are closing, people are being laid off and the ability make ends meet has become more and more questionable.

Professional Network Connections wants to help,

and we are relying on YOU!!! Our members!!!

 Please help us launch the Professional Network Connections Career Transition Assistance Program. Under the CTA Program, each Network will have the ability to “adopt” TWO individuals who are in career transition.

 Career Transition Assistance “Candidates” will receive:

• FREE membership dues as long as they are in transition.
• Their resumes will be posted on the Professional Network Connections website (a separate tab will be provided).
• A listing in the SC State Member Directory under the classification of “CTA Candidate.”
• Access to the SC State Member Directory
• The ability to network and get exposure.
• Access to “open” meetings and events.

 Requirements:

• Candidates MUST attend at least 90% of their Network’s meetings.
• Candidates MUST fit classifications where networking is part of the job description (a clerk from Walmart would not qualify). For example:

                        -          Management

                        -          Sales

                        -          Community Outreach

                        -          Former business owners

                        -          Etc.

• Candidate would be expected to join PNC as a full member when they find employment, but at 50% dues for the first year (to be paid by either the individual or the hiring company).

 

Please forward candidate requests to Victor Alfieri at valfieri@pnconnections.org.

If you have questions, contact Victor at the same email address or call 864-498-5708.

 

Ladies & gentlemen, let’s put some people back to work!!!

New Business Mentor Protégé Program

With this Blog just in its infancy, I want to document each of the Programs that Professional Network Connections offers. In the future, this will be one more place to come to as a resource. Today it’s about our New Business Mentor Protégé Program.

 Purpose:

 The program helps teach a new business owner about the power of networking and the possibility of exceptional leads and referrals and how to operate a business.  This is also a way to help connect this person to the resources that they will need to grow their business into a prosperous one. We give the candidate a resource in the members, who can help them grow their business by having the ability to ask questions in an open meeting format where they are comfortable. The members of that Network are like the New Business Protégé’s “silent board of directors.”  

 Why does Professional Network Connections do this?

 This is Professional Network Connections way of giving back to the business community. Hopefully this also helps someone new to business not make some of the mistakes that we have made ourselves. Additionally, this is a wonderful way to watch a new business grow.

 Term:

 This is a free one year membership program for the New Business Protégé and 50% dues for the next year upon graduation.

Network:

Each Network can adopt one (1) New Business Protégé each year. This group of members is like a Silent Board of Directors for this candidate. The members should feel open to this candidate calling them for business advice.

 Candidate:

 The candidate is given 5-10 minutes out of each meeting to bring a business question or problem to the group to help solve. This will require work from the New Business Protégé, as they will have to prepare in advance what problem or aspect of their business they need help with. This can include anything business related that this candidate needs help with; from sales and marketing, to packaging and pricing, operating costs and procedures, to hiring staff.

Finding a candidate:

New Business Mentor-Protégé Candidates can be found through the local Chamber of Commerce, newspaper, members of Professional Network Connections, local YWCA or YMCA, SBDC (Small Business Development Center), entrepreneurial centers in the area if they are available. The options are limitless.

One Step Beyond…

As I write this post, I wonder where this company will be a year from now. Currently Professional Network Connections has Networks in Florida, Georgia, South & North Carolina, Maryland & Delaware. New Networks are being launched in each of these states, whether its Pensacola, FL, Charleston, SC or Hendersonville, NC.

In addition, we are laying the foundation to launch Networks in Pittsburgh, PA and have received interest in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Dallas, Cleveland and northern New York.

The Career Transition Assistance Program has created a lot of publicity for the company. With this buzz, it will be an opportunity for every member to benefit.

I have one request for anybody that is reading this (lets see if anybody is yet). I know that I am always looking for speakers to present to meetings in the upstate of South Carolina. I’m sure each of the other area managers could use the same. If you, or somebody you know is interested in presenting, please comment below or email me at valfieri@pnconnections.org.

So much to do. So much to tell. After all the talk of a PNC Blog, we’re finally here. Before I dive into why the Blog and how we’ll use it, let’s talk about the world’s new fascination: Social media.

More businesses are using social media for their businesses than ever before. PNC is no exception. We’ve created this Blog after all. here are a couple other places you can find us:

LinkedIn Group:  http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1777157

Twitter: http://twitter.com/PNConnections

We will be exploring other options and avenues as well.

OK, so why the Blog? There is so much information out there that each of us can use if only we can get it to you. Hopefully this Blog will serve that purpose. We also hope to be able to give each member of PNC more exposure. Company profiles, PNC Success Stories & guest bloggers are a few ways we can continue to help you build your businesses.

There is a comment section below. Don’t be afraid to use it. You can also email me at valfieri@pnconnections.org.

Welcome to the PNC Blog!!!

Day 1.

First post and I’m going to cheat. Professional Network Connections has recently been in the news for our new Career Transition Assistance Program. Below is the article from www.wspa.com:

By Heather Sullivan
Anchor
Published: May 4, 2009

60% to 80% of jobs are filled through networking.  The jobs are often not posted, just filled by someone already known to someone else inside a company.  If you’re out of work, networking can help you find a job a lot faster.

Tired of pounding the pavement for a job?  Debbie Griffith Brown says stop … and start networking.  Said Brown, “60% of the jobs out there are found by networking.  They’re not advertised in the newspaper or Craig’s list or anywhere else.“

Brown started Professional Network Connections, a company that connects professionals through networking groups.  Brown listed some of the networking groups she offers, “Medical, automotive, retail, CEO, one of the fun ones is an entrepreneurial business one.“

Members pay a $250 annual fee.  Groups meet in person and online.  Now Brown is letting job seekers join for free.  Said Brown, “Gives them the ability to network within the entire group.  We have a place on the website where they can put their resumes.“

Tasha Shipe was already leading a networking group, then lost her job selling insurance.  But after sending an email to her network, said Shipe, “The outpouring has been incredible.  I’ve got four interviews this week just from people referring me to places that need help.“

Lee Harkins has been networking for a job in process improvement and training.  Said Harkins, “I’m starting to develop relationships that are starting to lead into job interviews and things of that nature.“

If you’re looking for a job, these job seekers say look for networking groups in your industry.  Said Shipe, “You never know what could happen.  You could end up doing something you never dreamed of doing in a million years.“

So how do you find a network? 

Look for professional associations in your industry.
Contact your chamber of commerce about networking opportunities.
Talk to people you know in your field on a regular basis.
You can find out more about Professional Network Connections through the company’s website.