CONNECTING IS NOT ENOUGH: Ten Years Later

This article originally appeared in The National Networker

Last month saw me celebrate a ten-year anniversary. On 11th May 1999 I started work for Business Referral Exchange, then a new networking organisation founded six months previously and with just four groups running in London, Hertfordshire and Essex. At the time networking as a formal activity was little known in the UK, with a few independent groups supplementing the networking offered by Chambers of Commerce and community groups such as Rotary.

How times have changed! Networking is now a key activity for millions of small business owners across the World and, with the rise of social online networks, is being recognised as a key skill for everyone, from jobseekers to global corporates.

Last month’s personal anniversary started me thinking about the changes I have seen in networking in that time, how the popularity of networking has grown and what we can expect over the next decade. Approaches to networking, behaviour within networks and even where we network and with whom have all changed. I still think there is a long journey to travel before everyone who needs to network recognises its true importance and does so effectively and efficiently.

That, I suppose, is why I write this column every month!

Why have we seen such a rapid growth in networking over the last decade? There have been a number of influences on its increased popularity, and our approach to it. These influences have certainly been strong in the UK, although I think similar patterns have explained the same developments in other countries.

The first influence is the growth of micro and small businesses. Large organisations have been downsizing their workforce for some years, predating the current recession. In fact the move away from relying on employees to bringing in contractors has been growing over the last decade. Many people have been encouraged to leave the security of employment in exchange for the greater rewards of contract work, leading to the establishment of thousands of small businesses.

The current economic crisis has accelerated this trend as hundreds of thousands of people have been made redundant. I believe that one of the long-term results of the credit crunch will be a second surge in numbers of small businesses. It is widely recognised that job security no longer exists in the way it has previously and the ability to be responsible for one’s own future has become more attractive.

The upshot of a growth of small businesses is an increase in networking. One man bands and micro businesses do not have the budget for advertising, PR and sales teams that larger organisations have traditionally relied upon. Instead they quickly realise that they have to grow and reach out to a network of others to find clients and develop their business.

Moving away from working within a large team, surrounded by people to turn to when answers are needed, and towards working in their own homes, feeling isolated from the World, also compels people to look towards networks. Networking groups have been increasingly seen not just as a source of new business, but as a replacement for the ‘water cooler moments’ and support systems that a large office provides.

Another key influence on the direction networking has taken has been the increase in social networking technology. Ten years ago there was little to no online networking, other than groups and forums on sites such as Yahoo. Today you get an invitation to a new site almost every day.

The popularity of predominantly social sites such as Facebook and Twitter has brought the benefits of networking into the wider public consciousness and has been reflected in an increased awareness of professional sites such as LinkedIn. You can now find people on LinkedIn who would not have been found on any other network as recently as last year.

The growth of such technology has made networking accessible to many more people. A decade ago networking was purely for business and took place either at breakfast or early evening, excluding many people, predominantly women, with childcare responsibilities. Now you can network at your convenience, at any time of day or night, through online networks.

The growth of online networks will also impact on the willingness of people to network and their behaviour in networks over the coming years. The ‘Millennial’ Generation, or ‘Gen Y’ have grown up with social networks as the norm. They will expect networking as part of their career and job development and more companies will recognise the benefit of collaboration and networks as this generation reaches senior management levels.

What will be interesting will be the impact of new technologies and new generations on behaviour within networks. When I started work in networking many people were driven by short-term sales targets and brief, transactional, interactions. Over the years the importance of relationship building became a higher priority for many and people began to recognise the futility of trying to sell in an environment where people haven’t come to buy, and realise that referrals carry more weight than individual sales.

With the growth of online networks, however, there has been a backward step. Many people treat networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn purely as broadcast tools. They don’t seek to engage people in conversation or build quality relationships. Instead they focus on getting as many connections, friends or followers as possible and rattle out broadcast messages to them.

The more ‘sophisticated’ among the new networkers boast of a strategy where they drive people to their own website and then to ‘squeeze’ pages where they can encourage a transaction. There is little attempt at conversation or education, once more it is all about the sale.

This approach lacks any sustainability. While some people might thrive, as they have done with other related forms of internet marketing, if too many people follow this approach it will turn away newer converts to networking and those who seek relationships. Very few people join networks to be a notch on the bedpost or to be sold to, therefore any network where everyone seeks just to build huge numbers of connections or sell without looking to help others first will lose members rapidly.

Also people will soon become disaffected with the pursuit of numbers as they realise that numbers alone don’t produce benefits, and find how difficult it is to maintain relationships in a network that has grown too large. I have already seen a number of people shelve Facebook and LinkedIn contacts publicly as they attempt to rationalize their networks and more people will begin to do this.

Moving forward, I expect to see a number of changes in networking behaviour over coming years.

The most important change will be a more strategic approach to networking activity. There needs to be a shift from networking as an afterthought, or as a response to invitations, to a goals-oriented networking strategy. People won’t be able to cope with the number of choices available, both online and in person, and will select which networks suit their personal and business goals. They will be happier to commit to those networks which make sense for them and spurn other invitations.

Such an approach will see a growth in niche and peer-group support networks. There has been a growing understanding of the role networking has beyond sales, and how strong that value is. Mastermind groups will grow in popularity and there will be a shift in the ‘numbers’ game, with people preferring smaller networks of like-minded people to getting as many people together as possible.

We will also see more engagement in networking by individuals and large organisations. Women’s groups have led the field in both areas, striving to even out inequalities in business and in the workplace by encouraging women to work together and support each others’ development. Their successes will encourage others to explore the benefits that networking can bring and evidence of someone’s networking activity may soon take pride of place on CVs as people look for their next career move.

Times may have changed over the last decade but there are still many changes to come. Networking has grown in respectability and popularity over that time, the next step is for an increased understanding of the ‘right’ way to network. A move from quantity to quality and from activity-driven to goal-driven networking is the next natural step.

We’re heading in the right direction but there’s still a long way to go.

CONNECTING IS NOT ENOUGH: Will you be my Friend?

This article originally appeared in The National Networker


Have you experienced that strange sensation recently? A feeling of importance, of celebrity, of previously unmatched popularity. It’s the feeling that the lucky kids at school all understood but that the rest of us could only dream of.

All of a sudden everyone wants to be your friend.

From Facebook to LinkedIn, from Plaxo to Fastpitch and from Xing to Friendster, people are asking to be friends. And they’re not just people we know, have met or who share mutual friends. They are people from all over the World, with varied backgrounds and different interests. Yet they all want to be our friends and share in our lives.

Do you embrace each and every one of these new-found friends? Or do you find something uncomfortable and disconcerting about all of these requests from strangers?

Once you have befriended them, your popularity knows no-bounds. They want to follow you to every party you go to, and want to invite you to the ones they’re attending. All of a sudden you are a member of countless social networks…….and your network is the same on each one!

There are many people who embrace this method of networking. They believe that the more people you connect with, the broader your network, the more successful you are. For the more extreme, they count success in terms of ‘notches on the bedpost’. Others do take a more level-headed approach, recognizing that they do need to interact with many of these new ‘friends’ but that there is value in broadcasting to everyone else they are connected to. Not so much networking as marketing.

It might not surprise you that I favour a different approach to my online networking. My approach takes three stages, each one making it far easier to manage my time on each network effectively, interact with people in the best way possible and able to connect with everyone who genuinely wants to connect with me.

Stage One –

Understand WHERE you want to be

With so many invitations coming through now, there is a danger of stretching yourself too thin. I have received two more invitations to new networks in the short period of time I have been writing this column. Unless you plan to make membership of social networks a full time occupation, it would be impossible for anyone to be an effective, active member of every network available, so be selective.

There are probably four types of online network for me. Those I will never join; those I join, upload a profile but never visit again; those I join, upload a profile and visit occasionally and those I commit to.

The networks that I commit to are the ones who draw me in, encourage me to contribute and demonstrate a value to being there. For a long time LinkedIn was a network on which I had a profile and visited infrequently as there was such little apparent activity on the site. Over the last 12-15 months two things have happened to change that. The network themselves have added more functionality, allowing you to achieve more through the site, and more people have been drawn to LinkedIn, making activity there more rewarding.

Therefore, you do need to join a few networks and try them out to find out where you are at home, where you feel most comfortable and which ones demonstrate that membership will deliver a return for you, whatever that may be.

That leads us nicely onto

Stage Two –

Understand WHY you want to be there

In my opinion, the most effective way to exploit the sheer number of networks is to use each for a different purpose. If you simply join a lot of networks and use them in the same way, you will find yourself repeating the same activity again and again. Can you really afford to spend your time doing that?

People have talked for a long time about wanting a site, or some software, that replicates your content and profile across networks. I know such software is being developed and wouldn’t be surprised to find out it already exists. You can already post a ‘tweet’ on Twitter and see it duplicated on Facebook and elsewhere.

That’s all very nice but doesn’t it take away the ‘human’ element of social networking? Have a look at the Facebook page of someone who feeds their tweets through. You will see a lot of activity, much of which doesn’t make sense in isolation and using jargon from one network (Twitter) that makes no sense to Facebook users not accustomed to it.

The redesign of Facebook into a Tweeter-style feed is going to encourage this activity more. It means that people using this technology will have fewer reasons to visit Facebook and will no longer be ‘networking’ on it. Facebook will simply be reduced to another broadcast mechanism, rather than a tool for effective engagement and interaction.

If you want to broadcast, that’s fine. My approach takes a slightly different direction though. I believe that each network can play a different purpose. For example:

Facebook is a very human network and provides the opportunity for your professional network to find out about the person, and for your personal network to find out about your profession. It is a great tool for deepening relationships and, used wisely, building trust.

LinkedIn’s primary purpose is to aid connections. You can find out how you are connected to the key people you want to meet, and secure the introductions through your existing network.

Networks such as Ecademy, Xing and FastPitch encourage you to build the breadth of your network by making new connections. These are great fora for meeting new people, finding out about them and developing the beginnings of a relationship. They also allow you to build on those relationships through various events, clubs and ongoing conversations.

By taking that type of approach to your online networking, it means that you can be more selective about

Stage Three –

Understanding WHO you want to connect with there

Following the approach above, you would only invite existing contacts to link to you on Facebook or LinkedIn, while having other networks you can direct newcomers to. Let them develop the relationship on one of the other networks before taking it to the next stage.

An additional benefit to this approach is that it is easier to find and connect contacts in your ‘deeper’ networks. One of the problems of building mass connections is finding people if you’re not looking by name. Keeping these networks smaller makes that task much easier.

The numbers of social networks is going to continue growing as niche networks become more popular. With the increase in popularity of Ning and similar sites, more of your contacts will develop, and invite you to, their own personal social network, while face to face networks you belong to and industry bodies will all invite you to theirs.

Without a strategy to approach these invitations, you run the risk of becoming overwhelmed and turning your back on social networking completely.

Now, that wouldn’t make you too popular!

2008 - Was this the dawn of a new age of networking?

This article was originally published in The National Networker

Has this been the year networking has grown up in the UK? There certainly seem to have been more changes in the last 12 months than any comparable period in the last decade.

Before 2000, very few businesses were aware of networking as a formal way of developing a business. A few Chambers of Commerce ran popular events; meanwhile, Business Network International (BNI) and Business Referral Exchange (BRX) were in their infancy in this country, encouraging people of the virtues of getting out of bed for 7am to do business. Beyond that and a few independent groups, networking had a very low profile.

The landscape has now changed dramatically. Almost every Chamber of Commerce will provide opportunities through breakfast meetings, networking lunches and early evening cocktails. Breakfast meetings come in all shapes and sizes to satisfy different appetites, with a vast array of groups meeting weekly, fortnightly and monthly. You pay your money, you take your choice!

4Networking offer a ‘passport membership’ allowing their members to pick and choose local groups and go to five meetings a week if they choose to. Meanwhile, there is a wide menu of lunch groups and evening networks to go if the other options are not to your taste.

The online revolution has been even more dramatic. While networking groups have been around for years, if not widespread, a decade ago online networks were almost non-existent. Ecademy celebrated its tenth birthday earlier this year, Xing came along even later and in Facebook didn’t see the light of day until just four years ago. Now there are countless social and online business networks, with more and more being created daily thanks to platforms such as Ning, which allow individuals to create their own social network with the minimum of fuss.

So, there are a lot more opportunities to network and a greater range of choice as to how to do so. How has this affected people’s behaviour when they do network?

Mindy Gibbins-Klein, a former Area Director for BNI in East London, believes that the growth of online networks has led to a drop off in the amount of structured face to face networking.

“I have seen many business people think twice about attending "expensive" face-to-face networking meetings lately”, said Mindy. “I've been getting a lot more emails and networking messages from people I've not been in touch with for a long time, which leads me to believe they are spending more time networking at their desks and less time out and about.

“I've also noticed that the networks that seem to be gaining ground are less strict about attendance and giving referrals, more open in terms of allowing people to attend different meetings.”

It has been apparent that a common theme among the recent ‘competitors’ to the weekly breakfast meetings has been the removal of the emphasis on a weekly commitment. Starting with BoBs (Business over Breakfast) Clubs a few years ago, who offered their groups the choice of meeting weekly or fortnightly, more groups have chosen a less frequent meeting pattern. One of the major reasons people have chosen not to join BNI or BRX in the past has been the weekly commitment, but does this change the focus of the network?

“We don’t call ourselves a referral network”, says 4Networking Managing Director Brad Burton. “In fact, we have a relationship with BNI and many of our members belong to both organisations.

“We found that our members don’t want to be tied to a set time and place every week, indeed many simply can’t commit on that scale. So we allow people to network at frequencies to suit them, some will come once or twice a month but many actually go to more than one meeting a week. It just may not always be the same meeting.”

The cost and commitment of the traditional referral networks has put off a number of people who are new to networking, and those who have been members in the past. The new networks offer an alternative and encourage people to network who might not do so otherwise, but it is important that people understand the difference.

The new types of network are far more focused on sales than referrals. Brad Burton calls 4Networking’s approach ‘Appointment Networking’, with members and guests spending ten minutes with each of three different people during the course of a meeting, while The Business Club (fortnightly in the evenings) make a strong pitch on selling to other members and guests at their launch events.

With new networks focusing much more on immediate response, where are the opportunities to build deep relationships? There has been a clear growth in the numbers of leadership and mastermind groups available, with a number of competitors to Vistage and ACE emerging in the CEO group market, and people becoming more aware of Mastermind groups. Formal leadership and mastermind groups are still, on the whole, a more costly option, although their members would argue the value provided is much higher than less focused networks.

With mastermind groups fairly simple for individuals to put together and more networks incorporating Masterminding techniques in their meeting formats, I think that we will see a growth in small groups focused around business challenges in the next couple of years and less focus on the need for large numbers in face to face networking meetings. The focus on strong relationships and trust will, by their very nature, lie at the core of these groups.

In the meantime, more people are turning to online networks to meet new people. Ecademy have seen a 142% increase in traffic on last year and LinkedIn is becoming a recognised business tool across the UK, and not just among small business. The interesting change in behaviour is on Facebook as an increasing number of people are comfortable using the network to promote their business and events rather than simply to communicate with friends.

Business Matters, the leading magazine for small businesses in the UK, have set up their own Facebook group. Editor Richard Alvin believes that the medium allows him to show the ‘personal’ side of the magazine to its readers, as well as increasing their exposure to a wider audience.

Richard explained, “Facebook has a far more friendly 'personal brand' and graphical approach compared to Linked in and even Ecademy. The style of communication is different, with normal language used, rather than ‘business speak’. I feel that this gives us a closer bond with both our readers and other Facebook members. We feel as though we know each other personally, and that makes a huge difference.

The advent of online networks has had other benefits for Business Matters. “We are more online focused now,” he said, “I can network nationally from my office, rather than just London wide.

“As we are a national publication that is essential, and there are obvious cost efficiencies we can take advantage of by networking online. Additionally, building a relationship online first can make a lot of difference when you have a meeting with someone elsewhere in the UK.”

Despite the growth of online networks, relationships still need to take place offline. People are starting to understand this and there have been signs that activity is being increasingly split between virtual connections and real-time relationship building.

Many of the people I have spoken to and network with talk about the vital role 1-2-1s play, even in their online networks. Many online business networks have had meetings as part of their offering for some time. Now, however, those who don’t still find their members arranging their own events, with LinkedIn user groups a good example of this.

Some online networks, such as Angels Den, have recognised the importance of this by focusing even more on offline events. Angels Den found that their results improved when they introduced Speed Funding for members.

Bill Morrow, the owner of Angels Den, said, “Online is groovy for making connections, finding out who walks the walk ... but nothing can surpass meeting face-to-face for serious meetings.”

“Our online community works well at finding investors, but only one deal in over 100 has been done purely online”

With people in the UK joining local networks and global ones such as Perfect Networker and Fast Pitch, Twittering with each other and Poking on Facebook, a saturation point is fast approaching. Most of the connection requests I receive on the multiple networks that come across my computer are from the same people. There has to be a point where you question the purpose of connecting with the same person in a different place. Particularly when that new connection point offers nothing new.

In the meantime, new contacts increasingly come from further and further afield and many seem only interested in either notching another connection on their social networking bedpost or sending a lot of spam once the connection has been made.

We are already seeing signs of people being turned away from social networks by these issues. Many business people don’t want to trade globally and are purely focused on building their profile and their networks locally. As the novelty wears off, I believe the behaviour of many networkers will change and they will focus on networks closer to home.

Some of those will be online, others face to face. Some face to face networks have recognised this and many now offer social networking software as part of their membership package. People recognise the benefits online networks offer them as they look for tools to initiate new relationships and stay in touch with people they have met. They recognise, however, that they don’t provide all of the answers on their own.

There have been a lot of changes in the way people network in the UK over the last twelve months. The profile of networking has grown, more businesses of all sizes recognise its importance and the variety of alternatives on offer is greater than ever before.

Businesses are just starting to make sense of the opportunities available to them and how they fit into their business. 2009 is going to be an interesting year, particularly with a recession in full flow.

Networking is more important than ever before, and it’s just starting to reach maturity.

LinkedIn - The Common Craft Approach

Those fine folk at the Common Craft Show have turned their attention to how to use LinkedIn. This is a fairly simple overview but I know a lot of people who have growing networks on LinkedIn but don't really know, or think, how to tap into them.

Maybe this will get you started...

Get a Lift From Online Networking

I was recently interviewed by The Sunday Times for an article looking at how small businesses can use online networks, such as Ecademy , LinkedIn and my own Word of Mouse.

The resulting article was published in the paper's business section today. You can view the article in full here.

Business Networking on the Social Web

Social Networking blogger An de Jonghe has just published the results of an interesting survey into the use of Social Networks worldwide. An based the results on the responses of over 850 people from 54 countries over the first seven months of this year.

There are a number of interesting results in the survey. The first thing to take note of is An's disclaimer that the survey cannot be considered as scientific. It would be interesting to know how the survey was publicised as some of the demographic results are surprising, not least Belgium being the most active country for social networking and three business sites coming above Facebook as the most popular networks.

Accepting, therefore, that this is probably a reflection of a more mature and business-focused demographic than the average Facebook user (the typical respondent is a male parent between 30 and 40 years old), we can use this survey as an indication of trends in social business networks.

What can we deduce from the survey?

- Initially the survey suggests that people don't want to pay for their social networking memberships. According to de Jongh, only 20% of respondents were prepared to pay for membership. However, this needs to be put into the context of the question. Respondents were asked whether they preferred to pay for ad-free membership or whether they would prefer a free account with advertising. This 'either/or' choice does not tell us whether they will pay a membership fee if they can see value for money. With social networking sites like Facebook offering membership for free, it will be interesting to see which cost models prove popular for social business networks.

- Most respondents join primarily for business opportunities. de Jongh suggests that the future is bleak for niche 'hobby' sites if they don't offer business opportunities, with just 16% opting to join a social network because it caters to their hobby. However, in 'Marketing to the Social Web', Larry Weber suggests that many people will join social networks because of shared interests. Is there a difference in the way different generations use the web?

- 40% of respondents feel it is important to be able to use their own language when posting. With most of the major social networks having a global reach and using English as the common language, is there scope for country-specific networks and can they possibly be as successful given the global e-community? The success of Bebo in Ireland, where founder Michael Birch recently suggested they have a huge impact in the market, suggests that this is possible. In contradiction, three-quarters of respondents to the survey consider themselves global networkers in response to the question 'would you consider joining a network outside your own country?'

Meanwhile, the majority of respondents (54%) don't participate in offline meetings. See my post on Anti-Social Networking for more thoughts on this issue.

The full survey can be found here.

The Rise of Anti-Social Networking?

Are the so-called 'Social Networks' taking over our lives? According to new research, 6% of 10,500 respondents to a survey spend more time each month networking online than meeting with family and friends! The 'hardcore' respondents are currently spending more than 10 hours a week networking online.

This figure isn't surprising and is only going to grow. Consider that the survey, carried out by uSwitch.com, was among broadband users. 6% is perhaps still a low number of people who have easy access to the internet to be 'high users'. And anyone who has got their teeth into Facebook recently will know how sticky the site can be.

The growth of social networks, and I include business sites such as Linked-In and Ecademy within the genre, is at the very start. It may seem hard to believe to readers of this blog but there are still a lot of people who still haven't heard of Facebook, let along been Poked on it!

More and more networks are starting, a number of them targeting particular communities. As the social networks become more focused on particular communities, people will become more drawn to participate in the network relevant to their interests. And the number of people spending more than 10 hours a week online will grow further.

What does this mean for a networker? Well, obviously it provides more opportunities to raise your profile and expand your network, both socially and for business. I have found Facebook to be a fantastic tool to keep in touch with friends I only see very rarely, and also to get to know better people I have met through business.

It is so important, though, that you use the networks as a tool to spark and revitalise relationships, not to replace meeting people in person. As one person said to me recently, 'the money is still in the face to face meetings'. I believe that you can only get to truly know, like and trust people when you see them in person, as often as you can.

Used correctly, the online communities can be great social tools. I'd hate, however, to see them replace meeting people in the flesh.

*The uSwitch findings were based on a survey of 10,513 adults in Britain carried out by YouGov in May.