The BIG Event - The Wit and the Wisdom

If you found Friday's review of The Big Event a bit too long for your liking, I thought I'd offer you a taste of the great advice on offer from the main platform:

"Being successful in business is all about thinking big, starting small and moving fast. Start-ups change the World as small becomes big. We need more Charles Dunstones."
Julie Meyer, Ariadne Capital and Dragons Den Online

"We access abundance not from our network but through them"
Christopher Jones-Warner, Playing Hamlet

"You need to be writing, publishing and speaking so that others write, publish and speak about you".
Mindy Gibbins-Klein, The Book Midwife and Ecademy Press Publishing

"Choice (and information) is now abundant, while attention is scarce. People have to come to you, and once you have attracted them you need to keep their attention forever."
Grant Leboff, Sales Therapy

"Investors aren't interested purely in profit and financial potential. For many this is money they can afford to lose and they are looking for fun. They are more interested in you than your business plan"
Bill Morrow, Angels Den

"If you can't smile, don't open a shop."
Dexter Moscow's Grandfather!

"Nobody wants facts, they want a story"
Alan Stevens, The Media Coach

"Help others to reach the next level, once you reach there yourself, send the lift back down".
Julie Meyer

"The single biggest thing in our business is that we are good at relationships".
Julie Meyer

"Life, and business, is about being a friend"
Penny Power, Ecademy

"You can kiss a lot of frogs online, but can then choose to meet your princes offline"
Penny Power

"Embed friendship and trust in your business, that is the killer app"
Penny Power


I hope that there are some ideas that get you thinking there. You can read my full review of the event here and see Dianna Bonner's excellent pictures here.

Think BIG, Start Small, Move Fast...... a review of The BIG Event 2010 from the main platform

Yesterday I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of Chairing The BIG Event in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. One of the technical team at The Fielder Centre, the conference venue, came up to me at the end to say how much he had enjoyed the day. He was amazed to see a collection of speakers who, as he put it, "could each be the main speaker at any conference" all brought together on one day.

As Conference Chairman I was restricted to the main auditorium, where the speakers were exceptional. The feedback I have heard from all of the workshops and roundtables that ran concurrently has also been excellent.

My job was to be the link for the speakers and, as such, I made a lot of notes on their talks. I could probably write a blog on each one, but I'm sure they all have their own excellent blogs anyway, so I thought I'd just share with you some of the nuggets shared from the main platform during the day.

There was a constant theme of engagement throughout. The first speaker, Christopher Jones-Warner, talked about how to build relationships with other people and focused on our ability (or lack of ability) to listen to others. He made the point that we access abundance not from our network but through them; a very similar philosophy to my approach of selling through your network instead of to them. Chris emphasised that how you listen to others determines how "related you are to that person".

Chris was followed by Mindy Gibbins-Klein. If you've noticed a drop in the frequency of my blogging recently, Mindy is the person to blame as she works with me on delivering my new book later this year!  I've seen Mindy speak a few times and yesterday she excelled, engaging with the audience and commanding her subject in a way I haven't seen before. She has come on leaps and bounds in recent years and now stands at the level she inspires others to reach, as a Thought Leader.

Mindy talked about the importance of standing out from the crowd and how 'attraction marketing' is so important now. Mindy emphasised that "you need to be writing, publishing and speaking so that others write, publish and speak about you".

Grant Leboff picked up on the theme of engagement, talking about discarding Return on Investment for a 'Return on Engagement', setting up an 'Engagement Strategy' for your business. Grant talked about how the traditional marketing model has now inverted. People used to have little choice and plenty of attention to external messages as they looked for information. Today "choice (and information) is now abundant, while attention is scarce". People have to come to you, and once you have attracted them you need to keep their attention forever.

I thought we might then be looking at a shift, if not in tone then in theme, as Bill Morrow took to the stage. Bill's subject was Angel Funding, so many people may have expected lots of number-crunching from the former accountant. Nothing of the sort though, perhaps not a surprise to people who know Bill. Not your stereotypical accountant!

Bill made it very clear that there are plenty of people who, despite the economic climate, have money they want to invest and are looking for opportunities to do so. Angels Den had 126 investors looking at pitches on the site on Christmas Day last year! Investors aren't, however, interested purely in profit and financial potential according to Bill. For many this is money they can afford to lose and they are looking for fun.

Bill's advice was to throw your business plan out of the window. Well, maybe not completely, but certainly don't spend too much time on it, Angel investors don't. Instead, people will invest in people they like and feel they can spend time with and work with.

Dexter Moscow and Alan Stevens followed after lunch, both on the subject of communication and getting your message across. For Dexter, that was in presentations or conversation, for Alan the focus was PR and social media.

Dexter focused on "the ability to positively impact and influence" others. His talk was not about sales skills but influencing skills as he put it. Passion for your business played a big role in Dexter's talk, as did the ability to position yourself as the solution to people's problems. I particularly liked his Grandfather's old saying, "If you can't smile, don't open a shop."

Meanwhile, Alan shared plenty of tips and techniques to engage both with traditional media and online. One of the most striking images in his presentation was the industrial shredder in use when he worked at The Guardian, with tens of thousands of press releases shredded every week without being read. "Nobody wants facts, they want a story", he said, encouraging listeners to answer the question "So what?" when trying to engage.

Alan also showed how he could reach out to 24 million people a week using social media, and how he consistently gets his message out for "just a crumpled fiver a week".

BBC's Dragons' Den Online star Julie Meyer urged entrepreneurs not to settle for being one of the crowd and to shed any sense of entitlement. "It's not about 'me too', you have to find something that makes you different", she said, also stressing that you need to focus on "helping others to reach the next level, once you reach there yourself, send the lift back down".

Having grown, sold, funded and mentored many successful businesses, Julie carried on the spirit of the day by saying that the single biggest thing in their business is that "we are good at relationships". Relationships being the keyword, 'contacts' being too "transactional". Julie also made it clear that marketing is key, it should become a habit, "for everyone in the firm".

Being successful in business according to Julie is all about "thinking big, starting small and moving fast. Start-ups change the World as small becomes big. We need more Charles Dunstones."

The closing keynote speaker was Ecademy co-founder Penny Power.  Relationships are also key to Penny, with friendship the main theme of her talk. "Life, and business, is about being a friend", said Penny, following up by saying "if people know me and like me they will want to do business with me."

Penny talked about her teenage daughter and the power the Facebook Generation will bring to businesses with networks of 2-3,000 friends built up through school, travel, university and work. "Why would any company take away the one asset that they bring with them", she said when talking about corporate blocks on social networks.

"Embed friendship and trust in your business, that is the killer app"

 The dateThe Big Event 2011 has already been set for March 3rd at The Fielder Centre in Hatfield. Put it in your diary now, if it builds on this year it will be a day not to be missed.

Photos in this piece courtesy of the excellent Dianna Bonner. You can see all of the pictures from The Big Event here.

Win tickets to The BIG Event in Hertfordshire

We are just a couple of weeks from The BIG Event in Hertfordshire. As well as Chairing the event I am also appearing on a Social Media Panel along with Ecademy Founder Penny Power, Twitter specialist Mark Shaw and Media Coach Alan Stevens.

Taking over the MC duties while I am on the panel is my good friend David McQueen. David wants to make sure that he asks the right questions of the panellists, so he'd like to know what questions you'd like us to answer.

I have three tickets to The BIG Event to give away to readers of my blog, Facebook and LinkedIn pages and newsletter who come up with the best questions to ask the Social Media Panel.

Please send your questions to me at andy@lopata.co.uk. Closing date for entries is midday on Thursday 25th February and winners will be notified that afternoon.

Why would people want to connect you?

I've noticed an interesting trend in the Who Do You Know Who Club on Ecademy recently. The Club is set up for people to ask for connections and fellow members to offer the relevant introductions.

There have been a number of requests that have been very specific in terms of who people want to speak to (which is excellent) but which have had little to no response.

If you ask people for a connection, you need to say why. And not why you want the connection but why that person would want to be introduced to you.

Put yourself in the shoes of the people you are asking. They may have good routes through to the person you want to meet but if they don't know why you want to be connected, how likely would they be to take the next steps? Particularly if, as in a social networking forum, they might not know you well.

Make the introduction easy for people to make by giving them a compelling reason to speak to their contacts and the confidence that their contact would appreciate the effort and the connection.

CONNECTING IS NOT ENOUGH: Busting the Myth

This article originally appeared in The National Networker



It’s time to shatter a few illusions now. I’m sorry but networking groups do not produce referrals.

That may disappoint a few people who have spent a lot of time and money joining groups in the hope of generating new business. Hours spent at breakfast meetings, lunches and chatting over canapés when you could have been watching The Apprentice…..all wasted.

Before you panic and start cancelling all of your memberships, bear with me. I didn’t say it’s all a waste of time!

The myth is that new business comes directly from networking groups. Because of that myth, it is common practice to join a group, turn up for a while and then question why you have seen no results. The fact that many miss is that networking groups are merely the starting point; most of the business done and most of the relationships built are based on understanding developed outside of the meetings.

This fact stands whether you are looking at an online networking group or one where the members meet face to face. In both cases you still need to develop strong relationships with fellow members and that means spending some quality time with them.

I write and speak a lot about the importance of the depth of relationships developed through networking. Yes, it is important to build a wide and diverse network, but the real power comes from people who know, like and trust you. That’s when people will go out of their way to support you, when people will genuinely want to refer you, when people will seek out the appropriate opportunities.

Referrals and support come not from networking groups but from your network. They are two distinct entities. Your network comprises people you have relationships with, whether they are personal contacts or people you know through business. Your network includes your friends and family, social contacts, people you have met because your children go to the same school. It includes clients, suppliers, business associates and people you have met at networking groups.

Depending on the strength of your relationship, it is these people who want to support you the most, and networking groups are simply a way of feeding that network.

If you can focus on this, you can approach your membership of networking groups in a different way. Instead of looking for one off ‘hits’, people who you immediately see an opportunity to work with or sell to, find people who you’d like to get to know better. Spend time talking with them, meeting outside of the network and developing a real friendship. Through doing so, you will soon count them as a key part of your network, rather than simply being members of the same group.



For someone to refer you effectively, two key elements need to be in place. They need to both trust you enough to effectively put their reputation on the line every time they introduce you to one of their contacts, and they need to understand your business in enough depth to be able to recognise and convert opportunities to refer you.

The limitation with relying on networking groups, or online networks for that matter, is the number of people present. Unless you are in a small Mastermind-style group, there is little opportunity to have in-depth conversations with fellow members and get to know them better. This makes it very difficult to build anything other than a superficial relationship and unlikely that you will develop the levels of trust and understanding that enable mutual referrals and support.

It’s no surprise, therefore, that people who focus their networking purely within the meetings struggle to achieve the potential from their membership. If you take a typical BNI-style meeting for example, if there are 40 members up to one hour of a meeting will typically be taken up with presentations. There are opportunities for brief conversations before and over breakfast.

Yet there are always members who leave the meeting as soon as the formal section has finished. Typically, they then won’t be seen again until the following week.

It’s not much different at larger and less frequent events such as Chambers of Commerce. Many people spend time looking to meet as many new people as possible, collecting business cards. Conversations are fleeting, handshakes rushed and elevator pitches exchanged. They then move onto their next contact.

The only way those connections can work is if you develop them over time. That means taking time out of meetings to have better conversations. I often use that time initially just to get to know each other socially. After all, you want people you like and have something in common with in your network. Over time you can then find out more about each other’s business, the challenges you face and the introductions you seek.

Networking groups often impress on their members the need to have regular 1-2-1 meetings with each other away from their events. It’s not enough just to meet once and tick that person off your list, remember that you are looking to develop a relationship and that means regular conversations and staying in touch. It doesn’t just have to be two of you, meet in small groups socially as well.

Twitter and LinkedIn users are now holding regular ‘Meet Ups’ (or ‘Tweetups for Twitter fans!) so that they can meet face to face. In the UK, Ecademy have been doing this for years.

You will struggle to achieve anything near the potential from your networking if you focus your efforts purely on the events or forums provided by the organisation. Identify people who can justify a place within your network and build the relationship with them.

Networking groups don’t provide referrals. They can, however, introduce you to the people who, over time, will.

Connecting is not Enough....The Newsletter

The latest edition of Connecting is not Enough is available now. Click here to view the newsletter.

This fortnight's spectacular includes:

- Designing your business cards
- Predicting the conversation
- Underpromise and overdeliver



and a man flying through the air into a paddling pool!

Endorsements that Count

Online networks have made a telling contribution to business marketing in so many ways over recent years. One way they have done this is to raise the importance of, and ease of gathering, business testimonials.

On sites like LinkedIn and Ecademy, people can leave a testimonial for you at any time. LinkedIn has the added advantage of allowing you to decide whether or not to display that testimonial and even ask for edits.

So, what makes a testimonial valuable? While it might be nice for people to share what a great person you are, how good it has been to connect with you or how helpful you have been, do these testimonials really add much value if read by prospective clients?

The best testimonials are those which clearly demonstrate the effect you have had on a client. What problem did you solve and what benefit did they have as a result of using your services?

I occasionally get asked on LinkedIn to provide a testimonial for someone whose services I have had no commercial experience of. What value can I add in such a testimonial? I can repeat hearsay at best. When asking people to provide endorsements, approach those who can add value.

The acid test, when a prospective client or Champion reads the testimonial, should be the impact it will have on their decision to connect with you.

http://help.tweetmeme.com/2009/04/06/tweetmeme-button/

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!

How do you choose which online networks to join and who joins you on them?

Every day I receive new invitations to either join or connect on different online (social) networks. Some of them are well known, such as LinkedIn or Facebook, others less so. The fact is that the numbers of social networking opportunities are continually growing, and it would be impossible for anyone to manage a network on all of them, unless that was their full time post!

This begs the question of which do you choose and with whom do you connect, where? I met with leading figures from three of the larger networks last week, LinkedIn, Xing and BT Tradespace. Each of them is looking for their own way to stand out from the crowd, to be different.

One of the most striking things for me is the number of people who, once they're connected with you on one network, want to connect with you everywhere else. If this is the right approach to networking, what do we need all of the different networks for. How do you use them differently? Or don't you bother?

In my mind I have different uses for each network.

Remember that networking is about both breadth and depth of relationship. Some networks are well suited to growing your network. For me, Ecademy is the main 'network growth tool' but Xing and BT Tradespace can also serve a similar purpose.

Other networks are better served helping you deepen your existing network. In my case, I see Facebook as a great tool to build existing relationships by opening the doors of my private life to strong business connections, and the doors of my business life to strong personal connections.

LinkedIn, in the meantime, is a great tool to leverage existing networks, and to help your connections gain your help and support when needed. Using their three degrees of seperation principle of looking at their connections and asking for introductions is incredibly powerful, if done professionally and with focus.

The problem lies in the way these depth networks are diluted by mass connections. I can't put my hand on my heart and say that my LinkedIn or Facebook networks contain only people I know well, I have accepted too many connection requests for the want of somewhere else to connect for that to be the case. Quite how 'LinkedIn Open Networkers', who have thousands of connections can make trusted introductions I just don't understand.

I have realised that the time has come for me to rationalise my online networks and start to connect with different people in different places for different reasons. It will take me some time and I want to do so in a way that won't cause offence to people I move or spurn, but it needs to be done if these networks are going to achieve anything like their potential for me.

I know that there will be many who disagree with this approach, and others who are even more confused than I am. I'd love to hear all views, and some other strategies.

It's time to create some sense from the confusion.

Networking Resolutions

This article originally appeared in The National Networker.


New Year has come and gone and all around the World talk inevitably turns to resolutions. Are you looking towards a slimmer you? Giving up smoking? Perhaps you have decided to dedicate more time to others.

It’s also a good time to sit back and review your networking. Is your current activity working for you? Are you in the right networks, getting the referrals you want for your business?

Take the time to check you are on the right track. Even the top networkers do it. I spoke to some of the UK’s leading networking experts and heads of networks to find out what they expect to happen in networking in 2009 and their own plans for the New Year.

As you might expect, the global economic climate featured heavily in their responses. It is commonly agreed on both sides of the Atlantic that many businesses will find the next twelve months very challenging and that networking is going to play a vital role in helping us to get through the trials and tribulations ahead.

Maggie Berry, Director of Women in Technology encapsulated the mood. “I think (or at least I hope) that people will be more open to getting themselves out there and networking face to face, to maintain and build up contacts during what is probably going to be a tough 2009.”

The need to be proactive and forge new relationships seems to be the key. Roy Sheppard, author of ‘Rapid Result Referrals’ and ‘Meet, Greet and Prosper’, said, “As the economy continues to toughen, maintaining and attracting new business will become more of a challenge for most companies.

“The best-connected people and organisations will be those most able to harvest those opportunities that will exist. Their investment in relationship building will bear fruit. I think we will see well-connected people and companies working far more collaboratively than ever before.

A positive and collaborative approach is the key for Sheppard. “Their mindset will be 'We're all in this together, so let's look out for each other'. More and more people will rely on referrals.”

Jackie Groundsell of women’s business network 1230 shares the belief that working with others is the key. “For everyone in business 2009 will certainly be an interesting and challenging time”, said Jackie.

“Many more people will be working remotely which can bring isolation and loneliness. Those who resolve to invest time in building and developing relationships with like-minded individuals will reap the benefits and still find plenty of opportunities to do business.”

With a large number of people facing redundancy in the New Year and unemployment levels set to reach their highest point for many years, expect to see more people set up in business on their own. This, according to Jackie, is going to make networking an even more vital tool. “Business will become more competitive and the rewards will be greater for those who share and work with others.”

Penny Power, co-founder of online network Ecademy, also feels that businesses are going to need to work much more closely together in order to thrive. Penny continued to highlight the importance of networks and referrals. “I feel that networking will be about hunting in packs, not as lone ‘cave men’”, said Penny.

“Collaboration will be the theme of many good networkers, looking for opportunities that feed a group of people not just themselves. If you exist in a good network, this will bring many opportunities your way, providing you do the same for others. Finding people in your network that share the same client base but deliver different solutions will ensure you uncover opportunities when they crop up.”

It’s not just for referrals that businesses need to be looking for opportunities to work together. According to Mike Roe, CEO of Chief Executive Groups Footdown, “At times like this people still need people, whether for critical information on how to tackle key issues, a bit of inspiration from time to time, or some relief from the isolation that being the ‘boss’ can create.

“Being in touch with other like minded people, or being challenged and stretched by people who might think in different ways will be as important this coming year as any year that has gone before.”

So where will people go to network? As I discussed in last month’s column, there are a number of challenges facing physical face-to-face networks, with a number of people looking to the benefits provided in cyberspace.

Brian Chernett, Chairman of the Academy for Chief Executives believes "’on line reputation’ will be key and a much better use of the internet, blogs and social networks such as Facebook will become the norm for all levels."

Author of “I Hate Networking” and networking skills expert Will Kintish sees the trend towards online networks continuing. “I think people in networking clubs who get very little from them (because they don’t understand the guidelines and principles) will give their membership up. The Kintish team will be spending a minimum of two hours every day searching Linkedin.

“When you understand how to use it, it is your greatest online networking friend ever.
In business there are two groups of people:

1 People we know like and trust
2 People who are targets we’d like to meet who know group 1.
“Ask Group 1 to introduce you to Group 2. They will do it readily. Linkedin is the tool to find both groups.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Penny Power also sees a positive future for online networks. “I am being told by many that offline networking is becoming increasingly tough for them to get to, going out the door costs money and we are now seeing huge growth in membership and traffic on Ecademy as a result.

“My resolution for 2009 is to find ways of delivering more knowledge over the internet using webinar and online conferencing tools to bring large groups together across the world online and teach them the power of the online tools and being part of an online community. This reduces the costs for people and increases the opportunity for learning and sharing.”

For others, relationship building forms the core of many top networkers’ new year resolutions. Not content to sit on their laurels and congratulate themselves on the networks they have already developed, they are focusing on how they can do better, both by extending their networks but also, importantly, deepening existing relationships.

Dave Clarke, CEO of networking lunch group NRG and author of the Business Networking Blog has resolved to focus on following up and developing existing relationships, while Roy Sheppard is promising to get more organized and finally invest in a business card scanner. My resolution is similar, involving using my scanner and finally getting a regular e-zine out to keep in touch with my growing network, along with more frequent calls to people I haven’t spoken to in a while.

Maggie Berry, meanwhile, intends to meet a more diverse group of people. “Because of what I do, I go to lots of women related events. This year I'd like to broaden the type of event that I attend - thereby pushing my own boundaries but hopefully meeting lots of interesting people along the way!”

Whatever you are doing at the moment, there’s no doubt that additional focus will lead to improvements. With tough economic times ahead of us, the consensus is that networks will become increasingly important, whether online or off. The New Year is a time for all of us to review what has worked for us so far, look at new opportunities and change our behaviour accordingly.

After all, if networking is working well for you at the moment, what would life look like if it suddenly got better?

Tweeting for new business...?

First of all, please allow me to wish you a belated Happy New Year. I may have been quiet on the blog through the first couple of weeks of the year but I certainly haven't been hibernating. I've been working on a number of exciting projects throughout the Christmas period and all will be revealed over the coming weeks.

Let's start the year as we mean to go on....with a question.

If you are a member of social and online business networks, such as Facebook, Ecademy and LinkedIn, how often do you update your status?

Introduced following the early success of Twitter, status updates can be used in a number of ways. Ridiculed initially as people told us the minutiae of their lives, from when they were going to get a cup of tea, to nipping to the loo or reading a magazine (or even all three together!), they now offer a great opportunity to gain deeper insight into what our network does.

Understanding what other people do is one of the challenges of effective networking. A title or elevator pitch can rarely do it justice. However, 'Tweeting' your latest actions, or updating your status with details of the clients you are working with and what you are doing for them can play a key role in educating your network.

Similarly, personal updates, from the films you are watching to the sports you follow help people get to know the individual better. And we all know how important it is to remember that 'people buy people'.

Above all of this, you can post requests on these updates. Sometimes, those requests, or your updates can lead directly to new business. It is the most simple and effective form of marketing possible.

This morning I received an email from Theresa Summers, inviting me to connect to her on LinkedIn. I first met Theresa about three years ago when she was the guest at a BRE meeting that I was visiting. She showed that she really understood networking, wanted to learn more and was incredibly enthusiastic. We have remained in touch ever since, although we have met rarely and her business has changed since I last saw her.



Connecting with Theresa, I noticed the status on her LinkedIn profile. It said, "Theresa Summers is looking to connect with people who could utilise moving classroom training to e-learning" and had been posted just 45 minutes earlier.

E-learning is an area I am very interested in and wanted to explore later this year. I looked on another social network, Facebook, where Theresa and I are connected, and saw she was online. Within a few minutes we have agreed to meet and discuss how we can work together to accelerate my e-learning programme.

It probably took Theresa less than one minute to write a status update that could hopefully lead to some very profitable business for her.

You won't win business every time you Tweet, or update your status. Some of the time it will fall on deaf ears (or blind eyes). Sometimes you will be building people's knowledge of what you do or who you are.

And sometimes it might lead to a referral, or a direct piece of business.

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.

Why Connecting is Not Enough

Social networking sites, such as Ecademy, offer great opportunities to business networkers and small business. But there is a danger that true networkers will be driven away by people who just don't get it.

On my Ecademy profile I invite connections from people who are genuinely interested in building a relationship with me. I try to deter connections from 'number crunchers', people who just want to build the number of people in their network in the misguided belief it makes them good networkers.

Unfortunately I receive a large number of connection requests and vacuous messages every day.

One I received this morning highlights exactly how not to connect online. I'll share some brief lowlights with you:

I sent you a contact request earlier; however, at the time I was not able to send messages. I have since became a PowerNetworker. Therefore, I wanted to send you a short message to tell a little more about myself.

That's so kind of this person. It's just what I need, to hear more about them when I have no previous meaningful connection with them.

I will spare you the two paragraphs and list of career biography that follow.

Some have asked me how I have added so many people to my network in just a few short weeks. The answer is that I have been working several hours every day at making contacts with as many people as possible. I want to build a wide network, and have been concentrating on that for the first few weeks

At least he's honest about playing a numbers game. It is absolutely frightening that someone would work several hours a day spamming people on social networks. What a dreadful waste of his time, and of the people being spammed. He goes on to explain how he then plans to deepen the relationships he has forged, but not how.

With close to 1000 contacts forged in two weeks membership, he has presented himself with an almost impossible task. Creating meaningful contacts and deep relationships out of a mountain of connections would be incredibly time consuming and difficult to achieve.

Surely it would have been just as easy to start with a few connections where there is an obvious synergy, whether work related or based around personal interest. From those connections, he could have developed some Champions, people who believe in him based on the relationship they have built because he has been able to focus his attention on them.

From there he would be introduced to and be able to connect with more people naturally. And his network would begin to grow both wide and deep.

He finishes his email with a flourish.

If you have need for any of my services here in the US, in Europe, or in other countries I hope I can help you. Also, if you know of others who could benefit from my services, I would appreciate you relating me to them.

The email is all about "me", "me", "me". Not once does he mention anything in my profile, ask what I do or how he can help me. And then he finishes off by asking for referrals.

Online networking is now infested with people who are only focused on themselves and how many connections they can collect. They forget the importance of Dale Carnegie's words, "people are interested in people who are interested in them".

Fortunately there are still a large number of great networkers on Ecademy and on other online networks. People are still there who will put your needs first, help where they can and not expect in return. These people are, however, in danger of being drowned out by the noise.

I don't blame this person for his approach. The numbers-based system utilised and promoted by most of the social networks makes it inevitable. But it will drive genuine networks away if we're not careful. And these platforms are far too valuable for that to happen.

Isn't it time that something changed?

National Networker article now live

My article "Well Known British Network Celebrates Ten Years" for The National Networker in the US is now live on their site. You can read the article here.

In the article I discuss the first ten years of Ecademy and interview founders Penny and Thomas Power.

The real power of online networks lies......offline

An interesting combination of statistics stands out from the Ecademy survey released today. Over half of the respondents (56%) state that they get less than 10% of their business through online networking, with only just over 10% getting 50% or more from that source. At the same time, nearly 40% of members get over 50% of their business through offline networking.

Nothing unusual about that, you may think. After all, it would be fair to suggest that it is easier to generate business through offline networks, where you meet fellow members face-to-face, than an online network such as Ecademy. It is much more difficult to build personal relationships virtually after all.

The interesting stat comes further down the survey. The vast majority of respondents never attend any of the offline networks listed, with Chamber of Commerce faring best (41% of members attend sometimes, 59% never do) but most other networks failing to attract a sizeable majority of members who replied to the survey. So, where does the offline business come from?

Now, I'll put my hands up now and admit that I'm not a mathematical genius nor an expert in analysing such surveys. There may be a very clear statistical explanation for this apparent anomaly. If there is, I'm sure someone will point it out for me! I prefer to look for an explanation elsewhere, looking at what makes networking effective.

As I mentioned earlier, business networking is far more powerful when you can build relationships in person. Ecademy is a fantastic tool for building your profile and initiating new relationships. In my experience, however, the best relationships, and most likely opportunities for business, come when you get to know each other away from the online platform.

I was asked today how I make membership of a network like Ecademy pay. The site helps me to build my profile and the reputation for my expertise. Without doubt, however, any direct referrals for business have predominantly come from people I have taken the time to meet and build a relationship with. This is where the power of BlackStar lies, with members constantly meeting with each other. There are probably 1-2-1s between BlackStars every day of the week, and a lot at weekends as well.

To be truly effective, online networks should be treated as a means to an end, not the end itself. Somewhere to both initiate and manage relationships, where the relationships are developed in person, face to face. I believe that this explains the discrepancy in these statistics, people have made the connections online but converted the business by networking offline...in person.

Networking your way up Google - from obscurity to Number One in under an hour!

While delighted with the coverage I received in yesterday's Sunday Times newspaper, I was faced with a small dilemma...they had spelt my name wrong. Who is this 'Andy Lapota' fellow?

Now, with a name like mine, you'd think I'd be used to this. I can assure you, I gave myself a swift kick on reading the article, I've seen my name spelt in so many different ways that I should be briefing people by now when it is important.

The problem was that if people want to search for me after reading the article, they wouldn't be able to find me on Google under the misspelt name. I simply wouldn't appear in the results. To make things worse, I had gone away for the weekend and couldn't get any internet access to address the problem.

Enter David Petherick, a fellow Ecademist. David called me after seeing the article, and misspelling, in the paper. He offered to resolve the search problem as quickly as he could.

David Twittered, David Pownced and David Blogged. Forty minutes later, I managed to get onto my mobile phone browser while on the motorway (don't worry, I wasn't driving!) and googled 'Andy Lapota'. From not featuring at all, my name now occupied the first two places on Google, courtesy of Mr Petherick and the SEO capabilities of sites like Ecademy. Even more impressively, both posts were addressed to Sunday Times readers looking for more information on me.

From obscurity to number one in less than an hour. Now, that's the power of networking!

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.

Review your networking strategy at Hertfordshire Networkers

Are you based in or near Hertfordshire? Wondering which networking groups to join or struggling to get value from your existing memberships?

I am speaking at the launch of Hertfordshire Networkers in Harpenden on October 25th. During the talk I'll be looking at how to focus on what you want from your networking activities and how to decide which groups to join.

Please do come and join me. Details are 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.