When networking for business, how personal should you get? Even when networking for business, the most successful networkers share aspects of themselves that are not connected to business. I don’t think of my ‘Work Life’ and my ‘Personal Life’ – it’s all rolled into one great life. I stopped separating aspects of life in my thinking when I was in my early 20s and realised that I’d be working for a long time (I love it) and that how life turned out was going to be pretty much up to me. So, how personal should you get when networking (whether face-to-face or using social networks)? Twitter has been a great teacher for me. I find it easier with Twitter than with other communication tools e.g. newsletters and emails, to reveal more of me, while still doing business. And, as a result of mixing personal and business I’ve grown my network exponentially. The most successful Twitterers seem to find a good balance between personal and business tweets… and many of them see Twitter as an important part of their business arsenal. But, why would you share personal information when you’re networking for business?
- It shows you as a well-rounded human being. Be yourself. Being transparent (without any gory details ;-)) will establish you as a trustworthy and multi-faceted.
- It allows people to get to know you better. People do business with those they like, and they tend to like those they know more about.
- Sharing your interests will draw to you others with similar interests. When I was at a new-media conference in March this year, my tweets about the conference attracted a whole lot of new followers who are also new-media enthusiasts. My network grew purely through me sharing an interest, and without any intention on my part.
Discover what you’re comfortable sharing. For example, you may not wish to share information about yoru children, but that fact that you’ve rewarded yourself with a massage for landing a new client – that serves a dual purpose. It tells us you landing a deal, and it tells us you like massage. (You may find you get a few people engaging to say… @yourusername – I want a massage too! or @username – Way to go. You deserve it!.) Networking that is nothing but business (especially in this day of social media and social networking) will have a hard time engaging an audience. And… the biggest no-no is having every communication in your networking be a sales pitch, an offer, a ‘look at me’ type of communication.
A SILLY EXAMPLE ABOUT MY SHOES: A few months back I was on my way to a Networking function and I had decided to wear a brand new, ridiculously-high pair of shoes. On a whim I decided to post a tweet and include the photo of the shoes. I had so many comments (from both men and women) about a) the shoes, b) how comfortable or uncomfortable they looked … All quite silly really – but people also learned two things about me a) that sometimes I wear uncomfortable shoes and that b) I was attending a networking event. TODAY’S TASK
- Share something with your network that gives us an insight into you and your interests.
- Tell me what you think of my shoes! (No!!! I’m only kidding on that one.)
