Martini Musing - Let’s Start A Slow Networking Movement
First there was slow food. Then there was slow travel. I propose starting a slow networking movement. I don’t know about you - but I’m too old and have been around the block too many times to get excited about creating faux relationships in seven words or five minutes.
WARNING: I’m going to talk about sex now.
Now that everyone is glued to the screen...;-) I frequently get invitations to “speed” networking events. They always make me think of dating (after all, that’s what it is, only for business.) When dating, you get all fluffed and puffed (or shined and buffed if you’re a guy)…put on your best smile…sit down…and within about 2 minutes know if there’s any physical attraction. You may even - um - act on the attraction that very night. But, a relationship? That can take weeks to develop, if ever.
Instead of trying to sell to as many people as possible in as short a time as possible - let’s all slow down. People buy from people they like. They buy even more from people they love. We forgive people we like and love. We give them referrals without being asked. We promote their businesses, without being asked. We go out of our way to help them. This, however, means that we have a relationship - and that takes time and effort.
Slow Networking - less stressful, more fun, longer lasting.
P.S. And, now really - can you get excited based on this description of speed networking?
“Speednetworking.com, the premier solution to help you expand your network, brings the professional working community an innovative solution to enhance networking opportunities. You can now organize and host your own speed networking event. Powered by the patent-pending eXtreme Networking software, which schedules individual meetings based on attendee preferences, SpeedNetworking.com pioneering services are used by a wide array of firms and for a wealth of purposes.”
Oh dear. This makes me tired to even read. Corporate marketing speak at its “best.”
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May 16th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Look at the number of facebook or linkedin contacts a person has and you will learn a lot. It’s either around 50 or over 500. And that tells you a lot about the depth of those relationships.
May 17th, 2008 at 4:25 am
I don’t think it’s bad to have a ton of contacts on LinkedIn, etc.; the missing piece is classifying them. There’s your core group of trusted, well-known colleagues, there’s a wide “friends of friends” group who you don’t know as well but you’d contact if you thought there was something talk about, and there’s that vast pool of people you met once. You treat them differently, of course.
I do think the time spent on a “speed networking” event is probably better spent sending a carefully-written email (or perhaps making phone calls) to 10-20 people you know pretty well that say, “I am looking for the following (could be a type of project, job opportunities, a certain variety of expertise for a project, etc.) and wondered if you know anybody good - we know each other, and I would really value a recommendation of someone to talk to this about.” You’d probably wind up developing some real connections with people that way.