Networking: how 100 online friends can bring 100 rubles

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The format has changed, but the essence and benefits of the phenomenon, familiar to our grandmothers, remained the same.

What is networking and how has it changed in recent decades

Networking - building a network of useful contacts. The word in Russian is relatively new, but the phenomenon is not at all. Let's say your grandmother definitely had a saleswoman she knew who could hold the desired product. Or another example - job placement by acquaintance, which existed long before the appearance of Internet job portals.

But it would be naive to deny: if earlier personal acquaintances played an important role, now they have given way to connections in social networks. In a study on the Russian middle class, it is indicated that belonging to it is also influenced by the number of types of assistance that a person receives through social networks. For example, you can find there:

• Work … When you post your resume on a dedicated website, you are equal to that resume. If you write a post about looking for a job and it is re-posted by one of your online friends, this is already a recommendation. They can also tell you about some vacancies - simply because you are in their information field.
• Employees … Here the situation is the opposite: you can shovel a lot of resumes, or you can get candidates with recommendations.
• Contacts … Your friend-line “knows” a lot of good specialists - from plumbers and locksmiths to highly specialized doctors. Through personal acquaintances, you might never have reached these professionals.
• Promoting … Getting the contact of a narrow specialist is one thing, making an appointment with him is another. In desperate situations, when it is necessary to act urgently, some protection is very useful.
• Answers … Google, of course, knows everything, but sometimes it is useful to ask around people with different backgrounds to come to some conclusions. And of course, the experiences of online friends are much more diverse than those of personal acquaintances, because, as a rule, these online contacts are not limited by age, territory or other boundaries.
• Ideas … Different people "hang out" in your friends list for a reason, they interested you in something. This means that the tape can bring you a lot of food for thought. And there are many reasons to “steal like an artist,” that is, to rethink data and use it in your life.

How social media changed networking

They made it much more efficient. And that's why.

It became easier to use connections

Let's say you are looking for a plumber. The number of people you can call asking if they know who is most likely easy to count on your fingers. And your post on Facebook will be seen by hundreds, which is much more effective, you must agree.

Maintaining relationships can be effortless

One of the fundamental rules of networking is keeping in touch. In a world without social media, you would have to cross paths, communicate, perhaps even send gifts for the holidays.

It is much easier to maintain the illusion of communication on social media. Messages and photos of a person flicker in the feed - and it seems to you that he is close enough. Moreover, many of us know much more about online friends whom we have never met than we do about our personal acquaintances.

Finding the right person is easy

Think of films about nosy journalists. To reach the right person, they had to dress up as maids, sneak into closed industry conferences, or go for other tricks.

Nowadays, almost everyone is just a couple of clicks away from you. You can even reach out to the stars - you may remember the story of how rapper Drake ended up following a tiler from Moscow on Instagram.

You can get help from literally anyone

There is a theory of six handshakes, according to which there are no more than five contacts between any two people on the planet. But outside of social networks, it is assumed that you can get from one to the other if you connect all these five, who will involve each other. On social media, someone's one random like can lead you to your goal.

Why "networking" is not equal to "mass branding"

While it is easier to increase the number of friends on social media, the number of friends is not equal to the quality. Networking is a mutually beneficial relationship. And it's good if they are not formed according to the principle “I will communicate with him, because one day he may be useful to me,” but because you are really interesting to each other. If not enough to become best friends, but enough to be at least followers.

How to Network in the 21st Century

Just like centuries before. True, it is still worth making adjustments taking into account social networks.

Help yourself

You can be very useful in social networks with a minimum of effort. For example, you tag a familiar hairdresser under the post about finding a hair stylist - you get a satisfied client and a hairdresser. It's not like driving to the other side of town at seven in the morning to help. On the other hand, such a timely online contribution to the resolution of the issue can be much more memorable.

Be active

When you periodically see a person's posts, the illusion of closer communication arises. You learn more about him. And if the texts are also useful, entertaining or make you think, then the value of this participant in your feed increases.

In the other direction, it also works. If you want to prevent Internet acquaintances from trying to painfully remember who you are when they see your avatar, stay in sight. But you shouldn't be too frequent with posts, otherwise people may prefer to forget you.

Be yourself

Within reasonable limits, of course. Any business trainers, perhaps, advise to write exclusively professional smart posts, and if not written, then at least share with others. But just remember how boring and artificial ribbons these business coaches themselves have. So this is hardly the best way to go.

Don't separate online and offline

At the dawn of the spread of the Internet, online communication was considered a surrogate, and some still hold this opinion. Offline meetings are another matter, even though you can look people in the eye.

From the point of view of modern networking, it does not often matter that you have crossed paths with one person somewhere in person, and with another you constantly correspond under someone else's posts. Moreover, it is easy to lose contact received during a face-to-face meeting if you do not transfer it online.

Be cool

All networking tips imply that you have to go out of your way to make good connections. But there is an easier way. Be interesting and useful yourself, and people will be happy to be friends with you online, like your posts and respond to your requests.