Most savvy business people will limit their use of Twitter, Facebook and forum posting etc to the minimum time possible to get the maximum return.
It takes focus and discipline to involve yourself in social networking just enough so you get the balance right between being businesslike and being suitably sociable.
I find it’s a skill that requires practice. Who do you network with? How often do you chat? When do you post links? How long do you stay on?
But, no matter how chatty and sociable I may get, I always remember the reason I set up my Twitter and Facebook accounts – to help my business.
When I used to live in the city, I attended a number of real life, face-to-face networking events. It was interesting to see the folk that could effectively network, ‘working’ the room, asking questions, listening, seeing how they could help others, making connections.
It was just as fascinating to me to watch the people who couldn’t network, the ‘notworkers’ as I called them. If they weren’t just sitting on their own, they would be talking to the same one or two folk that they talked to last week, taking the opportunity to tell them how great/bad their life was.
Networking events for the ‘notworkers’ were a fantastic opportunity to catch up, off load and get a free breakfast – a chance to get away from work. It’s surprising to think that many were indeed self-employed, I wonder if they still are?
Social networking is no different. Whilst it might be great to have a few minutes at a virtual watercooler it is just as important not to lose sight of the reason you joined them – the clue’s in the title, networking, not Notworking.
