networking month

March was full of networking. First I met my ex-colleague for a quick dinner chat, it turned out to have a business interest as a motive to meet. Then I had a very productive breackfast followed by networking conference. Finally, today I attended business breakfast organized by Zubry community.

Here are my notes from today's event.

1. Networking is not only about business. Networking is about connections. I saw a lot of business today. I heard a lot of advertising. People were missing. Just imagine a breakfast with advertising posters - this is what I had today. Well, almost. I've got 1,5 personal connections. One is a great girl too busy to pursue her dream activities. And a half is a guy who can be interesting, but too proud of himself.

We're in business 24/7. What I expect from a business connection is to be a little more personal.

2. Networking is about care of relationship. And relationship means that more than one person is involved. Having in mind own interest care about the other party. People need to concentrate on listening. What's in it for me is good. But being combined with what can I give to the person is a weapon.

3. Networking is about being natural. Leave professional as a filter to check incoming/outcoming information. And that's it. Nobody wants to have breakfast with a classified ad. Nobody wants to connect to a marketing manual.

Mauricio again

Well, my bad influence went to its peak - my coachie finally became an official blogger and wrote his first couple of posts in his blog. In his very first post he kindly made a piece of PR for me:

Marina’s role in all this was pivotal. She was the first avid blogger I had ever met in depth that can actually claim to have a significant level of daily readership of her online conversations. Most impressive was her discipline in terms of keeping her content constant and fresh, despite the heavy academic workload demanded by our program. After watching her do this for some time, it became evident that the main driver behind this discipline was the relationship she had forged with her readers who looked to her for advice on obtaining scholarships in Russia for academic programs abroad, as well as everyday girl-talk (Marina is also a contributor to the Russian COSMO blog). All in all, a very special cyber-relationship indeed! One that peaked my interest and drew me into the sport of blogging.

From my point of view I can add the followng. Blogging is a process that corresponds to my nature - I can easily and quickly write all the posts and find interestng information to be posted. I love sharing - sharing thoughts, knowledge, things that make me smile. I love receiving feedback; of course, I prefer a good one to a bad one. And having a loyal audience, it is easier to get a good comment. And the last but not the least is that my blog becomes a good tool for network and relationship creation, it makes the process of people knowing me better faster. and I appreciate that very much.

Good luck, Coachie, and thank you for PR:)

an example

Just fogot to share a wonderful example of my favorite coachie successful and creative way of promoting himself. I think he has chosen an appropriate tool corresponding with his goals: to show himself as a very creative and communicative specialist in PR area.

It´s my special pleasure to introduce Mauricio.

twitter-style

Just realised, that there are two basic styles of thoughts - twitter and let's say blogger. Blogger generally assumes in-depth analysis, even if you write about your breakfast - scrambled eggs with tomato without bacon, I love healthy food and hate animal fats. Twitter is a way to quickly mention the thing without digging in. Just scrambled eggs. Or better say, I had a breakfast.

What is better? The favorite mba-style answer - depends. Giving grades means having a system of assumptions, and this is biased anyway. Think out your goal and drop your tools (Ianna, hi, there).

I just stopped blaming myself for twitter style. This is the reason I decided to classify this. And thanx to Varsavsky, of course, his latest posts are in twitter style.

what a small world!

Playing with social networks actually shows you how the world is small and connected. What really differs Xing from other nets I use is that they show the whole conection chain between existing connections and a person. Even when I had 1 connection (guy whom I met randomly in friends feed of my livejournal friend and afterwards met in Munich when I visited Friedrichshafen Outdoor trade show), all my IE contacts were connected with him through network. Random guy with my IE network! Well, Xing is the first system I saw that shows the whole chain (not like "somebody from your friend's network"). And even when I find my ex-colleagues from Norway, they are somehow connected with my IE contacts. Lovely!

By now:
Xing - 19 connections within 4 days (most from my university, 1 ex-colleague, 1 poutdoor contact, 1 from groups I added).
Odnoklassniki (Classmates) - 104 connections within 7 days.

networking again

With all networking activities the main thing is consistency. If you're building a network,youneed to do it regularly and on contstnt basis, since you stop, the processgoes backwards. Within 3 days I built 2 networks - private and business. Or, let say, started building that. I'm going to cut my activities within facebook (after december, when I come back to Russia) and russian nets and pay attention to LinkedIn and Xing.

The steps to build it are the following:
1. Register and check ytour closest network - University and Business School.
2. Check network of each member added you. Add those you know.
3. Check groups, choose, be a member.
4. Participate.

Now I'm at 4th stage with Xing.
;)

social networks

I'm playing with social networks now. There is a huge variety of ones, with different aims and coverage, but all of them require a lot of time and don't use in full.

I've understood several stages of relationships with the net:
1. Awareness - somebody lets a person know, may be describes main features and advantages.
2. Interface test - here a person registers for a network (by invitation or through automatic process) and makes first steps on the building networks through checking invited friend's connections.
3. Network building - (s)he uses search tools, matching possibilities, checks colleagues, classmates.
4. Additional services check - the most useful and user-frienly are adopted, others are ignored.
5. Network modration - after a certain effort the network is updated automatically. User just moderates it.
6. Intensive use of the network - most of users rarely come to this stage.

The aims of creating a social network are the following:
1. Stay in touch with friends - network here is an interactive adressbook or messenger.
2. Active participationin social life - creating and attending different networks, groups.
3. Job search engine.
4. Professional network creation - for knowledge sharing.

Well, each of the type has its own target users, I can't say that my nets are not important. some of them are not just developped to be useful.

Most probable trends are:
1. Entertainment (social life) nets will merge, since it is hard to manage several ones.
2. Professional nets are on contrary will intimidate and increase entrance barriers due to the level of sharing of information rise.

I participate in the following nets:
* Facebook - social, entertainment, mostly to stay in touch with my IE classmates and spanish friends.
* LinkedIn - social+professional, since most of the contacts business related (IE + some external).
* Xing - entered today, job search + professional.
* MoiKrug - russian net, started as a contact book, now I use for professional purposes - job search + stay in touch with russian professionals.
* Odnoklassniki.Ru (Classmates) - I'm using it since two days ago. Curious to find elementary school classmates and see them now. While surfing thru it, I understood that I started forgetting even university friends. Just to stay in touch.
* Vkontakte - russian clone (copycat?) of facebook (even design). Non developped forme, just in case, cause I have a good friend there. Plus, making an experiment of networking building.

Well, when building, networks require a certain effort and a lot of time. When buit, they save time through providing quick answers and help a lot if correctly used.

As my friend Mauricio says, network should work, when it worths the time spent for building it.