Networking great for business women, right?
Well would you be shocked to know that business women are getting it wrong and it is your male counterparts that are more likely to get great results from networking? 
Why?
Well although there are plenty of opportunities to network both virtually and physically women are missing out on some great opportunities because of the natural way we do business.
Did you know that 84% of users on the main social media websites are women however twice as many men than women are successful at using it for business purposes.
So here’s some top tips for getting it right and using it in a proactive way for your success;
Think in advance about what you want to get from networking. If you’re hoping to get 10 new clients after a handful on networking events I have bad news for you, but on the other hand if you are aiming to make 5 useful connections and aim to arrange a 1 to 1 meeting with someone then that is achievable but here is an important point to remember “Don’t sell at people” they hate it!
More importantly there is absolutely no need to.
The fact is everyone in that room is there to do business, everyone in that room wants to make connections and arrange meetings. So if you ask for a meeting it is highly likely that you will get it.
But be picky, not everyone in that room is going to be useful to you and we don’t have time to spend every great business woman we meet, although it would be a great if we could, wouldn’t it? (If only you got paid for it!)
Think outside of the box here.
Think about who could have synergy with you. If you are a carpet cleaner get to know the financial advisors, Why? Who do financial advisors meet? People looking to move house, and what do you do when you move into a new home? Change the carpets or get them cleaned!
Check out the list of attendees or ask the organiser to point you in the right direction to get these opportunities.
I could say loads about effective networking but do you know what the most important thing to do but is so rarely done effectively is?
FOLLOW UP. Did you hear that? Shall I say again just to check you did? FOLLOW UP!
The reason for the over use of the word? Because so many business women get this horrendously wrong!
How many times have you received an email from someone saying “we met at the event yesterday and I wanted to talk to you more…” when you didn’t even go! That person gets remembered for all the wrong reasons.
Blanket emails do not work, yes you have a great product or service that the world could love but shoving it up their nose and filling their inboxes is highly unlikely to make your companies name synonymous with “I love that business”.
Email the people that gave you their card. Only include product and service info with your website link if they asked you to. But let’s be honest here if someone showed that level of interest you should have arranged a one to one.
Be inquisitive about what they do, at all times an effective networker is thinking “Who do I know that could help you?”
So get those questions answered.
Keep in touch but don’t bombard them.
If you have not seen them at another meeting for a while, get in touch and say “I haven’t seen you for a while, how’s things? All I okay I hope”
Make follow up friendly personable and most importantly make it relevant to that the person.
Follow up is about strengthening the relationship you have started, after all it takes between 7 and 21 points of contact to want to do business with someone, how great will that feel if the next time you bump into that person you feel like old friends?
Mandie Holgate
Mandie organises the Business Woman’s network in Essex. For more top tips go to www.thebusinesswomansnetwork.co.uk – where there are loads – All for Free.
About Sarah ArrowSarah Arrow is the managing editor of Birds on the Blog, in real life she is the communications director of a same day courier service. She is an enthusiastic UK based pro-blogger and co- author of the soon to be published Zero to Blogger
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One Response to Networking great for business women, right?
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Some great advice – thanks.
I went to an event the other morning where there was a lot of new attendees and I knew that a blanket email later that day was bound to follow, and sure enough it did. It really annoys me – to the point that I wrote a blog on Network Etiquette. I doubt the business had any synergy with me but the fact that a blanket email was sent it went straight into my trash, had he approached me at the event I would have been more than happy to speak to him and maybe I would have found out that we could have been of interest to each other.
I think how people network and what they expect out of it is a very interesting area.