Member Article

Be pitch ready, embrace global reach and be sure to follow up says networking expert

Building an engaged and sustainable network is essential to growing your career and is an ideal avenue for learning from fellow professionals in your industry and beyond. Thinking of this network as your highly flexible, carefully curated “Personal Board” can help to drive home the importance of thoughtfully considering how you invest in these relationships to make the most of their support, advice and guidance.

From roundtable discussions and professional conferences to career fairs and webinars, there are many ways individuals can grow their professional network, gain new perspectives and build their conference. Despite these numerous benefits, one in four professionals still do not network. This statistic only heightens the importance of World Online Networking Day (30th October) for raising awareness on the important role networking plays in cultivating career success.

With shifts in attitudes from the pandemic and continuous innovative solutions, virtual networking events in particular are on the rise. Many individuals often struggle with the confidence or free time to attend in-person events, whereas online networking can help individuals connect on a wider scale with increased accessibility. With this in mind, it’s not surprising 40% of professionals now network more online than in person.

To kickstart your personal board, CEO of Inspir’em and author of The Personal Board of You Inc. Emma Maslen explains 5 ways to boost your online networking skills.

Be Pitch Ready

Just as many individuals will prepare for face-to-face networking, it’s just as imperative to prepare for online networking. Being ‘pitch ready’ is an important step in ensuring your networking success. Not only is this vital for maximising your connection opportunities, but it can be a key confidence boost to have some ‘ready to go’ answers.

Start by ensuring you have a short introduction at hand, which includes who you are and what your background is. Including a couple of interesting facts on why you could be a good

connection for someone is also a great addition and tailoring the pitch to suit different situations enhances the chances of new relationships forming across multiple industries.

Know your asks

At the heart of effective networking is building relationships, but for these relationships to be effective it’s important to let people know what it is you’re working towards or looking for. By doing so, the network can help you find the advisors in the best position to support you.

By preparing 2 to 3 asks for help based on the expected audience/connections attending you can ensure you are seeking out the most relevant connections and know exactly what you are looking for so it is the most productive for everyone involved.

Embrace the Global Reach

Unlike in-person networking events, online networking provides the opportunity to not be constrained by location and existing hierarchy.

As an international platform, the internet has no limits so you have the opportunity to think globally about your asks. With over 800 million members on LinkedIn, in 200 countries, this is one platform that contains endless networking opportunities. Other tools such as social media, and online community message boards are also great ways to embrace global reach and can be useful ways to keep in touch with previous networking connections.

Using the virtual world to embrace the global reach, allows you to think if you could connect with anyone – who would it be - and then give it a try.

Look into the Camera

As we have learnt from the pandemic, it’s not always easy to maintain eye contact on Zoom, and even when you do look, it can be more difficult to build the same rapport as face-to-face.

Whilst you may not be able to use body language like in-person, many individuals still find that by looking into the camera – and smiling – you stand a greater chance of connection than looking at the screen itself. Also, be mindful of your tone of voice and facial expressions. When the connection is better, the outcome will be better.

Follow Up

Maintaining connections after building networking relationships sounds so simple, yet can sometimes get forgotten about if you’re extremely busy. Without following up, you quickly stunt the possible relationship and could appear unreliable or uncommitted to your asks.

To avoid this from happening, ensure you have 15 minutes after the session to follow up with connections. This can be done via Linkedin or email by connecting and following up on any small asks you had discussed in the sessions. This might be you asking for some additional guidance or offering them your support with something you had discussed.

“Cultivating your personal board is something that takes time, dedicated effort, and focus, but the benefits to your career are far-reaching. Online networking has the power to unlock global opportunities to receive support from esteemed professionals and offer your services to others. To make the most of these opportunities, be pitch ready, know your asks, embrace global reach, look into the camera and don’t forget to follow up!” says Emma.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by AmbitionPR .