Networking can be deemed a dirty word to many people today, especially if you look at the gurus on Social Media, who are now famous enough to not need to *network*. Or so they think! In fact I have heard it said many times that networking is not a good word to use.
Let's look at the word N E T W O R K I N G and see what we can make of it.
Business networking is a socioeconomic activity by which groups of like-minded businesspeople recognize, create, or act upon business opportunities. A business network is a type of social network whose reason for existing is business activity: via Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_networking.
Now hold on a minute, business networking is an activity, like minded business people are looking for business opportunities. Interesting and this is because most of the people who use Social Media today for business are doing exactly what I thought, they are networking!
If we take the Small Business Community Network as an example, and yes we have that word in our name, "Network", you will see that we do foster relationships, we do encourage building trusted relationships, we do offer monthly meetings,special events and conferences. At these events people meet and, don't tell everyone, but they enjoy networking! The SBCN also has a presence on social media sites, and we encourage sharing, caring, education, and helping others, including networking. It would appear that the word Networking is quite powerful, fits into a large demograph and can be safely used and has a great success rate.
I often see groups starting up, around the world, and they share with their audience, we are not a structured networking group, we don't ask you to commit or become a member or even offer any help at all to attendees. This is the way of the future, no structure, no help, no relationships is what those groups mean. Each to their own, but ultimately, if someone wants to network it is for a specific reason, and it could simply mean wanting to enjoy other small biz owners company. It could mean someone is looking to enjoy the educational seminars. There is an awful lot to networking and no one can really pin down on reason for networking, there are lots of benefits to enjoy.
The other phenomenon taking over the world are the no meetings networking events which state clearly no membership is needed and it is a very cost effective way to *not network*, but you do need to attend events at least 4 times a year to share your products and services, and yes you do pay for this fantastic opportunity, but remember this is not a membership or networking in the old fashioned sense of the word.
In the end I feel, as an avid networker, P2P, B2B, B2C, I feel every opportunity offered is a networking opportunity, simple, clear and worthwhile. Don't fight your "competitors" who are offering events, structured or otherwise. All these opportunities are networking essentially and beneficial, bring them on, enjoy them and work together as a global community.
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