Networking (Socially) doesn’t have to be Work
It’s better to establish your network before you need to develop leads from it.
Everybody has a network of friends, acquaintances, co-workers, former-co-workers, and more. These are people that know you, and have worked alongside you, and are likely to keep you in mind should they know that you are looking for a new opportunity. If you suddenly found yourself facing the need to find a new job because of a workforce consolidation, would you rather tap into your existing network, or have to take the time to setup your network before using it?
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Building a network by staying in touch
If one of your former co-workers needed some help, and you could provide it, would you? It isn’t very difficult to build your network. It’s made up of the people you see and work with (both past and present) in your normal activities. What is different is your understanding that it is a network. Consider the relationship you have with a coworker that you have not talked to in 4 years versus one in which you exchanged notes twice a year – wouldn’t it be a different conversation if you asked for their advice about something?
The key to building and maintaining a social network is keeping in contact.
It is great to think that all of the people you have worked with will stay in touch, but that is hardly ever the case. Time, change, more time, and more change cause most groups to drift apart. If you want to keep the connections going, you have to expect to be the one to pull things together.
Let’s say a former co-worker, we’ll call him “James”, and you would like to stay in touch. You both make sure to exchange contact information, phone numbers, addresses, and emails. If 6 months go by, and James is busy with work and other events – who’s going to ensure that you check in with each other? It’s got to be you. It’s great if you alternate, but you have to own the contact if you want to keep it alive.
Tools to help
There are many potential tools to help in social networking – I won’t attempt to cover them all here though.
The simplest is contacts in an email address book, or one of those address book services. You can put people together into groups as well. This is personal, but in most instances, all of the work is yours, and if an address is no longer valid, you have to do research to figure out what happened. One downside is if you lose your address book or convert from one email client to another. Both situations are recoverable, but can pose a challenge.
Mailing lists can be helpful – I was with a consulting company for several years, and after the company shrunk to 90% of its former size, there were many of us as “ex” employees. One of us started the “ex-employee” mailing list to give us a way of staying in touch. It includes a web front end and we use the list to announce get-togethers and requests for information and help.
The tool I have grown to enjoy using is LinkedIn. There are other services out there similar to LinkedIn but I use this particular one. I am able to invite people to join my network, and if they are interested, they can use the tool to build their own network. The network is both up to date, and searchable. When someone changes positions or email addresses, they will generally update their entry. And even if they don’t tell me specifically, I’ll see it when I look at their information. The best part of a service like this is the search capabilities. If I want to find out if I know someone who has experience working with Paychex (for example), I can search through my contacts – and my contacts’ contacts, and so on – up to three levels deep.
Networking helps when you need to find work
It’s long been said, “It’s not what you know, but who you know” or “It’s not who you know, but who knows you.” These statements acknowledge the fact that being in touch with people is one of the best ways to find employment. McKenzie Scott estimates that fifty percent of job openings are not published – and available only through other means, don’t you want to compete for those openings?
A great way to uncover needs and opportunities is to tap into your network and ask – “who do you know that is having a problem with application programming?”
A little work, great connections
It’s not hard work staying in touch, and by taking small actions to stay connected to people you enjoyed being with; you build and maintain connections that will serve you for a lifetime. It’s not what or who you know, or even who knows you, it’s how well your network runs.