MP3 recordings of the recently completed teleseminar series, Networking Naturally Program, are now available for the discounted price of $40 (regular program price was $189), through December 31. Click here for more info and scroll down to click on the "Buy Now" button. Photo by ShashiBellomkonda
One of the tools for building community is networking--creating mutually beneficial relationships that can support your cause. This can be in the form of creating strategic alliances (e.g., an expert on X, Y, and Z has a large audience that would appreciate your platform on A and B), creating a personal board of directors, or connecting to kindred spirits. When you are "networking naturally," you more easily enroll others in helping you reach your goals, with less effort.
So if you need a refresher or a confidence-booster (especially as the networking season gets into full swing with holiday gatherings), consider investing a few hours and bucks to make the process not only more enjoyable, but more effective. With one client, better networking helped her to connect with two speakers at a conference, resulting in an invitation to be considered for a national task force, and a lead to have her work used in a government program in Puerto Rico.
If you are someone who dismisses networking as schmoozing (a common misperception), this program is definitely for you. But don't just take my word for it. Read what others have to say:
“The Networking Naturally Program helped me think consciously about how networking is giving to others before asking for help. I highly recommend that anyone looking to hone their networking skills participate in this program--whether you think you have it mastered already or not.”
--Jenny Hightower, Manager of Alumni Relations, Johnson and Wales University
“After procrastinating going to a potentially rewarding networking event for three months, I finally went AND enjoyed myself. You gave an introvert tools to be more outgoing in groups. This Program was the very best bargain I have had in over 45 years of trainings!”
I was interviewed for an article in the Illinois Bar Journal, a magazine distributed by the Illinois State Bar Association. The topic? How attorneys can use social media to build their businesses. The writer did a great job at pulling together many sources to explain LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. While this was written for an audience of lawyers, the advice applies to anyone wanting to learn more about using social media for networking. This type of article--helping non-techies understand how to use
technology to achieve their goals--is indicative of how mainstream
social media has become.
One part of the article specifically quotes a Twitter user as saying that the search feature on Twitter is more useful than Google--because the information is not only findable but updated in real time with real users. Users that you may then want to connect with and folllow. Think about it. People looking for specific information-- whether it's the details of a court case or where to meet for to show support for the Iranian people or tips on managing a chronic disease--can now find not only the information they want, but the source of the information, someone who is likely to be a kindred spirit. That's what we have today, at the flick of a few fingers on a keyboard. Amazing isn't it?
I continue to be impressed with the capabilities of Facebook, even though I'm only an occasional user. Seems like each time I log on, there's a new capability that allows me to connect with others in a way that is most comfortable for the individual. Sometimes, it's via a blog post. Other times, it's a short comment on how the day is going. And other times, it's a video of something meaningful in one's life (like a performance of a song!) Today, it came in the form of a book recommendation.
I have to remind myself that community-building is often just about connecting, for no other reason than that. I forget and think that I have to "get somewhere." When in reality, there's no place I need to be other than right here.
Today, I spent 30 minutes on Facebook, connecting on many levels to half a dozen "friends." It felt good.
BTW--The beauty of social networking is that it allows me to come into someone's life, intermittently and briefly, without skipping a beat.
In offering the Networking Naturally Program, I'm realizing it's become a case study for A Bigger Voice. I'm seeing how the model works "in the field." Some thoughts:
Crystallize: It was difficult for me to develop this program, to help others learn to network better and realize the benefits of networking, until I could get to the essence of what would make this program different. Ahhh...the sweet feeling of innovation--a new solution to an old problem! When I hit upon the idea that there are underlying principles that successful networkers use, independent of their personality and style, I tapped into my own wisdom. That led me to the name of the program, "Networking Naturally," and marketing copy that described what it is that I was offering. The stunning result has just emerged from recent activity on the participant-only blog: A Community of Givers. Participants were asked to answer the question, "What do you want help with?" It wasn't too long after the answers came in on the blog (as comments) that I could see participants giving first before asking for anything. This one of the principles of Networking Naturally.
Build Community: There are three primary tools for building community, Marketing, Networking, and Technology. In addition, communities are built around a central question, one that is expansive enough to keep everyone engaged for a long time. The central question for the community forming around the Networking Naturally Program is, "How do I network more naturally and more effectively at the same time?" A great question to explore as there's no quick answer. Marketing this program has shown me the wide range of tools that are now available--from email announcements to my ezine list to talking about the program on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, to postings on three blogs (all my own.) Networking has played a large part in getting the word out--via my connection to the Northwestern University Alumni Association. This is a relationship that started several years ago when I did a series of interviews with Northwestern alums for a Northwestern-sponsored career podcast. I'm learning that networking with groups that have a large distribution list can accelerate the path of a wisdom entrepreneur, by delivering a critical mass that becomes the core of the community. Technology has been the final piece of the puzzle, creating a sense of community from people coming together all over the world (literally!) to learn about networking. I set up a participant-only blog, thinking it was just a central repository for information. It's been that and more, one of the great success stories of the Networking Naturally Program. To give you a sense of the activity, in the first week alone, there were over 3000 hits on the blog. You can use Marketing, Networking, and Technolgy well and still not have a community. My colleague on A Bigger Voice, Ellen Ingraham, who served as the networking consultant during the pilot last year, has a been a wonderful partner in creating a culture of giving and role-modeling community-building skills. She's a natural at both.
Sustain. Efforts are underway to look at how to sustain this Community of Givers, after the program ends on April 29. I purposely did not monetize as much as I could have from this first go-around on Networking Naturally Program, when community-building and giving back was really the intention. The fee for the public is $37 for all four teleseminars. 100% of the fee from those registering through Northwestern University (as a partner in marketing this program) is being donated back to Northwestern, to fund future career programs for alumni. Monetizing, to create sustainability, will come afterwards.
There's still time to be join in--to get an inside view of community-building, as well as learn some valuable networking skills, and to connect with a community of givers. All sessions (MID-DAY and EVENING) are recorded and replays are available through May 31, 2009. Go to www.naturalway2network.com to register.
How many ways can we complement each others' missions? We are not here to compete but we are here to help everyone in this space. --Kim Dority, talking about how Disboom collaborates with other disability-oriented organizations.
In this second part of a four-part interview, Kim Dority from Disaboom reminds us to look broadly for community members, from the "temporarily abled" to employers to the caregivers of the disabled. She also challenges us to think creatively about collaborators and in the process, shows us what savvy networking can do for a cause.
This second part of the interview is under 12 minutes:
In the interview, I was struck by how Kim looks for stakeholders, community members, and collaborators in many places. She uses both top-down and bottom-up approaches to create a web of mutually beneficial connections. Combine this with a focus on engagement and participation and the results are truly stunning.
Where could you open up your thinking on who is in your community or who to collaborate with? Provide comments below, so that we can continue to learn from each other.
In the third part of the interview, Kim talks about using social networking to further expand the Disaboom community.
Networking is one of the tools for building a community. What do you need to know about networking to be more effective? You'll hear some fabulous ideas in my second interview with Kim Dority, VP of Content from Disaboom, an online community for the disabled and those whose lives they touch. The first part of a four-part interview with Kim will be posted tomorrow.
In the meantime, check out a new program that I've developed to help you network with less stress, more joy, and better results. The Networking Naturally Program, starting on April 8, consists of four teleseminars. You'll learn the principles that successful networkers follow. Other topics covered:
April 8. Myths and Beliefs: What You Aren’t Conscious of Can Hurt You!
April 15. Creating a Meaningful Conversation: What Do I Say?
April 22. Etiquette, Systems, and Structures: How Do I Develop Lasting Connections?
April 29. Integrating Online With In-Person Networking: How Do I Put It All Together?
What's at stake? As a wisdom entrepreneur, networking allows you to
attract your kindred spirits more quickly, with less effort. Successful networkers know that they can't achieve their goals alone. They must connect with others.
I've purposely made this program affordable ($37) so that more
people can take advantage of it, whether you are a wisdom entrepreneur or not. The need for networking skills
has never been greater. At a time when individuals are looking for answers, collectively, we're smarter than any one individual. (Okay, Congress not included.)
Space is limited and this introductory price won't be available after registration closes. To register, go to www.naturalway2network.com
Forget the book tours. Go online. That was the advice of Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week. If you don't believe Ferriss, check out this series of interviews with successful authors who are using social media to get their ideas out into the world.
The first interview is with Dan Pink, author of Free Agent Nation, A Whole New Mind, and The Adventures of Johnny Bunko. I've talked about Dan Pink on this blog before (and on my other blog, Ordinary Life, Extraordinary Living) because he always seems to have his pulse on where the world is heading (although these days, it seems like no one knows the answer to that question.) One of the ways I learn best is from reading what smart people have to say and Pink comes through as usual. He's right on target when he says in the interview: "Marketing is not a monologue. It’s a conversation." I would add, ideally, the conversation leads to a community.
"The best thing social media can offer any author is a way to connect
with influential voices who are currently talking about your subject,
and letting people share your content and ideas with one another. The
first point is about connecting your book with the people that can
spread the word to all the right audiences. The second is about letting
your readers and people who like the book spread the word about it. I
would say that for any author, the trick is to try and focus on both of
these pieces."
He's really talking about using both top down and bottom up approaches to having a bigger voice, as well as the use of networking to connect to the top and others who have a large following. Fortunately, as Bhargiva states earlier in the interview, individuals who were previously inaccessible are now accessible using social media. He gives the example of leaving a comment on John Mackey's blog (CEO of Whole Foods) and having Mackey respond to the comment.
Take the time to learn from these authors who are already using social media and using it well. Hats off to Satchi Studio, a web design and marketing firm for doing these interviews and providing some valuable insights.
I first heard about Twitter nearly two years ago and at the time, I didn't get it. I gave it another try last fall, after seeing Twitter in use at the Thin Air Summit by afficionados. I saw enough to stay interested but not invested. Over the last month, I've invested both time and energy into figuring out how best to use this robust tool. Yes, robust, even with a limitation of 140 characters per message or "tweet."
Here's what I'm noticing:
Twitter is its own world, with a tailored language and toolkit, rock stars, and community consisting of a rich stew of people, just like in the offline world. As such, it takes some getting used to. You'll see good and bad content, rude and gracious people, scammers and credible business people, highly intelligent and barely intelligible, all conforming to the constraints of Twitter and making ample use of the basic functions. Photo by ooOJasonOoo
Twitter is versatile and thus, serves different purposes for different people. That's where the stew comes in. What can you do with a series of messages, 140 characters at a time, broadcast to a group of followers who can easily unsubscribe as subscribe? Turns out, a lot. I've seen Twitter used as a virtual picture on the side of a milk carton by asking "tweeps" to spread the word about a missing teen, a promotional vehicle for businesses (@guykawasaki consistently has tweets that refer to his biz, alltop.com), a research tool and of course, a way to expand and deepen connections. I use Twitter as my virtual newspaper, customized to follow people who talk about stuff I'm interested in (e.g., creativity, coaching, social media) as well as current events.
Know what you want to optimize.
Many years ago, I got a master's degree in Operations Research. One of the few things I remember from that curriculum is knowing which variable to optimize in a multi-variable problem space (think scheduling airline crews and airplanes for hundreds of destinations.) What you choose to optimize gives very different outcomes. Twitter is the same way. Some people optimize for number of followers. Some people optimize for connecting one-on-one to followers. (This has to explain tweeps whose tweets all start by addressing a single person.) Some people optimize on sharing interesting information. (Thus, my virtual newspaper quickly gets filled up with just a few of these people.) The people who know how to use Twitter well are those who can provide a mix of tweets that optimizes for creating trust and community. I'm still learning how to do that. Photo by edelmandigitalbootcamp
Twitter can quickly expand your connections, both in depth and breadth. It wasn't until I left the corporate world and became a solopreneur, that I realized how big the world really is. It's easy to get focused on what's happening inside a single company and forget about the diversity of people, ideas, organizations in the world. In the course of checking out people who have followed me on Twitter, I've found sites on new media in Australia, activities for babies and moms month-by-month, traveling the world with minimal effort,affirmations that naturally bubble up and heal others, living as an expat in Prague, and creating modern music in the style of Bach. This is just from the sites of people who have somehow found me. Twitter is also good at connecting people around a single topic, with not much effort. I was amazed at the number of conservatives who followed me, based on a single tweet to a well-known conservative tweep. (I'm still puzzled as to how other followers find me--whether it's more random, as in the recent follower who specializes in discussing dating relationships, or whether it goes back to a case of six degrees of separation.)
It helps to set boundaries. How many Internet marketers do I want to follow? (BTW--why is it that 90% seem to men and 50% of them have sleazy looking sites?) How many conservative leaning bloggers do I want to follow? How much time do I want to spend deciding who to follow back? How much time to tweet and to read my Twitter feed? Just like I would allocate time to respond to email and read the Wall Street Journal, I've found that allocating Twitter time can keep me from losing the entire day in a flurry of tweets.
The numbers tell the story. Call me a Twitter snob but I initially distrust someone who is following more people than they have followers (e.g.,, Following: 15,000, Followers: 10,000.) My mind goes to someone who is optimizing around number of followers. (By following someone, there's an unspoken rule of following back.) Yes, there are some people I like who have a larger number in the "following" box than the "follower" box. But they are the exception to the rule. A big red flag gets raised if you have very few tweets and thousands of followers (e.g., Following: 15,000, Followers: 10,000, Updates: 50.) It says to me that you didn't get the followers organically, through conversation and good content in your tweets, but through some other means. People who have many times more followers than people they follow (e.g., Following: 100, Followers: 4,000) seem to be individuals who already built an audience through other means before getting on Twitter (e.g., books, blogs.) They've bypassed the mentality of having to follow in order to be followed. Even number of following and followers? The jury is still out. Photo by "Solar ikon"
Inherent in Twitter is a sense of community. Search on #Oscars or #Superbowl09 and you'll never again feel alone while watching an event on television or in person. Unlike users of other social networking tools, Twitter users like to get together in-person as well as online. Look for a Tweetup (meetup for tweeps) in your local area. Read about Twestival, a charity event organized by tweeps that produced in-person events in over 200 cities around the world and raised over US$250,000. Check out the first ever Tweet-a-thon, again a charity event (this time online.) When you are on Twitter, it's easy to be part of a community. Photo by Annie Mole
Twitter feeds my creativity and grows my network, at the same time. Twitter connects me to like-minded individuals, triggers ideas for new blog posts, and creates opportunities for conversation. It's up to me to develop a vibrant community from that. Which brings me full circle back to A Bigger Voice. I'm in the Build Community phase. Find me on Twitter: @carolross.
What happens when you put an Internet icon (Dave Taylor), a marketing expert at the crossroads of new media and old media (Dave Webb), and a digital immigrant who bridges top down with bottom up approaches (Kim Dority) on a panel and mix with an enthusiastic group of students, professors, and activists? I wish I could thoroughly convey the energy at Regis University last night, as we explored the nuances of social media, marketing, leadership, and social causes. A lot of wheels were turning as we learned from each other.
I started off the evening describing the three phases of A Bigger Voice--Crystallize, Build Community, and Sustain--and was followed by the knowledgeable and ever entertaining Dave Taylor. Dave talked about the "burning desire" for humans to express themselves and gave us a great perspective on how technology has helped us meet that need. His talk was similar to one he gave last November at the Thin Air Summit, which I reported on for this blog. What struck me this time around was his theme of "You have a voice. Use it." Amen!
The real juice of the evening came with our panelists providing stories and viewpoints from the field and interacting with the audience. Questions ranged from how to get digital immigrants to see the value of social media (answer: mutual respect of what digital immigrants and digital natives already know, point digital immigrants to Facebook and have them look for fellow alums), to how to publicize a local event through social media (answer: find and contact the influencers in your field and geographical area, make use of the social networks that the organizers are already on), to how to build a business using social media (answer: create trust, give away something of value, contribute to others' goals.)
Themes that emerged:
Passion. Social media allows people who are passionate in niche areas (e.g., Kurasawa films, breeding English settler dogs) to connect with each other. Find what you are passionate about and participate in that community (or create a community of your own.)
Ease into the conversation and become a part of the community. Contribute, build trust, develop relationships online, just like you would in the offline world. Dave Taylor gave a wonderful metaphor of being at a party and how different behaviors either alienate people or draw them to you. (You had to be there for the full effect.) Contribute to conversations where there are already like-minded thinkers and add value.
Start with consuming before creating. Build your expertise by reading and researching online, observing the conversation and then get ready to contribute/create, either in small bits with comments and tweets or in larger chunks with blogging.
We need both "old media" and "new media." The panel discussed the demise of the newspaper industry and the dangers of losing that "voice" in the mix of today's landscape, where citizen journalism is on the rise. In addition, old media still contains major influencers in different areas (e.g. Walt Mossberg with the Wall Street Journal on technology.) Dave Taylor gave some tips on how to create a relationship with old media (e.g., email reporters with additional thoughts on something they've written and offer to be a possible source of information when they are working under tight deadlines.)
Move into action. Social media has the power to connect individuals more broadly, deeply, and quickly. It also can and should be a means for inspiring others to act. Passion and vision are great but without action, it doesn't mean anything. Dave Webb said after the panel that he didn't have the chance to talk about Twestival but wished he could have. Twestivalwas an event organized by Twitter users that took place on Feb 12, in over 200 cities around the world, to raise money for a non-profit that digs wells in places that don't have access clean water.
Learn from Obama's election campaign. We talked about this as great case study on how to use social media to create a grassroots movement. Kim Dority gave us a specific example of Obama's campaign reaching out to her company, disaboom.com, as the voice of the disabled population, to create a win-win. An extensive analysis of the Obama campaign's use of social media was just released by Edelman, the PR firm.
Social media is everywhere. From Club Penguin to World of Warcraft to Facebook (where the greatest growth is with women over 50 years old.) You can start using it or be left behind.
One of my big take-aways is it is easy to get wrapped into the social media bubble, thinking that individuals are knowledgeable about tools and lingo and comfortable with it all. For example, out of more than 70 people, only one or two were on Twitter and only a small percentage were bloggers. If we are to bring the power of social media to both digital immigrants and digital natives, we must meet them where they are at and help them find ways to move forward. My hope is that last night's presentation made a small contribution to that end.
My thanks all the panelists, Kim Dority, Dave Taylor and Dave Webb. Special thanks to Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas, director of the leadership development program at Regis, for sponsoring this event. (That's her on the left, with the two Daves.) Judging from comments from panelists and audience members, I'm not alone when I say that the evening was inspiring and energizing and I walked out feeling smarter than when I came in. Check out the following interviews with panelists and audience members.
Interview with Dave Taylor and Dave Webb:
Interview with Kim Dority. UPDATE: Please note that Kim mentions having "Obama's adminstration on staff." Kim later listened to the interview and informed me this should have been "Obama's campaign on the site." Interestingly enough, the Obama staff has continued to reach out to disaboom.com, this time soliciting stories of people with disabilities who've gone back to work because of the stimulus plan. Yet another example of Obama's adeptness at using social media to engage, create conversation, and build community.
Interview with Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas:
Interview with Dan "The Can Man":
Interview with Janice, Social Marketing professor:
That's the name of a new posting on my other blog, Ordinary Life, Extraordinary Living. Based on the feedback that I've been getting on the posting (mostly emails), networking is a timely topic for everyone, not just for wisdom entrepreneurs.
I'm also noticing an increase in people wanting to get together--for coffee or lunch. Could it be that a recession brings out the need to build your own community?
About Carol Ross
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