Entries Tagged 'Networking' ↓

You may periodically see or hear about a job you’d love to have — so what do you do next?

I believe that the best way to approach a job you want is to get the senior most person at the target-employer to refer you so that you get on the fast track for the interview process (with the hiring manager).

If you’re interested in that, here’s some advice I gave a colleague recently on how to do that through LinkedIn:

Identify The Employer’s Senior Most Person (Who Is Also On LinkedIn)

First, go to LinkedIn and search for the senior most person at the target-employer (I recommend you go for the CEO).

Note: If you’re not familiar with LinkedIn, read this LinkedIn For Beginners Article.

When I search on LinkedIn I use the “advanced search” and enter in the name of the target-employer  in the “Company” field (I start with “Current” in the drop-down) and then “CEO” in the title field.

Click Search.

Hopefully, up pops the CEO of the target-employer. If the CEO doesn’t pop up, then re-do the search by trying out other senior titles such as  “founder” or “president” or “vice president.”

Click Search.

Now you should have at least one senior person at the target-employer.

Click on that search result within LinkedIn (so that you now have a profile of the target-employer executive (let’s call them the “CEO”).

See What Level Of Connection You Have With The Target-Employer Executive

If you are a 2nd degree connection (meaning that the number “2″ is in a circle to the right of the person’s name), then look over to the lower right-hand part of the profile to see “How you’re connected to [the CEO]”

Each one of those shared connections has a direct connection with the target-employer’s CEO (and has a direct relationship with you!).

If that’s the case, you should contact those “shared connections” (by telephone is ideal) and ask for their advice on approaching that CEO (ideally you get an email from the shared connection to the CEO recommending you for the job).

Two Alternatives For Finding A Target Employer CEO 2nd Degree Connection

If you don’t have a 2nd degree connection with the CEO (i.e. there is a “3″ or “4″ to the right of the CEO’s name, then you can try the following:

1) Scroll down the CEO’s profile page and click on the clickable company name (second line underneath “Experience”) to see if the target-employer has a Company profile on LinkedIn.

If they do have a Company profile, then you can now look at names of other executives at the company — see if there is a second degree connection that you have to one of them.

2) If the target employer does NOT have a Company profile, then go back to the Advanced search and enter in the target employer’s name in the Company field and select “Relationship” in the Sort By drop-down field (in the lower left of the screen).

And click Search.

You will now see the people at this target-employer who you are closest to (ideally, you see a 2nd connection here.

If you do, then you know that person directly and should talk to them and ask them to recommend you for the job.

If You Don’t See Any 2nd Degree Connection At Your Target-Employer

If all of that fails, then you should contact the most connected LinkedIn person you know and ask them to do the same searches (they will likely have a 2nd degree connection to a senior person at that company — if they do, then brainstorm how to approach that person).

If that fails, you are probably in need of some serious networking help.

That’s ok…you can comment below on your challenge and I’ll do my best to help you.

You may also want to read my business networking tips articles.

I chatted with DocStoc Founder & CEO Jason Nazar the other day.

You should know abut Jason and DocStoc because Jason is an amazing networker (among other things) and DocStoc has been one of the fastest growing Web sites in the last few years (ranked 407th by Quantcast with 15 million unique visitors per month, according to DocStoc).

Jason and I had a little chat in which I asked him a few questions. He agreed to let me share it with you.

Q: Hi Jason, you really value business networking — tell me your philosophies.

I personally enjoy networking. I like meeting smart, interesting successful people.

From a professional standpoint, I believe the principal of it’s “who you know not what you know” is very true.

One thing about the Internet is that we spend a lot of time behind our computers…you’ve got to get out there and meet people.

Typically the larger the network you have, the more opportunities you have.

We spend a lot of time behind our computers…but business still gets done in person.

People want to work with other people they like, trust and respect.

And you don’t do that by just sending emails and sending IMs…you have to get out and meet people.

And if you want to have opportunities such as getting hired, raising money, building your company, and hiring the right people…you need to have a large network.

Typically, the larger your network is the more opportunities you have.

The business we’re building is a consumer-facing Internet company – we’re trying to get pretty much everyone in the world to use DocStoc.

There’s a lot of value in reaching out to other connectors….people like you and your sphere of influence…and now DocStoc and its hundreds of thousands of people is in your sphere of influence…and that’s one of the ways you get things to grow virally.

Q: Would you share some of your business networking principles?

I have three main networking principles:

1) Habitualize the process – like anything else you need to make time for it. I carve out a couple of hours a week to reach out to new people.

2) Make it One to Many — You want to do not just one to one but also one to many – You want to get to the point where people reach out to you. This is one of the reasons we put on events, which attracted 2,000 people last year.

Now instead of just me reaching out to every conceivable person who might value in a win-win situation, there are many people attending who are telling lots of other people about it and telling them about me.

I’m leveraging a one to many approach. More people know about you then you know about. Then it’s just a matter of filtering out people you don’t want to talk to.

3) Maintain Your Relationships — Networking has no intrinsic value unless you do something with it. My goal is not to be popular. It’s the fact that you can get things done that you couldn’t do otherwise. You have to be clear about what you want to get but more importantly what do you want to give.

What matters is how you build and maintain those relationships. What really matters is that’s the more important part to habitualize.

You can’t approach networking out of your own selfish interests.

Think of it as a bank. Do lots of things to help out other people.

Know that you’ll have credit in your bank and one day you’ll need that credit and people will really want to help you out for what you did.

People will gladly want to pay you back. .. for all the things you’ve done for them.

Q: What are the top networking mistakes people make?

Here are the three biggest networking mistakes people make:

1. They don’t go up to talk to the people they should.
2. If they do go up to people they should talk to, they don’t do a good job building and maintaining the relationship.
3. If they do talk to people they should and build and maintain a good relationship, they often come at it from a selfish standpoint of what’s only good for themselves.

What they really should do is:

1. Talk to as many people as possible.
2. Keep and maintain as many good relationships as possible.
3. And always come at networking from the standpoint of what can I do to help other people out.

If you do those things, and you do them consistently, it’s gonna come back your way…and probably in ways you couldn’t imagine.

I’m a good example of that.  I’ve always tried to do that as an adult. I’ve been very lucky in what’s come my way…in large part because of that.

Q: You’ve created a top 500 Web Site in  just a few years – would you share what the top keys you used to drive free traffic?

[Jason referred me to a presentation he did on these 7 ways to drive free traffic to a Web site:]

1. Search Engines (distinct URLs, more content, more links)
2. Referring Traffic/Press
3. Social Media
4. Online Partnerships/Distribution Deals
5. Refreshing Content
6. The Viral Loop/User Email
7. Solve a Personal Compelling Need

The full presentation can be found here: 7 Ways To Drive Free Traffic To Your Web Site

Q: Tell me more about your growth

We have a way to provide valuable content, give it to them for the most part for free and monetize it with ads as well as some paid content.

And we deal with user-generated content where we were able to unlock two million registered users with millions of documents being uploaded (about 2% to 4% of the users upload documents).

And when you do that, you become a magnet for search engines. And when you do that, you’re able to raise a lot of money, a lot of people know about us, there’s a lot of referral traffic.

Q: Can you talk to me about the financial side is working – what’s the business model.

Our goal is to build the largest repository in the world of publicly available professional documents. And the premiere marketplace to buy and sell documents on the Internet.

Q: Who’s the competition? Scribd?

Yep. Our business approach is different [than Scribd] but our products are similar.

We focus on owning the small business market and on professionals.

It seems to me they (Scribd) are more focused on publishing and book publishers.

Q: What’s your biggest challenge these days?

To iterate and grow at a face pace. How to take a site that has a lot of traction – that’s grown quickly — and turn it into one of the premiere brands on the Internet…that everyone knows. And how do you cross that chasm.

How do you measure success?

Revenue and profits. We have very significant revenue growth year over year.

We have 2.5 million registered users, over 10 million publicly available documents and we do over 15MM unique visitors per month.

How do you sell advertising these days?

A couple of one-off deals but it’s mostly AdSense.

Thanks, Jason.

My pleasure.

Note: Thanks to Drew Kossoff (another amazing networker) for introducing me and Jason.

For more business networking tips, check out the series of articles in my networking category.

My friend Drew Sanders is one of the best networkers I know. He recently presented his Action Plan for using the networking tool LinkedIn to insurance giant Chubb…and was kind enough to let me share it with you.

If you want to know why you should be linked in, check out my You Must Be LinkedIn article.

Here’s the 8-step plan for setting up and managing LinkedIn:

Step 1: Complete your Linked in Profile (1 Hour)

• Have a coherent narrative of your history from college graduation
• Print out several examples that you like and model yours after theirs
• Brevity is appreciated by all
• Be factual, but humility is a good tack

Step 2: Email accumulation (1 Hour)

• Export your outlook contacts to a (CSV file)
• Do the same for your hotmail, yahoo, or Gmail accounts
• Extra Credit
  • if you have emailing lists from when people have accidentally not bcc’d people and you saw some cool email contacts and saved the emails.
  • Export those as well.
• Any email from anyone you have ever met now has more value than just a way to get a hold of that person.

Step 3: Contact Invitation Process (1 to 3 hours depending on number of emails)

• Load all the emails into the LinkedIn Platform
  • THIS WILL NOT AUTOMATICALLY INVITE THEM

• LinkedIn will now tell you if the email correlates to a profile that is already on LinkedIn.
  • Review the people WHO ARE ALREADY USING LinkedIn, and where appropriate, extend an invitation to connect.
    • A good rule of thumb would be if you saw them at a party would you both feel the social responsibility to say hello.
  • Be patient with the people that you have only met a little bit and who you really don’t have any rapport built up with yet, over inviting can backfire and cheapen your brand.
  • The people who are not on LinkedIn right now are still valuable to have on the site.
    • When they do join, LinkedIn alerts you to that fact and then you can determine if you would like to extend them an invitation at that time

Step 4: Join Groups (1 Hour)

• Groups you should join
  • Schools you attended
  • Service Organizations you are a member of
  • Industry Groups that you service
  • Causes you care about

Step 5: Publishing Content (Ongoing)

• Answers
  • Offering up your point of view on a question in an industry can be a way that you can build up an online presence as an expert in your field
• Discussions in Groups
  • Participate in the dialog in the groups you join and follow
• Material about your specialty and your firm
  • Post your marketing materials
  • Post other documents that you typically distribute
  • LinkedIn tells you when someone has downloaded one of your item
  • A good place to learn about a book you are considering
  • A better place to see if people that are reading the same book as you might have a similar reason to read it and be someone to reach out to
  • Write Many for others you have worked with
  • Post only a few that are written about you, but have a few that speak to your expertise and your character
  • An advanced stage that should be approached with a plan.
  • Over communicating to your network is just like spamming on email to too many about random things that are off topic.
  • When executed well, it can really enhance your brand

Step 6: Book Reviews (Ongoing)

• A good place to learn about a book you are considering
• A better place to see if people reading the same book as you might have a similar reason to read it and become someone to reach out to

Step 7: Recommendations (Ongoing)

• Write many for others you have worked with
• Post only a few that are written about you, but have a few that speak to your expertise and your character

Step 8: Status Updates (Ongoing)

• An advanced stage that should be approached with a plan
• Over-communicating to your network is like spamming on email to too many about random things that are off-topic
• When executed well, it can really enhance your brand

Chambers of Commerce are an enormous resource for small businesses. They are geared towards businesses of 100 people or less and represent more than 3 million businesses.

There is a local chamber of commerce in 3,000 towns and cities across the U.S. and Canada…and 112 additional Chambers of Commerce in 99 other countries.

I recently met James Mielnik, who works for the Halifax Chamber of Commerce and he agreed to share his insights on how your business can benefit from networking and being involved in a local chamber.

Hi James…I know networking is a key component of Chambers of Commerce — what are some specific networking tips you can share?

Sixty-five percent of businesses join a Chamber because of networking so I will really want to dig in here.

Below are my top 7 networking tips:

1. Cultivate a genuine interest in seeing others succeed…. and help them do it:

This mindset should be prerequisite before anybody begins to network.  You have a great post entitled Being a Go-Giver not a Go-Getter which echo’s this mindset and has some additional tips.   In short, what I see most people doing when they network is talking about themselves and talking about their product or service with the hopes of selling more.  This is very amateurish and turns people off right away.

Solution – do the exact opposite! When you meet somebody for first time focus all your attention on asking probing questions to learn about THEM such as: What brings you here today? Who are you trying to connect with? Who would be an ideal prospect for you? What is your biggest frustration?

“Every man is my superior in that I may learn from him” Emerson

2. Listen…Listen…. and then Listen some more:

I know you have heard this many times before, but it’s a skill that ALL of us can still improve. Rather than reiterate the importance of listening I’m going to share a technique which will automatically take your listening skills to the next level and FORCE you to listen more!

When engaged in a conversation, BEFORE you respond to somebody. pause and briefly summarize what you just heard before you share what you were going to say.  This is a simple yet powerful technique to make the other person feel understood and demonstrates that you care what they have to say.

This is harder than it sounds and takes a bit of practice, but starting today, put on the breaks before you reply to someone and paraphrase back what they just told you first!.

3. The 3 Second Rule

As soon as you enter a room of people start a conversation with the first person you see within the first 3 seconds.  DO NOT HESISTATE, don’t look for somebody you know and don’t go to the bar.  It doesn’t matter who you approach, just go talk to somebody!

The goal here is to build confidence, get outside ‘your head’ and build the habit of proactively meeting people.  At most events there is usually a registration desk.  Try and view this as the “warm up”.  Use this opportunity to speak to the person beside you as you sign in or receive your name tag.

4. The soft touch:

You may have noticed what typically happens at networking events is people form small groups (usually consisting of friends or office colleagues) who then talk amongst themselves.  This situation presents a challenge for most people.

Here is a very non threatening way to approach one of these groups if you know somebody in the group (even if you don’t know them very well).  As you are walking by simply “soft touch” the person you know on the shoulder, smile, and say hi, making sure to address them by their name.  Don’t motion to shake their hand, and instead simply give a small wave as you keep walking (shaking hands is usually too much of a commitment in this situation). This seemingly small gesture accomplishes the following goals:

a) Strengthening the relationship with the person you know.
b) In some situations the individual will stop you and say “James, have you met…..” and bring you into the group to introduce you to everybody else (although this is a possibility- do not expect it)
c) It gives you unconscious face time with the other people in that group.  Some of them will notice you and you now have a small connection with them for generating a future conversation.
d) If you really wanted to meet somebody from that group and didn’t get an opportunity to at the event, you can call the person you know and say “Hey I noticed you speaking to….I would love to meet them. Would you mind introducing us?”

5. Smile the whole time Smiling conveys happiness, fun, positive, and so many other great emotions!   Maya Angelou is quoted as saying

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

I think this is profound. How do you want to make people feel?

I find most people at networking events are unnecessarily serious, and as a result don’t let their true personality shine through. I use to be this way as well…. Do the opposite! I have found the more I smile while speaking on the phone, while writing emails or while in person meeting others, the more it makes others want to be around me.  Smiling can also do wonders for your “inner game” by increasing your confidence, helping you relax and increasing your overall level of enjoyment. Smile.

6. Introduce people to each other:

Anytime you have a chance to introduce people who can benefit from knowing each other do it.  Sending a quick email introduction is a great habit to get into.

“Help enough people get what they want and you’ll get what you want” -Zig Zigler

7.  Keep in touch by sending things of value:

In my experience, most people contact others when they want something.  This is okay once in a while, but if this is the only instance in which you touch base with somebody, sooner or later they are not going to screen your calls.  Ironically, you can have a lot of success in doing the complete opposite.  If 80% of the time you contact somebody to offer them something of interest or value they are going to open your email or take your call every time.

A simple way to do this is keeping your eyes open for events, articles, and blogs that would interest your contacts. Other ideas include sending email introductions or cards to congratulate them for achieving success or maybe offering tickets to a sports game.  These little gestures go a long way if you are dong it because you genuinely care.  You will not only grow your relationship with that individual but they will WANT to hear what you have to say every time you contact them.  In addition to making somebody else feel good you will personally feel like a million dollars when you make the time do something like this!

What’s the primary purpose of a Chamber of Commerce?

There are 2 key purposes of a Chamber.  One is to represent the interests of businesses in a particular community or region.  For example, the Halifax Chamber of Commerce represents the 15,000 businesses in the Halifax Regional Municipality.  The interests in our region range from a better public transit system to lower taxes for small businesses.

The second purpose is to help businesses grow and connect with others.  This is done by providing networking opportunities.  The Halifax Chamber of Commerce has over 100 events per year ranging from informal after hours events such as  ‘Commerce Connections’ to annual gala events like the spring and fall dinners.”

How does the Chamber of Commerce and industry work together?

This is achieved by having employees of various companies volunteer with the Chamber of Commerce, either on our Board or a sub committee like the Energy Advisory Group.  When you have CEOs of companies such as Nova Scotia Power or Bell Aliant (our major telecommunications provider) getting involved with a Chamber committee, this creates a synergy and cohesion between individual industries and the business committee as a whole.

This creates tremendous clout and gets the attention of government officials who can make the change happen.

What’s the typical membership fee for becoming a Chamber of Commerce member?

Membership is done on an annual basis and the fee is determined by the number of employees a business has.  Our memberships start at $280 for a 1-2 employee company and go up to $4,300 for 500+ employees.

Can a business list job openings through a Chamber of Commerce.

Each Chamber is different.  Our chamber currently does not offer the ability to post job openings .  What we do offer is discounts on recruiting firms through our member to member marketplace.

This is where a company who is a member of the Chamber can offer discounts (usually 10-20-% off their services) to other Chamber members.

How can a Chamber of Commerce generate Web site traffic for businesses?

Here are the top 3 ways:

1.    Chambers have what we call an online business or member directory.  This includes every business who is a member and links directly to your site.
2.    Advertise on the Chamber website.  Most Chambers have vertical banners or some place to advertise on their website which can link to your page.
3.    Email blasts.  Most Chambers give you the option to send out an email to every one of their members for a couple hundred dollars.

Would you give an example of the “biggest win” that a business had as a result of being a Chamber of Commerce member (please give details of the story).

I know a lot of business deals have been made during Chamber events.  Unfortunately, I don’t have details for any of them.  I can speak to some of the “big wins” for our Chamber.  We recently helped get a smoking by-law passed which prohibits smoking in all restaurants.

Another big win was allowing Sunday shopping (Stores in Halifax prior to this passing were closed for business on Sunday!).  One other big win would be introducing U.S. Customs pre-clearance at our airport so we can get screed prior to leaving for international flights.

If you were to start your own business, how would you best take advantage of the benefits of the Chamber of Commerce (please include a list of tips (including secret ones!)?

Below are the top 7 things you could do if just starting a business:

1. Go to the free events offered by the Chamber such as Business After Hours or Commerce Connections and practice meeting and networking.  These events are very non threatening and it will also help get the name of your company into the market place.
2. Use the Membership directory and find potential businesses to partner with and cross promote.
3. Most Chambers have a monthly magazine (ours is called Business Voice) and we are always looking for content from members.  Offer to write monthly articles about your speciality or industry. This is much more effective than advertising and it’s free!!!
4. Volunteer for a committee within the Chamber such as the ambassadors, transportation or education committees.  This is a great way to meet and establish relationships with 20+ people right away.  It will also help keep you abreast of issues.
5. Take advantage of the group discounts offered by the Chamber to help save your business money.  There is everything from payroll services discounts to merchant services discounts.
6. Develop a relationship with the staff at your Chamber.  The staff will know many of the members and if you ask can help introduce you to them.
7. Put the Chamber of Commerce logo on your business cards and website.  This will help establish credibility.

I notice Chambers of Commerce are global. How does the American Chamber of Commerce differ from the Canada Chamber of Commerce versus the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce versus the British Chamber of Commerce or even the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, etc.?

It is safe to say that Chambers exist almost everywhere businesses do. While I am not involved in Chambers on a global scale, it is clear that they all follow a similar format and would have the benefits listed above.

The primary difference between these Chambers is the type of advocacy and the policy work they would do because every region has their own unique challenges.  Furthermore, each Chamber targets their particular region and/or cultural group.

Is there a good link you could share to a global Chamber of Commerce directory?

Hmm….To be honest I’m not aware of such a link.  Perhaps you’ve planted the seed of a new business idea!  The closest thing I could recommend is to find the Chamber of Commerce for a particular state.

Take California for example.  If you go to the California Chamber of Commerce Website they have a place which lists every local Chamber in California and their contact information.

Hey James, if someone wanted to learn more about you, do you have a link about yourself?

Sure.  The best way to connect would be my LinkedIn profile.  I am more than happy to answer any questions, share ideas or further insights with any of your readers.

Thanks Rob.

Thank you for sharing, James!

I first heard about the concept of being a “go-giver” from Bob Burg in a book he wrote called Winning Without Intimidation; he later made the phrase more popular by writing Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea.

I used the Go-Giver phrase, which is corny but good, in a speech I made to entrepreneurs a few years back.

source: Túrelio, Wikimedia Commons

From that speech, and others, here are seven tips to being a better networker or go-giver:

1) Giving is Attractive — “No matter what your profession, if you can give increase of life to others and make them sensible [i.e., “aware”] of this gift, they will be attracted to you, and you will get rich.” Wallace D. Wattles from The Science of Getting Rich

2) Be a Connector — If you connect someone, both parties will remember you as the connector (see The Connector Exercise article I wrote.

3) The Helpers Get Helped — “The core of being a really good networker, you need to want to help people, “says close friend Dave Bear of BBDO Atmoshphere. He had an interesting way to put it: “People want to help people who want to help people. That’s the multiplier.”

4) When Calling a Customer/Partner — “Never call a client without bringing a new idea or some value into it.” (Direct Marketer Les Wunderman).

5) The 80/20 Rule — “Spend 80% of your time asking about THEM, not talking about yourself and you’ll get a positive response. Most people love talking about themselves. I’m always thinking when I meet people about who they might be interested in meeting.” (a talented entrepreneur and friend Drew Kossoff).

6) The Value Proposition — Give someone more in value than what you take from the (Go-Giver book by Bob Burge (he also wrote Endelss Referalls).

7) Clip It – My dad always clipped out articles and mailed them to people…and we loved it! With the Web, this takes very little time to do and can be quite meaningful. If you send a print clipping through snail-mail, that is so unheard of these days that it all the more unique. When’s the last time you sent some quality content to someone!?

Remember, if you’re just asking for help and trying to “get” all the time, then you’re more of a “go-getter” than a go-giver.

I’m looking forward to more go-givers out there!

Sidenote: You’ve probably noticed that I’m beginning to link the people I mention in articles (such as this one) directly to their LinkedIn profile so that you can learn more about these resources. If you are not yet on LinkedIn, or want some LinkedIn tips want some LinkedIn tips, check out: You Must Be LinkedIn.