4 Steps How to Network Online and Build Meaningful Relationships
Your network is your net worth.
Dear Friend & Subscriber,
Today I’ll show you how to build your network online and build meaningful relationships.
If you incorporate this right,
You’ll see a few benefits immediately.
Growth in your social capital
Joint venture opportunities
Brand ambassadors
Strategic partners
This issuse is about 4mins to read.
Enjoy!
Imagine you’re about to attend a networking event with the prominent people in your industry,
and as someone who owns a business or
who holds a senior leadership position in a corporation,
You know how important this event is.
My question to you is…
How would you maximize this networking event to make a good impression?
Would you hand out your business cards,
collect as many as you can and then pray for the best?
or
Would you strategically plan,
do your research before you show up on the day of the event?
Whether you’re in a face to face event
or attending the biggest B2b networking platform in the planet — Linkedin.
There’s one thing about you must learn about ‘Networking.’
It’s called ‘Social Capital.
The greater extent of relationships you’ve built over time
the easier you can work in making introductions to people who are out of your reach.
if you’re trying to build your network from scratch,
then follow these 4 steps how to network online and build meaningful relationships.
4 Steps How to Network Online and Build Meaningful Relationships
1. Plan and Get Strategic
You might ask, ‘Wait Danielle isn’t Plan and Strategy the same thing?
To answer brief:
Plan > Long term = Big picture oriented
Strategy > Short term = How can I reach there
Tactics > What steps should I implement today
In a business event, the organizers tend to curate guest to ensure the quality of people who will attend.
The type of conversations are definitely intellectual,
engagaging and entertaining all at the same time.
As a general rule,
It’s very challenging to qualify for these kind of events, because it requires you to invest and pay upfront.
But the good thing about Linkedin,
All you need to is sign-up, enter your email address and password,
Boom! You’re in!
Now that you’re inside the platform,
What are the steps you need to do to start building a real network?
(Hint: Don’t do this ever!)
Add connection request without personalisation > Send mass message > Pitch > Pray for the best.
First thing you’ve got to do is make a list of people you’d want to build a relationship.
You can use ‘Search Result’ on Linkedin tailor it based on your target list.
1st, 2nd, 3rd connection
Industry
Location
Service Category
Number of employees
Years in current company
Alternatively you can make an excel sheet out of this, or use an online CRM tool like Apollo.io
2. Build Familiarity
Now that you’d made a list all you wanted is to be in-front of them.
This is the part where you wanted to practice ‘restraint.’
because when you get too excited and started connecting without a plan
You’ll turn-off some people whom you’re tyring to build a relationship with.
So how do you build familiarity on Linkedin?
Leave a thoughtful comment in your target post
Show up in their feed by tapping the bell for post notifications
Share a resource, guides, article, podcast that might benefit them
Do this for a month upto few years until you’ve earned the right to speak to them,
then it becomes easier to start a 1:1 conversation with them.
The reason is,
It’s because you’ve built enough presence to become familiar with them while being virtually connected.
3. Add Real Value
Now, we always hear ‘add value’ on the online work,
and the famous line by Gary Vee ‘Jab, jab, jab, right hook’
what does it even mean?
Here’s an example:
If you’re experiencing pain and I’ve offered you a pain killer for FREE,
Will you accept it?
What I tell you, there’s no string attached and you’re not obliged to return the favor
rather I’m giving this to you as an act of good will.
Will you accept it?
100%
Why?
This is an investment towards building your social capital.
And like any other form of investment,
sometimes it takes a long time even years to see a viable return.
Now if you’re genuine and focused on the transformational aspect
rather than the transactional aspect,
You’ll definitely succeed in building meaninful relationships.
Here are few examples to get you started.
Introduce them to your network who have a complimenting businesses
Use their products or services and give them a real honest feedback
Leave genuine reviews and recommendations for improvement
Be an ambassador by promoting their business
You don’t need to do this of course,
But if you’re serious in building your social capital then you got level up your networking game.
4. Set Outcomes
Networking is a lucrative tool if you’ve invested enough to make it work for your business.
However if you start networking without a set outcome.
You’ll try to hit it hard with mass DMs,
alienate connections by doing the spray and pray method.
That’s why it’s important get clarity on your goals.
Ask yourself what are you looking for?
Build a prospect pipeline?
Build a network?
Networking > Give <> Prospecting < Get
Now that you know how to network on Linkedin,
Don’t leave this information as head knowledge, Implement it, Test what works and get feedback.
TL:DR
Step #1. Plan and Get Strategic
Step #2. Build Familiarity
Step #3. Add Real Value
Step #4. Set Outcomes
Thank you!
That’s all for today!
If you’re not getting your time’s worth from these newsletter, please consider unsubscribing.
There’s no hard feelings.
But still,
If you’re enjoying this weekly newsletters the best tribute you could pay me is to share it to one person who could benefit from it.
Many thanks!
Danielle
PS. Whenever you’re ready to build meaningful relationships, digitize your reputation and generate revenue through Linkedin.