Pointers in Offline and Online Business Networking

In the past a business network would have to reach out to businesses and vice versa for the network to grow. Today, however, the global reach of the Web is bridging geographical, linguistic, and other demographic gaps between businesses the world over. This being the case, are there new ways to be successful in business networking? In essence, the act has remained the same: all about making the right impressions and keeping to established images to foster valuable business relationships.

Offline Networking—Business Politics at Its Best

Offline business networking, as in the rubbing elbows and meet-and-greet practices, entails much more sophisticated and intricate political pointers. When meeting potential business contacts for the first time, you represent yourself as an entrepreneur and your company as a
business of repute. Everything you do in a dinner gathering of your business network should send a message to everyone that you’re a businessman they would want to collaborate with if ever.

This means that beyond what you say, you should also make the best first impressions using what you do. Facial expressions, your movements, your gestures—all of them should be polished and engendering business etiquette and formality but at the same time a warm cordiality. Indeed, it’s politics in the business level.

And if you think it all ends there, the business networking act is put into action only after making the right impressions on the right people. The task of impressing potential partners and contacts is just the beginning. Next you’ll have to continuously beguile them with
follow ups and business interaction until you’re sure you’ve added a reliable business contact that would open up new business through mutually beneficial collaborations or referrals.

Online Networking—Quick and Easy, but also Risky

Business networking is never purely online—that is to say, at some point in a business relationship businesses would have to come into contact. But as far as online networking goes, there are also best practices to keep in mind.

Making a good impression online relies more on the content of an “About Us” webpage and the features of the company website than the smiles and wit of the company’s front man. Because of this, your online introduction should be able to encapsulate in preferably just a paragraph what your company can offer, and then entice its readers to know more. Of course a bit of Search Engine Optimization and an active online networking profile somewhere would be of immense assistance, too.

Keeping in touch is so much easier when done online. Regular emails or scheduled instant messaging or videoconferencing sessions make the task of keeping up correspondence a breeze. It’s so easy and convenient though that at times we forget that everything we send in our correspondence and even our comments to webpages should always remain professional, and ideally reflecting our company’s business’s etiquette and values.

Then there’s also the risk of simply collaborating online without sufficient meet ups and actual face-to-face arrangements. The amount of fraud and excuses the Internet affords people is a considerable obstacle to purely online business relationships. But after getting over this hurdle, online business networking is a charm.