Networking - Online vs face-to-face

In our latest blog, Recruitment Officer, networking guru and host of our weekly ION Open Doors networking session, Kaye Harris-John revisits a blog she wrote a few years ago about networking and decided to see how it measures up in today's ‘new normal’ of virtual networking.

I wrote the below blog a year or so ago now and having recently discovered it on my hard drive, I decided to see how it measures up in today's ‘new normal’. Have the principles of networking in person fully transferred to online or have we learnt a new way to communicate and connect with people?

So what have we learnt:

• Time is an even more valued commodity when you are trying to entertain working from home, homeschooling kids, managing deliveries and pets amongst many other things! The time frame of anything longer than an hour is seriously pushing the boundaries of expectations
• Introductions. Somewhat perfunctory, but generally we want to know how we are all coping with juggling the above mentioned. Taking the first few minutes to genuinely enquire how people are doing makes for better engagement later on.
• Honesty. Create an open and honest environment for individuals to share and collaborate without judgement. The lack of human interaction has increased our need to know and feel about each other on a deeper level, more than the usual superficial nod to it over a coffee at a normal event.
• Online Networking is still not a place to sell. Networking has always been a long game and about building the foundations and contacts around you. The more you can give, the more that investment will manifest in the future.

The need to maintain business connections has increased and the desire to establish new collaborations and diversify business has also become more prevalent. The ability to lean on your business community and seek help, advice and signposting has been huge. Online opens the world up to each other and many businesses we have seen are expanding way beyond the realms in which they have previously operated. Going global is no longer a fantasy, but a very reachable ambition with the right technology behind you. Networking online has opened up a whole new pool of potential customers, clients and collaborators.

So, the original post is below. Have a read and let us know what you have learnt about networking during lockdown. Let us know in the comments.

Original blog: Myth-busting the 'rules' of networking (2018)

With over 1000 hours of networking under my belt both hosting and attending, I felt it time to bust the myth on all the rules floating around about networking. I have read blog after blog and been present in speaker’s seminars where they will preach at you that your elevator pitch and your 40/60 seconds is the only moment for you to make your impact. This is simply not true. Of course, being able to tell people what you do and why you do it is important, but the ability to engage with that person beforehand is all the more important.

As a host, I often struggled to break this trend with my members; adapting something that they had practiced over and over and were happy and comfortable to deliver again and again - the same message, no personality and in actual effect, no active listening audience! To break the trend, I would introduce ‘ice breakers’. This was nothing to do with their businesses but more of a personal note for the rest of the room to get to know people's personality, get to know the ‘person’ better. Once you break down the corporate face of people and see the person underneath, you start to listen and retain.

I was often asked ‘how I do it?’ The answer is simple. Yes, memorising what hundreds of people do in their business is not an easy task but once I got to know their personalities better (by ways and means I will explain further on) then I could actually remember them AND their businesses in detail and effectively recommend and facilitate connections in a more organic way.

It is often said that nobody can sell your business the way you can. Again I believe that there is a certain level of passion involved when ‘selling’ your business but it is actually the ‘selling’ part which is inaccurate here. Networking is not a place to sell.

The first question to ask yourself before you go networking should be: What do I want to get out of it? If your answer is sales, you’re not wrong, but this takes time and investment. If you want to meet people and build relationships by giving, as opposed to selling or taking, then networking will immediately work better for you.

Building relationships doesn’t need to be as hard as it sounds. Yes, there are those of us to whom that comes more naturally, but this is something that can be taught through understanding. Firstly, understanding how we as humans interact with each other. If you walk into a room with a mission, for example - I am going to talk to 3 different people and learn 3 things about each of those people. Ask questions that are meaningful and be prepared to stand and listen to someone talk about their favourite hobby, music or pet. People like to talk about themselves and it puts them at ease as well as invites you to get to know them a little better.

From here you can lead onto the professional questions regarding their company and what they do.

There is a good chance that their company and yours will have no immediate synergy but a strong chance that you will have some connections in common or contacts that each other could use.

This is what we call a positive outcome.

There will, of course, be those occasions where you have met everyone in the room and you think that you won’t make any good connections. This is not true, firstly because you don’t know where all those other people have been that week and who they have met. Asking some interesting questions may lead to discovering new connections available.

My top 6 tips

1. Be yourself!
2. Actively listen
3. Don’t be afraid to let your personality show
4. Ask interesting questions
5. Don’t pre-judge a connection based on Job title or Company name
6. All of the above don't change or need adapting for online

My top 6 Don’ts!

1. Grand Stand. Nobody wants to know your whole career history in 60 seconds and neither is it relevant to what you are doing now.
2. Start a conversation and then phase out when someone more interesting (in your opinion) walks in.
3. Try to sell, especially if it’s the first time you have met!
4. Wear more than one hat. Lots of entrepreneurs have more than one business and feel the need to tell everyone. Pick ONE and stick to it!
5. Promise to call/catch up/forward details if you have no intention of doing so. People would rather not be made false promises and this leaves a negative image in their minds.
6. If online, try to limit your distractions. Don’t answer phone calls or texts, emails (if at all possible). Your engagement and participation is key to building a relationship with the people in the ‘virtual’ room.

We run our weekly ION Open Doors networking session every Thursday morning at 11 am. It would be great to see you there.