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25 Best Places to Network
Apr 28th
Image: Screaming Monkey/Flickr
Networking is a skill. It’s not just about elevator pitches and icebreakers, however. Place matters. How else are you going to meet the right person at the right time?
The best places to network let you meet people under positive auspices. You share a common cause. You’re there because you want to be, not because you feel like you have to. The premise of the event makes it easy to break the ice. You can come back to these places again and again, making closer connections and building trust. Where are these places, and how do you find them? Here are 25 of the best ones.
Meetups
Browse Meetup.com and find groups that interest you. Then start attending meetups. See which ones you like best. Stick with those and you’ll make connections, guaranteed. Sharing a common interest makes bonding easier than at a deliberate networking event, where connections can be shallow (Meet. Give business card. Follow up. Forget about connection). A Meetup connection, if you stick with it, will be deeper and more involved.
Religious Events
Image: Master Hsin Tao/Flickr
Whether you go to a synagogue, mosque, church, zendo, ashram, or any other belief-based group, you will meet new people at your place of worship. A shared belief system like religion is an incredibly powerful unifying force. It makes you feel like you’re part of a group, tribe or something special. This exclusionary aspect solidifies the bond between members of the belief-based organization. In other words, if you share a religion, it’s easier to trust someone, open up to them, and want to help. Networking under such auspices is ideal.
Exercise
Image: Jon A. Ross/Flickr
Whether you do team sports or individual sports done in a group, like a running club, exercise is an excellent way to get to know people outside of the context of work. Playing together—or, in the case of endurance sports like road biking, suffering together—builds camaraderie and respect between members of the group. Icebreakers and elevator pitches aren’t quite as stressful when you’re sweating with people.
Hobby Clubs
Image: Teo JPG/Flickr
As in, the paper airplane flyers club, the roller skaters’ club, the clubbing club. If you have a hobby, why not see if there’s a local club of people who do the same thing? That way, you can share tricks and tips. You can also find out who they are and what they’re about in the process.
Arts
Image: st0rmz/Flickr
Mingling over creativity peppers fun into the networking process, as well as providing an instant icebreak. This category could include improv comedy, knitting clubs, scrapbooking, life drawing, and any other creative form that you can do with other people. The more conversation and interaction, the better.
Coffee Shops
Image: Stepheye/Flickr
Some coffee shops are hotbeds for million-dollar deals and corporate types. Others are full of creative types. Depending on what kinds of clients (or employers) you’re looking for, you might want to stake out a coffee shop near you that they frequent. Become a regular. Get to know people. Next thing you know, you’ll have an assignment in your lap, along with a bunch of new contacts.
Neighborhood Groups
Image: Nicola since 1972/Flickr
This one can be a little trickier. Although homeowners’ associations and neighborhood watches can be hotbeds of contention and paranoia, you can’t deny that you get to know the people in them when you participate. Whether you like them or not is another issue. A better alternative might be a productive neighborhood project, like organizing a block party, or setting up shared child or pet care between yourself and your neighbors. The key is to be likeable, not like that cretin next door.
Pets
Image: Donnaphoto/Flickr
Love shi-tzus? Joining your local shi-tzu club and fawning over other fuzzy beasts may just be your ticket to getting to know people easily and harmlessly. There are also dog training classes, agility courses, therapy pet associations, or even the good ol’ dog park. It’s hard to have your guard up when you’re being distracted by galloping, wagging, fur-covered animals. Note: This technique is probably significantly harder for people with cats.
Conferences
Image: Boellstiftung/Flickr
A conference is the perfect place to walk up to strangers, get to know them, and swap information speed-dating style. If you’re slower to approach people, giving a presentation or speaking on a panel are good ways to have people approach you. The same is true if you man a booth—they’ll ask you the questions, and you’ll be more visible to everyone. Many conferences also have times set aside for themed networking.
Retreats
Image: Anita K. Hart/Flickr
Retreats throw you into a common area with 5, 10, or 500 people with the same interest or goal. You’re with one another from one day to several weeks. With that kind of intimate setting, it’s hard not to find out who people are, what they can do, and how you might be able to help one another.
Ethnic or Gender-Based Clubs
Image: Steve Cadman/Flickr
Often, sharing a common heritage makes it easier to find both common ground and trust. Clubs based on heritage abound, from the Sons of Norway to the Mexican-American Business and Professional Women’s Association. That latter item brings up the second point, which is that gender can also be a common link. It’s probably easier for women to find gender-based clubs and organizations, but there are plenty of official and de facto male organizations out there, too. The bottom line is that you can make easy friends based on who you are and where you came from.
Classes
Image: dcJohn/Flickr
If you’re learning something along with everyone else, breaking the ice almost becomes a non-issue. Maybe you need that person to help you understand a concept, borrow a book or materials, arrange a study group, or lament about the material. Often, the class teacher can also be a good person to network with.
Social Media
Image: Birgerking/Flickr
Social media can be a mixed bag. On the one hand, you can waste days reading and posting mundane updates. On the other hand, if you link up with the right people and engage your friends or followers, social media can be a gold mine. You can find jobs, business partners, business opportunities, services you need, a dogsitter, and much more. The opportunities are limitless. You just have to approach it strategically and continually engage.
Volunteer Work
Image: Seattle Municipal Archives/Flickr
In general, people don’t volunteer because they want to be slick or rip you off. Volunteering, rather, comes out of a soft spot, be it empathy, aspirations, or passion for change. A nonprofit or other volunteer event sets a premise based on those feelings. That makes it easier to bond with other volunteers over a common cause, even if your background, religion and politics are polar opposites. The bonus with volunteering is that it makes you feel good, so you’re more likely to be approachable. And you get an overall mood booster, regardless of who you network with.
Alumni Events
Image: Svadilfari/Flickr
High school reunions are debatable as networking opportunities, but alumni events span more than just the old 20-year catch up. College is a good place to start. College alumni events, breakfasts, receptions, alumni sports games, alumni interest groups, and alumni databases are better ways to connect under a common umbrella. You can also give talks at events, making yourself and your pitch more visible.
Trade Shows
Image: ThinkGeoEnergy/Flickr
Trade shows exist in part for networking. They are an easy and obvious place to meet people relevant to your field. If you want people to come to you, man a booth, otherwise spend time exploring other peoples’ stations and networking along the way. The tricky part is staying in touch with people after you’ve dropped your business card. Follow-up emails and social media connections work well for this purpose.
Music
Image: Tuppus/Flickr
Music, whether you play or listen, has a wide array of networking possibilities. From playing in a band to religiously attending certain concerts, from music festivals to the symphony, opportunity abounds for finding people with interests like yours.
Chambers of Commerce
Image: CapeLawOffice/Flickr
Your local Chamber of Commerce probably hosts classes and talks as well as networking events. It’s the kind of place you meet a lot of people and gather a lot of cards. Following up and truly connecting, however, can be a numbers game here. Everyone wants to know everyone, but those quality connections are harder to dig up. Teaching a class, giving a talk, or getting involved with a Chamber effort are better ways to guarantee those close connections.
Associations
Image: Michigan Municipal League (MML)/Flickr
This category could cover the AARP, the NRA, AOPA, or anything with the word “association” somewhere in the title. Even if the club isn’t exclusive, you share the common bond of membership. In networking, that can be worth a lot. The trick is to attend the association’s events and meet new people.
Leads Groups and Networking Events
Image: Eric Richardson/Flickr
These groups can provide you with a shoebox full of business cards and no contacts if you’re not careful. If, however, you have a strategy in place to follow up with your leads and make them closer connections, leads groups and networking events can be really useful.
Online Forums
Image: Wonderlane/Flickr
Online forums are places to ask questions about and discuss topics of interest. Becoming a regular on a forum, or becoming a moderator, gains you recognition by the other people that frequent the place. This opens the doors for you to get to know one another more personally. Since many people prefer to stay anonymous on forums, this approach requires more persistence than some of the others listed here.
Blogging
Image: kpwerker/Flickr
Blogging can be a fantastic way to get to know people with common interests. You can easily find a community of like-minded bloggers on the web. Acquaint yourself with them by reading their posts and becoming a regular, proactive commenter. Facebook, Twitter and other sources of social media are your friends in this endeavor, too. Before you know it, you’ll be swapping emails and have made new online friends.
Toastmasters
Image: Kevin Collins/Flickr
Toastmasters deserves its own category. Facing one of humanity’s deepest fears, public speaking, with twenty or so of your supportive new friends is an excellent way to network. Everyone’s motivated, and almost everyone is probably scared, too. There are lots of opportunities to share—in fact, it’s part of the program’s template. Networking doesn’t get much easier than this, save for the public speaking part.
Speeches and Talks
Image: Ian Wienand/Flickr
Attending a speech given by your favorite politician, a talk by your favorite author or astronomer, or any other event involving a person you really like standing up and speaking at a podium can be a good networking opportunity. Everyone listens to the same thing and has the same interest. You can chat up people sitting next to you before and after the event. You can approach the speaker after the event and say hi to other people waiting for autographs, for example. (It helps to be outgoing in this setting.)
Where Connectors Are
Image: Hase/Wikimedia
Some people have huge networks. Whenever you mention that you need something, such “connectors,” as Malcolm Gladwell called them in The Tipping Point, will automatically link you up with someone in their network who can help you out. That’s just the way they think. Get to know these people and stay in touch with them. You could find them anywhere, in any club, at any event. Make it a habit to gravitate towards them like they’re lemonade on a hot day.
View full post on Business Pundit
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Apr 15th
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Google Display Network: The Black Hole of PPC?
Mar 17th
Many advertisers have tried their hand at the Google Display Network (formerly known as the the content network) and concluded that just like a black hole sucks up all matter and light, the Display Network sucked up their money and left them with nothing. While I can sympathize because I too have seen many a budget go into the Display Network and never come back, harnessing this tool can be a very effective strategy to improve your pay-per-click (PPC) results. The key is how you approach it.
Distract!
When you’re advertising on search results, you know at least some of the user intent based on the search query. If someone typed “organic lettuce in Dallas” you have a good idea of what they want. However, in the Display Network, you’re trying to get clicks from users who are occupied with something else. They might be reading an article about how to build a treehouse. They might be playing an online game. Your ads need to pull them away from what they’re currently doing to get a click.
For example, let’s say you sell widgets. Your widgets are unique because they are yellow and 100 percent stainless steel. For search, your ad might read something like this:
“Premium Yellow Widgets. 100% Stainless Steel + Free Shipping!”
That would be great if someone searched “yellow widgets.” But what if you customer is a college basketball fanatic?
Right now he’s wrapped up in March Madness and isn’t searching for widgets, even though he wants one. How do you get this guy’s interest? What about an ad that reads:
“March Madness Special. Get your widget in time for the Tournament! Free shipping.”
This will relate to your potential customer and draw his attention.
Location, Location, Location!
Just like in real estate, the location of your ads is vital to success. There are two ways to target your ads in the Google Display Network:
- Keywords - Similar to search, but you need to think more about the content your ad will appear next to. For our sports guy, you’ll want to choose keywords like “college basketball,” “March Madness” or “bracketology.” These words don’t describe your product at all, but content talking about these keywords is where you want your ads to show up.
- Placements - These come in two flavors: automatic and managed. Automatic refers to the sites that Google feels are relevant. Managed placements are specific URLs you choose, like a specific forum or blog (running AdSense, of course) that you know potential customers read.
In a Nutshell
Black holes seem scary, but physicists theorize that if you properly harness the power of a black hole, you can travel into the future. The Display Network is similarly scary, but potentially powerful. To succeed you need a different approach than regular search. You need to distract the user so they’ll pay attention to your ad, and you need to put your ad on pages that attract potential customers. Do this and you may find a very attractive future ahead of you.
Google Display Network: The Black Hole of PPC?
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
The Network Is Your Customer: Combining Strategy and Technology
Feb 6th
If you’re still looking for ways to make sense of the overwhelming amount of information and feedback that’s coming through on social networks, then The Network Is Your Customer: 5 Strategies to Thrive in a Digital Age may have some answers and insights for you.
This is a book I was eager to read because it focuses on how technology intersects with real life strategy. The first thing I did was look for the book’s website. I find that’s an easy way to get an overview and start developing an opinion. I also love it when books have blogs because the blog provides updates and new information that may not have made the printed version. However, I think you’ll find The Network Is Your Customer to be extremely current.
The Network Is Your Customer is a practical book with an academic twist. That’s because the author, David L. Rogers (@David_Rogers), is a teacher at Columbia Business School and the Executive Director at the Center of Global Brand Leadership.
The practical part of the book comes from Rogers’ observations during his BRITE conferences and smaller leadership summits that “brought together innovative companies and nonprofits with cutting-edge entrepreneurs and big thinkers to share ideas about the ways that innovative and emerging technologies are changing business.” Rogers noticed that many of the best and most innovative technical ideas weren’t coming from technical companies. He’s taken these experiences and distilled them into the five srategies that will help you thrive in a digital age. I call that the academic twist because Rogers uses his experience and skill in synthesizing information and then delivering it in a way you can learn from and adapt into your business.
It’s Not About the Technology or the Networks – It’s About Behaviors
If you’re still wondering how you are going to leverage all the social media and technology tools to help you achieve your objectives, then you will breathe a sigh of relief when I tell you that the core message of this book is to focus on your customers’ behavior, not the technology or the social media tool.
Rogers has distilled five behavior strategies that small business can focus on in order to leverage networked customer behaviors to create happier, more loyal customers.
1. ACCESS: Be Faster, Be Easier, Be Everywhere, Be Always On
2. ENGAGE: Become a Source of Valued Content
3. CUSTOMIZE: Make Your Offering Adaptable to Your Customers’ Needs
4. CONNECT: Become a Part of Your Customers’ Conversations
5. COLLABORATE: Involve Your Customers at Every State of Your Enterprise
Building on Layers of Context
I’ll admit that I’m a little biased against books written by academics. Maybe I’m biased for the same reason that you might be: the impression that they don’t live in the same world as we do. Academics have the reputation of thinking big thoughts, interacting with big companies and not really understanding small business owners.
In this case, Rogers’ academic experience is a real asset to the reader who is trying to tie together an overwhelming number of disparate ideas to actually create effective strategies. He does an outstanding job of giving a contextual overview, then focusing on each strategy and then providing specific real-life, familiar examples that you can look at. As I read through the book, I found myself thinking, “Oh, look at how they did that! I had no idea!”
Take the “Customize” examples here:
- Offer a vast menu: Take advantage of the Web to offer a huge range of products, but pair them with a useful set of filters to help customers find what they are looking for. (Think Netflix)
- Customize your playlist: Provide a steady stream of content that adapts to the preferences and feedback of your customers.
- Mash up your products: Let customers modify your products or services to express their individuality.
- Make the choice personal: Put a human face on the choice you offer customers, so that by choosing, they connect with real people.
- Create a platform for choice: Find or build a platform that allows others to create more products or content for your customers to choose between.
It’s Evolutionary
The Network Is Your Customer is to overall marketing strategy what Groundswell was to social media. These two books focus on slightly different aspects of networking. Yet, they both do something that few business books can do: help you get your arms around the technology and the strategy in a way that actually makes sense and helps you take action.
I’m glad I have this book on my shelf, and I intend to get some more copies to pass on to clients and colleagues who want to get smart very quickly about how to best integrate technology with sound marketing strategy.
The Network Is Your Customer: Combining Strategy and Technology
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Sprint Network to Say Goodbye to Nextel
Dec 6th
As part of a push to modernize its network, Sprint will phase out its Nextel network starting in 2013. The Nextel network doesn’t support the fast data plans required by smartphones, and Sprint’s plan to use the Nextel network for cheap prepaid services didn’t pan out, according to USAToday, which has the story:
Sprint had said before that it would eventually shut down the aging Nextel network, but hadn’t said when. It has about 10.6 million subscribers on the Nextel network, some of whom are using it under the Boost Mobile brand. Another 400,000 use phones that can access both the Sprint and Nextel networks.
Altogether, more than one in five Sprint subscribers use the Nextel network. Sprint plans to offer them Nextel’s signature push-to-talk function on the Sprint network instead.
The phase-out is part of a network modernization plan announced Monday that will cost $4 billion to $5 billion. It is aimed at saving Sprint $10 billion to $11 billion over seven years. Sprint is hiring Alcatel-Lucent SA, LM Ericsson AB and Samsung Electronics Co. as the main vendor for the program.
Sprint, the third-largest wireless carrier in the country, has lost money in every quarter since 2007. Part of the reason is that it’s been saddled with the cost of running two incompatible networks, compared with its larger competitors, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc.
Nextel has been losing money since Sprint bought it in 2005, according to the article. It’s high time to trim some fat.
View full post on Business Pundit
Verizon Announces 4G Network Details
Dec 2nd
This is a post by Minyanville.com.
This week, Verizon announced it will be hot on the heels of Sprint and Clearwire when it launches its 4G LTE network on Sunday, December 5. The fourth generation of wireless standards will offer up much faster speeds — 5-12 Mbps down, 2-5 Mbps up, according to the company.
As expected, the boost won’t come cheap, but they’re somewhat in line with 3G data plans. For $50 per month, customers will receive 5GB in data, and $80 will get 10GB. Anything over will cost subscribers $10 per gigabyte. MobileCrunch’s Greg Kumparak suspects the fees will be completely separate from the standard data plan charges, as they won’t be integrated until 2012 or 2013.
At that point, unless a miracle happens, there won’t be unlimited data plans as we know them today.
A whopping 38 markets will see the 4G launch this weekend. Not including a slew of airports, those cities include:
Akron, Ohio
Athens and Atlanta, Georgia
Baltimore, Maryland
Boston, Massachusetts
Charlotte, North Carolina
Chicago, Illinois
Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus, Ohio
San Antonio, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Dallas, Texas
Denver, Colorado
Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Tampa, and Jacksonville, Florida
Las Vegas, Nevada
Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota
Nashville, Tennessee
New Orleans, Louisiana
New York and Rochester, New York
Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland and San Diego, California
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Phoenix, Arizona
Seattle/Tacoma, Washington
St. Louis, Missouri
Washington, D.C.
West Lafayette, Indiana
Unfortunately, we won’t be seeing any 4G-enabled smartphones until mid-2011, some of which will supposedly be revealed at Consumer Electronics Show in January — according to a company spokesperson. In the meantime, Verizon will be releasing two USB modems for $99 each on contract after rebates. They will also work on 3G networks when outside 4G’s reach, but are only Windows-compatible. Sorry Mac users.
During a Q&A session, Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone addressed LTE’s ability to handle simultaneous voice and data. At launch, voice-only calls will remain on 3G and data on 4G when both networks are available. “One of the reasons why we are not going out with voice out of the gate is it creates complexities that don’t serve anyone,” Melone told All Things Digital’s Ina Fried. After the trial period, both voice and data will move to LTE.
There was no specific mention of a 4G iPhone making its way to Verizon’s network, but Melone stated that LTE will be able to handle “lots of devices.”
So like any 4G Android device on Verizon, that means more waiting.
This post was written by Minyanville staff writer Mike Schuster.
View full post on Business Pundit
Starbucks Stretches for Margins with Starbucks Digital Network
Oct 20th
Starbucks launched its Starbucks Digital Network today, a multi-channel content network that, among other things, boasts unlimited access to the Wall Street Journal, full books, magazine articles unavailable anywhere else. Mashable has a full description of the Starbucks Digital Network, as well as some comments on its business aspirations:
One would assume, correctly so, that Starbucks has not gone to trouble of providing free Wi-Fi and a premium digital network without thinking about how it could profit by these pricey additions. If we didn’t know better, we’d presume that Starbucks was charging its partners for placement. Instead, as we’ve disclosed before, there’s no money changing hands — unless SDN users make purchases from partners, in which case there is a revenue share.
What it comes down is a matter of choice. Coffee and tea drinkers have a myriad of options, so for Starbucks it’s about motivating the customer to choose its stores and its digital network content partners by association.
SDN is designed with two key objectives in mind, says (Vice President of Digital Ventures Adam) Brotman: enhancing the customer’s experience and better engaging customers while they’re in the store.
“Tens of millions of customers are coming in to our stores and logging in to our Wi-Fi on a monthly basis anyways. They’re coming in because we provide this great experience — good music overhead, quality food and coffee and the opportunity to connect with your friends or the baristas … What we hope is that this is a nice complement to that experience.”
Starbucks’ strategy involves experimenting with a new product, seeing what users like, then honing the product to fit those preferences. That’s why SDN has a dizzying array of offerings, so that Starbucks can figure out what users like, Brotman is quoted as saying in the article.
I bet Starbucks is hoping that if this takes off, they can sell (very expensive) ads on SDN. I’m not convinced the network has much value. In my experience, people who come to Starbucks to sit around either have their own work to do or have someone to talk to. Those people idly surfing to kill time will most likely be standing in line and using apps that they’re already accustomed to. Besides, who needs another portal?
But Starbucks is 40 years old now, and needs to experiment with new revenue streams to stay profitable. Even if SDN sounds like a stretch, from Starbucks’ perspective, it’s still worth a shot.
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The Social Network Wins Another Weekend At The Box Office With $15.5M In Ticket Sales
Oct 10th
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More importantly, the movie has gained Oscar buzz, overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, and considerable attention from the media. |
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‘Social Network’ tops box office for 2nd week | abc7
Oct 10th
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(Courtesy of Columbia… “The Social Network” took in $15.5 million, taking the No. 1 spot at the box office for the second straight weekend. |
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Verizon Wireless: Will launch its 4G Long Term Evolution or LTE network in 38 U.S. markets, including South Florida by…
Oct 6th
| Sprint for example launched its 4G network in Baltimore in late 2008, which is now available in 55 markets nationwide. |
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