This past weekend, I attended IZEAFEST in Orlando… The content of this social media bonanza was fantastic. There were speakers such as Liz Strauss, Zena Weist, Joseph Jaffe, Chris Brogan, Ted Murphy, PR Sarah Evans and more.
But there was one thing noticabably lacking – networking.
Don’t get me wrong, there was lots of socializing… however, by definition, networking is the cultivation of productive relationships for employment or business.. (Merriam-Webster)
One thing that I couldn’t help but notice was how many people downplayed what they “did” and often times didn’t even know how to explain it and therefore truly limited their ability to be productive.
Let me share with you an actual conversation I had with someone. I am confident this will illustrate my point.
Me: so… what do you do?
Them: Producer
Me: You’re a producer of what
Them: Content
Me: What kind of content?
Them: blogs
Me: Ah, what are your blogs about?
Them: Stuff, whatever I feel like.
Me: …. ?!?
Do you see the problem with that conversation? They lost their chance to earn a new reader or subscriber. In addition, based on their reply, I could have told my friends about their blog if they had minimally told me what even ONE blog was about… And if I would have liked what I saw, I might have gone online and promoted their blog to my communities….
I cannot count how many similar conversations I had like that over the weekend. I’m always looking to see how I can help someone gain better visibility and connect them with someone valueable. However, when I am faced with replies such as that, it makes being a valuable resource very difficult.
Therefore, I present you with the top 3 networking tips for bloggers:
1 – Just because you have a succesful blog doesn’t mean that I know it. Inform me! Give me some background information!
2 – Just because you have multiple blogs doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tell me about any of them. Choose 1-2 of your current blogs and tell me what they are about.
3 – Don’t assume that people know industry jargon such as content producer. Nothing is worse than making the person you are talking to feel dumb or have to pull information out of you. If you want readers, you need to market to people when networking just like you do online.
Have you had a similar situation?
October 7, 2009 | Posted in
