Home 5 tips for improving your networking skills
Local News

5 tips for improving your networking skills

Contributors
business event
(© THANANIT – stock.adobe.com)

When it comes to making yourself known within your industry and finding links to other professionals within your field, networking is one of the best ways to make new connections. However, many people can feel confused when attempting to incorporate networking into their daily professional lives.

But knowing how to networking is an essential skill that can accelerate your career straight to success, so it is crucial that you learn to establish new associates and how to benefit from the association. Here are some of our top tips on how to improve your networking skills.

Take the Time to Make Real Connections

We recommend that you invest real time in making new connections and links with others in your industry, as any ungenuine attempts could have an adverse effect on your relationships with others. It is worth taking the time to really get to know other professionals, what projects they are working on, what they feel passionate about, and discuss how you could benefit each other in a working relationship. It is all about quality, not quantity in networking, so it is worth investing time in the right individual.

Don’t Work the Room

Following on from the point that networking is about quality not quantity, we recommend that while at a meeting or networking event you don’t work the room. If you are always on the lookout for a new networking hookup, then people will start to notice and won’t give you the time of day. People will take offense if you jump from one person to the next and may decide not to work with you in the future. Instead, make sure each connection is unique and personal.

Incorporate Different Activities

Long gone are the days of only being able to put your networking skills to good use at networking events and meetups. Instead, there are many different activities that you can incorporate, from meeting up for a coffee to discuss the industry, to heading for a game of golf to make the meeting more fun and active. However, we do suggest that if you are going to head down to the golf course with a potential connection that you brush up on your skills using a golf launch monitor, like one of these, beforehand so that you are ready to impress.

Exchange Stories

Another way that you can improve your networking skills is by being more personal and relatable with the people you meet. To do this, you could exchange your story of how you got into the industry, how you have developed and grown, and show the more personal side to you other than simply the professional side.

If you are too professional and don’t show the other sides of you then you may be difficult for another professional to get to know.

However, make sure that you ask about them as well. Nobody wants to connect up with someone who only talks about themselves, so be sure to ask questions and find out more about them too.

Don’t Forget Social Media

In our increasingly virtual world, it is important that you utilize social media. There isn’t much you can’t do on social media these days, and most people will also check out your social media presence when getting to know you. So, we recommend that you build up your LinkedIn profile and keep your personal social media settings private unless you want others to see what you are posting.

Networking doesn’t have to be as daunting and scary as it may sound, and it is simply about getting to know others, being relatable, and showing yourself as someone that another likeminded professional would like to connect with.

Contributors

Contributors

Have a guest column, letter to the editor, story idea or a news tip? Email editor Chris Graham at [email protected]. Subscribe to AFP podcasts on Apple PodcastsSpotifyPandora and YouTube.