Online Networking Best Practices and Success Stories

Online Networking Best Practices and Success Stories

Posts 1-10 of 33
  • Julien Psomas
    Julien Psomas
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    Hidden contacts
    Hello everyone,

    I' m a newbie in networking but I spend loads of time trying to improve my networks with little changes on my "have" and "wants" fields or "interests" plus re arranging my "about me" page.

    My point here is about hidden contacts.
    As networks administrator for my fellow classmates; I'm trying to expand my network for them to find interesting contacts and future business partners but sometimes people don't share their contacts. In my mind, I think that network is about sharing knowledge, experiences, business contacts etc.

    I'd like to have your opinions about it,

    Thanks a lot,
    Regards,
    Julien Psomas
    This post was modified on 21 Apr 2007 at 12:17 pm.
    • 21 Apr 2007, 12:14 pm
  • Christophe Coppola
    Christophe Coppola
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    Re: Hidden contacts
    I'll have to agree on this point with you,

    But

    I also hide my contacts from persons who are not my contacts, wish i find is normal, i also don't open the adress book of my phone for anybody.
    And then again, when you find an intersting contact and you know a contact from this person it's always better to get introduced.

    Last time i invited a friend of mine on the platform, he was looking around and found the profile of this particular girl. He askad me to introduce him.....
    Problem was, she wasn't one of my contacts.
    So
    I told him to be patient, he is my friend,
    and
    i looked up the girl my self and added her as a contact, it came out that she is a very nice person. so I first started to send some messages to get to know her and this went both sides, she answered every time;

    After 2 to 3 weeks introduced her to my friend, now they are direct contacts.
    There are always ways.....

    You have 2 choices in this subject, you see it as a problem or....
    you look for the HIDDEN opportunity

    Bonne journée
    Amicalement
    Christophe
    • 21 Apr 2007, 12:40 pm
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  • Scott Allen
    Scott Allen    Premium Member   Group moderator
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    Re^3: Hidden contacts
    I understand the sentiments expressed here, but there are a number of reasons someone might not choose to open up their connections for public viewing.

    1. If you are, say, an attorney or even perhaps a life coach, it could be considered a violation of privacy to publicly show your relationship with them.

    2. If you are in a highly competitive industry, you might not want to give your competitors the opportunity to simply browse through your connection list and start contacting people trying to entice them away.

    3. If you are a recruiter and you are connected with the candidates you are trying to place (and will receive a fee for placing), you might not want to open up your connections for browsing because potential employers could simply cut you out of the loop.

    4. If you are extremely busy and have only a limited amount of time to spend networking, you might be willing to facilitate specific introductions to specific people, but not "randomness". I think this is probably more applicable on LinkedIn, where an introduction may be required to contact someone, than on Xing, but it's another argument.

    Those are just a few off the top of my head -- there are more. While complete transparency sounds great in theory, it's simply not our place to make assumptions as to why someone else might have their contacts not shown. Don't hold it against them -- you can't possibly know their exact situation, and they may have a very good reason for it.
    • 24 May 2007, 7:05 pm
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  • Scott Allen
    Scott Allen    Premium Member   Group moderator
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    Re^5: Hidden contacts
    Hmm... you know, I know a lot of people who appear to be great networkers who actually aren't very successful. You know them -- you've seen them, right? They show up at every networking event, but yet they don't ever seem to have a penny to spend on any other marketing, or professional development, etc.

    I've also seen some extremely successful people who don't look like much of a "networker" to the point of view of the typical networker, but once you look closely at what they're doing, you realize that they are actually masterful at developing and leveraging their business relationships.

    Many people when they get successful get very, very busy, as well. Do you see Bill Gates hanging out on Xing? Ingvar Kamprad? Richard Branson? No! Do you think these people don't know how to network? Do you think they open up their contact list publicly for everyone else to see?

    There is no one right style of networking for everybody. I'm not saying anything against a completely open, transparent networking style -- I'm just saying that it's not for everyone, and that it's not necessarily "better" than a more conservative approach. It depends on so many factors, like the type of business you're in, your position in your company, and especially the amount of time you have available to spend networking. Someone who has two hours a week to spend networking SHOULD be networking differently than someone who has two hours a day for it.

    You wrote:
    Pick and choose a networker who has experience and learn what you can learn from them.
    If it worked for them, it will can work for you.
    I would say, rather, pick and choose a successful person and learn what you can learn from them. There is a correlation between networking and success, but it is not exact.

    For your consideration, I offer the following excerpt from Chapter 2 of "The Virtual Handshake":
    People who know how to leverage their networks are called successful. People
    who just know a lot of people are called socialites. Do you want to be a successful
    person or a socialite?
     
    All cocktail parties come to an end, but on the Internet there is always
    another person with whom you can connect. This can be both healthy and
    hazardous; it’s very tempting to spend far too much time chatting with far
    too many people. We recommend focusing only on building your network to
    the extent that your marginal benefit equals your marginal cost. Otherwise,
    you will be so busy maintaining your relationships that you will have no time
    to leverage those you have formed.
    This post was modified on 24 May 2007 at 08:43 pm.
    • 24 May 2007, 8:42 pm
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  • Julien Psomas
    Julien Psomas
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    Re^7: Hidden contacts
    Hello everyone,

    and thanks a lot to Melvi and Scott for these really interesting posts !

    I guess they reflect the two kinds of people whom are members of Xing, which are :

    - we should share because it's networking purpose
    or
    - we shouldn't share because this can be a threat to my business.

    I'm really seeing myself in the first one, I think it's the essence of it. If you click on my profile page, you'll be able to read clearly what is my purpose here. And beyond my fellow classmates, I'll be doing the same for my contacts. Saying that, I feel really close to Melvi's opinion if not the same. There is one thing nobody can take is our personality, our way to make business and interact with people.

    Scott, as you highlighted, people with a particular business profiles like recruiters etc can't share their contacts. But I guess these people; apart recruiters; won't be using online networks much. They have their own, build by years of practice. Of course, as a newbie in network practices, you can show me that I'm wrong.

    One thought came to my mind while reading the posts, are these people, who hide their contact, trying in a way to fool their contacts? It's just a thought, so please don't take it as an offense. I registered this group in order to get better knowledge in networking, and therefore willing to make mistakes, and saying maybe "enormous things" here and learn why.
    This came from a saying which is that when you are hiding something, it might be because you are not "clean".

    As Melvi said in her last post, she feels proud to be part of this network. I'm like that, my classmates call me "network freak" , because I just keep speaking about it, and how resourceful Xing can be for us, and because I keep inviting them to join Xing until they do !!!

    Thanks a lot for your reading,

    Julien

    .
    • 24 May 2007, 10:32 pm
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