Volunteering & Volunteer Students

My way this week was more network building. Last week, we met lots of new people and I took time to write thank you notes to all of them. Building a network in my future hometown has been very useful and rewarding.

I’ve been building a network of contacts in North Carolina for over a year. When I was laid off in October 2008 I set a long-term goal of moving to the Raleigh-Durham area. I’ve steadily worked on it over the past 16 months to connect with people in real and substantial ways.

I started with LinkedIn. I have a very robust profile with lots of detail about my past positions. This is your online resume, make it shine. Honestly this is my most powerful networking tool and, in my opinion, one most  undervalued social media websites.

First, I found LinkedIn Groups to join and start watching the chatter about companies and jobs in the area. In fact, I found out about the UMD Empty Bowl’s volunteer opportunity by watcdhing a LinkedIn Group. It’s a great way to get a taste of an area’s professional trends.

From Groups, I started finding people who worked in communications/marketing and made connections. I’d simply send a connection request to people who looked interesting stating “Hi, I’m looking to relocate to Raleigh soon. Can I connect with you and pick your brain about the area?” These quick simple requests usually work and spark a conversation.

Every time I apply for a job I do a search in LinkedIn to see if I’m already connected with anyone at the company. If I’m connected, bingo! I’ve got an instant in. If not, I see how far away I am from a connection and call in favors to be connected.

Finally, I do a little poking on LinkedIn about a company. I see how big the company is, what the median age is, and look at other collected stats. I also look at how connected the company’s employees are to social media. I find this helpful to determining how tech-y they are. This is all useful information for applications, interviews and having an in-depth knowledge about the organization.

Next, I connected with people on Twitter. This is a very slow and organic process, but well worth it. You can start by doing a Google to search for people on Twitter or use Twitter tools like WeFollow to find people who self identify as living in an area. I also look at who my favorite Raleigh-area tweeters are following and follow them too.

Twitter has been a GREAT relationship builder for me. By following people on Twitter you can get a slice of their personality and see what they care about. I have been able to connect with people through Twitter that I would have NOT been able to connect with in any other way – not email, not websites, not conferences. These connections are deep and meaningful.

Here are some ways to make a great impression on influential Twitter personalities:

• Be a real person – Ugggh, there is nothing worse than being a bot on Twitter. Be real, be honest and people will like you.
• Be useful – I have a professionally focused Twitter account where I posts information about social media trends, health care communications, nonprofit stuff, science information and general Raleigh-Durham stories. I have been told that I post useful articles and get retweeted all the time.
• Retweet (RT) with meaning – RTing is great, but add something that furthers the conversation.
• Help them out – If they ask a question or tweet that they are working on a specific project send them a direct mail (DM) with something that helps them out. I send research or handy locations to my favorite tweeters all the time.

I value my Twitter relationships. I enjoy connecting with people in this way. Twitter helps me stay top of mind for my contacts and further deepens a relationship.

My last way to build a network is good old email. I’ll find organizations that I want to work for and search their site for people who would be interesting to talk to. From there I send a “cold call” email to them asking them if we can connect to ask questions or, even better, treat them to coffee or lunch. I’ve had an incredible success rate with this method, sometimes it takes a couple of emails, but I can usually connect. It also says something about the people who don’t connect with you, it really does.

Now once you have a connection make sure you connect with them in every possible way. With my close Twitter connections I connect on LinkedIn. With my LinkedIn connections I follow them on Twitter, and send them a quick email so they have my contact information and introduce them to my blog. For my most precious connections I’ll connect on Facebook to have a more personal link.

It’s a wonderful web I weave and I am so thankful for this support network. In an economy like this, it’s all about being good at what you do AND the people you know. Connecting with people is time-consuming but joyous experience.

More than working to get a job, I’ve also grown to know so many fantastic people in my future home. It will just make the move so much easier and fun. Heck, I have a network of friends already set-up for when we land. Could you really ask for more?