Imagine you are at a breakfast networking meeting. You go over and grab a coffee and as you are standing there, someone comes along and says ‘Hello!’
Do you politely tell them to ‘go away’ or do you say ‘hello’ back and start a conversation?
I recently did the equivalent online and I got a reply that effectively said ‘Do I know you?’
Imagine I was a potential customer and I came up and said ‘Hello!’ online to this person? How would this person ever know until at least engaging in a conversation. While engaging with this person and showing interest it turned out that I was in fact a potential client.
Some people will only talk to people they already know. I call that ‘Closed networking’. Others are seeking to get to know new people and are open to conversations with new people. I call that ‘Open networking’.
If you are using online networking to just stay in touch then Closed networking is fine. If you are using it for business development then you need to be prepared to say hello to lots of people. Just like in the offline world, some you will like and some you will not like. Some will be time wasters and some will lead you to your biggest client ever!
Remember this rhymn – You never know until you say hello!
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on Feb 4th, 2010 at 8:14 am
Hello….!
I agree completely with what you say, but I think there is another factor at play. In “real world” networking we expect people to come up and say “hello” and we have mechanisms for dealing with unwanted connections. We politely say, “hello” and then move away, avert eye contact, make an excuse of some kind. There are non-verbal behaviours we can use.
Online, we don’t have such mechanisms and we end up appearing rude whatever we do. If we ignore the connection, that’s rude and if we show we are closed with an “I don’t know you” response, that’s also rude.
The difference is, online you are in a world that is essentially open, not closed, in terms of networking. If you’re not an “open networker” then perhaps being online is not right for you. But then, of course, nose spiting face comes into play.
on May 6th, 2011 at 1:06 pm
Perhaps it’s worth asking yourself why you signed up to an online Networking site. LinkedIn is very popular and I use it a reasonable amount. The reason is that I want to grow my network, people buy from people, if the buyer doesn,t like the seller then the deals going nowhere.
I can understand if the interaction only ends up being 3 messages.
1st is person A saying to person B
2nd Person B taking a look at their profile saying hi back perhaps with a closing remark.
3rd Person responds politely and conversation ends.
I think anything less than that is likely to appear ignorant and rude, your reputation relies on leaving each contact with a positive, otherwise your doing yourself a disservice.
I keep ending up back at this site from the posts you make on twitter, this is such a useful resource, especially for a Techie Geek with no sales skills. aKA Me