“It’s not what you know but who you know.”
Your soft skills and technical know-how are priceless when it comes to job performance. But landing new opportunities and advancing your career doesn’t depend on your skills alone. Getting ahead also requires leveraging people skills and self-promotion to build a supportive professional network.
Networking isn’t exclusive to meet and greets and industry events. Every professional situation presents an opportunity to build your reputation. With a few practical networking tips, you can learn to demonstrate your unique value, confidently meet new people, and strategically steer your career.
What’s networking?
Networking is the process of building relationships with fellow professionals for the purpose of increasing available career opportunities. You connect with people who share similar goals and work philosophies, exchange resources and knowledge, and nurture mutually beneficial relationships.
When you dedicate energy to growing your professional relationships, you take a proactive approach to developing your career path. Rather than passively waiting for opportunities to land on your doorstep, you actively seek them out. Networking also puts transferable soft skills into practice, builds a sense of belonging in your field, and can motivate you to support your professional community.
You can find opportunities to build connections in every professional interaction — from the links you include in your professional email signature to delivering your elevator pitch at a networking event and everything in between.
The importance of networking
According to the theory of six degrees of separation, everyone is connected by six social connections.
Imagine you want to pitch an idea to your dream employer. You check your LinkedIn profile and find only four connections separating you two. A coworker has an old boss whose assistant knows the hiring manager at the company the CEO founded. Theoretically, you could message every person until you reach your target.
While the six degrees theory is a pop culture phenomenon, it demonstrates the potential of a professional network. The smaller the chain and more robust your network is, the more likely you’ll reach the information, resource, or opportunity you need to advance your career. While working your way down a long chain may not be practical for every professional, leaning into your immediate professional network could help you meet a potential mentor, fund your big idea, or find your first employee.
Here are some other benefits of successful networking:
6 business networking tips
Now that you understand how networking benefits your career, it’s time to put yourself out there.
Whether you’re building a network from scratch or want to learn techniques to take advantage of your existing one, here are six of the best networking tips to make valuable connections.
1. Prepare to make a good first impression
Networking isn’t confined to professional meetups. A fundraiser, company party, or free time activity might connect you to the right recruiter, business collaborator, or new workmate.
Make a great first impression — no matter who you meet — by practicing an elevator pitch or personal brand statement you can adapt to different professional and social situations. When someone inevitably says, “Tell me about yourself,” you can answer with more confidence, clarity, and the details they need to help you advance your career.
Imagine your pitch as a quick story with a clear beginning, middle, and end: Who you are, what you do, and why you’re unique. An effective introduction isn’t an excuse to hog the microphone. Instead, practice being concise and inviting curiosity. Here’s an example:
“My name’s [your name]. I worked in electrical engineering for the last 10 years but recently transitioned to software engineering. I’m actually about to finish up my first coding project.”
Why this works: It lets the other person know your background, skills, and experience. And it shows off your ambition and leaves room to ask questions and develop a conversation.
2. Ask questions
People enjoy talking about themselves, perhaps because studies show that self-disclosure releases feel-good hormones.
But remember: effective professional networking is a two-way street. Talk about yourself to provide details that kick-start conversations so your listener can contribute, and then ask questions about them so they enjoy those feel-good hormones, too. That could lead to finding valuable commonalities and developing a mutually-beneficial relationship.
If carrying a conversation doesn’t come naturally, the best networking tip for introverts is to ask open-ended questions and seek common ground. Once you find a similar interest, the conversation will flow.
3. Practice active listening
Listening well ensures you catch important details you can seize on to prompt professional opportunities or find shared interests. To do this, practice your active listening skills, which help you understand and retain information.
Making your conversation partner feel listened to has several benefits. It might make them more willing to engage in conversation, comfortable sharing information, and connected to the exchange. All these things mean they’re more likely to share interesting opportunities with you.
Here are a few techniques to be a better listener:
- Direct your body to your conversation partner and maintain eye contact
- Paraphrase and use gestures like nodding to show you’re listening
- Pay attention to nonverbal cues
- Avoid distractions like looking around the room for new conversation partners or checking your phone
- Ask clarifying questions to better understand the conversation
4. Choose a prize — and keep your eye on it
One of the most obvious benefits of network building is having someone to lean on when you need information, help with a problem, or to bounce around ideas.
The first step to leveraging your network is creating clear goals and defining a networking plan. Walking into a networking event with a clear objective in mind can help you act more purposefully and actively pursue your goals.
Journal some short-term career goals. Then, assess the strengths and gaps in your current network and begin network planning. Your plan should include a time frame, a clear objective, and action items.
Here’s an example:
In the next two months, I’ll reach out to 10 colleagues in my industry who can help me find new job opportunities. To prepare, I’ll revise my resume, update my LinkedIn profile, and print business cards. I’ll also attend my professional association’s quarterly meeting, one job fair, and two professional mixers.
5. Build your confidence
In-person networking events can be nerve-wracking, even for the most accomplished socialite. But you build confidence through action. Feeling more comfortable in social networking situations takes consistency and repetition. The more you put yourself out there and overcome an overwhelming situation, the more confident you’ll feel over time.
Practicing your pitch and arriving prepared are two ways to feel more at ease and build confidence before an event. Here are a few more techniques:
6. Follow up on positive connections
Following up is a good strategy for making a lasting impression. At social networking events, you’ll likely have several conversations with new connections. A follow-up refreshes someone’s mind and helps continue the good discussion.
If you interact positively with someone, write a follow-up email or connect on LinkedIn. Like any professional email, keep it concise. If appropriate, give them a call-to-action (something to do or reply to after reading the message) to continue building the connection. Here are two examples:
Example one:
Dear [name],
It was wonderful meeting you at [name of event]. I really enjoyed learning about [brief explanation about conversation]. Let me know if you have time to grab a coffee or take a phone call to chat about [topic] sometime next week.
Best,
[your name]
Example two:
Dear [name],
I’m so glad I met you at [name of event]. It was refreshing to meet someone who works in [industry or job title]. Will you attend the next [event name] in [month]? I hope to see you there.
Have a wonderful week!
Kind regards,
[your name]
How to effectively network online
These days, your digital persona is almost as important as your real “self.” How you compose emails or engage with professional social media platforms can reinforce your reputation and lead to meeting important new contacts.
Here are a few effective ways to network online:
- Optimize your emailing: You can use even the most mundane exchanges to promote yourself. An effective email signature should contain your job title, current company, contact information, and links to work-appropriate social media platforms and professional websites.
- Take advantage of social media: You’ve nothing to lose cold connecting on LinkedIn and other professional socials. Use a common interest to foster cold connections, like a workshop you both attended or a conference they spoke at. Just be sure to keep it professional — messaging someone on their private social media might come off as invasive or inappropriate.
- Update your profiles: A great first impression lasts a long-time. Consistently update your professional profiles to reflect your current job title, skills, and experiences. That way, if someone you met at a conference a year ago thinks of you for a job opportunity, your profiles will confirm whether you’re right or wrong for the position.
- Join online networking groups: Sometimes, more is less. Rather than signing up for every industry forum, choose online networking groups with members and missions that genuinely engage you. It’ll be more manageable than balancing dozens of groups and might lead to more meaningful connections.
Get the conversation started
Taking these networking tips into consideration, it’s time to meet people. Developing a professional network is part of your career, but it doesn’t have to feel like a job. Show up prepared, focus on your objectives, and engage in spaces that genuinely interest and you’ll do great.
Start small. At your next professional event, introduce yourself and practice your conversation and self-promotion skills. Feeling good about a new connection will likely motivate you to continue putting yourself out there. If you do, you might be one social connection closer to reaching your next big career goal.
