Short-Term Networking
1. exchange cards
2. send an email
3. call
Long-Term Networking (netweaving)
1. follow up
2. arrange a meeting
3. introduce them to someone else
You can see from the different set of actions that the focus of short-term and long-term time-frames are different. The actions in short-term networking focus on getting in contact. There's not much after that. The actions of long-term networking include short-term networking (getting and contact, step 2) and moves on to doing something that provides value to that person (step 3) by linking them into your network. This could be in the form of a referral (business), a party (social) or a meeting (business) or all three. It can take place at dinner, on a conference call, a business lunch, coffee or many other gatherings.
You might be thinking "but I don't want to give away my connections". I have two responses to that. First, by linking people into your network, that is networking. Without linking and intertwining the relationships you have, you don't have a network, you have strings.The problem may lay in the fact that what most people do is connect and they mistakenly call it networking.
Second, the only 'giving away' connections in this world is when a father gives his daughter away for marriage. You connections aren't a limited resource like money. Your connections are a limited resource like the process of breathing . . . there isn't a limit. By being 'stingy' with the connections you have, you're actually choking the source of your network, and the source of your network is your network!
How do people find friends? Through other friends. How do people and businesses find customers? Through word-of-mouth. How do people find jobs? Other people again! By knowing more people, developing fuller relationships with them and giving them access to your network, you are building a long-lasting connection with that person.
So what does introducing people to one another have to do with the short/long term networking?
When you do anything for the long-term or the short-term, the actions you take are vastly different. We see in the stock market the impact that short-term profits has had on our economy (our current recession). We know about the impact on health that boxers, football players and other athletes experience after years of grindingly hard sports.
When you do anything for the long term, your actions are different. A person who wants to play tennis doesn't do warm-ups and calisthenics and then quit. They do calisthenics and warm ups so that they can play tennis. When you network for the long term, your focus is not on meeting people, it's on knowing them. This involves interacting with them in social, business, political and family environments. Networking is culture. Networking is not A culture. Networking is culture. Your network is the culture you are surrounded by.
The degree to which you network for the short-term or the long-term can be measured by how many people you talk with and how often you do it. The more people you talk to the more often, of course the more connected you will be to that individual. The more often you talk to people who talk to each other, the more connected you will be to that network.
If you want to start networking for the long-term, Do this:
1. Call 3 people you haven't talked to in months
2. Invite all of them to do something with you in two weeks, make sure you leave a message.
3. Do this every day for a week (as in invite more people).
4. Repeat this three times a year.
Remember, the focus is on knowing them. You can only know someone by interacting with them. By inviting them to interact with you and other people, you get to know them not only through your own eyes, but also you know how they operate in groups, respond to your friends, and what your friends think about them. Networking for the long-term requires that you actively introduce people you know to one another.
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