Networking vs Connecting

by Byron Woodson II

I guess you could place this post in an on-off series talking about the distinctions between networking, netweaving and now you can add connecting to this. I've written a few posts in this vein here, here and here. This is inspired by a post by Valdis Krebs who wrote a pretty succinct way to network 'the right way'.

I subscribe to the blog The Network Thinker written by Valdis Krebs (who created the social networking software Inflow) for obvious reasons. Recently, Valdis wrote a post entitled Connecting Yourself to a Job. While most of his posts are about the abstract properties of networks, here he gives some real tactical advice about how to go about networking for getting a job.

Work with someone!

That's pretty much it. When you meet/connect with someone new, you two have very little sense of how well that other person does business, handles relationships and the like. So recomending them to someone else would be an act of trust. In order for two people to get a sense of the other person's skills and work ethic, you have to work with them.

Working with someone does not necessitate having to work at the same job. You could put on a conference on a topic, volunteer in another organization, or create any small project that you two can work on. It is only in the context of working together, that you can guage that other person's skills and abilities.

This, incidentally, is why Linkedin is both a blessing and a curse. It enables people to proselytize their professional network, but it also allows for abuse. Really, someone with 5000 connections on linkedin cannot possibly know them all! That is why perhaps the rival [insert problem: i heard of www.anthillz.com but at this time their website isn't working, but basically to get a connection, each person has to write a review of the other person] anthillz may be a better alternative to connecting.

Valdis says "quality trusted ties develop when people work on something together . . . not over a handshake . . . coffee . . . [or] at a job fair". In order to build a network, you actually have to work with the people in it, imagine that! Go ahead and read his whole post, it's much better than my summary could get.

So, do any of these things:
1. volunteer
2. co-host a party or after-hours
3. invite a speaker to your group (job)
4. create a presentation for your group (job)