PAPERmaking! FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF PAPER TECHNOLOGY Volume 5, Number 1, 2019
3.) Know Who You’re Reaching Out To This should be a no- brainer, but if you’ve ever gotten an unsolicited email that felt like a spam message but actually wasn’t, you know what I mean here. The most important thing to remember here is that if you are trying to connect with an influential person, this becomes even more important — not because they are inherently more important, but because they probably have people trying to reach out all the time. You can stand out by doing your homework and actually getting to know some facts about the person you’re about to reach out to, beyond t he “surface level” stuff that everybody already knows. People reach out to me a lot of discuss content strategy, and I’m flattered when they bring up some work of mine that they saw on Help Scout, Bidsketch, or any other place I regularly appear. As basic as that may seem, remember point #2… on the internet, everyone comes across as : “Blah blah blah enough about you, let’s get back to me!“ Separate yourself from the pack and actually come prepared knowing about the person’s passion projects, and I gu arantee you’ll get remembered. 4.) Use Positive Language I actually talked about this in my list of customer service skills, and this is true for building proposals (as described in this example eBook about software development proposals), but it goes far beyond dealing with customers — it’s great for networking too. This is especially true when you consider that so much communication today is done via text, and it’s hard to display emotions and other subtle cues without the other person’s face being in s ight. For instance, compare these two similar requests… “Hey. I want to do an interview with you on your new project by this Friday, we have very similar audiences.” vs. “Hey, I’d love it if we could do a quick interview sometime soon on your new proje ct, my audience loves your work.” While “saying” the same thing, you likely immediately realized that #2 was far more inviting and using positive language to get the same message across, but without the bluntness (which can be misinterpreted for rudeness via text) of the first example. When in doubt about the tone of your message, it is best to keep this rule in mind and evaluate whether or not you are using positive language, there is essentially no downside (just don’t be overly chipper or “Whoo hoo!” f or every single message) and it is a great way to avoid communication problems that stem from using harsher language. 5.) Cultivate Your “Power” Contacts As much as many people may not like to hear it, “All contacts are equal, but some are more equal than others. ” You’re going to come across people who become power contacts as you become more connected with those in your industry. These people will be the ones who are constantly introducing you to new/interesting contacts, referring you to others for more work, and just generally pushing your business forward. I can name one supernetworker of mine in Leo Widrich, co-founder of the BufferApp. Although we’re both busy, I try to stay in regular contact with Leo, make contributing to the Buffer blog a monthly priority, and constantly make mentions of Leo wherever I post (hint hint).
Article 11 – Networking
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