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Can online social networking replace traditional networking?

February 27, 2010 | Posted in Social Media | View Comments

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I was at a Dublin chamber networking meeting the other day and Sean Weafer (creates high trust advisors, leaders and teams) gave a talk on business networking. He said that business networking offline is going to become increasingly important because most countries will eventually ban cold calling. So it’s going to be more important than ever before to attend business networking events.

Even though I do a lot of consultancy around online social networking I still believe that turning up in person at networking events is extremely important. I probably network at these events much more than the average business. The perfect solution to networking is a combination of online and offline networking. You can’t just network online and expect to meet the perfect business partner, customer or employee and similarly you can’t just network offline due to the changing nature of how people like to communicate and the potential of reaching people you’ll never get to see in person.

Some of Sean’s excellent tips are listed below:

1. Wear your name badge on your right lapel to make it easier for people to see.

2. If you want to join a conversation of a group look for an open group where they have not closed off in a circle. This means they haven’t really formed as a group so if you ask them if they mind if you join they will say yes.

3. If there is a closed group that have formed in a circle wait until the group splits up, new members not welcome.

4. If you are talking with a person who is a clinger on(!) ask them if they want to go for a coffee. At this stage you may split up, if you don’t and they walk with you for a coffee find an open group on the way and ask ‘do you mind if we join you’ !

So work out a strategy for online and offline networking and work out how they will work along side each other. Linking up with someone online is never going to have the same effect of meeting somebody in person.

Is your networking strategy effective? What tips do you have that you want to share?