The Networking Blog

Your blog can be utilized for networking, especially by linking to other bloggers – your potential connections. In two previous posts, we’ve discussed two methods of linking: a short link post and “linking by the way”. Both methods discussed linking to a single post. This time, we’ll explore a different approach – linking to the whole blog.

Linking to the whole blog means linking to the home page. The main drawback of this method is the lack of focus. Your readers aren’t directed to specific content but to a person.

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Naymz is a fast growing professional networking site. Many features are similar to LinkedIn. Here is a list of 4 advantages and 4 disadvantages of Naymz, with many comparisons to LinkedIn.

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Birthday parties are excellent for networking since you usually get to know new people on familiar ground. We take this one step further, by offering shared birthday parties.

A birthday party can be an excellent ground for networking. For example, you might be a colleague of the birthday boy (or girl), and other guests can be relatives, college friends, co-workers from another place or from a totally different background.

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In our post Networking Where you Least Expect It, we’ve offered various places that are possible networking locations: sports groups, political activities, and in fact, any place is a good place for networking.

This week we’ve discovered that even a very short taxi ride can be an opportunity for making connections. My girlfriend took a short taxi ride in town. You know how taxi drivers like to talk  - they’re born with excellent networking skills.

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Linking to a fellow blogger can sure contribute to healthy networking. In the introduction post to this issue, we outlined four ways of linking for networking, and last time we took a dive into writing a link post. This time, we focus on a better way of linking, by doing it “by the way”.

This type of linking method isn’t that complicated. You write a post that relates in one way or another to what someone else wrote. It’s better to focus on something that you would write about anyway. And while you’re writing your post, you link to your fellow blogger’s post when you relate to the topic he wrote about.

This method is the best way to link, and you can repeat it as many times as you wish. Here are the main advantages:

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Using links in blogs is very useful for networking. In the initial post post about this matter, we’ve briefly discussed 4 ways of linking for networking. In this post, we’ll dive into the first method – a link post.

When I talk about a link post, I’m referring to a very short post, which is usually not longer than 100 words. This kind of short post focuses solely on the link. You can look at such a post as a road sign. It briefly tells you where to go.

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Chester French is a talented two-man show. Let’s hear some of their rock music, and then talk about how they network their way to the fans:

The song you’ve just heard is titled “She loves everybody”. While this song helped them reach out to a larger audience, it wasn’t a huge hit, and wasn’t enough to promote their debut album “Love the Future”.

Traditional musicians rely on their record company to promote their act by using Public Relations offices, posters in record stores, etc.

But D.A. Wallach and Max Drummey took a different path: they’re promoting their music through networking.

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Everybody heard about Twitter, the ultra-viral micro blogging service. In future posts we’ll show how to use Twitter for networking. Today we’re going to focus on a by-product of Twitter – Tweetups, or Twitter meet-ups in human language.

Twitter is young: it aired only in 2006, when other social networks were already strong in the market. In the last year or so, it’s popularity leaped worldwide.

The short 140 format makes it easy to use and easy to follow. Naturally, you follow and get followed by people you know. Later you become exposed to more people that share a common interest.

After reaching a critical mass, communities began evolving around the “Twittersphere”. This critical mass means that not only geeks use it, but the general public. So, people that get to know each other via very short messages want to get together in real life. So, tweetups were born.

A Tweetup is a Networking Event

Tweetups are usually held once a month during the evening at a bar. This allows for a relaxed and not to formal atmosphere. But the attendants of this event didn’t solely to drink a beer before going home.

Attendants of tweetups are usually people who want to connect. They come also for meeting their virtual friends in real life, but they usually come with an agenda. The name tags with the @TwitterUser mean that a tweetup is a networking event, not a geek get-together.

Many times, the audience of tweetups has a tendency towards the internet sector, and internet marketing in particular, but it’s not a bunch of programmers…

So, tweetups are significant networking events, and especially important for those of you who want to connect to people in the internet sector.

How can I find out about upcoming Tweetups?

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Using links in blog posts is very common – you often cite sources to prove your point or quote an article that you’re referring to. Linking to other people’s blogs is also very valuable for networking purposes. Here are 4 ways of linking.

Why link?

Linking to a fellow blogger draws his attention in a positive way. In his blog dashboard he sees an incoming link from you, and he also sees incoming traffic. He also may get new readers to his blog, readers that came from your network.

This a gesture of good will that is taken positively. It can lead to having him thank you via your blog, or perhaps by a personal email. So, a link is good way of igniting a connection.

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The best and most straightforward way to utilize your blog for networking is commenting on other people’s blogs. Here are a few tips for commenting.

Maintaining a blog is an excellent way to present yourself on the web. Contrary to social media sites, a web log enables you to control the design, write how much you want and set the agenda.

Having your own domain name also enhances your presence on the web and makes it easier to find you via search engines.

So my blog helps me present myself, but we’re here to talk about networking, right?

The best way to communicate with a blog is commenting on other blogs. If you wish to communicate and connect to another person who has a blog, head there and comment on one of the latest blog posts.

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