The fifth instalment of our 'Going social' series in our monthly online magazine Insight welcomes back guest author Heather Townsend. In this blog post Heather looks at ways to avoid wasting time and network more effectively in different situations.

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I've lost count of the amount of times I hear people tell me that they just don’t have time to network; and 'by the way, my employer expects me to network in my own time.' However, these are the people who always grumble that so-and-so always gets the best pieces of work... always seems to know everything before me... and why is it that I don’t get headhunted for a job?

The answer is very simply that your network is your ticket to business and career success, so you owe it to yourself to make time for networking. However, networking without purpose, focus or results – which most people end up doing – is a massive waste of time and money. This is the very reason I devised the FITTER TM model. FITTER stands for...

Follow up: Your follow up is crucial to your networking success. After meeting new people, decide on how important they are to you.

I tend to have a very simple classificiation system, where I class people within my network as an A, B or C lister. If they are likely to be able to help me meet my career and business goals in the short and medium term, I class them as an A lister.

My C-lister is someone that either the chemistry between us is just not gelling or they are very unlikely to be able to help me achieve my goals in the long term.

Anyone I am not sure about, gets classed as a B lister. Regardless of where someone fits in my classification system, I will always send them a note after meeting them and connect with them on social networking sites.

Introduce yourself with impact: You never get another chance to make another first impression. A good first impression enables you to start and build a mutually beneficial relationship. T

hese days people will often form a first impression of you by looking at your online footprint before meeting you face to face. Yes, your online footprint – how many of us actively manage our personal online footprint? Your LinkedIn profile is most likely to be in the top three results when people google your name.

Target specific people: Like so many finance professionals your time is precious, so make sure you know who you want to meet and why you want to meet them. Before you even agree to an event, see who will already be attending? Are these the type of people, your career or business needs you to meet?

It makes it ten times easier to enter a room full of strangers if you have already agreed to meet someone at the event.

Turn social conversations into business chat: Before you start talking business, take your time to get to know the person first and generate some rapport. Once rapport has been established, then move the conversation onto business topics. Many people make the mistake of zooming straight into a sales pitch when they are out meeting.

Engage: How do I put this nicely? The best way to generate a relationship is to forget about you and your needs. You will have better quality (and ultimately more profitable conversations) if you focus 80% of your energy on listening and finding out about the other person.

When you are networking online, try to include questions which encourage people to comment and join in the conversation.

Research: Your research will enable you to focus only on the events worth attending, but the social networking sites, forums, groups and people who will be beneficial to you to meet or re-connect with and good topics to talk about.

Next time you think about going out network, make sure that you give yourself an effective workout by putting the FITTER model through its paces.


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Heather Townsend is speaking at the forthcoming event:

Joined up networking – how to use online and offline networking for career and business success (free joint event with CIPD - book here)

Event details: Wednesday 19th October 2011 at 18:45
Cottesmore Country Club, Pease Pottage RH11 9AT, Sussex, UK.

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Post questions for Heather online via Twitter in advance of the event, marking each question or comment with the hashtag #joinedup.

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Previous 'going social' articles in Insight:
Going social: what is social media for?
Going social: creating a profile that works
Going social: online and offline networking united
Going social: could Twitter replace email?