Mark Cheret

Bring value to your network first the rest will come later. Have you built your valuable and strong network already? If so, you know that seeking to bring value to your network first will make the key difference. People experienced in networking will mostly concur. I’ll list different ways of contributing value to your network in just a second.

Contribute according to your abilities

People generally want to improve upon their current status. If you can help them in any way, you’re just destined to do that. For you it may be easy things to do. For someone else it might seem absolutely impossible. Helping someone get off the ground in any sense of the meaning will leave a lasting and positive impression. Human nature is programmed wanting to return a favour. Set yourself up so that you’re the first who gets a favour returned.

Now here’s one networking advice I can give you. I’ve had countless opportunities through this seemingly small but impactful gesture. On the surface it’s quite simple: Always say goodbye to everyone when you’re leaving an event! And I know that it’s more complicated than that. Give me a moment to explain, though. It will become essential in your networking toolkit.

Everyone’s so busy

So you’ve been at this busy event and you only knew half of the people there. Everyone was just chatting away having a good time networking. You only had the opportunity to briefly introduce yourself or your business but you didn’t seem to connect to anyone present on a deeper level. I’ve left many events feeling the same until I started to say goodbye to everyone. Not a general “bye, folks” or something but rather at least a brief personal “Good bye, Gina. It’s nice to see you. When will we meet again?” You won’t believe how many people then wanted to get my business card, remembering my short introduction. Try it yourself and you’ll see. I know it works more often than not and I’ll tell you why.

Your network strength is directly proportional to your contribution to it. I will go into more detail on how you can contribute to your network in coming articles on networking. But first I think it’s best to give you some thoughts on why I think your network is only as strong as your contribution to it. For the sake of simplicity, in this piece I’m going to stick to your local economic forum as an example for a network. In reality, though, you can apply the following thoughts to any network. Whether it is your own or an existing group of people you join.