How can you really trust someone you have never met? You need to see the white’s of their eyes, feel the sincerity in a handshake and interpret how they present themselves before committing to a partnership.

Most normal people wouldn’t get married before at least a first date and there ought not to be a difference in business relationships. People buy people and cutting through all the mustard it is the likeability factor that turns nothing into nuptials.

Networking should be a significant factor in anyone’s self-branding strategy; whether you are looking to find a new job, build your contact base or find like-minded professionals for your own team.

Hang out with your homies

If you are looking to develop your career you need to find potential suitors. You need to hang out where your prospects do. Sure, use social media channels to identify where this is but then you go and find them, hunt them down. Media-types are notorious for skulking London’s West End bars, where their hedonistic drinking clubs are both revered and reviled, depending which camp you are in. So if you want a career in media & marketing, wouldn’t it make sense to identify the bars, pitch up a stool and get involved?

Making new contacts

Careers fairs, trade shows, seminars, conferences, training courses and networking events: they all afford one common benefit: making new contacts. And this isn’t just about exchanging business cards – though this should be encouraged – it is about learning from peers and taking advantage of an accepted stage for self-promotion.

Social media works through the theory of altruism, whereby doing something for someone else for nothing pays dividends in the long-run. Social networking pushes benevolence to one side for that moment and is replaced by legitimate egocentricity. This is your chance to show your audience that what you can offer is better than anyone else, especially those reliant on the one-dimensional career assault of a CV application.

These days we are bombarded with opportunities to plug our skills. Whether this is via our Google accounts, professional networking streams such as LinkedIn; or social favourite, Facebook, we are more transparent and more visible to external viewers than ever before. Whilst on the one hand this presents wonderful opportunities for free PR, the connotations can be undetermined. Unless you track it (and of course you should where you can) you are never quite sure what people are saying about you. If the comments are negative, how do you provide positive retort?

Stand out like a sore thumb

Recruiters continually look at engaging with passive jobseekers; these are the folk that would move for the right role but have no immediate desire to change. These people are valuable because they usually demand increased incentives to move, thus the recruiter can charge a premium should they find them a new job. The advent of social media and other digital domains means individuals can easily be found, especially if they produce online content in the form of blogs or general opinion pieces. But being found is only a good thing if your metaphorical house is in order.

Developing ‘brand you’

Offline networking allows you to take control of your individual PR. Engaging face-to-face is proactive, productive and positive. People will appreciate the effort you have taken to replace your mouse with a voice and in return you will be rewarded with a bunch of new contacts to benefit today, tomorrow and in the future. Who knows, you might also get a new job out of it. And if you do it will prove that old-fashioned networking is an equal partner to the online application process, particularly when it comes to enhancing ‘brand you’ and increasing your career opportunities.

Read more about the benefits of meeting people

You might also like to read Social Networking Quotes, How Networking is the Same as Speed Dating, and How to Network on LinkedIn

Simon Lewis | Editor | Only Marketing Jobs

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