TIN #033 - My Worst Networking Mistakes
How I messed up my networking and the lessons you can learn from it
Good Morning đ - Greg here.
Happy Saturday to everyone whoâs having networking conversations this week.
I hate making mistakes.
But they happen.
Sometimes, I make mistakes when Iâm networking.
And, I always learn something from them.
This morning, Iâm sharing three networking mistakes Iâve made and what you can learn from them.
This issue takes less than 4 minutes to read.
My Mistakes:
The three mistakes I want to share today are:
Being Hard To Help
Being Unprepared
Being Too Aggressive
Iâll tell you the story of each and what Iâd recommend you do differently.
Being Hard To Help
When I help people grow their networks, I always tell them to âBe Easy to Help.â
One time, I was on a call with a professional connection of mine. I did all the things I tell other people to do:
Re-connected with someone I used to work with
Had a voice to voice conversation
I gave my advice on some problems she was working on
At the end of the conversation, she said the magic words, "How can I help you?"
I said, "Nothing, right now."
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Ok, thereâs nothing wrong with saying, âNothing, right now.â
But there are better ways to answer this question.
I couldâve said something like:
âIâm interested in meeting someone who works at (name of Target Company)â
âCould you introduce me to X?â
âWho is someone youâve met recently that I should know?â
Any of those things would have been better.
Any of them would have made me Easy to Help.
Itâs better to have a very specific way your connections can help you.
The more specific you are, the easier you are to help.
I went into more details about this in TIN 005 - How To Get People To Help You (Without Asking)
After I made this mistake, I made a point to always have a very specific idea in my head about how my connection could help me, if she asked me, âHow can I help you?â
Being Unprepared
My first mistake had an element of Being Unprepared in it, but my second mistake is related to Being Unprepared when it comes to networking at conferences.
In TIN #015 and TIN #016, I wrote about how to network at conferences.
One of the key actions you can take to prepare for a conference is to create a custom nametag.
I like to include my LinkedIn QR code on my nametag (Oh, you didnât know you had an LI QR code for your profile? Click here to learn how to get it).
This makes my nametag stand out, it gives people a reason to talk to me (âHey, how did you get your QR code on your nametag?â), and it allows them to connect with me on Linked right away.
I went to a conference after I had written the two newsletter issues about networking at conferences, and I didnât take the time to customize my nametag.
I figured I would write something on the nametag the conference gave me, but when I got there and wrote that I was âLooking to hire compensation consultants,â my handwriting was too small and too hard to read.
No one could see it, and no one asked me about it.
I had missed the opportunity to stand out and generate conversations.
It wasnât a total disaster, but because I didnât take the time to prepare for the conference the way I had told all my readers, I missed an opportunity.
Being Too Aggressive
My last mistake happened when I was trying to connect with the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) of a company I was interested in.
Using my Target Company List, I was searching LinkedIn for all the CHROs of those companies. I wanted to make sure I was following them and to connect with them if possible.
I wasnât looking for a new job, but I wanted to be sure I had made online connections in case future opportunities came up.
One CHRO appeared to be active on LinkedIn. She had created her own posts recently and was a frequent commenter on other peopleâs posts.
These were good signs she would respond if I connected with her.
I started by following her profile on LinkedIn.
As a follower, I saw her new posts in my feed.
When she posted, I commented.
She responded to my comment, so I sent her a Connection Request saying, âThanks for commenting on my comment. Iâm in the HR world and am always looking to connect with HR leaders like you.â
She accepted my connection.
As time went on, I saw her posts and added valuable comments.
She posted a link to a podcast where she was the guest so I listened to it.
Then, I sent her a message on LinkedIn telling her what I thought about the podcast and gave her my own insights on some of the topics from the episode.
I never heard from her again.
Was this too aggressive? Maybe, maybe not.
In retrospect, I probably should have continued my commenting strategy until she became more familiar with my name.
I should have spent more time demonstrating my value instead of moving right to a direct conversation with her.
Iâll never really know, but I felt like I moved too quickly from follower to connection to sending messages.
I felt like I came across like one of those people who shows up in your DMs trying to sell you something as soon as you connect with them.
Sometimes, you may need to move fast when you are connecting with people. In some cases it will work, in other cases it wonât.
If youâre networking before you need your network, you can slow down a little bit and let the relationships with new connections grow over time.
Thatâs the reason to start networking now. When you start before you need it, you donât have to force it, and youâre more likely to be successful.
What about you?
What networking mistakes have you made?
What did you learn from them?
Add them to the comments below.