Best Practice Essentials for Successful Networking:
The points listed below this paragraph are about publishing contact
data online but they are applicable to
organizing for business
networking success in the real-world we
use the expression virtual
networking for the Web. With an aim towards networking for
results on or off the Web you should always be (1) alert
in looking
for opportunities, (2)
proactive with finesse, (3) amicable
in introducing yourself, (4)
brief in explaining what you
do, (5) quick to learn what others' interests are, (6)
handy with a business card, (7) positioned for follow
up and (8) able to make it convenient
for people to get in touch when ready to talk further.
for virtual networking ... (online)
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According to a 2002 survey of visitors to website reported in the The
McKinsey Quarterly, Marketing lessons from E-failures 50%
of visitors never get past home pages. That seems to make it clear that
that savvy virtual
networkers with high expectations for results should put their contact
data up front. One way you can do that without
running into conflict with your organization's priorities
for what goes up front at its website is to publish a
personal webpage. The Network personal
webpage program is clean and simple, and it's cost effective in
the hands of the experience, skillful business networker.
Another report that came along about the same time as the one mentioned
in the above paragraph indicated that 60% of visitors never bother to use browser
scrollbars. It's easy to design a personal
webpage to help overcome this problem.
Members of the .network user
group have proven to us that they are sophisticated when it comes to using the Web.
Still, linked
graphics that help them navigate or
move more quickly to information they want can be overlooked.
CLICK
HERE for information about linked graphics in .network Search Help
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The reference is to Prospects for the New Millennium:
Winning Strategies in the Economic Development Marketing
Game, May 1999. Report provided to the Library of
Economic Development Services, Inc. by Andrew
T. Levine of Development
Counsellors International.
The report was updated several times and made available online as The
Corporate View: Winning Strategies in Economic Development Marketing.
The 2005 version indicated that well over half of Internet-savvy
corporate executives are likely to seek location
data from economic development websites when engaged
in site
selection and that business
networking is the leading source of information that influences
decision-makers.
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McKinsey &
Company publishes The
McKinsey Quarterly in print and online. Marketing
lessons from E-failures requires a premium
membership in order to view its full contents. What you can see of the article
online is found at the publication's website under marketing/digital marketing. FYI: There is a
free
website registration available that will allow you to obtain the full text of some articles.
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Remarks attributed to Ted
Levine of Development
Counsellors International, that may be of interest to economic
development practitioners can be found in an October
2004 blog, Economic Development Futures Web Journal,
entry. Levine indicates that the best economic developers are skilled
political players but he gives credit also to those who are persistent
in pursuing prospects, those who have a pro
business approach as well as those who work behind the scenes
for a sales force made up of volunteer business leaders.
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Lockout refers to webfiles that require something
like a member's
password in order to enter. There are many good reasons for
restricting access to information in webfiles. The Network
implies no argument against the practice by being completely
open and free. Members is used as an identity of
those
who are grouped together because The Network
is deemed to be of interest specifically to them without
the term meaning non-members of the group are restricted. The
Network advocates putting the Internet to use for virtual
business
networking; therefore, contact
data published in webfiles that are intended to
attract those who may be classified as prospects
should be open and inviting. The webpage
program that The Network offers is intended
to not only increase the potential for contacts to be found
but
to help them overcome disadvantages that restricted webfiles,
for whatever reason, may cause.
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From the various comments seen and heard about the writings
of Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz in articles and books such
as Never Eat Alone and Other Secrets to Success it
appears that there are three basic steps that lead to business
networking success: (1) prospecting, (2) prospect development,
and (3) deliverymore
about these basics in the final issue of the .networking
newsletter published by The
Network and replaced by The
Resource Report in 2004. Throughout the process,
whether developing leads or responding to contacts from prospects,
networkers live or die by the adage, follow up or fail.
Resource: The
10 Secrets of a Master Networker (Tahl Raz) Inc., Jan 2003.
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Is your contact
data available through any of the following? |
|
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virtual business networking:
... information exchange that is intended to build
or sustain a working relationship in virtually the same way that
business
networking does in the world outside of the Internet ...
a summery of the essential points for successful
business networking framed around (the) personal
webpage ...
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development field:
... the confines of the thinking and work done to change
something with an aim towards improving it, for example,
the scope of the thinking and work done to carry out plans
and projects for enterprise
development. The field of economic
development is likewise an example. The bottom line
for economic development is positive change in a community that
keeps it going. Real estate development is changing the
land or a property for its highest and best use.
All of these examples are tied together within the expression,
enterprise
and economic development.
Enterprise development is probably best know for its ties to the
field of economic development because of
site
selection. There are a number of terms that translate into
economic development, for example, community development, tourism
development, and regional developmentall
together such terms produce the expression development work.
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Studies indicate that decision makers prefer seeing and getting
to know the people with whom they do business ...they prefer
networking over all other forms of activity for developing business
relationshipscomment
from a report by marketing consultants, Development
Counsellors International.
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Some of the keywords in combination that that members
of the .network target user group know are,
for example, site
selection,
community
profile, location package, site location assistance, available
building, economic development data, and selection criteria,
just to name a few. Jack Tomasik, listed on the .network page
that shows examples of a contact names published
the way they introduce themselves when networking uses the key
word combination site selection database in describing his services
on a personal webpage. For more about these examples copy and
paste the italicized phrases from this paragraph in the search
box below and Google. If you want to use the examples to search
for a specific location simply include its name, for example
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Just as the Internet emerged to change the face of site
selection the premier organization of the 20th century
that had brought corporate-level enterprise
development together with economic
development failed. It became too large to satisfy
the needs of serious
business networkers; therefore, its membership split.
The problem of being inattentive to contact
data online came to the forefront in the aftermath.
Also, in the aftermath, it was demonstrated how taking the
initiative can help to make the problem less serious for
savvy networkers. The following links are provided for you
to explore and to draw your own conclusions about the suggestion
that networkers be alert and maintain control wherever possible.
formation
of CoreNet Global and demise of IDRC
Leaders in Development / IDRC
Members of the Web (contact data online?)
solution
to the problem of the two dead end examples shown immediately above
an
initiative taken by one networker affected by IDRC
dead ends online
opportunities
in The Network for virtually
proactive business networkers
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best
practice approach
