When A Need Finds You In The Social Media Sphere, In This Case…LinkedIn

 
It was one of those almost serendipitous moments.

Something was needed and there it was. Out of nowhere the help that was needed showed up right there in my LinkedIn Inbox.

The perfect person that offered the exact product/service that I was looking for.

It came in the form of an invitation to connect. The person had found me and sent one of those generic connection invitations. One of those that I have a general disdain for when I receive them from people I don’t know.

In this case I didn’t care. I needed their services and couldn’t wait to connect further.

As soon as I read their profile I sent a note back that more or less said, “Great to connect, I would love to speak further about how we can work together. I have some opportunities right now where I believe your company would be a perfect fit.”

Excited that I had found the service I needed I pushed away from my desk and grabbed a snack. Should have had a Snickers because I was satisfied.

Two days pass and crickets. Not a word back and my serendipity was starting to look like another ill fated online connection.

Not that so many connections are bad or negative, but I use ill fated in the context that so many connections are never pursued. Created with some form of good intention but rarely pursued to figure out how we can actually benefit from networking.
 

Building a Network on Purpose, With Purpose

 
It is funny to see how hard many people work to build their business. The time spent focusing on customer acquisition and retention. All too often the latter causes a lot of time hunting and replacing.

Right in front of us is the connected world where opportunities can fall at our feet and we don’t even pursue them (or respond to them).

Networking is an activity to be done not only intentionally, but with purpose. When someone reaches out to you to connect, it should be more than just to collect another connection.

In the story I shared above, someone actually reached out to me and when I tried to more or less give them business they were no where to be found.

I wish I could say this was an isolated event. But it isn’t .

I reach out to those that solicit connections all the time. Grateful for their connection I ask them how we can further benefit from the relationship?

This isn’t a question that I ask in a frivolous nature. It is a question I ask very seriously. Much of what I have accomplished in my career has been directly related to the network I have built. Which is precisely why I nurture the connections I have (to the best of my ability) and seek to constantly make new AND meaningful connections. Yet often, my requests don’t yield a reply.

Begging the question…

Why connect at all if we don’t connect with purpose? Further, why spend the time if we don’t plan to find as much meaning as we can in every relationship we make online or off. And for goodness sakes, when you make a connection and someone tries to buy something from you, by all means respond.

Even if you are too busy at the moment to take another penny of business, why wouldn’t you pave the way for a relationship that could mean great things in the future?

Happy networking everyone. Don’t forget to network on purpose, with purpose.