This site is aimed at helping you establish good contacts.
Before you can network you need to first identify your primary contacts.
These can be divided into 3 broad groups.
1. Personal contacts
These are people close to you such as friends,
family and relatives. These people will often do favours
for you without expecting rewards.
The referrals and contacts you get from your personal
contacts can be very helpful to you since there is an existing
bond of trust and the closeness of relationships means that they
are easier to approach.
2. Social contacts
People in this group share common causes and interests with
us and we may meet on a regular basis to participate in hobbies or devotions.
The semi-formal relationships can with time grow deeper into
friendships to become personal contacts.
Examples include clubs, religious groups, associations,
student or parent groups to name but a few.
3. Business contacts
These are people we deal with daily to make a living.
The value of these contacts is in that they know other influential
people who are decision makers.
Keep relationships in this group formal. Examples of
these contacts include work colleagues, clients, customers, bankers,
insurance agents, professional bodies, trainers.
Are the valuable contacts that are introduced to you by people in your primary contacts list.
These are invaluable
people who can open influential doors and breakthroughs. Good deals can be struck, and
new opportunities and jobs got through referral contacts.
How to improve your network of personal, social and business contacts :
actively share information with others.
add contacts that respond to communication and remove those that wont be bothered to return calls or correspondences.
talk and chat with colleagues in other organisations
multiply introduce yourself to speakers in seminars, conferences and dinners
create situations to meet people.
attend regular meetings.
join a club or association.
monitor your existing list of contacts to see if its increasing or decreasing.
follow up on clients and customers.
find out who are the decision makers.
keep up to date with local affairs.
build on and improve on your existing primary contacts.
