Networking has taken an interesting turn from a fairly loose, non-regimented and independent means of building business contacts to a highly controlled business in its own right. Weeky meetings, dues, requirements for “qualified” referrals…all designed to increase sales and drive resutls. Do networking groups really work? My experience is limited—I’ve tried a few meetings with a couple of groups and while the people were all nice, personally it wasn’t for me.

Maybe I’m more of a traditional networker, less structure is good for me. Involvement with community organizations, business associations and getting to know my business neighbors really does work best for me. I allocate time and money to it, support efforts that I find rewarding, reach out to learn more about other businesses and I always look for opportunities to share information about our company. The message here is to try both and see which you like. Maybe it’ll be a combination. No matter which, find a way to network and do it. Doing nothing is not an option when your mission is marketing your business.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 18th, 2006 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Marketing Insights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.