The skill of building and maintaining networks of business contacts couldn't be of greater importance to communicators, who exist to forge relationships between individuals,
clients and organizations. However, robust business networks do more than benefit individuals' professional development; they present business-development opportunities that
advance organizations' messages, goals and, ultimately, bottomlines.
While the concept of business development has existed for centuries, business networking has matured rapidly with recent technological advances. Now, communicators are poised
to leverage their own business networks and subsequently contribute to business development through the most connective tool yet: the Internet.
Online communications channels and digital platforms enable communications executives to build and maintain business networks in ways that were previously impossible.
Haphazardly managed Rolodexes, address books, desktop day calendars - all of these anachronistic organization tools do little in terms of identifying professional contacts and
measuring the strength of the relationship. Enter online networks.
"Historically, you knew the people that you knew, that is, you had visibility into your network of only one degree," write David Teten (founder, Nitron Advisors) and Scott
Allen (entrepreneurs guide, About.com) in their book The Virtual Handshake (American Management Association, 2005). "You usually had only a faint idea of whom your contacts knew.
However, the power of your network multiplies enormously if you can tap the network of your second-degree contacts - your friend's friends."
There are a growing number of online choices when it comes to organizing, managing, measuring and maintaining this network of contacts (see sidebar for some solution
providers), but the key to building business relationships online hinges on establishing a digital presence in the first place.
*Register for business social networks: If you still think MySpace and Facebook are a too casual for your professional tastes, register for LinkedIn, Xing or ZoomInfo. They
are free social networks that connect you with professionals in any number of contacts: co-workers, industry peers, business contacts you've met only briefly or business contacts
with whom you want to establish a relationship. Whenever you have received an "invite" to become someone's new contact, an e-mail will be sent to you directly; this minimizes the
amount of time you need to spend checking in on your profile's recent activity.
*Participate: Registering for a network is the first step, but the potential will end there if you don't participate. Create a succinct, professional profile that states your
current title and company, along with some basic stats: universities attended and professional organization memberships, for example. This will establish points of commonality
that others use when searching for new contacts, as people identify best with those most like them. "You will be most successful marketing your capabilities to contacts you like
on issues that are of great interest to you," says Tom Hoog, Hill & Knowlton Senior Counselor (and personal networking guru). Then, continue participating by searching for
peers and colleagues you lost touch with - chances are, you'll find them online.
*Manage the influx: Once you are online and "networking," it's easy to get lost in the chaos of cyberspace. After all, networks are pointless if you can't keep up with who is
who and what is what. That's where social networking aggregators come in handy. Providers including ProfileFly, Tabber, ProfileLinker, SocialURL and Dandelife.com literally
network your networks by condensing all information in one location. This saves time by minimizing the need to track identities on multiple business networking sites.
*Aim high: While many online communities that manage business relationships are laissez-faire, some have more stringent qualification requirements (and therefore more high-
level benefits. For example, the International Executives Resource Group (IERGOnline.com) is an exclusive online community for C-level business executives only. Requirements for
admission include a senior general management role, a minimum base salary of $150,000 and at least five years of international experience. However, for communicators who meet
these requirements, membership with this organization offers huge business development opportunities: Those invited to join must pass an interview process in which they must offer
strategic business advice or leads in a given context. For the communicators who don't qualify, they should encourage their C-suite managers to join.
*Bring value to members in your network and communicate that value frequently: Don't overlook potential business just because it doesn't fit within your organization's goals;
rather, think of someone who could benefit from the relationship, and initiate a virtual handshake. The extra effort on your part will not be forgotten. Hoog advocates a more
traditional form of this: When he reads an article that would be of particular interest to a colleague, he cuts it out and sends it to that person. The online version of this is
just as effective.
*Communicate the value of partnerships to your organization's management: While joining online business networks benefits the individual, it takes more effort to generate
senior buy-in. Present them with this rationale: The number of resources (time and money) is minimal compared to the possible outcome. Plus, it's a low-risk proposition. As
Teten and Allen wrote in a recent BusinessWeek article, "In sales, for all the talk of 'relationship selling,' the ultimate objective is still a sale. For the business
development professional, though, the relationship is an end, not just a means...You continue to work with that partner to achieve other objectives for your business, but the
relationship itself is your primary objective."
CONTACTS:
Tom Hoog, [email protected]; Scott Allen, [email protected]; David Teten, [email protected]
Resource For Managing Online Business Networks
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Contactnetworkcorp.com: An enterprise search solution that uncovers pre-existing professional relationships between employees and clients.
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Asaecenter.org: An organization of member associations, which are indexed on the site.
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Leveragesoftware.com: A provider of software that helps executives engage their customers through online communications platforms; includes personal profile pages, people-
matching, blogs, chat, polling, rss, discussion groups, file sharing, widgets, targeted advertising, and customer and community analytics.
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Spoke.com: An open network of over 35 million people at 900,000 companies that gives business people access to others' background and contact information in a professional
network.
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Visiblepath.com: Notes who sends messages to whom, when they send them, and how frequently; derives insights into whether someone has a close working relationship with a
contact versus a cursory one.
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Autonomy.com: Sells software that "enables computers to understand the relationships that exist between disparate pieces of information [e-mails and multimedia] and perform
sophisticated analysis operations with real business value, automatically and in real-time."
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Tacit.com: A provider of automation software that "combines collaborative social networking and attention management for users on the Web."