Life Hacks - Smart Networking

I wanted to kick off a new monthly series I'm putting together about various life hacks aimed at helping you get ahead.

To be perfectly honest, following along with the crowd rarely helps propel you forward, it DEFINITELY doesn't make you stand out.

Today, I wanted to talk about Smart Networking. No we aren't talking about connectivity between electronics and computers, we are talking about connections between people.

How many times have you gone to an event, and aimlessly wandered around, hoping to meet someone who will become a valuable resource, either personally or professionally.

I know I did, a lot!

Finally, I decided to come up with some ways to improve my odds of bumping into the right people, and starting a fruitful conversation.

This idea really isn't novel, but I find that a number of people (again including myself), miss out on this fundamental trick.

So here it is. Know who is likely to be around you before you step foot out of your door. That's right, do some research on the meetup your going to, if you're attending an event, do a search on LinkedIn, or Twitter, and see if you can find other going to the event.

I started using this technique when I went to the office. Our office had a great registration system, that allowed you to reserve a room, or cubical, for the days you were planning on coming in.

And here's the better part, you could actually pull up the names of the other people reserving space in the office! From there, it was easy to sift through the company directory and compile a list of who's who.

Doing this put me in front of some heavy hitters, including several C level executives at my company.

Finally, my last trick, I ALWAYS sat in the cafe. This almost guaranteed that I would catch people walking in and out of the office, especially if they were grabbing coffee. Match the face to the name, and there you go, instant connection!
Hope this helps you, on your path to smart networking.

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