Has networking really gone so far downhill? When I first got into it, Networking, or more importantly Business Networking, was all about people. When I’m asked to define Business Networking to those unfamiliar with the concept, I always say ‘it is about fostering a personal relationship with others in business, and continuing to build each relationship individually until a point where a business function is found’. Now that function can be anything from a referral to a partnership, it doesn’t matter, as long as that function is found.
So why has Networking become so generic these days, or more importantly, de-personalized. Can we be possibly missing the point even more?
Let me explain what I mean here. Over the past several years there has been a huge rise in a phenomena known as Online Networking. Many companies have established platforms for this, some successful, some not, some who like to think they are. Initially, this was fantastic, people posted an honest and detailed profile, linked to their company, got involved in business-based discussions and began getting to know each other. Then, unfortunately, Power Networking Began.
I’m not saying Power Networking itself as bad, but many seem to mis-apply it. Many sites tried to regulate this by governing how uses connected and how many connections one could have, wheras most didn’t give a rats arse. The bottom line is people began not to focus on connection with people and building manageable personal relationships but instead connected with everybody they could find then attempted to label themselves as ‘Professional Networkers’ or ‘America’s most Connected X’ . The problem here is no real relationship has been build, and this the connections themselves hold little value. I can tell you one thing right now, I’m happier to work with people who have a smaller network who they have relationships with than those with a huge networking with whom they know little. Social Networking sites themselves have become the new Yellow Pages. It is nothing but pages of Advertisements of people with no real value behind them.
The problem is, things did not stop here. The ‘How can I help you Era’ has begun, where it is not really about how I can help you, but how I can look nice enough that you use my products / services. I can guarantee you right now that half of these people would not respond to your e-mails or answer your telephone calls. This lead to where we are now, Bulk Mailing. Let’s face it, 9 out of 10 of these bulk mails are nothing more than a ‘Here’s what I do. You probably don’t know this because I have never bothered to and / or am too lazy to contact you’ mails. It is at the stage now where our connections with eachother is an automated process, all of our communication is automated and in bulk. Nothing real is being forged. There are no personal relationships.
I am the first to admit you can’t communicate with everybody you meet online, but you should damned well try! Nobody will have a 100% communication rate, but when this is dipping below 10% something is wrong. I see people advertising 4,000+ connections. Some of these people are entirely legit, wheras most are collecting for the sake of a numbers game, or as one person put it, ‘card collectors’. There is absolutely no point here, with no point to create a relationship or convert the connection. I’m sorry, but a few bulk mails with my name dynamically placed do not cut it at all.
There used to be a courtesy in place. If I asked to connect with you I should open a dialogue with you. I should not just be connecting with you ’so that we can become connected’. I’ll admit to being a LION, and when I joined I tried to send an e-mail and call each person who connected with me, until the 500th person. The fact is, less than 50 responded to a personalized mail. Around half of these were generic e-mails sent back telling me what they do. No real attempts at dialogue, which is the first steps to finding where the synergies lie. Tell me, what is the advantage to these people being connected with me? Some will even request you to not mail them, this is of course after they have requested to become a connection of yours. To me that is a huge waste of time.
A smaller networking site I previously frequented has recently added the ability for users to bulk mail (spam) any contact they have made. This site is full of Power Networkers who push hard with a numbers game (the more contacts you have, the seemingly better you are, not taking into account the time you wasted bulk clicking the ‘add to contact’ list). The thing I used to like about this site previously was that eventually, if people wanted to communicate, they HAD to write something to you – they never had your e-mail. Now this does not even exist and I am constantly barraged with ‘Hi %name, Just keeping you in touch!’.
Please, spare me. Who is talking to who? Short of the ability to brag I doubt these people get any real value out of the process (bar one or two contacts along the way). They lose more than they gain. As far as I’m concerned, without that personal relationship built to the point of the business function being found, the relationship will be weak.