Are you networking a lot right now on zoom and other online platforms? 

Maybe  a few of you can actually go back in person to a networking event in your area. And maybe others of you are so tired of being on your computer, on zoom, and you’re wondering what it’s all for? And you’re wondering why you’re not seeing results form all the time you are spending? Well what I found, with a lot of entrepreneurs that i  speak with is that 75% of them are not seeing good results from networking right now. And I have spoken to 30+ new entrepreneurs just in the last 2 weeks! I’d say they are not seeing results because they aren’t really being effective in the time that they are spending on these calls. You see, networking online, or virtually, is really just the same as networking in person but you just have to do things differently. For example, you wouldn’t walk into a live networking event in person and throw your business card around the room hoping people catch it, would you? And then just hope that they read the card and then go home and contact you via email or your website because they caught your business card in the air randomly at a live event…

Well that’s what I see a lot of people doing on virtual networking events

is they post their contact information in the chat room and then that’s it. They are hoping that people will print the chat, go back later and look them up, or give them a call, or email them to want to have a conversation. Or they hope people will randomly go find your website and search all over your website for your super cool free gift or email newsletter subscription, even though it’s hidden or non-existent most of the time, and then get on your list! That’s no happening really, is it? What you need to do is think about the zoom or virtual platform call or event, and the chat room, as a live event. At a live event you would walk up to somebody you don’t know and say “hi my name is blank, who are you and what do you do?” You have to engage people one-on -one just like you engage people one-on-one in person. It’s actually a lot faster to so this in a zoom chat room than it is in person so you should be excited about that!

It’s also WAY less time consuming, and less expensive because you don’t have to travel OR pay for stuff when you get there (usually, of course some online events have a fee, as some should depending on what they are.)

Plus…in a live event, in person , you could get caught talking to someone for 20 minutes and not ever meet more than a couple People even at a big event. That’s NOT productive…not when you have that 20 min. conversation later in the follow up just as easily so then you can spend MORE time meeting a lot MORE people. Yet, Zoom chat rooms and other virtual platform messaging areas are extremely efficient, you can talk to every single person in the room if you want to. All you have to do is copy, paste, send a short message  to every single person. Then the ones that respond you engage with in conversation and or take it to a follow-up call later. Now, the message that you copy, paste, send into the chat room one by one cannot be salesy or all about you, therein lies the mistake. It has to be about being curious about the other person and pinpointing things that they’ve said (or posted in the chat about) or that you are interested in about them and a genuine desire to want to follow up to find a collaborative win-win opportunity.

Now, you might say, but Lisa, I need clients not collaborative win-win- opportunities”??

Yes, I get that, however approaching a new person in a networking event needs to be in a give first, share always attitude, that way they actually want to follow up with you and talk to you. IF you don’t start the conversation that way, they are more likely to decline your engagement or offer to follow up. And we know that EVERTHING happens in the follow up…joint venture ideas, referrals, other connections and invitations and yes, even prospects emerge who want to know how you can serve them. In addition to reaching out one by one in the chat room, you do have to know how to position yourself when you have an opportunity to say something to the group, or when you talk in breakout rooms. And even with the other blurbs and content that you might copy and paste into the chat room, you have to be very careful and choosy on what to share. In addition, when you are the speaker, presenter or sponsor, there are ADDITIONAL things you want to remember to do to engage the virtual audience and interest them in taking some sort of action. I’m a huge networker, that is the main marketing strategy that I’ve chosen because it works…plain and simple, IF you do things right and you do ENOUGH of it to reach a lot more people…it’s more personal, and it speeds up the like/trust/connect factor.