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Hunters, Gatherers, and Stars of Networking

Filed Under Strategy, Successful Blog | 18 Comments

Networking on the Ground

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I’ve been networking on the ground in Chicago. in the last two weeks, I went to a class, a seminar, a presentation, and a huge networking event. My goal was find a few folks who might help me figure out how to talk about an idea that’s shaping up and to learn how to connect with the people who might be interested in exploring it.

I sure found some incredible people, who told me about their work and helped me focus my thinking. I listened them as long as I might and thanked them for their counsel. I found some great folks that I could easily connect to information they needed or a friend who could help them. Sadly, I also found people who seemed hyper-focused on reciting on a script. Conversation with them was almost impossible.

At the large event, I met Mike, who works in relationship management. We talked about this scripted phenomena. He called the hyper-focused people, “hunters.” He said they came to find someone — anyone — to give them work or to work for them. He said he knew because he used to be one of them.

The Hunters, Gatherers, and Stars of Networking

That conversation with Mike left me thinking about the roles we use when we network in a room of strangers. I see distinct types.

  • The hunters — Hunters come to find people of a certain kind. They’re hungry for a boss or an employee who will solve the problem. Hunters are out to satisfy their appetite. The conversations and connections are only important when they move toward that goal.
  • The gatherers — Gatherers have a goal of collecting people. They “work the room” efficiently and with a smile. The most practiced gatherer will trade business cards with every person in the room and be done in record time. Quantity is their quest. Gatherers are about numbers not relationships.
  • The stars – Stars go to learn and help folks when they can. The stars know that one person can only make and maintain relationships with a limited number of people at one time. They use conversation to find where connections offer both people a benefit if they form a relationship.
  • And of course, there are the nonparticipants who watch from the sidelines. Their name is the only description that we need.

As I write this I realize that we play the same roles when we network online. Each of these folks is on our social networking sites.

What do you think? Are there others that I’ve left out? Do you find that online networking is easier than networking on the ground?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!

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Drafting - Do Your Social Media Profiles Raise Your Net Worth?

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Introductions in Person and in Text

The Living Web

I’m on a quest to organize my social networking. I don’t want a model — one that balances relationship and connection to ensure high return on the time I invest — not a dashboard that tracks everywhere I’ve been. To that end, a modified version of the writing process is working well.

In a recent discussion about networking, we talked about how to introduce ourselves. We agreed that it helps to know about the person or the situation that brought us to the introduction. It seems obvious I would introduce myself in one way to a client and in another way to my son’s newest friend. Introductions are relational and situational.

We know to adapt our personal introductions when we’re face to face, but forget online. Text looks like text.

Do Your Social Media Profiles Raise Your Net Worth?

What’s the first thing we do when someone we don’t know asks us to connect? It makes sense to go to their page to find out who they are. Unfortunately, most of us wrote our profiles before we knew anything about the people on the site. Have your read your profile the day you signed up? Have you thought about the people who have?

The second step in the writing process is Drafting. I’m using this stage to define settting up our presence on a social site. Possibly the most important thing we do in developing a successful presence is define who we are on our profile page. The profile pages serves as an introduction for anyone who wants to know who they’re about to meet or who they’ve just met. Does your profile raise your profile

Use these tips to get more mileage from your social media profile pages.

  1. Research the culture of site.
    • Form a description of the primary group and secondary groups who use the site.
    • Make note of the groups they form and the kind of activities and information they share.
    • Most importantly, read their profile pages to learn the customs and language of the site. Read how your heroes and friends describe themselves and decide whether what they’re doing works.
  2. Write an authentic, but targeted profile for that social group. Think about how you would introduce yourself if you were in the same room.
    • Choose a picture that reflects the spirit of the social group. Including a picture makes your profile more memorable. Including the right picture makes that memory good.
    • Write formally or informally to match the culture and your goals. If you could only say one thing to this group, what would it be? Underscore that idea in the information you choose. Limit the extraneous details that might distract someone from seeing your most important thought.
    • Check the amount and type of information you share against the profiles that impressed you most. It naturally follows that the folks you want to connect with will find the same things important.
  3. Check back often to review your profile to be sure it’s still relevant and up-to-date.

A great social media profile can open doors and make connections that we might have missed had we done less. Like the about page on a blog, it represents us when we’re not there. Time spent to communicate with the audience who visits is a high-return investment.

Have you checked whether your social media profiles add to your net worth?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Need help with your profile? Ask Liz!!
SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!

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Internet Fame, Leaps of Faith, and the Truth from Guy

Filed Under Business Life, Strategy, Successful Blog | 16 Comments

Famous? Dirt Poor?

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In a recent conversation, a client made the following observation.

So many businesses seem confused about how to use the Internet. They appear to know their own product or service, but they don’t have clients or customers. They built it, and no one came. Has no one found the right model?

Some folks think the answer is to get famous. . . .

A strong personal brand and passion for your niche teamed is what makes a blog a powerful New Media marketing tool. That’s what will build trust, rapport, and reputation equity. Once you have those things, it’s a relatively straight forward process to turn those assets into profit. — Tribal Seduction

I’m with Tim Bourquin’s observations about that.

Twitter, blogs, podcasts and new media in general have created a wave of “famous” people - people with a “wealth” of attention and inbound links, but can’t pay their bills at the end of the month. Worse yet, some seem to think that if you do find a way to make your living successfuly, you’ve “sold out” and are no longer true to your audience. That’s a shame and it needs to change.

The “link” and “attention” may be the currency of the Internet, but until someone can show me how to pay my mortgage by linking to my bank once a month, that just doesn’t fly with me.

Internet famous isn’t “Oprah famous” . . . not even close . . . and the Internet forgets quickly.

When I asked Internet Rockstar, Guy Kawasaki, about what bloggers should know about blogging as business, he said.

The truth is that it’s very difficult to monetize a blog. I have a fairly popular one and sell less than $100,000 of advertising per year on it. It serves other purposes though for my activities as a venture capitalist, author, and speaker.

So to some extent, a blog can help with the overall branding and marketing of a company, but it’s a leap of faith.

A blog by itself isn’t a business. A product without customers won’t sell.

What do you see when you look at online businesses?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!! SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!

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A True Lesson in Affiliate Selling

Filed Under Business Life, Strategy, Successful Blog | 13 Comments

It’s Not a Trick

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I had to think about about this post before I wrote it. It’s a bit out of my usual niche. When I talk about business and making money, I don’t know much about affiliate selling or “make money online blogging.”

Last night I read an in-depth report that Patricia Mayo did on information products that proclaim they’ll teach you how to make money online. Near the end, she gave a link to a price-controlled viral product that offers a tool, not information, for free.

I followed the link. What I found was what she described. I thought hard about whether I should blog it. Obviously, I’ve decided to pass it on to you.

A True Lesson in Affiliate Selling

My reason for sharing this information tool is the mastery with which it is put together. I keep thinking about how, step-by-step, this offer does everything to make it easy to buy. It’s state of the art online selling — done so seamlessly that the solid principles behind it would be easy to miss. It’s not a trick. It provides a true lesson in affiliate selling. Here’s why I say that.

A great selling model has these parts: the product and the offer.

A Great Product has low development costs, yet offers high value in many ways.

  • The product has critical mass.
  • It saves time.
  • It’s compelling.
  • It makes life easier.
  • It offers something immediately actionable.
  • It fits my life.

A Great Offer is about customers, has high barrier to competition, and high chance of going viral.

  • The language is conversational.
  • The sales model is transparent.
  • You know the product before you buy.
  • It’s fast and easy to buy.
  • No one asks for your email information.
  • You keep your profits.
  • The sense of the model is easy to see.

You might find it a bit complicated to go from one hyperlink to another. However, I think you’ll also find that the offer itself lives up to what I describe. It’s an effective model. I’d love to see the figures on it.

I’ll never be the consummate affiliate marketer, I don’t have the discipline for that sort of selling. I’ll never be an engineer, a ballerina, or live on a submarine either. Still, I recognize state of the art work when I see it.

I’d be interested in whether you agree.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Be the best at what you do! Work with Liz!! SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Have a plan!! Register now!

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WordCampDallas Business Panel

Filed Under Business Life, Strategy, Successful Blog | 1 Comment

An Exceptional Experience

I’m not a fan of panels as presentation format. I’ve been on them and attended them, and in both roles, I’ve found that the experience is often less than it might have been with a well-prepared speaker. Still I was honored when I was invited to join the business blogging panel at WordCampDallas 2008.

Had I know John Pozadzides before that event, I might have known this panel would be an exception.

The original panel was to be Aaron Brazell, Mark Ghosh, and Liz Strauss – that’s me. What fun when the panel started and Matt Mullenweg came up to sit down along with us in the big chairs at the Frisco City Hall.

The rest is history. John moderated the panel as well as any television host. He played devil’s advocate to get the discussion going. He was sure to connect the thoughts from one question to the next so that the discussion went well beyond the surface chat of most panel discussions.

Watch the video. Even if you don’t blog for business, seeing a panel this well done is an exceptional experience.

Thank you, John P.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!

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