The thinking behind this blog's title 'Connecting is not Enough' is to encourage people to move away from the belief that successful networking is about the number of connections we make, and move towards an understanding that successful networking is about the depth of the connections we make.
It is not enough to collect as many business cards as you can at events, snap up as many connections as you can on LinkedIn or followers on Twitter. If you don't get to know those individuals, if you don't see the whites of their eyes, their value to your network will be marginal.
Meeting with people away from networking events is key to developing a strong and successful network. This is particularly important in the start-up stage of a business. There are going to be a lot of pressures on your time but one of your key priorities must be getting 'out there' and spending valuable time developing relationships.
Any growing business needs support from the people around it. We need people to spread the word and talk about us; we need people to turn to for advice and support, we need people who can make the key introductions to help drive our business forward. We need to build a network.
Ivan Misner, founder of global network BNI, talks about three stages of a relationship. According to Misner, "As (relationships) grow, fed by mutual trust and shared benefits, they evolve through three phases: visibility, credibility, and profitability."
You can't take a shortcut to profitability by approaching people for support at networking events or on online networks. You need them to know you and trust you first.
That means going out and meeting with them. The venture capitalist and blogger Mark Suster talks about the importance of having '50 coffee meetings'. A "relationship-focused" meeting each week is, according to Suster, "the entrepreneur's equivalent of 10,000 hours", referring to Malcolm Gladwell's claim in 'Outliers' that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours.
How many meetings do you have planned this week designed simply to get to know someone better? How about next week? What difference could you make to your business if you ensured that you spent some quality time getting to know someone new, or know someone better, every week? No agenda, no sales, just relationship building.
Successful businesses are founded on strong networks. Strong networks are formed from deep relationships. And deep relationships come from getting to know each other....in person.