More Practical Business Networking? It's About Time!

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More Practical Business Networking? It's About Time!

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Business Networking has always been a healthy thing. Prehistoric cave men probably got together and talked about the business of fire and about innovations that led to the wheel. Lately, with the advent of sites like Biznik and Meetup, there have been great advancements to the way in which and the ease with which networking both generates and proliferates. What about the way business networks facilitate benefit for those who attend? Often times it seems this aspect of networking is still in the stoneage. Something fresh along those lines is happening in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Seattle however.

Mundane networking meetings have almost always been about talk. There may be coffee, or donuts, or even a little lunch, but talk almost always wins out as the primary function of a network meeting. There are purpose driven business networks that are established and that do more than just talk. Safeway and Radio Shack collaborate with others in the sharing of traffic in Strip Malls. That's a form of networking. Boeing and Chrysler may have networked on projects that are not commonly known. But for the majority of business owners who desire to network, they are looking for specialized relationships, new clients, or for a stronger position in their market or field. Actually, many are not sure what they are looking for. They just know they are in need and are looking for help. In order to network in practicality a company has to actually do more than say somthing. They at least have to put up an ad, exchange a link, or trade leads. Even better yet, they need to establish purpose, then platform, and then regulate function.

In Seattle, there is a community organizer bringing companies together in free, weekly workshops to help them do just what we’ve described above in a strategic matrix of multi dimensional online ways. The goal is to get a group of business owners together, help each and every one of them to establish a broad spectrum online presence, and then go on to spend a couple hours per week in a wireless enabled venue with 20 or 30 laptops open and all participants linking to each other, clicking on each other, posting to each other, and otherwise trafficking and promoting each other's web presence through the roof.

One rule of these groups is, DON'T buy online products or services as one off's. Wherever possible and practical, get together and negotiate for package deals and for economy of scale. Another maxim is, DON'T ignore each other's needs. While you spend an hour or two each week looking after the interests of 10 or 20 other companies, there are 10 or 20 other people at the same time looking after yours.

Many vendors don't like the idea of customer bases getting together and holding them hostage for better deals. These days however, some companies actually enjoy the prospect. It dilutes the market, but the market is dead right now anyway. What about the furure? An old saying rings true; "A live dog is better than a dead lion." And so a diluted market is better than no market at all.

In order to make the effort pay off for the participants, the groups need strong internet strategists and operatives to help them register domain names, host and launch web sites, create unique content, deploy and post to blogs, enable audio and video media in their footprints, and otherwise help them to diversify and energize their online presence. Providers that are already present benefit from including their companies in the program and gaining trafficking support from the collective in return for reduced and collective rate services.

The point is for every one to use as many avenues of promotion as are available on the internet. For example, everyone is encouraged to post video to the free sharing sites in promotional strategies. Every one is asked to write articles for blogs and to comment on each others content as well. Ghost writers are available for content development. RSS feed management and article submission activities are a big part of the collective itinerary each week. Creating and managing additional web sites and pages, some of them ad listings, some of them cross subject landing pages that serve to join the ranks of otherwise non-synergistic companies are important ongoing activities too. MySpace and FaceBook campaigns where companies promote each other are all regular, consistent efforts that go on like a heartbeat in these unique networking workshops as well.

In the tradition of the cavemen who came up with the wheel, we applaud the advancement and glorification of simple practicality. Nothing against coffee and donuts, but the active click of many links and the rapid strokes of many keys on many keyboards sounds much better to the ears than traditional old Homer Simpson networking meetings.