1. The document provides 10 tips for improving the quality of networking. The tips include focusing on making real connections rather than just exchanging many business cards, making yourself useful to your contacts by addressing their challenges, and using social media to supplement in-person meetings. 2. An effective networker takes time to understand how they can help their contacts and looks for opportunities to follow up on issues their contacts are facing. 3. Quality networking requires being selective about your contacts, using discretion when reaching out to them, and practicing mindfulness in your interactions.

1. 10 Tips to
Improve the Quality
of Your Networking

2. 1. Quantity Is a Turnoff
! If
you hand out business cards like you’re dealing poker,
most folks will fold.
! Remember, speed networking probably does not yield the
best return on your investment of time.
“Quantity networkers are forgettable
individuals. If a guy is just looking for
his next consulting contract, I don’t
want to know him.”
- Benjamin Akande, Dean, Webster
University’s George Herbert Walker
School of Business & Technology
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3. 2. Don’t Work the Room
! Don’t
kid yourself: If you’re always on the lookout for the
next professional hookup, people will take offense.
“When people spend 50 percent of the time looking over
my shoulder, I don’t feel warm and fuzzy,”
- Sally Haver, Senior Vice President, The Ayers Group,
New York City
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4. 3. Respond to Others’ Challenges
! There’sno better way to establish a business networking
relationship than to contribute to the solution of your new
contact’s pressing problem.
“If someone states a challenge that they’re facing,
respond -- no later than the next morning -- with
something of value that addresses their issue.”
- John Felkins, President, Accelerant Consulting
Group, Bartlett, Tennessee.
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5. 4. Take Time to Make a Real Connection
! Whenyou and a new acquaintance seem attuned, take
time to explore how you might help each other out.
“A lot of people figure that coming back from a
networking opportunity with just one contact makes it a
failure, but my hour with one good contact makes it a
success.”
- Sally Haver, Senior Vice President, The Ayers Group,
New York City
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6. 5. Make Yourself Useful, Again and Again
“If you consistently position yourself as a resource to others --
fellow college alums, former colleagues -- it will make you more
valuable to your contacts, and, in turn, their contacts, as time goes
by,”
- Amanda Guisbond, Account Executive, Shift Communications,
Boston, MA
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7. 6. Exchange Stories
! Don’t
forget that you are more than a professional
objective at the top of your resume.
“Networking is about telling your story, describing your
human competitive advantage -- what you do that nobody
else can do.”
- Benjamin Akande, Dean, Webster University’s
George Herbert Walker School of Business &
Technology
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8. 7. Don’t Forget Social Media
! Social
media are powerful tools for professional
networking when used judiciously. But spam is distasteful
no matter what the social medium du jour. So be
selective, and use virtual contacts to supplement, not
supplant, face-to-face meetings.
“Social networking is deeply reinforced by an in-person
connection.”
- Shel Horowitz, Marketing Consultant, Hadley,
Massachusetts
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9. 8. Make Your Case for Building a
Relationship
! Recognize
that if you’re between jobs, you probably have
more discretionary time than most of your valuable
networking contacts do. Work hard to make yourself
useful.
“People are overrun with requests. Unless
there’s a compelling reason for someone to
meet with you, they won’t make the time.”
- Sally Haver, Senior Vice President, The
Ayers Group, New York City
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10. 9. Set Yourself Up for the Next Contact
 If
you intuit that a new contact will have lasting value,
start building a bridge to your next exchange before you
say your first good-bye.
“I ask people what they’re working on right now,
which gives me a segue to another contact, I
make notes so that the next time I can say, ‘You
mentioned in our last conversation…’”
- Benjamin Akande, Dean, Webster University’s
George Herbert Walker School of Business &
Technology
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11. 10. Mind These Three Watchwords for
Quality
! When
in doubt, remember this slogan for quality
networking:
Selectivity Discretion Mindfulness
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