Top Ten Tips For Getting Value From Networking Events

by Job SeekerTrending

Go Because You Want To Help Others

1 The most important thing you can do at a networking event is provide value for other people. That’s why you go. If everyone had this mentality, networking events would be hyper effective.

Learn What Others Need

2 To provide value for other people, you need to learn what it is that they need. Ask questions about them and their career trajectory. Ask about their job. From there, you’ll figure out if there’s any way you can provide them value.

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Think Of Specific Solutions

3 Find out what you can do for them. Do you know someone you can connect them with that will benefit them? What is their goal for being at the networking event? How can you help them achieve that goal?

Listen More Than You Speak

4 Show a genuine interest in the people you meet and try to listen more than you speak. If you don’t learn enough about someone and what they do, there’s no way to know how you can help them, or even if you can. Try to listen more than you speak.

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Connect With Purpose

5 Establish what you’re there to do before you go. Don’t waste your time on going with the overall goal “to network.” Are you there to promote your own event? To find speakers for your event? To find out about what is working at this event and use those techniques on your event?

Avoid Distractions

6 Establish what you’re not there to do, and avoid those things.

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Not Every Interaction Will Lead Somewhere, That's Okay

7 You don’t need to give or get something out of every interaction. If you truly can’t help someone with anything, just enjoy your time speaking with them. Most interactions you have won’t be fruitful, the point is to keep interacting until you do have a fruitful one.

Smile!

8 Have fun. Be pleasant. Smile. No one wants to connect with a person who is deadly serious all the time.

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Keep It Organic

9 If someone asks, or it comes up naturally, don’t be afraid to talk about your successes or times you’ve helped other people. If you do this without it coming up naturally, it will sound like bragging though. Do not brag.

Help Facilitate Immediate Connections

Ten If you can help two people at the same event connect, do so that night.

How Does A Company Express Its Values Effectively?

by BusinessTrending

Values-based marketing drives successful businesses because it results in relationships with customers that are based on purchases being driven by an expression of values, not soulless transactions. This strategy is so potent that it can drive the success of an inferior product. So, how does a company express its values effectively? What does this look like in practice?

How Does A Company Express Its Values Effectively?

Apple

Many Apple phones are objectively worse machines than Android phones (Apple phones have worse cameras, are slower, and are inferior machines based on many other technical measures). 

So, why is Apple one of, if not the biggest company in the world? It’s because through its marketing, Apple has successfully tied the purchase of their product to the exercise of a value in the mind of their consumers.

The “Think different” campaign from Apple featured different celebrities from history that did something remarkable. These celebrities had to “think different” in order to achieve what they did. Albert Einstein had to invent a whole bunch of Physics. Amelia Earhart had to be daring enough to attempt a dangerous journey. And, according to Apple’s marketing, by purchasing an Apple computer you would be thinking differently in the same way that Einstein and Earhart did. 

Purchasing an Apple computer was not an exchange of money for a product, purchasing an Apple computer was a statement of values. By creating this connection in their customer’s minds with this advertising campaign, Apple showed how a company can express its values effectively.

How Does A Company Express Its Values Effectively?How Does A Company Express Its Values Effectively?

Corona Beer

Objectively, Corona is a terrible beer. It has no taste, it goes flat quickly, and it needs a lime to have any flavor whatsoever.

That being said, their marketing is nearly perfect. Corona is one of the most popular brands in the United States. So, how did this objectively sub-par product become so popular? It’s because they connect the purchase of their product to the expression of a value in the mind of the consumer through their marketing.

You buy a Corona beer because their marketing has successfully connected the value of relaxation with buying their beer through their slogan “Find your beach” and beach-themed visual imagery.  Wherever you are, buying a Corona makes you feel like you’re relaxing.

Conclusion

You do not need to be a massive corporation with dedicated teams of marketing professionals to use values-based marketing to develop values-based relationships with your clients or customers.

You just need to identify what values drive you and then put those values into your advertising effectively. If done successfully, you’ll develop the same kind of brand loyalty you see between large companies and their customers.

I put together some prompts for beginning that thought process here.

Don’t Chase “likes,” Make Connections

by Business and Job SeekerTrending

Your Number One Goal For Social Media

Your number one goal when posting online should be bifurcated evenly between providing value for those who see your post and connecting with those people. So, make sure you don’t chase “likes,” make connections.

Again, when posting online:

Your Number 1 Priority: Providing value for those who see your post.

Your Number 1 Priority: Connecting with those people.

A group of people viewed from behind all with their arms around each other sitting on a ledge

To Gain Career Security, You Need To Be Making Human Connections Through Meaningful Engagement, Not Chasing “likes.”

Here’s the kind of reaction we’re aiming for when we post:

  • Comments that represent a meaningful engagement with the topic.
  • Comments that are the basis for a continued business relationship IRL,
  • DM’s from people telling you that you helped them in some way or asking you to create a professional relationship to help them further.
  • People expressing interest in attending events you’re organizing.
  • Any indication that you’re helping people and providing genuine value to their lives (this kind of engagement can vary across platforms, so I wanted a catch-all here).

If someone drops a like on your post, who cares? Do you have any idea what that means? It might reach a wider audience because of that like and connect with someone else, but we should be aiming for connections with who is already seeing our posts. If we’re providing value, the expanded reach will come in time so just continue to focus on providing value consistently over time.

A group of people viewed from behind all with their arms around each other sitting on a ledge

Why Meaningful Engagement Is Better Than “Likes”

If you’ve provided value to someone through interactions, they’ll remember that. Now, instead of being someone who’s post they liked, you’re someone who helped them with a problem. You’re an expert in their eyes who they’ll either go to, or recommend to someone else. They’re also much more likely to go to an event you’re hosting, or to recommend that a friend goes with them.

By soliciting meaningful engagement by giving value consistently over time, you’re building genuine relationships with people that you can foster in real life. And you can build business relationships with those people to help you gain career security.

Likes mean nothing. Human connection means everything when building career security.

Why Work With A Professional Branding Company?

by Business and Job SeekerTrending

Part 1: Why work with a professional branding company? Because we help you gain career security.

If you want the career security that comes from building a network of people that you provide value to and who know you as a resource in your field, you’ll need someone who can help you navigate how to build that following. 

That’s where a professional brand consultant brings value. If they can use the tools at their disposal to help you create a worthwhile network of people that you have IRL human connections with, they’ve done their job.

That’s it.

You’re the expert in your field. You’re a lawyer, or a web developer, or a nurse, or a physical therapist, or a stock broker, or a financial planner, or whatever you are, you have value that you bring to the table. All a branding consultant does is help you get that message across so that you can connect with a larger network and gain career security out of those connections.

Why work with a professional branding company?

Part 2: I Don’t Know How To Do Your Job, So Why Would You Know How To Do Mine?

I know digital marketing on a grass roots level. I know it requires consistency, I know that chasing “likes” is a fools errand, and I know that human connection is the name of this game.

What I don’t know is how to do your job. I don’t know how to be a Nurse, Financial Planner, Physical Therapist, Human Resources Manager, Aspiring Novelist, Cello Player, Therapist, or Dog Walker. So, why would you know how to do mine? Where in nursing school do they teach you how to set up a web page for yourself, or what SEO is and why you need to worry about that? Nowhere.

But to get the career security that comes with a large network that you’ve given a lot of value to, you need someone to help you navigate those aspects of digital marketing successfully.

Part 3: Maybe You Know How Digital Marketing Works, So Why Work With A Professional Branding Company?

Short answer: you may not, and that’s okay. Go do it if you can!

Longer answer: I provide value in terms of giving you accountability and guidance in shaping your message. Odds are your post history is inconsistent, and so is the message you’ve spread across social media. And that’s okay for personal use.

But for professional use, be you a company or individual, you need consistency and accountability while you’re building a network to gain career security. And providing you with that is as major component of where Stand Out Professional Branding brings you value.