When it is time to venture outside of the college bubble you’ve become to so accustomed to and enter the real world equipped only with the knowledge you have accumulated over the past four years (or maybe more) it is essential to understand the importance that building contacts will have to the success of your blossoming career. Chances are you have limited experience or understanding about what the real world working life is really like as evidence by your short and flimsy resume or cover letter. The deteriorating economy has led there to be an increasingly competitive job market so building and utilizing a qualified network early on gives any college student a competitive advantage. Employers, reacting to the decrease in sales as a result of these recessionary times, are finding themselves having more and more monetary constraints and therefore are going to great lengths to find a quality worker instead of hiring a large quantity of them. That means that they will be looking for people who already have a significant number of contacts at their disposal, which will make them an asset to the company from day one. It is hard for college graduates to begin building a network of qualified sales leads when the limited number of people they do know are fellow graduates that have the same influence in the corporate environment that they do. If this is the dilemma you’re finding yourself in than here are a few tools to help you build a useful network.

Most likely the college that you graduated from has loads of resources at your disposal that could help you assemble a manageable and qualified network. The most relevant of these resources would be the alumni association, which allows you to connect with other graduates in the same geographic region, industry, etc. These networks should be relatively easy to establish because everyone you reach out to went to the same college as you, which enables you to create an instant rapport with them. Break the ice by talking about your college’s sports teams, or teachers and classes you’ve both taken. Most schools have already set up alumni networks that publish newsletters, organize frequent social events (which are often geographically scattered), and arrange fundraisers for the organization. Most of these associations have specific programs for new alumni, organizing mixers or meet ups specifically to help them create new friendships or business relationships with those that have a similar, but more experienced background. The best way to connect and cement relationships with alumni would be to attend the mixers or events that the school hosts. There is no beating a face-to-face interaction with someone when you want to make a real and lasting impression. Make sure to bring plenty of business cards, and if appropriate maybe even a few resumes. Many people find it hard to be engaging when thrust into forced social situations, and they find themselves at a loss of what to say to the people they are meeting for the first time which could make you look apathetic or morose. It’s best to start with an icebreaker, for example, “Did you see our team’s big win on Saturday?” or “When I was here I did so-and-so extracurricular, what activities were you into while at Cal?” After talking about something that you both can relate to it will make the conversation move into a business related one more comfortably. If you exchange cards be sure to e-mail the person the next day reminding them a little of what you talked about (for example: Hi Mr. Doe, this is Madeline Smith, I really enjoyed talking to you about the various sales tactics in the computer software industry, I think you have a lot of interesting ideas and I would love to keep in touch), and if you feel really at ease with this person invite them to meet for lunch or some other social outing you think would be fitting. These small steps can be key to building up a network of people that have similar backgrounds and interests and can be really valuable to add to any list of contacts.

Being proficient in social media is extremely helpful for building contacts (as well as businesses) and will become only more significant as time goes on. It is quickly becoming the most powerful networking tool out there right now. By becoming dexterous with social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and MyWay Interactive you can gain the ability to leverage the people you do know as well as link up with people you don’t know who could be of value to you. LinkedIn can be very valuable because it allows you to find and communicate with contacts within your industry. Researching the different groups on LinkedIn can be very beneficial. Join groups that interest you or that relate to the industry you want to penetrate and be active in the group’s discussions and post articles that you think would be of value to others. This is a great way to meet people of similar interests and to establish connections with them. If you find someone you think would be a viable contact carefully review their profile and see if they have posted any articles or written any blogs and incorporate them into the message you send them. For example, I read your blog posting about sales 2.0 and I thought your views on the status of cold-calling were very interesting. Then ask questions in order to establish an ongoing conversation and if the mood seems right add them to your connections. Twitter is an up and coming business social networking tool. It allows you to “follow” different people that could become a contact and receive frequent updates on what they are doing in their life. Being able to have this glimpse of what someone is doing allows you to see if you share any common interests which would be great to use as a conversation starter. For those of you who have a good amount of contacts already and are looking to close more sales deals than you should look at more advanced business social media device such as MyWayInteractive. It is a new social networking tool that allows you to trade qualified sales leads for mutual benefit. This is a great way to find contacts in any industry or profession. If you are active in Twitter, MyWay Interactive has developed a Twitter based contact manager that allows you to import your friends from Twitter and turn them into viable contacts. MyWay Interactive is a revolutionary idea that can help you exchange leads and close deals more quickly and efficiently.

Utilizing these methods will most assuredly build your contact base quickly and fill it with qualified and helpful contacts that will impress any employer. Never find yourself in a state of trepidation over building contacts because the whole process can be relatively easy and painless and maybe even fun! I’ve heard many times from employers and professors that you’re “only as good as your network” and these tools will guide you towards the high level of professionalism that you aspire to.

Add a comment

Posted by Madeline Whyte on August 12, 2009 2:40:34 PM PDT #