Note: many thanks to BJ Flagg for today’s guest blog piece, finding the perfect sauce with combining two aptitudes while connecting to great people in discussion at a high level.
How can a creative, gregarious young business women find the perfect career? Easy, follow the technology!
Many years ago when I started out there wasn’t LinkedIn to help you build and curate your network. You had to get out to events, attend Chamber meetings, go to conferences as you do now but then you got back to the office and make sense of who you met. That’s when the real fun happened. Hopefully you had a stack of business cards and you began to make the connections between all the people you met. I loved to meet people and hear a bit of their story. I would fire up my Macintosh computer and type up notes about each person. I had a list of categories with adjectives (today: tags) to help jog my memory. If I felt there was a person I wanted to know more about I would go to the Hoover Business Directories that had the who’s who in business and would see what I could learn. I also would call who ever I thought had a remote connection with this company or person and ask questions. Long hours pouring over the cards, information and connections.
I have always been interested in technology too. I was an early adopter of Microsoft Excel and then later, Filemaker Databases, my network files became enormous. The benefit has been two prosperous businesses and so many great colleagues that I can call or correspond with. When social media came to be it was a game changer. All of a sudden you had your social network and your business network digitally interactive! I knew early on this would be great.
On LinkedIn, at first, you made sure your vital information was up to date and you began finding your existing connections. I thought of it as a live database back then. As time went on I realized the strength of us all being connected. That’s when the light bulb went off – here is where marketing and networking are going to come together! I still go to many events, bring back cards or capture their info at the event; come back to the office and look them up on LinkedIn and connect. I find out about their background, what groups they are in, where they went to school, who we have in common and begin the journey of connection.
Nowadays, you can pinpoint talented people who may need your help or have similar interests and expand your network. Marketing becomes storytelling and your ramp up to trust and know each other is cut immeasurably. That’s how I met Marc by-the-by! I was connected to Marc by Rich Gee, my co-host of Two Heads Podcast, and Marc graciously suggested we meet before we connect on LinkedIn. I thought that was great! The IRL meeting was great and we were lucky to interview Marc on the launch of his second book, You, Us, Them: LinkedIn Marketing Concepts for Nonprofit Professionals Who Really Want to Make a Difference, not long thereafter.
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BJ Flagg (linkedin.com/in/bjflagg) is the principal of Nurenu Brand Marketing and Loupe Ink, a print source company. She is also co-host of the popular podcast, Two Heads – Brand Marketing and Strategic Coaching for Today’s Marketplace. Produced weekly and distributed world-wide, the podcast is a short, but info-packed podcast to help you ‘Make Marketing Remarkable’.
