The following guest post was written by Kristin Dziadul, a recent Graduate of Western New England College who already has her own blog, YouTube channel, Twitter account and a large network of friends in social media, including myself.
The idea for this guest blog post all stemmed from this direct message that I received from Bob Cargill on Twitter…
Kristin, I signed up for this event tonight — http://soxup.eventbrite.com. Check it out. Maybe we could meet up for a chat there. — Bob (11:14 PM Feb 3rd)
Yes, the nature of networking has changed dramatically. So many conversations, relationships, events, and meetings stem from the Twitterverse and then trickle down to in-person meetings.
Networking has become much easier while using an online resource such as Twitter since you can connect with people quite easily based on interest, industry, location, job position, hobby, etc., all without leaving the comfort of your computer desk (or handheld smartphone device for that matter).
Bob and I were both able to utilize the #soxup hashtag on our respective Twitter posts on a regular basis to poll people to see if they would be in attendance that evening — and then we were able to begin a conversation with those people. Personally, I found that this made networking during the event itself much easier. I was able to recognize people based on having seen their Twitter avatars or by looking at their Twitter usernames on their name tags, and then I could jump into a conversation started originally on Twitter. I found it much easier to converse with others by already knowing who they were, having spoken to them briefly online about our common interests. I noticed that as I exchanged business cards with people, they had their Twitter usernames right on their cards like I did so that once we returned home, we could start following each other on Twitter and continue the conversations. I have kept in touch with about five of the people I met at the #soxup event, and plan to continue those relationships.
Not only is the Internet changing the way business is done, how we research products, and how we buy, but it is truly changing the way we meet and keep in touch with people who can start as complete strangers and eventually become close contacts and friends.
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Great read Kristin!
Thanks Phil!
Nice article. I have had many similar, positive experiences. Twitter is networking on steroids.
Kristen, I totally agree that the Internet is changing how we meet people, but as an individual that is a network junkie, I think it is too premature to pass jugdement that these tools are superior to classic tools. I am finding a lot of the connections I make via the Internet situational in nature, thus ephemeral – short lived. I will be curious who I will still be connected to one year after I made to step up my LinkedIn initiative.
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