Whilst I was on holiday in Turkey recently I bumped into my friend Alan from my golf club. Alan was very surprised to see me thousands of miles away from home, staying in the same hotel as him at the same time! My wife said, “This happens all the time to Ewan, he’s always bumping into people he knows wherever he goes.”
This is very true, I do know a lot of people and often bump into them at airports, whilst I’m on holiday or at various business or networking events. However, it’s important to note that networking is not about how many people you know. It’s not necessarily significant to be connected to thousands of followers on Twitter, what is important is the strength of the relationships with the people in your network.
Here’s a question for you – do you think that you know more people than your Granny did or does still? You may know a lot more people through social networks such as LinkedIn or Facebook, but your Granny probably knew more about the fewer people she knew than you do about the vast number of people in your network. This may appear a confusing concept but the message is simple – work closely with the people in your network until they are being as proactive as you want them to be.
Ewan helps business people grow their contacts by “word of mouth marketing” and is a key note speaker at conferences on the subject of referral marketing.