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Networking with your business card
Business networking is a crucial part of a business’ marketing strategy, and is an excellent low-cost opportunity to develop sales opportunities. It can be defined as the opportunity to leverage upon one’s personal contacts to open up fresh avenues for business opportunities. Business networking can function as both, a route to a potential market and also as a marketing tool on its own. I tried my hand at it by handing over my business cards to a few people this week.
The first person I gave my business card to was a woman I met in the Staples, an electronic store. I was with my friend Omar and we helped her in locating a USB device she needed, and she thanked us both for our help. I thought that this was a perfect opportunity to kick-start my networking activity as I was sure that she would remember me in the future, because of our interaction, and the business card might help her in getting in touch with me. She works as an advertisement manager for the company Pampers and she enquired about our course and university. Thus, handing our business cards to her was a perfect way to connect with her in the future.
I also attended a professional dinner called PDP Dinner, and there I was able to meet many professionals from varied fields. I had the opportunity to interact with them in an intimate yet relaxed environment and discuss my career plans. I also was able to know about their personal and business experiences and learnt a lot from them. I saw the gathering to be a perfect spot for establishing some valuable new contacts and distributed my business card to quite a few of them.
Later in the same day, I had dinner with a friend named Chris Fitzpatrick, who is a Talent Acquisition Manager with Rent-a-Car. We exchanged business cards, while sharing a few tips on professional development as well. In another occasion, I met with the HR manager of a construction firm in which my friend is working. He accepted my business card and promised to notify me about the HR workshops and personality development classes that are conducted by some of his friends.
I also handed over my business card to my dentist and explained to him what I am studying and the nature of my course. We had a general discussion about the sort of career options that lay before me. He also said that he had some contacts, his friends and patients, who might guide me in my future plans and he added that he would share my contact information with them.
In this modern day world of virtual networking, it was really exciting to make acquaintances with the traditional face-to-face interaction. I should say it was entirely different than sending a friend request through a social platform or sharing e-mail pleasantries with new acquaintances. Face-to-face interactions require different and more demanding skill sets. It felt almost like fishing – being patient, waiting for the right moment and then approaching them with the right comments. However, the experience was satisfying, and I was able to feel a real connect with my acquaintances now that I have interacted with them face-to-face.
I expected some of the people to be unfriendly, particularly at the dinner event, since I was not used to approaching people I do not know. However, it turned out to be a pleasant evening and I think I might have found some good friends. Also, some people after accepting my card gave me their cards back, thus, allowing me to contact them through e-mail later. Overall, despite my initial misgivings towards the whole exercise, I surprisingly enjoyed the entire networking project, and I am sure some of these contacts will help in a huge way in my career.