Networking

- [Instructor] Hey, you. Yeah, you. Let's connect. Go to LinkedIn right now. Send me a friend request and make sure you mention that you watched this course. Bam, look at that, we just networked. Networking with other industry leaders or influencers in your space will help you gain more followers and establish yourself as an authority in the space. It can also lead to collaborations on content or even the opening of doors to even bigger connections but is there a wrong way to network? You bet. So let's go over some tips on how you can network without seeming like a used car salesman. First, identify the top influencers or industry leaders in your niche. These are the people or brands you want to make sure you're familiar with and are following on social media because chances are your potential followers are following them too. So make sure you're keeping up to date on their content. Next, it's important to interact genuinely with them and others in your niche on social media. This will help to establish you as an authority figure in your community as well as create a rapport with the influencer you hope to connect with. By genuinely engaging with them such as commenting on and sharing their content, they are more likely to return the favor as well. Now, the next tip is important. So listen up. Don't ask them for something right away such as a collaboration or another connection. No one wants to feel like they are just being used so spend time building a friendship. This step is really important to creating a successful long lasting relationship. I recommend to first establish a rapport with them online and then try to put in at least two to three face-to-face meetups before asking something from them. At this point, they will be familiar with you and more likely to say yes to your ask. Keep in mind though that each person is different so you might need more time for some people to become friendly with you. Also, make it easy for them to say yes. A lot of successful people with large followings online are busy and often get a lot of people coming to them with requests. In order to set yourself up for success, when asking something from them, you want to be specific about what you want, when you want it and how much of their time it will take. For example, I have a comedy movie podcast called Let's Rewatch where we often ask other filmmakers and podcasters to guest on the show. When we approach a guest, we make a point to be very clear about how much time it will take to record an episode, what the format of the show is like and offer a few potential recording dates. Because of this, we make it extremely easy for someone to figure out if guesting on the show will fit in their schedule and we've even landed some pretty notable guests because of it. Next, if you're trying to network with a fairly high profile influencer, consider starting small. Figure out other potential connections in their network and attempt to connect with them first working your way up. Each time you make a new connection, it will make you look more credible in the eyes of the next because you'll have connections in common. Also, pro tip, consider everyone a possible connection. You may be attempting to connect with a big time influencer but their assistant might actually be the better long-term connection for you and be able to hook you up down the road. So always treat everyone politely and show them the same interest you would give to that big time influencer and finally, make face-to-face connections. This is the final step to creating strong contacts and in fact, face-to-face networking is arguably the strongest way to network as 68% of people value in-person networking more than online networking. Figure out which conventions, meetups and events the person you wish to connect with will be at and make sure you attend them. Once there, attempt to make at least one face-to-face encounter with them and remind them that you've already connected online. Now that you know these steps, you can hopefully start to form solid relationships that can help build your network. Oh yeah and don't forget to send me that LinkedIn friend request.