3 tips for sharing your business network

Lately, I’ve been wondering why the word networking makes so many business professionals so uncomfortable.

Networking is such an important part of business, whether you are in sales, looking for a job, running a company or wanting to move up in your career.

My assumption is networking makes people uncomfortable because they don’t like to put themselves out in the world and ask for things from other people for their benefit. Or maybe people are shy or fear rejection.

Yet, I’ve found that networking and building strong connections with other professionals and people has advantages for both parties.

A person who is perceived as having a strong network is able to share resources and be helpful in a variety of situations. And focusing on building your network and being curious about other people is not exclusively about your own success.

Networking triangulation

In fact, more than 55 percent of the connections that other people make come from a second-degree contact. My good friend, Anne Pryor, Top 10 LinkedIn trainer, shared this statistic with me recently. This high percentage of relationships growing from a “friend of a friend” validated that one of the most satisfying part of networking is introducing other people to new people. I call it networking triangulation.

Here’s an example of how I recently put networking triangulation into action. One of my daughter’s good friends just started at Syracuse University. Freshman fall! Everything is new and this talented midwestern girl is part of the sports marketing and communication program at Newhouse School.

But just like walking into an event where you don’t know anyone, she wrestles with how to meet new people. Well, I picked up the phone and called Brandon Steiner, an amazing speaker, founder of Steiner Sports and an active Syracuse alumni. He happened to be at Syracuse that day and he agreed to introduce my daughter’s friend to a few people if she stopped by after his speech.

They met, she met more upperclassman and she’s going to be settled in faster than someone who sits in their dorm room rather than reaching out. By sharing my network, everyone wins, because now she will follow Brandon’s blog, tell everyone about his amazing speeches and he will eventually get hired by other universities to share his entrepreneurial success. And, of course, I felt great.

Three tips for sharing your network:

1. Have a strong network with variety

We’ve all been taught to build a network in our area of expertise, but consider expanding to knowing doctors, lawyers, babysitters, carpenters, restaurants, ticket sales. Knowing other people means that when someone else has a problem, your network can help them solve it.

To build a network with variety means listening to people who have other interests than you. Ultimately you will be able to be more helpful in the long run.

2. Find out if your network wants to help other people

I always ask first if I can make introductions. I don’t want to take advantage of my relationship, so I am polite when I ask others if they have time to do a favor or meet with someone else.

Most of the people who are in my network are very generous and want to see other people succeed. If they aren’t helpful to others, I don’t send people to them or I find out why.

In one case, I referred someone to look for a job and the person showed up unprepared, was unprofessional and was a poor reflection on me. Lesson learned. Know your network and how it will behave.

3. Ask and build a deeper relationship to reach goals

Most people don’t ask for what they want, and if you have a network that could be helpful to another person, please share. Give another person access or an endorsement to a company they want to do business with, ask if you can help.

I spend time looking through my LinkedIn connections before I meet with someone to see if I might be able to help them connect up with someone. Other people will say, follow up with me and I can help you meet people.

Your network is one of your greatest assets. And the more you can share your contacts with people in your network, everyone wins. Keep an ear to the ground to help other people. Not just job seekers, but people who have drive and great potential.