Blogging !! Grow Your Professional Network
Updated: Apr 10, 2021
Blogging networking could be a good way to have interaction your existing contacts, similarly as reach a brand new audience. Blogging can actually help us accomplish many core networking strategies.
Blogging improves your possibilities of being found by your target audience. If and when your target audience finds you, they can get to know you based on the personality of your writing, see that you are an expert in your field, and benefit from your recommendation or advice. Being authentic, displaying your expertise, and being helpful are great ways to network
"Blogging can lead to additional networking opportunities, such as being invited to talk at events, attend events, be interviewed, and more."
Below are core networking strategies and how blogging can help us accomplish each of them.
1. Deliver Value
One of the core principles of effective networking is to first make the effort to be helpful and add value to your contacts before expecting anything in return [Givers Gain]. Blogging is the best way to deliver valuable content to your network. Writing content that’s of interest to your audience, like as “how-tos” or summarizing the research you’ve conducted, could be a good way to be helpful.
For example, if you’re an expert in sales, you could share your knowledge of various sales tactics. If you’re an expert in the IT industry, you could share the research you’ve conducted on the industry.
2. Be Authentic
While there’s no perfect substitute for in-person interaction, blogging is the best way to build rapport. When you write in an authentic voice, your character shines through. Doing so can provide a great supplement for people to get to know you better and build rapport.
Tell stories and share your opinion to show your character and help people get to know you.
3. Increase wide reach
People are often inclined to share great content with their network and via social media. By reaching a large audience, you increase the chances of people reaching out to you directly. In-person events and meetings can be time-consuming; blogging allows you to network in a more time-effective way. In addition, when you’re reaching out to or meeting new people, if someone has read your posts, they may feel more inclined to respond and meet with you.
To increase your visibility, simply write awesome content that people enjoy and get value from.
4. Build Your Reputation
People like to have professional relationships with others they respect, admire, and/or see as potentially being valuable to their business. Blogging is the best way to show your expertise. Write about topics to impress your network in a non-imposing manner. Writing your views and providing analysis on any topic will help you to be recognized as an expert. Write about your recent leanings and accomplishments.
When people understand the value that you have, they are more inclined to stay in touch with you or connect you to others in their network.
5. Stay in Touch
Sharing blog posts on social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, Whatsapp, and Twitter, is a great way to stay on top of the mind of your connections. Everyone’s busy, and many busy people know a lot of people. If you don’t stay in touch with busy people, it can be easy for them to forget about you.
Simply seeing your blog post on their LinkedIn feed can be enough for you to stay in touch with people. It’s also much less time consuming than meeting everyone you know for coffee once a week.
6. Promote Your Network
Promoting people in your network is a great way to be helpful. If a contact has big news, cover it on your blog. An interview with the person may be valuable to your audience. Offering your network a guest post on your blog would be especially helpful if your audience is large and relevant to your contacts. Linking back to a contact’s blog or website when contextual to a post you’re publishing is a small but still nice way to promote your network. When your network gets stronger, you get stronger.