I’m getting hammered with targeted Facebook advertising lately. Clearly, I visited some site that was just waiting to hit me with a tracking pixel so it could barrage me. That’s okay. All’s fair in love and advertising. (Isn’t that the saying?)
The headline from this morning’s Facebook ad is something like “Networking Doesn’t Work Anymore.” After clicking on the link, the advertiser tried to sell me an alternative approach to marketing my practice.
“Networking Doesn’t Work Anymore”? Um, what?
Yeah, networking still works. It’s not going away anytime soon.
In fact, networking is like prostitution. It’s not going away EVER!
Sure, prostitution, like networking, evolves and changes. It used to be that you could find a hooker on the corner. Now, I’m told, you have to hunt one down on Craigslist or elsewhere online. Nothing stays exactly the same.
But networking is just another word for relationship building. That’s just a fancy way of saying making friends. People are people, and they’re always going to be interested in other people.
Networking persists regardless of what else changes. The Internet doesn’t kill networking. The telephone didn’t kill networking. The carrier pigeon didn’t kill networking.
In fact, the more communication tools we have, the more important networking becomes. People are out there spreading the word about you. They’re saying good things and bad. They’re talking to one another on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter. They’re e-mailing about you. They’re texting about you. They’re spreading the word about whether you’re good or bad, right or wrong, and helpful or not.
You need to be in the game. You need to be connecting, communicating, and building relationships. You need friends out there. You need to be connected.
You need to get in touch, stay in touch, and keep in touch. You need a dialogue. You need back and forth. You need to be helpful and willing to accept help. You need to show up and join in. You need to connect with others.
I’ve written about networking before (shameless self-promotion), and I’ll write about it again. Why? Because networking is not dead. It’s alive and well, and it remains essential. Networking works.
