Absolutely! If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time you know that I say over and over again that networking is at it's core about relationships. Do you have any better relationships than those you have with your ‘relatives?' I think the word relatives pretty much says it all.Successful networking is also about giving first. What a great way to turn Thanksgiving into your own personal networking event, and find ways to give to your family, friends and relatives. Now I'm not saying go out and start collecting business cards on Thanksgiving. That's not it at all. Just take the time to listen to each person while you're enjoying Thanksgiving and see if there's any way that you might be able to help them.You might even be able to refer some of the people you've been networking with to your family. Maybe your uncle is complaining about his back (again). What an opportunity to refer him to the Chiropractor you keep hearing such great things about every Tuesday morning. Your lazy cousin forgot to file his tax return? I'm sure you know a great CPA or tax preparer who could help.This Thanksgiving be thankful for the friends and family you get to spend the holiday with. Appreciate them, and just listen. You'll prove to be a very valuable asset, and if you need something next year it'll be even easier to ask your best built in network… Your family.Happy networking!Scott IngramNetworkInAustin.com

Yesterday I attended the InnoTech conference at the Austin Convention Center. All in all it was a great show. There were some fabulous speakers, and I think most of those who attended got a lot out of it. Especially at the bargain price it was offered for. I just don’t understand why I always feel like I need to walk down the center of trade show aisles so that I’m not accosted by obnoxious sales people. A good sales presentation is a dialogue between two or more parties, and a good sales person knows that they should be asking a lot of questions. Why does this get thrown out the window at trade shows?When I first walked in I had a very nice conversation with Jan Triplett of the Business Success Center. I already knew Jan, and she did a great job of introducing visitors to her booth to each other. Jan is the poster child of what good networking is all about.Then it went down hill. Apparently I walked too close to another booth. A woman launched into a good 10-12 minute presentation about a $10,000 product that I have no need for, nor would I ever likely have a need for. She might have known that had she asked me a single question about who I was and what I did.After that I spent the rest of my time at the show avoiding other vendors not wanting to get sucked into the vortex of another mindless sales pitch. Those of you who’ve been reading my blog for a while now know that I don’t often complain or get upset like this. It just frustrates me to see people like this who miss the point and ruin it for the good exhibitors. Unfortunately I think too many of these people were “professionals” who work trade shows for a living. Somehow they’re the worst ones?Selling is not difficult. It just takes some common sense. If you simply treat other people the way you’d want to be treated in a sales situation it’s easy. Respect other people, and learn about them and what they need. A good sales person should be the very first person to recognize when a particular product or service is not appropriate for someone, AND SAY SO!Enough of my soapbox… Other than that incident I had a great time and met a lot of wonderful people. I’m looking forward to developing relationships with several of them who particularly impressed me.Remember, networking at events like InnoTech is absolutely useless if you don’t take the time to follow-up with the people you met. All of the people I met yesterday (who I exchanged business cards with) will hear from me by the end of the week.Happy networking!Scott IngramNetworkInAustin.com

Before I start today's tip I'd just like to thank all of the NetworkInAustin.com members who came out to support me at Freelance Austin yesterday. For all of the freelancers who were in attendance I hope you learned a little bit more about business blogs and about networking and will find the rest of the information on my blog useful.Following-up is probably the single most important part of successful networking and often the most difficult. Without following-up with the people you meet at networking events you can't take the relationship to the next level. Networking is not about meeting as many people as possible, it's about building quality relationships.I don't think I know anyone who is perfect at following-up. So don't feel like you have to be perfect, just be sure to make the effort.Don't feel like you have to follow-up with every single person you meet either. You won't be able to keep up. Focus on those that are most important to you, whatever those reasons are. If you participated in the networking exercise that I facilitated yesterday at Freelance Austin you talked with 4 people. Pick just one or two of those people and follow-up, preferably today (After you finish reading my blog of course!).Make an effort to do your follow-up in a timely manner. The sooner you can do it after meeting someone the more likely they are to remember who you are. You won't have to spend as much time reestablishing the relationships; you can simply start where you left off. You'll see the best results if you can reconnect with those you've met within 1-2 days, but anytime within a week or so will work also. Even if you can't follow-up within a week or 10 days don't stress. Late follow-up is 100% better than no follow-up at all.E-mail is certainly the easiest way to follow-up, and I think you should consider more than just an e-mail. If you can setup a time to get together via e-mail that's fine. However, adding a phone call, or a quick thank you note will add a lot of impact to your follow-up. Why? Because very few other people do those things.We're all busy and probably have too much to do. It's important to make the time to follow-up or we're really wasting much of the time that we're spending at networking events.Happy networking!Scott IngramNetworkInAustin.com

Blogging is not difficult, but it does take some real commitment to build a successful business blog.The most important element of a good blog is consistency. If you're not committed to writing regularly for a long period of time I'd recommend that you not start. You'll be disappointed in your results and will probably have wasted your effort. It took me about 3 to 4 months before I started getting substantial traction with my blog. This is a long term marketing strategy; don't expect it to pay off tomorrow.I personally recommend that you plan on posting at least 1 new post each week. More is always better and the ideal for a busy business professional like you and I is probably 2-3 times per week. Don't start too fast, concentrate on consistency. If you're going to post twice a week, start with twice a week. Don't start out writing 3 posts a day everyday for the first month and burn yourself out.Your posts don't have to be long. My average post is probably just 300-400 words. This way the people that are coming to read your blog won't feel overwhelmed, and will be more likely to read more than one post. You can always take the short blog post you've written and turn it into a longer article for your website or for other publications.What if I'm not a great writer? Don't worry, just start. By posting to your blog consistently over time you will become a better writer. Focus more on adding value for your readers, make it personal and share your opinions and things about yourself. The occasional typo or grammatical error will be overlooked. You should still use a spell checker just in case.Get involved in the blogging community. Read other blogs and participate. Build relationships with other bloggers. You'll find that you love it when people contact you about your blog. When you contact other bloggers because you've been reading what they've said they'll feel the same way. This is a great networking opportunity and you'll often find that these bloggers will talk about you and your blog which can help make more people aware of your blog, and you should do the same for them. For example. I was just reading my friend Thom Singer's blog this morning where he coined the term: "Neblogging" to describe exactly this advantage.If you're going to start your own business blog make it a long term commitment. Have fun and trust that your investment of time will payoff. Happy blogging!Scott IngramNetworkInAustin.com