Tips In Successful Social Networking

I made a small tweak to this blog a couple of weeks ago. I removed all the RSS chicklets and replaced them with “Friend Me” icons from Twitter, Myspace, Viddler etc.

Why? becuase I want to connect with more people beyond the realm of this blog. The more you are active on the social networks the more are the chances that you will be successful.

For a long time I stayed away from the social media sites. There after when I joined them I made several mistakes. Later, I spent about 18 months or so learning the nuances of being social and visible in these networks. Trust me you could be the most social human being on earth but when it comes to being active on media sites there is a lot of learning you have to do upfront.

Networking makes you friends and makes you money if you do it the right way. Once you decide you want to go at it alone and leave everyone else in the lurch while you score billions, then you have moved into intergalactic warlord territory. Your successful business must include interacting with people on some level.

Consider these important tips to successful networking.

1. Be a Friend

Networking should be about being a genuine and authentic person??”in other words, being a friend. Be somebody that others can trust. Be the sort of man or woman that even your competitors respect as an honest authority. Scheme evil or display a harsh or unsympathetic attitude and you won??™t win any friends. Be sure to spread the friendship around and be nice to a variety of people, even the ones on the ???bottom??? that you don??™t need. Your generosity will be remembered.

2. Plan Out Your goals

Don??™t mindlessly join groups just to join. Always ask yourself what your goals are in participating in a new group. Some may be held for continuing educations, others may be present an opportunity to make contacts or new business connections. Having an ulterior motive is not a good idea, but realizing the advantages of your surroundings is the mark of a professional.

3. Ask Smart Questions

Don??™t use a new business contact as a means to prove your own philosophy by asking rhetorical questions. Even yes or no questions are a bit pointless. Ask open-ended questions that involve specifics. When knowledgeable people are asked to expound upon a basic idea, they usually go off into a variety of directions. This is a golden opportunity for learning and for making lasting business friendships.

4. Follow Up On Referrals Right Away

When you are given a referral follow up on it right away. Not only must you quickly take advantage of a new opportunity (letting it lie for a while just kills the interest) but you will also be reflecting on the person who gave you the referral in the first place. Treat the situation with proper decorum and act quickly and efficiently.

Silicon Valley and Current Economic Slowdown..

A good friend today told me how the Information Technology industry has been immune to this recent slowdown of the economy. He even justified how some companies in the silicon valley hiring crazy,

His argument: The valley has learned from its mistakes in 2001 and companies have put measures to tackle the turbulences rising from economic slowdoan of from anything for that matter.

When the whole of US is felling the pinch, Why the silicon valley is not felling the slowdown yet?

I would say.. we are seeing a slowdown but we are not actively feeling it, Many silicon valley companies are silently laying off people and even the startups are now complaining on how difficulty it has become for them to secure round C funding.

Apart from the resistance we have built from our experiences in 2001. The lack of this feeling is caused due one main factor

Visibility Into The Forecasting Process

Historically global Information Technologies have struggled to clearly understand their opportunity and forecast numbers upon each quarter close. Complex business practices, varied product offerings, broad sales teams operating in multiple countries etc make the sales operations management some what unmanageable. Despite of the best analytical and data collection tools this function has remained a challenging area for finance and IT departments.

This is the primary reason why companies fail to read & act on alarming project bookings numbers for upcoming quarters resulting is wrong or no proper guidance to investors and wall street.

In simple terms what this means is..once there is global slowdown it will take anywhere from a few months to few quarters for a companty to really understand how bad it has been impacted.

Also many IT companies reporting their Earnings In Currencies Stronger Than US Dollar

Until a few months ago many international currencies held themselves fairly strongly against the US dollar. US technology companies which were selling in countries like China and India enjoyed the luxury of reporting better earnings due to the exchange rates. Inflation in growing companies like India and China is at all time high which is helping US technology companies to may be sell less in volume but make more per sale.

Again it takes some time to really see how the global markets will perform given the instability. Carefully study upside and project bookings numbers that your sales folks report.

Where Do You Go From Here?

So my strong hunch is.. we will see a slowdown in the silicon valley but it will be important that you stick to what you are doing. If you want to go the entrepenurial way..here is what I suggest.

During these bad times, hire the best for less and invest your time and effort in development. Quick Go-To-Market is the ultimate goal of every company and that should be your goal as well. In a diminishing market situation like this, your best bet is to focus and create good software that is robust, futuristic and mature.

We somewhat saw this in 2002 and 2003. Post 2001 NASDAQ collapse many software companies were wiped out. Some entrepreneurs left the entrepreneurial world and went back to full time jobs. The very few who decided to stay in the game pretty much excelled in the later years. Despite of many obstacles these entrepreneurs refined their business models, hired the best talent at discount and created good darn products.

Here is a quick glimpse..

Marc Andreessen the founder of Netscape and Opsware went on to create Ning.

E Williams started Twitter, Odeo and Blogger( Now acquired by Google)

M&B Trott a one time employee of Excite started Six Apart right around year 2000

R. Hoffman former employee of Paypal went on to create LinkedIn while playing an influential role in DIGG, SIX Apart and Friendster.

M.Lechvin again an employee of Paypal went on to start Slide and played an influential role as an investor in Yelp.

Care for Unnecessary fights in life?

I??™ve now started wondering how much importance I should give to my pride when a false sense of it can put even a precious relationship into jeopardy. I began to seriously think about it after I argued with one of my good friends over an issue which, now I realize, was of no importance at all.

It was just the feeling that ???I??™m right??? that drove me to that bitter encounter. In a sense, it was good that the fight happened, because it led to my self-introspection. When I sat to think coolly about the fight, the anger that accompanied it and so on, I realized how such emotional outbursts can only damage us.

And how bitter we become while arguing that it becomes difficult to forget and forgive in spite of our best intentions.

Right choice of words at right time

Perhaps you would share my view how a wrong choice of words, even with no malice intended, can lead to an extremely unpleasant situation. The same difficulties may arise even if the correct words are used but at the incorrect time or in an inappropriate manner. Even if you try to sincerely tender an apology, it must be done saying the right things in the right manner.

Tone, facial expression

I also realized, remembering some earlier experiences which I had never thought of seriously till now, that quite a lot of those unpleasant things happened because although I was speaking the truth I could not use the right tone that should have gone with it. I could recall an incident during my college days when a classmate seriously misunderstood me as I said something with a false facial expression, which was not really intentional.

The magic of silence

I realized that I have always succeeded in ending an argument which was threatening to turn bitter by just shutting myself off before I became angry. Silence must be an effortless and effective method of putting an end to an argument. During the course of an argument, if you don??™t pay heed to what the other person is saying, you only make him /her angrier. I now feel that it is often better to just walk away rather than going the whole hog in proving myself right.

Learn to say ???I??™m sorry???

The process of self-introspection has provided me with answers to some important questions. For example, it??™s better to pick your words carefully and understand their effects if you don??™t want to enter into arguments.

If you are facing an angry person, don??™t shout in reply but try to give a calm answer. Without retaliating if you are hurt by a trivial comment by someone, try to forget the episode. If the situation becomes serious and demands that you fight back, say exactly what you should say without making accusations.

If you make a mistake, say ???I??™m sorry??? . When you do it, it can end the fight and result in reconciliation. If you say ???I think I am right, but I could be wrong,??? the malice goes out of any argument, although you lose a little bit of your inconsequential pride.

I think you would agree to most of the conclusions I??™ve reached after giving everything a careful thought. Who wants unnecessary fights in life?