Howard Yermish, human » networking

From @denthewise – Network is Power

Howard Yermish — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:45:49 +0000

And to follow-up from my earlier post about LinkedIn, here’s a good post by a friend from my Twitter network @denthewise:

Network – not Knowledge – Is Power

Dennis’ point is that with more people using social networks in both personal and business contexts, the network of connections and relationships is becoming an extremely powerful force.

What I’d like to add is that if you combine powerful connections with a high level of expertise on a given subject, you might just become a web 2.0 supernova. And it is even more important to sound your voice in an honest way.

Creating Referral Networks

Howard Yermish — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:23:20 +0000

From October 2006 through September 2007, I was the president president of the Voorhees Regional Referral Group – a local BNI chapter here in South Jersey. It was a roller coaster experience. For those unfamiliar with BNI or other similar referral networks, here is the short story: one business profession per chapter (one realtor, one web developer, one handyman, etc.), look for opportunities for other chapter members, and refer business to each other.

John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing recommends that you can build your own network and he is probably right. However, there is something very simple about BNI that makes it a good logical step for most business professionals. BNI (and other flavors like LeTip and other leads groups) has a structure that is designed to educate other members to find referrals for you and keeps members accountable for the group.

Here is the synopsis of my term as president. The chapter was a mess and probably close to folding. We got everything back on track, worked hard to rehabilitate or weed out members that were not being productive to the chapter, and then grew the chapter. My goal was to build the chapter from its low point of 18 up to 35 members and at the end of my term we reached 36. I learned a lot about referral marketing and I learned a lot about leading an organization.

The reason I disagree with John is that creating a referral network is collaborative and without an established structure, you will find yourself bickering with other members about the little details. Using an existing structure allows you and the other members to move past the organizational minutia and focus on building the relationships.

Having just pinch hit as the Vice President, my next challenge is extending our BNI chapter into the online world of LinkedIn.

Blog comments and posts

Howard Yermish — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:44:39 +0000

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing posts about how Posting relevant comments on blogs is networking.

There are many ways to do networking on the web but I happen to think one of the easiest is to participate in blogs you enjoy by frequently posting relevant content. Blog comment posting is very much like standing around chatting with a group of folks at a networking event (except you don’t have to balance the Swedish meatball plate on your wine glass.)

It is not an easy or quick method, but over time I can see how developing a mesh of posts, comments and links will create a community around a specific topic. Everyone in the community will benefit from the conversation. And having links from many different sites back to your own site create a natural improvement in search engine ranking.