WUT Even Is? 🤝
Networking isn’t a scary thing at all. It’s literally just building and maintaining relationships with people.
You may think of networking as trying to reach out to strangers that are many levels above where you are, both in terms of career achievement and community standing, but some of your most powerful allies are going to be people in your own peer set.
Building👯👯♀️
Think of your network as a community. Within this framework, networking is simply an ongoing effort to build and maintain your own personal community.
Your network of peers is the first rung in your ladder. The people they know, are the second rung, and so on. Also the network moves with you over time as you grow!
Where are all the places you can build your community?
School/ formal programs of study
Volunteering
Internship/job
Sports/dance - extracurricular activities
LinkedIn
Clubhouse/Twitter
Political campaign/social justice movements
Remember: Ask how you can support others in helping them achieve their goals too. 🔑
How to 🎯
Be specific about what you want. Most people want to help you, but need direct asks in order to do so. Don’t make them guess or go searching for ways to help you. Here is an example of an inbound “cold” message on LinkedIn after the recipient participated in a discussion on local New York politics on Clubhouse:
Subject Line: “Connecting via Clubhouse and Mayor Michael Tubbs!” Contains specifics -- platform where discovered + name of person of interest.
Example of a previous project completed successfully
Key Words - Mental Health/ area of interest and focus
One line pitch with website link to learn more
“I support you.” - Let me know how I can help
No direct ask. Is this good or bad?
“Like, follow, share, join, sign up, click here, text, email, get @ me on IG, add me on Clubhouse!”
Additional Resources: