 | THE POWER OF THE ONE-2-ONE | | | | | Add a pinch of social media ... | Posted on 03/11/2011 @ 14:42 |
I love having one-2-one's with people I meet at events. Business networking is so important to us as small organisations, and arranging a coffee with a person you've just met and chatted to for five minutes is one of the ultimate goals ...
 never underestimate the power of a great coffee shop
A coffee and a natter gives you the opportunity to really get to know someone, and I suppose, decide whether you like them or not. Hmmm, that sounds a bit abrupt, but we are human after all! I suppose another way of looking at that is to decide whether you feel you can recommend them. Hey, sometimes you can't. A Widget salesman specifically looking for contacts in the Outer Hebrides would have no chance with my network! And besides, who's to say I'd even like him?
Building relationships so that people remember you and think of you when they - or someone in their own network - has a need, is the ultimate goal of this meeting arranged from an initial few minutes chat at a business networking event, and there's nothing better than finding a nice, ineresting coffee shop, snuggling down into a big, comfy sofa and really having a good natter.
The classic form of one-2-one is to spend half of it listening to the other person explain what they do, but also then having the opportunity to talk about your own products and services and how you could help them and their network.
However, I personally believe that the most important thing about a one-2-one is to just be a human being and see if you get on. If you don't then no worries! You've hopefully had an interesting chat for an hour or so ... but if you do get into rapport and have a great conversation, then it could be the start of a beautiful business friendship, couldn't it?
So if you do like them - and of course they like you - then the first thing you need to do afterwards is get onto Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and immediately friend, follow and connect with them. Social media is so important in this day and age, and regardless of your feelings for the aforementioned sites, you need to hook up as soon as you can!
Then remember to put up a status about your meeting too! Say something like "awesome meeting with John Smith of Smiths & Co" and include their website URL where possible. If you're adept at the @ tool on Facebook, remember to link them in so your status update appears on their wall too, but you may have to wait until they accept your friend request first! I think everyone is grateful for simple additional exposure like this.
So anyway - to round off this post - I'm currently sat at Costa, waiting for my next meeting to arrive. When it's over, if I connect with them on the social networking sites I frequent, then you'll know we got on well!
Love, light & logic ... 
STEFFI LEWIS
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