Forwarding is the New Networking
by Mindy Selinger
I think that it’s a bit ironic that I was forwarded a link to an article by Tom Davenport of the Harvard Business Review, ‘Forwarding is the New Networking’. Tom’s article supports what I’ve been teaching for the past five years; The Importance of Sharing Information. In fact, the definition of business networking I use is this: Networking is the exchange of Ideas, Information and Resources (From Naisbett’s book Megatrends). You can share any article with hundreds of your closest business associates by learning to use all those book marks and forwarding social networking buttons.
With the onset and use of social media the world is at our fingertips with the click of a mouse. Our networking influence is virtually unlimited. Are we better networkers because of this? Not necessarily. The quality of the connections is what’s important. An excellent way to keep in touch is to forward along useful information. It lets your network know that you’re thinking about them and their needs.
Be careful though. Don’t get in to the habit of just regurgitating the same old information to everyone. Personalize it. Always send along a short note on why the information will be useful to them.
Just the other day one of my connections forwarded me a resource and included her thoughts on how I could use the resource. I took action and the result was huge…MASSIVE. I’m very grateful that she took the time to share her thoughts with me.
I think this quote from Benjamin Disreali sums it up so well… “As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information” (I’m sure he meant to include women, as well)
