The 4 Networking Styles - Style 1 Social Lite

Social Light

The first style we will discuss is the SOCIAL LIGHT, not because it’s the best but simply because one must come first and this is often how many people get started into networking.  Some of them never grow into anything more because this first style is soooooo comfortable. 

            With the SOCIAL LIGHT Networker, the emphasis is on the social part of networking.  This networker is heavy on the “social” and light on the “networking”, thus the name. 

This is the person that hangs out with their close friends, the people that they already know, like and trust people from their own office or people that they are dating or want to date.  This is like a little networking party.  It looks a lot like a Friday or Saturday evening night out without all the other business people around.  Often times it’s a group of guys that stands around and talks about all the cute girls, or vice versa.  Sometimes two groups will collide and you have a larger group of co-ed social light networkers.  While they are always talking it is rarely about business.  Social Lights always have something in common that bonds them together.  That bond is almost always a non-business related topic.

They occasionally will meet someone they don’t know but it is not very common.  They never get any business from the networking event but when they are asked about networking it gets positive reviews.  When the boss asks about the event it was always great and lots of people where there, and when friends ask they are told; “too bad you missed it”.  Tom won a door prize.  It bears repeating that this crowd is big on the social and light on the networking. 

Now that’s not all bad as we all need to start somewhere and this is usually the place.  These folks need to meet the host of the event so that they can meet some new people by introduction. 

Generally speaking they are great conversationalist but don’t have a high level of skill in networking.  If introduced to someone new they will have the ability to carry on a conversation even if they are uncomfortable.  These people are usually very “social”.

How do we improve their networking skill and move them along in the networking process so that they make more money and get better results?  Well hang on a minute and lets look at the next style of networking and see if there is a logical progression or any progression at all for that matter.

 Benjamin 

This entry was posted on 9. October 2008 at 15:46 and is filed under 101 Networking Nuggets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.