{"id":480,"date":"2011-04-05T05:33:19","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T09:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/?p=480"},"modified":"2011-03-27T08:44:12","modified_gmt":"2011-03-27T12:44:12","slug":"how-can-the-reach-of-your-network-help-your-job-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/how-can-the-reach-of-your-network-help-your-job-search\/","title":{"rendered":"How can the reach of your network help your job search?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My prior post Will networking help your job search?<\/a> covered understanding the power and generosity available within your network and how to tap into that energy.\u00a0 Leveraging the reach of your network also helps you accelerate your search.<\/p>\n

Have you stopped to think about the reach of your network?\u00a0 What about the reach of one event?<\/p>\n

If not, think about the numbers.\u00a0 In a job search your number one focus is marketing.\u00a0 To market effectively you must measure your marketing reach and marketing results.\u00a0 You need to think about and look at the numbers.<\/p>\n

According to Facebook, in February 2011, there were 500 million active Facebook users sharing 30 billion pieces of content.\u00a0 The average Facebook user has 130 friends.\u00a0 130 Friends!<\/p>\n

What does that have to do with numbers and networking in person?<\/p>\n

Here is the connection and the assumption.\u00a0\u00a0 If you are job searching and you go to a business networking event, you can assume that the professionals at the event have at least 50 solid business connections, most have many more.<\/p>\n

Do the math.\u00a0 At an event with 50 people, who have 50 contacts (50×50=2500) you have potential access to 2500 possible first degree connections, at one time, in one place.\u00a0 That can be powerful.<\/p>\n

Additionally, if you think about power and generosity of in-person connections and the potential for sparks and energy flow, if you are open, what an opportunity.\u00a0 One event could connect you to the right person, who makes a phone call to a person who will hire you to do your ideal job or to the one person who changes your view of something for ever.<\/p>\n

The catch is it rarely happens at the first event, or even the second event.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Usually, it has to do with your planning, your\u00a0comfort and your openness to connect.<\/p>\n

May I share\u00a0how I know this?<\/p>\n

Now, I love to network.\u00a0 It allows me to connect, build relationships and help others achieve success on their terms.\u00a0 But there was a time that I didn\u2019t know how to network, I didn\u2019t like to network, and I didn\u2019t do it.\u00a0 Frankly, at one time networking terrified me.<\/p>\n

I remember when my heart raced for hours before and after networking events, sometimes I would drive to an event and never go in, I would just sit in the car and look at my plan.<\/p>\n

Then I learned about making a specific plan with the number of people you wanted to connect\u00a0with at an event and finding out what\u00a0you could offer.\u00a0 So one time I tried it.<\/p>\n

I changed my plan\u00a0and I purchased a $75.00 ticket to an event.\u00a0 When I got there the only parking was valet parking, so I spent the two hours in the powder room, sitting in a chair, because I was terrified I was out of my league and I was worried about what the parking attendant would say if I asked for my car after he just parked it.\u00a0 I was so nervous my heart was racing and didn\u2019t know what else to do.\u00a0 Near the end of that event, a woman stopped as she passed where I was sitting, she smiled at me and said, \u201cYou showed up, that\u2019s today\u2019s success\u201d.\u00a0 I was mortified.<\/p>\n

Then I looked down at my plan, it read: \u201cBuy ticket, go to event, be open, successfully connect with one person, and get specific information about networking and become successful\u201d.\u00a0 One spark of energy, one tip, and one connection, my changed plan with a specific number in it worked! \u00a0Not the way I thought it would, but it did work.<\/p>\n

It still took me some time to \u201clove networking\u201d, to become comfortable and to learn to be open to the opportunities and the reach of networking.\u00a0 At that one event, I did learn both about reach of networking and the power of changing my plan.\u00a0 By being open to measure my success and look at the power of specific numbers what I achieved was success!<\/p>\n

I like being successful, it is fun, and gives me a boost. So I tried it again and again until I got good at networking.<\/p>\n

Here is the formula I used, it works.\u00a0 Try it and let me know about your results.<\/p>\n

Ask \u2013 What can you do for your network? Where will you network? How will you tell your network about what you do? What results do you want?\u00a0 Create a plan to connect with your network using the answers to these questions.\u00a0 Execute the plan with openness, next evaluate the results.\u00a0 Celebrate your success and adjust the plan accordingly.<\/p>\n

Looking back when I assessed the results I did have a WOW to celebrate.\u00a0 By changing my plan, adding a number of connections to make and by being open and willing to receive what was offered I was successful and my view of networking changed forever.\u00a0 At that point I was still terrified of networking and I would not call sitting in the powder room for two hours networking \u2013 yet I discovered the how to leverage the reach of one person and a few words at a networking event.<\/p>\n

What would happen if you changed your plan?<\/p>\n

Do you need help to leverage the reach your network offers for your job search?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Join\u00a0the next\u00a0Q & A call.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a job search your number one focus is marketing. To market effectively you must measure your marketing reach and marketing results. You need to think about and look at the numbers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[9,141],"class_list":["post-480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-networking","tag-accelerate-your-search","tag-networking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/accelerateyoursearchnow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}