What Are the Main Rules of Networking

NETWORKING

1. What are the main rules of networking?
Networking can be described as the process of associating with one another in order to
exchange information and strengthen the relationship either professional or social (Brandes,
Freeman and Wagner, 2013). On the other hand, networking can be described as the process
of linking computers to exchange information with each other. There are various rules that
make networking possible either among individuals or computers. In this section, we are
going to discuss the main rules of networking among people. They include the following:
 Knowing the reason why you are contacting people – Once the list of people to be
contacted has been identified and sorted out, one should identify the reason why he
wants to contact them. One should also identify what he or she can gain from them.
One may contact and employer with the reason being to know more about the
company and if there are any job opportunities so that he can apply for the positions.
Unemployed people should contact employed people and ask if there is a job
opportunity so that they can apply for the positions (Cavoulacos and Minshew, 2010).
 Making powerful impressions. Before making communication, it is important to
think about what you are going to say which is the main reason why you want them to
contact you. Casual communication is preferred since it makes friends understand you
easily and also makes communication more convincing (Yu, Rexford, Freedman, and
Wang, 2010).
 Making sure that something is learned from every communication- The people
whom you communicate with should have a lot of knowledge for you to gain from
them. If you have the same career many questions should be asked in order to gain
more knowledge from them. This means each network interaction that someone has
should help him gain more knowledge and opportunities that can fit his goals.
 Contacting every new referral that you receive. One’s characteristics cannot be
known until you interact with them also one can only receive help after seeking for it
(Cabaj & Mazurczyk, 2016). Thus, every new contact that one receives should be
contacted in order to determine if he can ask help from the new contact.
 Showing gratitude to everyone that has to be conducted by writing thank you
letters.

 Storing and keeping up follow up activities- as the process of networking continues,
many people will be contacted thus it is important to store all the information about
the people contacted, the information gathered from them, the date the conversation
took place and what was discussed (Yeganeh, Tootoonchian and Ganjali, 2013)
2. Which characteristics are important for the topic of networking?
The following are the characteristics of the topic networking.
 Approachability- Effective networking starts with being approachable ((Luo and Zhong,
2015). Since it is all about building connectivity and mutual relationship for business
purposes. Being a good networker means that you should make people feel good when
they are around you.
 Trustworthy-if somebody cannot be trusted then nobody will be interested to work with
them. This means that no one will refer people to someone who is not trustful.
 Follow up-Since in networking fortunes lies on following up, if someone offers
opportunities to people who actually do not follow up, they will eventually get tired and
stop offering opportunities to those people since it portrays lack of interest (Park, Song
and Ko, 2011).
 Sincerity: Faking sincerity in any relationship is not sustainable. People who have
sincerity can easily be trusted by anyone thus creating a network, unlike people who are
insincere since it is hard for them to create a communication network among individuals.
 Being helpfully and collaborative- Many people are not interested in what someone
does, they are most interested in how much you care (Gibson, Hardy and Buckley, 2014).
Helping people shows how much you care for them. Research shows that most people
want to interact with people who have a caring collaborative attitude.
 Positive attitudes. Attitudes make people around you either like or dislike you. People
with a positive attitude are liked by many people (Vandenberg, S.G. ed., 2013). Negative
attitudes make people dislike you.
 Good listener - communication depends on how people understand each other
(Albareda-Tiana, Vidal-Raméntol and Fernández-Morilla, 2018). People with good
listening skills can easily understand each other thus establishing a valuable relationship.