Developing Business Networking and Relationship Skills Report

This report provides an overview of business networking and relationship skills, emphasizing the evolution of networking from traditional methods to leveraging social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. It highlights the importance of social capital and the significance of both weak and strong ties in building and maintaining a robust network. The report also includes a personal reflection on current networking styles and strategies for improvement, underscoring the belief that a strong network is crucial for professional and personal growth. The document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wide range of study resources including past papers and solved assignments.

Running Head: Develop business networking and relationship skills
Develop business Networking and
Relationship skills
Report Writing

Table of Content
Introduction....................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Networking......................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Social Capital...................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Application of Facebook, Linked-In and Twitter in Networking..................................................................4
Fecebook as Network Growth................................................................................................................................ 4
Linked- In as Network Growth.............................................................................................................................. 4
Twitter as Network Growth.................................................................................................................................... 5
Significance of Weak and strong ties in Networking.........................................................................................5
Current networking and business relationship styles......................................................................................5
Summary............................................................................................................................................................................. 6
References.......................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Introduction
Earth with a surface area of over 500 million sq.km has become more like a global village,
thanks to the Internet and its fruit of social media. The world with a sprawling population of
over 7 billion and internet penetration of over 53% have made it easier for people to network
with a person who is sitting thousands of miles away from him, with the use of
technology(Gerbaudo, 2018).Extension to the above Preamble lays the foundation of this report
writing.
The report here will focus on the concept and advantage of networking & social capital at length.
It will also focus on the significance of weak and strong ties in the context of the networks.
Towards the end, a small reflection will be presented on my current networking and business
relationship skills and the way I have identified to improve my networking skill.

Networking
Networking has been in existence ever since the concept of civilization cropped in, networking
in the earlier days was limited to bargaining practices, and however, the concept has seen a
revolution of change from Then to Now. Networking can be understood as the process which
fosters the exchange and transfer of information and ideas among individuals or groups which
share a common interest, it can be both social as well the business people (Tuten & Solomon,
2017).
Networking is of great importance in today’s professional world, it helps to boast individuals
professional and employment prospects. Networking exists in all forms such as business
networking, personal networking and professional networking. The underlying rationale here is
that networking helps the individual in getting in contact with the person in power or a person
who can be on immense help to the other person(Chung, Yang & Huang, 2015).

(Source: Taneja & Toombs, 2014)
Networking as mentioned has evolved over the last couple of decades, earlier networking was
limited to business meeting, conferences, events or family gatherings. In these type of gathering
people in a formal way used to communicate with each other, build contacts, exchange cards
and depart with the promise of Staying in touch and more so. However, in today’s world, due to
the rise of Internet and Social media, Networking has become easy and it has become extremely
easy for people to stay in touch with the Network. Today’s Networking is based on the Pillars of
efficiency, ease of communication, wider, larger and strong networks. Social media platforms
such as Facebook, Linked-in and Twitter are some of the channels which shows strong
networking growth in the present day world, and are highly effective(Kasemsap, 2016).
Social Capital
As the name implies, social capital is the network of relationships amongst people who live and
work in a particular society helping the society to function in a better and productive manner. In
today’s dynamic world Social capital is also seen as the worth of an individual, the more a
person has strong network which he/she can leverage for their own good or the good of their
friends/families/acquaintance, the more is his worth in the market(Lin, 2017). Social capital in
the organization is of great importance, more the social capital, better are the chances of the

company’s growth and ease of communication in the organization. Thus, social capital is of great
importance in the ecosystem of Networking (Burt, 2017).
Application of Facebook, Linked-In and Twitter in Networking
Facebook is the largest social media platform which has over 2.3 Billion active social media
users; it was after the success of Facebook a wave of social media platforms stormed the market
and groped the users in the disruption of social media. Instagram, Snapchat are some other
channels which are seen as strong platforms for Networking.
Fecebook as Network Growth- People have misconception that Facebook as a platform
is used to boast informal communication or to build informal relationships with the network.
This is however not entire true, as Facebook as evolved over the last couple of years and is
focussing on business networking. Facebook gives plethora of options to people for staying in
touch with each other, option of building a community amongst the like -minded people, option
of adding people sitting at any remote part of the world and also to engage and communicate
with them at ease. It has now become easy for a person to find somebody on the Facebook, send
him a friend request and start building a relationship with them (Sehgal & Agarwal, 2018).
Linked- In as Network Growth-Linked-In is the number one social media platform for
Professionals who are looking to build their network and stay upbeat in the professional world.
Linked-In as a professional media platform gained huge popularity due to its professionalism
and plethora of services which are akin to stronger networking groups. Linked-In makes it
easier for the users to be a part of any community in which he is interested in and be am
member of the community. In this way he is able to identify the people in the industry, what
have they been doing in their professional journey and can easily approach them for any kind of
help. Features such as In Mail, Messaging, Join a group, Professional community;
recommendation etc. makes the platform a good channel for Network growth (Krishna &
Sekharaiah, 2015).
Twitter as Network Growth-Twitter is the largest micro-blogging platform which gives
the users to communicate his views/opinion within 140 words along with GIF or rich media.
Twitter gained popularity all of a sudden when in large herds, media celebrities, politicians,
models, fashion designers and influencers joined the platform. At present Twitter boasts of over
1 Billion active users on the platform and give a lot of independence to its users to follow any
public and private account. The platform is not as simple as Facebook, still provides plethora of
options to increase the network of the individual. It is the presence of the eminent personalities

and a large group of people which hooks the people onto the platform and helps them in
growing their network by following them and building a relation of trust and faith (Isom, Walsh
& Gardner, 2017).
Significance of Weak and strong ties in Networking
Networking as explained earlier is extremely important in today’s professional and personal
world .Both strong and weak ties in Networking holds tremendous significance, some of them
are as follows:
 Strong ties in Networking helps in bringing the people with diversity close together and
helps in better exchange of ideas, views and thoughts. Strong ties in networking are seen
as the breeding grounds of ideas which lead to creativity and innovation. Thus, strong
networking not only helps the individual but the entire network (Centola, 2015).
 Weak ties in networking can be of great help in the form of crucial information
regarding a job opportunity, a new start up business idea or acting as a bridge to build
new connection in the same or different industry. The important point here is to nurture
and cultivate the networking ties in the system to ensure a steady flow of information
which can be of great utility in the future (Dubos, 2017).
Current networking and business relationship styles
I attend various industry forum events in a bid to know important stakeholders working in the
industry, and also to build a relationship of trust and faith with them. I always try my best to be
a part of the network which has a lot of diversity in the group, this helps me to gain knowledge
on the subjects I am not inclined towards or have strong affinity. This not only helps me in
giving a significant weightage to my network, but also puts me on a pedestal to learning and
growth.
I strongly value networking, and I am always looking forward to meet such diverse network
groups. I do my bit of contribution to the network as we all are mostly focussed on the concept
of utilitarianism, doing greatest good for the greatest number of people.
I am a firm believer of the concept that “Network” is the “Net-worth” of an individual, going by
the philosophy I believe in keeping my network strong, closely tied, encouraging, motivating
and full of positivity. I ensure that once a week atleast I engage with my network through the
use of social media and do not miss the opportunity of meeting with the network if they are in

town. I have benefitted a lot from my network, not only in my professional journey but also in
my personal life as well.
Summary
I am a firm believer that Networking is the net worth of an individual and it opens the doors of
unexplored territory to the members of network. Networking has evolved over the last decade,
it transformed from traditional networking places like events, business meetings, and informal
gathering to more systematic networks on social and digital media. Social and digital media has
paved the way for networks to engage, influence, motivate and help one other by creating a
strong community of like-minded individuals. Networking is of great help when it comes to
building connections, identifying opportunities, raising the profile, increasing business and
churning new ideas,

References
Centola, D., 2015. Choosing your network: Social preferences in an online health
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Chung, H.F., Yang, Z. and Huang, P.H., 2015. How does organizational learning matter in strategic
business performance? The contingency role of guanxi networking. Journal of Business
Research, 68(6), pp.1216-1224.
Dubos, R., 2017. Social capital: Theory and research. Routledge.
Gerbaudo, P., 2018. Tweets and the streets: Social media and contemporary activism. Pluto Press.
Isom, J., Walsh, M. and Gardner, J.M., 2017. Social Media and Pathology: Where Are We Now and
Why Does it Matter?. Advances in anatomic pathology, 24(5), pp.294-303.
Kasemsap, K., 2016. The role of social networking in global business environments. In Social
media and networking: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications (pp. 1635-1653). IGI
Global.
Krishna, A.R. and Sekharaiah, K.C., 2015. Security Features of User’s for Online Social
Networks. IITM Journal of Management and IT, 6(1), pp.51-58.
Lin, N., 2017. Building a network theory of social capital. In Social capital (pp. 3-28). Routledge.
Sehgal, D. and Agarwal, A.K., 2018. Real-time Sentiment Analysis of Big Data Applications Using
Twitter Data with Hadoop Framework. In Soft Computing: Theories and Applications (pp. 765-
772). Springer, Singapore.
Taneja, S. and Toombs, L., 2014. Putting a face on small businesses: Visibility, viability, and
sustainability the impact of social media on small business marketing. Academy of Marketing
Studies Journal, 18(1), p.249.
Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2017. Social media marketing. Sage.