By Susan RoAne, Author of The Secrets of Savvy Networking, How To Work a Room® and Face To Face: How To Reclaim The Personal Touch in A Digital World

1. 1. Shift your attitude. Networking is merely helping others; it’s a lifestyle and it’s reciprocal. It’s the way the world works and always has.
2. Assess Your Network. Know who you know. Get paper and pencil and write their names. Don’t forget people in your daily lives: the cleaners, hairstylist, favorite waiter, auto mechanic, accountant, dentist and barista. When we limit ourselves to people with “titles” of importance, we forget the people we know who KNOW us and have access to others who would want to help us.
3. Hang out with people of all generations and diverse backgrounds who are good at what they do. They will be wonderful, if not informal, mentors. ASK for what you need; OFFER your help to others.
4. Establish a pre-need network. If you only show up at professional association business events, chambers of commerce and community organizations when you are in transition, that is a huge mistake.
5. Create and maintain visibility. Be seen and be known. “Work” every room. When those invitations or conference brochures or monthly meeting announcements arrive, do what the people who create their own “luck” do. Say YES, to face to face events even when you want to say NO. It’s one of the EIGHT TRAITS of people who turn serendipity into their succes
6. Be a matchmaker. Introduce and help people connect with those who can do business with each other. That is the skill of the influential and powerful.
7. Stay in touch with people when you need nothing from them Stay in touch online, in social networks (facebook, linkedin) as well as in person….face to face.
8. Keep people in the loop. Let people who refer you business, ideas or job leads KNOW how the process in progressing.
9. Make small talk. While the snobs and socially inept look down their noses at small talk , the savvy networker know that it leads to BIG TALK and that the art of conversation is how we establish common bonds.
10. Schmooze and win!
11. MIND YOUR MANNERS. Being gracious, treating people with respect and acknowledging their contributions and help form the core of savvy networking behavior.
12. “Turn-about is fairplay“: support, assist and mentor others.
13. FOLLOW-UP is essential to create a supportive network that becomes your safety net.

Susan RoAne is an in-demand keynote speaker and the best selling author of How To Work A Room® which launched an industry. She is the undisputed original networking authority who also wrote the landmark book: The Secrets of Savvy Networking and Face To Face: How To Reclaim The Personal Touch in A Digital World among others.

For daily insights, follow her at www.twitter.com/susanroane

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