When Networking Isn’t A Dirty Word
Thursday, September 11th, 2008Last week I was explaining to Eric the concept of Social Media Breakfast | Singapore. And I made the mistake of saying one of the perks was “networking”. To put things in perspective, coming from a business school that does nothing but try to set up the business world equivalent of blind dates, “networking” is sort of a dirty word in our circle.
I think the big problem is the way the school packages these “networking” sessions and teaches us about networking. They put it in such a way that it should be beneficial, you should come with an agenda, you should plant seeds that are meant to be reaped later. But that’s such a turnoff to us.
To switch explanations, I gave Eric the “gamer” analogy (we’re both pretty avid gamers): Imagine going to a gaming conference and meeting many, many other people who are into the latest games, talking about that secret combination that gets you to the hidden level, or talking about the next coolest game to be released.
In a lot of ways I think events like Social Media Breakfast | Singapore, and the other plethora of social media events do serve the “networking” function, but most of the time I don’t think of it in that context. It’s people coming together with passion to talk about, geek out over and share their love and experiences with social media. Networking just becomes increasing your social circle of people interested in the same niche, and if personal experience is anything to go by, there’s seldom the element of going into it with an agenda and getting something back in the future.
I don’t know if your experiences with networking are different from ours, but I would love to hear it or any other networking analogies that work!
Tags: dirty work, networking, school networking, smb, social media breakfast singapore
