There has been a great deal of talk in the last few years about ‘social networking’ and how useful it is to promote and grow a business. According to Wikipedia, a social network is:

“A social structure made up of a set of social ‘actors’ (such as individuals or organizations) and a set of the ties between these actors’.”

If you ask the Internet for a definition of social networking it will tell you about social networking services or sites, which are “platforms to build social networks or social relations among people who share similar interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections.”

It’s interesting (to me, anyway!) that this latter definition only really refers to online social networking. It seems that the real thing, the face-to-face social networking has been surpassed. Or has it?

Social networking is about spending time with people who share the same interests as you. Here are a few great examples that I’ve come across and experienced recently, that have all lead to new business.

• One of my newest clients is someone I’ve known for a while. We’ve met at face-to-face networking meetings and have talked marketing and business a little. It was when we got onto talking about dogs (I have two Border Collies and he has a Pointer) that the relationship changed. We agreed to meet up and walk the dogs one day during the summer. By the end of the 40 minute dog walk, I had a new client. The dogs got on well too!

• Another client is a keen golfer. She’s a member of a local Golf Club and plays there regularly. As a result, the Golf Club is now one of her clients. Through playing against fellow golfers – and being able to talk to them about golf as well as business, in a relaxed setting – she’s taken on a number of new, golfing clients. Can she put her membership fees down as ‘marketing’?

• Two years ago I took up skiing again. I go with a group of other business owners but the trip is far more about skiing than networking and doing business. Over dinner on this year’s trip, a fellow skier asked some of us questions about our businesses and published an online article with our answers. As a result, one of his contacts called me about doing some work for him. Next year’s trip is all booked!

You may not have a dog; you may not play golf or ski, but I’m sure that outside your business, you have hobbies and interests. You may have children who go to the same school as potential clients; you might attend a yoga class that your next supplier also goes to. You will have interests and hobbies that you can talk about when you go to business networking meetings. If it’s always just about trying to do business and trying to sell your services, you could be missing out on a lot of potential clients. Instead of asking “What do you do?” why not ask someone about their interests and what they do at the weekends? Or where they’re going on their next holiday. You’ll be able to build up much stronger relationships with potential and existing clients, when you get to know them better, and do some real ‘social’ networking.

Image by SURENDAR KUMAR B (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)] via Wikimedia Commons