Networking – oldstyle. What’s you’re approach?

Part of our visit to Quebec City, Shawinigan and Trois-Rivières included driving and walking around the city to get to events and places in between.

As you might have noticed – the traditional construction of most houses include outside stairs access to the upper floors and balconies. Christian was telling me stories of him growing up and going outside most nights to socialize with all the neighbours. Everyone in the neighbourhood did it and it strengthened ties in the community and kept everyone informed, connected and entertained. It was the norm and there were tangible benefits for participating and nurturing these encounters.

Makes me think about social networking in the online world – both socially and professionally. It’s something that you need to do in order to keep abreast of what’s up in the industry, keep friendly connections alive and well for future opportunities as well providing a form of entertainment. You have to mix it up and touch on a number of services and methods as everyone has their preference for where they invest their time.

For me? For the most part – I use the following engines. Are we connected on them yet? Click on the icons for connection details.

Facebook: more for social connections and friends

LinkedIn: Professional connections and references

Twitter: online “public chat” and conversation

Email: primary communication tool and life organization tool

Phone: still works – but now unified with email and computer

edge.technet.com: work podcast and video interviews

MicrosoftSocial: online profile and forums

Then add in professional associations, users groups as well as multiple informal meetups and coffee chats for face to face time – it goes on and on.  Staying connected and nurturing those connections can really take up a lot of time. Mine might be a bit much – but it is my job to stay connected. What about you? How often do you connect and use these and other tools to keep your network alive and healthy?

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