A Post about Networking

Happy Wednesday everyone!

There have been a few things going on in the past week or so that have really made me think about networking and building a blog readership, so that’s what I’m focused on today. To start with, I’ve recently started to get a bit more traffic on this blog, so a big HELLO! Hello to everyone who is reading this post or any other, and has made the time to leave a comment or like a post. If you’re a new blogger, you’ll understand just how empowering, encouraging and downright exciting this is; if you’re a more seasoned blogger, you may have forgotten, but let me remind you… it’s pretty damn cool.

The reason I’ve been thinking about networking and social media lately has been precisely because of the people who have been visiting and commenting on my posts. Some of you I’ve connected with through university forums (turns out a bunch of us are bloggers, cool right?), some through reading other blogs across the vast array available on the internet and some through Twitter. In fact, everyone who has commented on my blog, I have somehow networked with in order to lead them to my work.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist (although seriously, if you are, let me know. That’s pretty cool) to realise that there’s some kind of trend going on here. That’s a bit of a clue

If you look back to an earlier blog from June, ‘The Price of Success’, I asked whether you were using any forms of social media to promote your blog and what your online community looked like. My rationale for the post was based on wide reading I’d done regarding blogging and increasing readership. Amongst all of the interesting websites and proffered courses Google spat back at me, my key take away was – the value of networking. Obviously, there’s a requirement to have consistent quality content. I’d say that’s a given. But we’re not here to talk about content because, quite frankly, that’s your business! Your blog is designed for whatever you’d like to put on it (that being said, there’s never any harm in asking other people and professionals for their opinion on what you’re posting if you’re looking to improve yourself). But networking? Let’s have a bit of a chat about that one.

To start with, what is networking? What does it look like? How is it best achieved?

Networking in a professional sense basically refers to the process of interacting with other people in order to exchange information and knowledge and to develop contacts. It’s a multi-faceted process that has only grown more complex with the advent of technology and the pervasiveness of social media in our daily lives. At the very basest levels, networking was originally about meeting people – through friends, work conferences or social occasions – and connecting with them. You might exchange business cards, discuss mutual interests and ways in which you could professionally benefit one another. Then you might file their card away in your rolodex and never get in touch with them again. At least, that’s what you might do if you were a poor networker.

If you’re a good networker (and remembering that these kind of events – outside of the technological domain – remain relevant even for writers who are closeting themselves away to write the next Harry Potter), you’d conduct follow up. You might send them an email in the next few days to let them know that you enjoyed meeting them (which subtly reminds them they did meet you and may prompt them to look you up again). You might find in the coming weeks you have a project or opportunity that could use some external feedback or connections outside of your current scope, which leads you right back to that individual. Establishing this connection and ensuring a strong rapport will not only allow you both to mutually benefit by capitalising on the other’s knowledge and expertise, but also enable you to tap into the people that they know… Thus continuing to expand your network.

But it’s easy to pigeonhole ourselves here. Writers network with writers network with writers… Right? Undoubtedly it’s true that there are a lot of benefits for writers in growing a wide community of other writers to work with: it can lead to collaboration, encouragement, help with troubleshooting, mentoring and generally a lot of joviality about our wayward characters. But there’s a wide range of other arena that we should also aim to harness. Try to build your network to include poets, public speakers and speech writers, editors, publishers and publishing firms, graphic designers and artists. All of these people are inherently involved in creative processes and are likely to have valuable insight and advice that you can use. Moreover, in the event that you want to get published (traditionally) in the future, building a strong network can facilitate that by helping you to understand what publishers are looking for, the nature of the editing process, your responsibilities as a writer and help to shape your expectations of getting published and the publishing process.

More information is always valuable, especially in creative industries.

So, we all know that networking is pretty much the bomb-diggity. Got it. But how to accomplish it? If you’re already working in the industry, you have the advantage of being able to network with people you meet through your work. If you’re not and, like me, you’re living in entirely the wrong place for networking (i.e. you’re living in America and you want to get into the industry in Australia), then the internet and social media platforms might be your ticket. Consider trying any of the following:

1. Get a Twitter account. Let’s face it: almost all writers are on Twitter (Stephen King and JK Rowling are… I rest my case), most aspiring authors are on Twitter and a stack of poets, artists and bloggers use Twitter to promote their work. Start out by finding some people who are interested in the same things as you and follow them. See who they interact with on Twitter and who they follow, and look them up too.

2. Interact with other blogs. If you’re a blogger looking for wider readership, then you can’t just exist as an island. You need to get out there and read other people’s work! Leave comments, discuss ideas and pose questions. People will value your worthwhile contribution to what they’re trying to build and they’ll want to connect with you back.

3. Promote yourself! This is an aspect that I find challenging, but I’m continuing to work on. If you’re talking to a group of people about challenges with writing from the viewpoint of a different gender to your own and you’ve recently written a blog post about it, tell them. If you meet people and they ask what you do for a living, mention your blog. If you’re on a uni forum talking about the challenges of staying motivated and you’ve just written ‘Getting Back into the Grooooove’, then link them to it! Don’t shove it in people’s faces, but also don’t let it moulder away in a damp corner. Invite everyone in to see what you do.

On that note, off to get some study, some writing, some editing and some networking in!

— Ana

[Great memes courtesy of http://viralmarketing.pro and http://honorsprogram.gwublogs.com/2015/10/06/happy-hour-networking-with-uhp-alumni-event/]