Network Brand You

[Maria Elena Duron]

There are thousands (yes, thousands) of people who will write about networking. Most talk about everything from being friendly, to smiling, to having the right handshake and making sure you have your ‘elevator speech’ down. And, know that I’m all for that. All of those tools are important to your success in connecting with people. Yet, I still find people utterly lost as to how to move a relationship further. How do you progress past the ‘grip, grin and graze’?

Mastering the Referral EdgeIn working with coaching clients, I show you that with visibility, credibility, and connect-ability, you can get profitability.

Visibility

Visibility, first of all, are you visible to people? Because you can’t do the Dale Carnegie rules of engagement (the best rules on the market) unless you’re visible to people! If all you do is from your home office out to a client and back again and you’re not visible to anybody or your home office is all you do is stay at or at your office, you stay in your cubicle. You don’t come out or you stay within your department, then you’re not visible to anybody and if you’re not visible, then you can’t be remembered cause they don’t even know that you exist so are you visible? That’s number one, visibility.

Credibility

Credibility, that takes time. Are you building credibility with people? Are you showing that when you say something that you’re going to get this done, that you actually do it? Are you showing that you are a person when you say, okay, I’ll bring this newspaper by to you or I’ll bring this book that I read, do you actually follow through and do it? Or with your work, are you credible? Are you showing that you are a person who can be trusted? Because trust does take time. It can be broken down in moments but it takes time to build.

Connect-ability

And then while people may do business with people they don’t particularly like so much, maybe they’re the expert in their field but they’re not as likable, they won’t refer them unless they’re likable for connect-ability is truly understanding, are you connectable? Are you somebody who’s fun to refer? Are you great to get in contact with? Or are you somebody who’s doom and gloom? When they ask you, “How are you doing today?” you’re just, “Oh, it’s a horrible day. It’s this and this” and it’s always something negative. Because even negative people repel other negative people and it’s very hard for people to connect with you if they don’t feel that it’s good.

I see people who are great at what they do and they try to make the connection with someone and then they become what I call that ‘sales-y’ person and then all of a sudden, they just start bombarding them with the Dog and Tony Show information and “Hi, you need to know this about me and this and this” and truly, you do need to earn the right to be heard and part of that’s in dealing and delivering your credibility and also, are you connectable?

Networking your personal brand means that you do so with consistency, constancy and clarity. Utilize these three steps of being visible, developing credibility and ensuring connectability.

Author:
Maria Elena Duron is chief buzz officer & identity coach of buzz2bucks | a personal branding + word of mouth firm. and blogs about connecting your personal brand and SMART Connections. She is also the creator and moderator of brandchat: a live streaming branding discussion on twitter. Follow her on Twitter for daily updates or connect with her on Facebook.

[David Sandusky]

Networking your personal brand means that you do so with consistency, constancy and clarity. Utilize these three steps of being visible, developing credibility and ensuring connectability.

One of the many things I love about you is you are always on-brand! Adding value with core connecting resources. You are consistently making it easy to refer your way. Mix in innovation on and offline, and you are a true resource.

Getting proper referrals is a marathon that is enjoyable when you see results and those results become viral within a certain network of people.

Have you ever received a consistent flow of referrals you can track to one person in a tribe? We do and YOU can too! Follow Maria Elena Duron!