Surprising Ways to Enhance Your Social Networking Skills

by TM Maria Be a king in your own kingdom

Social networking skills are becoming more and more important. Let’s keep reading this article to find out how to improve yourself and get ahead of the game.

No matter what field you are working in, social networking is one of the most important skills to achieve success. It’s undoubtedly true that networking allows us to connect to the right person, which helps us get work done more quickly and effectively.

However, not every one of us is good at networking. It's very easy to get confused because you do not know where and how to start. But I do believe that everything can be learned as long as you approach it with the right method. In this article, I am going to show you a few useful ways to improve your networking skills.

Work on Your Confidence

Confidence is the first and foremost thing you need to be able to connect with more people. In reality, it is not as simple as it seems. There are various people out there who are trying so hard to work on their confidence, yet not many of them are successful.

Instead of trying to solve the problem directly, why not try another approach which is less direct?

For example, many studies have shown that playing an instrument can help increase confidence. When you spend time learning how to play, and when you perform in front of a few people, you will gradually build your confidence over time.

Playing instruments is one of the best ways to build confidence

It may sound silly, but in fact, this method works for many people. To gain confidence, you need to be excellent at something. Surprisingly, it does not have to be your work.

So, why not spending your time playing, say, electric guitars? I'm pretty sure there are so many cool things when you get to learn about distortion or even specialized stuff, such as Kevin’s pedals guide at Musical Study.

Make the Most out of Your Social Accounts

In the world we are living in, the Internet has become a norm; as such, social media have become one of the main ways to get in touch and build relationships.

If you are looking for ways to build a network, one of the best and cheapest ways is to start with social media. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram are some popular sites that most people on the world use on a regular basis. To reach out to more people, it is highly recommended for you to have an account on these popular platforms.

LinkedIn is a great social media platform for building professional networks

Of all those social media that I have mentioned above, LinkedIn seems to be the most effective when it comes to creating a professional network. Try to utilize all of the features from this platform to get the best result possible.

Most people forget that frequently updating is a good way to build your professional profile. Add details and relevant experience so that other people know some bits about you when they reach out for you or vice versa.

Convert Online Network to Offline Network

Having many online connections is a good thing. However, it does not mean anything if you do not convert them into a real relationship. By real relationships, I mean meeting the person in person. A face to face meeting can bring far more benefits than you may realize.

Some people may doubt the benefits of face to face meetings. However, in almost every circumstance, face to face meeting allows you to gain more information from a person because you can observe their body language. To those who may not know, body language says many valuable things that are not verbally expressed.

Get the Right Mindset

Before you start to take action for your networking plan, let’s get the right mindset first! Some people consider networking as something they have to do to gain benefits. Well, that's true.

However, that mindset won't get you any further because, after all, networking is about humans connecting to other human beings. If you are trying to connect to the most people as possible without carefully consider values that they can bring to the table, well, it may not result in something you expect.

At the end of the day, networking is about building relationships. However, it is genuine relationships that can last long. If you treat them as your friend, rather than just a business contact, one day you will realize that you will gain something more valuable.

So the right mindset should be to think of it as a way to build a friendship. Talking to each other to find out something in common and genuinely care about the other person is the only way to build long-lasting relationships.

Follow up

Most people, after successfully building relationships with a person they want to connect with, they usually forget the last step – follow up.

Our life is getting busier and busier. Following up is the only way that we can do to maintain the relationship and keep nurturing it in the future.

It does not take much effort to follow up. Sometimes you should send a catch-up email or a coffee invitation after work. These little efforts, in the long run, will keep the relationship last for very long.

Let’s Wrap It Up,

Building relationships is an art that not everyone knows how to master it. However, everything can be learned. As long as you follow all of the steps mentioned above and make an effort to practice, then you will realize it is not as hard and confused as you thought it would be.

In the end, networking is about humans connecting to humans. The secret to success at networking is to not consider it as a job but a way to make friends. That way, you will realize it is much more interesting than before.