By Mark O’Toole, The Castle Group*
WHEN the economy is down and business interactions become increasingly more digital, it is imperative to “reach out” and re-humanize your relationships.
The best way to do this? Although it may seem like a basic task, building your network of contacts, friends, supporters, clients and alumni is still one of the best ways to strengthen existing relationships and create new connections.
The key to successfully doing this is simple: make sure to build your network authentically. This means creating a network of people who you genuinely enjoy connecting with. If you carry no hidden agendas, and are true to your personality, style and values, people will seek you out as an honest and genuine resource.
Now, take it a step further and connect those people to one another; it’s truly rewarding to be able to build a network for our business and clients, and at the same time help people who need to make their own connections, whether for employment, philanthropic or other reasons.
People will readily refer you and your business if they know, through the relationships you have built, that you are honest and ethical. And while we are certainly not discounting the power of the 140-character tweet, when someone you respect personally vouches for you, it’s amazing the influence they can have…and they’re free to not count words, and to only count characters in the truest sense of the word.
* The Castle Goup is located in Boston, US, and is a member agency of the Public Relations Global Network (www.prgn.com). You can visit The Castle Group’s blog site at http://thecastlegroup.wordpress.com/
