Q: What do you see as effective strategies for further facilitating business networking using the Internet?
A: The short answer is that it's a great way to communicate with people, but it's not a panacea to solve your networking needs anymore than it will solve all your advertising needs.
The Internet is an excellent vehicle for networking via bulletin board and chat room communities. These communities allow people to connect on a regular basis, exchange information and ideas and get to know one another a little better. In addition, staying in touch via the Internet has no equal. I've found it to be a very powerful mechanism for regularly connecting with people with whom I already have a casual relationship. That's the key--that the Internet is a great tool for staying in touch with people you've already established a connection with. Granted, you may do some business with people that you've met on a Web community. However, for the most part, people do "repetitive" business with people they know and trust. Sure, I've seen some business relationships begin, develop and prosper via the Internet, but I've found that most repetitive referral relationships start through personal contact and are maintained via Internet communication. Nothing beats good old-fashioned face-to-face networking to start the process of building a relationship and trust.
A couple years ago, I wrote the forward to the book Internet Prophet by Mary Diffley. In it, I stated that we don't live on Little House on the Prairie anymore, and today's frontier isn't in the West, it's on the Net. We live in the Internet age, where change seems to take place at light speed. If you're in business today, you definitely need to be on the Net.
The Internet simultaneously flattens the communication hierarchy while broadening people's access to ideas, information, products and services. The Internet is to the world what the printing press was hundreds of years ago. It is to the world what radio and television were only decades ago. The Internet has opened doors and opportunities in a way beyond anything that has preceded it.
In only a few short years, an entire technology, vocabulary, culture and marketplace has been born. Cyber entrepreneurs, customers and a whole new economy have evolved at such a blinding speed that it's no wonder so many business owners are at a loss about what to do and how to do it when it relates to the Internet and their business.
Understanding e-business fundamentals, creating an Internet business plan, developing and marketing a company's Web site and understanding how to network on the Internet are all new concepts for today's business professional. Those businesses that neglect to consider these issues today will most surely be a casualty of this new technology tomorrow. But more importantly, those businesses that do consider these issues today will be the success stories of tomorrow.
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Dr. Ivan Misner is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world's largest business networking organization, which has more than 4,600 chapters in 37 countries. Dr. Misner is also the author of several books, including the New York Times bestseller TRUTH OR DELUSION? (www.truthordelusion.com), and he is the Senior Partner for the Referral Institute (www.referralinstitute.com), a referral training company with operations around the world.
Networking on the Net - To learn more about this author, visit Ivan R. Misner's Website.
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Ivan R. Misner
(Visit Ivan's Website)
Dr. Ivan Misner is the Founder & Chairman
of BNI (Business Network Int'l.). BNI (www.bni.com) was
founded in 1985. The organization has over
4,200 chapters throughout every populated
continent of the world. Last year alone,
BNI generated millions referrals resulting
in billions of dollars worth of business
for its members.
Dr. Misner’s Ph.D. is from the University
of Southern California. He has written
eight books, including his New York Times
best seller, Masters of Networking and his
#1 bestseller, Masters of Success. He is
a monthly columnist for Entrepreneur.com
and is also Chairman of the Board for the
Referral Instititute - a referral training
company with trainers around the world.
He has taught business and social capital
courses at several universities and is on
the Board of Directors for the Colorado
School of Professional Psychology.
Called the "Father of Modern Networking"
by Ecademy.com and the “Networking Guru”
by Entrepreneur magazine, Dr. Misner is
one of the world's leading experts on
business networking and has been a
keynote speaker for major corporations and
associations throughout the world.
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