One of the most important aspects of communication and netowrking is the context that it happens. Everyone knows to act accordingly at concerts, formal dinners, recess. The people that set up these events control the guestlist, the purpose of the event, and to an extent all of what happens at the event.
If you want to hit it big, you have to build your network, not just your connections. You have to go out of your way to invite and introduce people who don’t know each other, to eachother. By making new connections between other people, you get props for and may benefit from anything good that comes out of that relationship.
Networking professionals create meetups, groups, organizations, websites, and businesses to help other people meet other people. She who builds the stadium, can not only take credit for what goes on, she can also charge at the door!
Who are the people you’ve been meaning to introduce to one another? Who do you think might be good working together? When’s the last time you introduced your friends to other friends, or former co-workers with people you co-work with?
Make a list of people you want to introduce one another.
- Make a list of people you want to meet
- Choose a few dates and times for them to select for a meeting
- Invite them (works best with 5+ people and drinks on Zoom)
- Repeat Monthly
What you'll find is that after a few of these, you'll start to get a few regulars to your events. These regulars are the backbone of your community and will help your community grow by being familiar face and conversationalists as other people come by less often.
This also benefits from social proof and fomo. The more often people come and see one another, the more likely they'll think it's important and they'll come more often because they don't want to miss out.
And none of this pales in comparison to the law of compounding. The more people you invite, the more people come. The more people come, the more people come on a regular basis. So in a few short months (when you're consistent about inviting people) you will see your number of regulars grow from 1 (you) to 5, 10 or more.
As your community grows, be sure to encourage people to talk with and meet one another outside of the meeting. You want to be a benevolent ruler right?
