Despite social networking, personal contacts have not had their day: Anyone who wants to be successful not only cultivates their Internet network for themselves, but actively connects their contacts.
More than two and a half million Swiss people use Facebook, and over half a million use LinkedIn. When you look at the success of social networks on the Internet, one question literally comes to mind: Are personal contacts and traditional networks a thing of the past? Not at all, but networking has changed due to the rise of social media.
A networker used to be a person who knew many people and was able to establish ties for himself or others. He knew front room ladies and knew direct telephone numbers; his address book was the best kept secret, because no one was allowed to know everything he knew and how to reach his network contacts. Only if his network remained invisible could he benefit from his contacts for business purposes.
Networks become visible
The secrecy surrounding mobile numbers and direct e-mail addresses came to an abrupt end with the success of Google & Co.: Today, there is hardly an entrepreneur or manager whose email address cannot be found with a few search queries on the Internet. Many can be found on LinkedIn or Xing profiles, others are on address lists of associations or in presentations held at conferences. More and more companies are therefore offering direct contact with their management team directly on their website.
Secret cell phone numbers are also out: Modern managers can be reached and don't hide; they prefer to print their mobile number on their business card right away.
Social media not only makes connections to contacts extremely easy; once you connect with a person, you can also see who else the person is connected to; a person's network becomes visible. You can now specifically target those people who appear useful for your own purposes.
Social networks on the Internet have also changed networking in real life. Anyone who wants to be successful today uses their network as a connector; they proactively connect their acquaintances and become a valuable facilitator of many new contacts for them. Anyone who keeps their address book as a state secret quickly loses importance in their environment.
Address collectors are suspicious
So are address collectors the new networkers of the future? Hardly. Anyone who has many hundreds or even over a thousand contacts in their profiles makes themselves suspicious, because no person can maintain contact with thousands of others. Viewers of such profiles quickly suspect that the supposedly extremely well-connected person is a dagger who indiscriminately accepts everyone he can get into his network.
Maintaining good contacts therefore remains the key to successful networking. Social media can do a lot of things, but it doesn't replace personal contact, not in business or in a private environment. Used specifically, they can still make it much easier to maintain contacts.