5 tips to boost your career through Networking and giving back
By: Yousra Magouri
Tags: Career Advice, Women In Business, Women In Tech, Career Development, Networking

There are multiple ways to build meaningful connections that will boost your career. Over the past ten years, I made it my mission to reach out to people when I believed we had similar interests.

Being Intentional while networking helped me increase my visibility as a professional. Over the years I developed real friendships and strong connections that extend beyond the professional circle.

I started to see some underlying themes and strategies that were working for me. I’m going to walk you through six key principles that will help you build a networking plan that works for your unique context.

Be specific and Prioritize

While, in a perfect world, we would want to meet and network with as many people as possible, the reality is our time and energy is limited.

There is a difference between just networking and networking intentionally.

To maximize the output of your efforts, consider

Identifying your target profile. Whom do you want to know? What’s your industry, what career you are planning to build for yourself. These questions will put you in the right direction to help you create a specific list.

The next step is to prioritize the contacts in terms of their importance to your career aspirations.

When you think about connecting with these contacts, consider a variety of options. It could be as simple as one email or even actual postal mail. It could be over the phone. Or it could be in-person, whether that’s one-on-one or in a group setting.

Check out your calendar and carve out time to connect with your top contacts; you can always make time to network.

For instance: if you have a long commute, plan to call at least one person in your top 10 list on your ride home to just check-in.

One thing to keep in mind is that As you progress in your career, you will be meeting new people and your career goals might change... It’s important to periodically reevaluate your strategy and see who has come into your life and where they belong on the list.

2. Attend selective events

Once you’ve started to identify your career aspirations, the industry of choice, or professional learning community, attending events and conferences is a great way to network en-masse.

One great way to select events that are worthwhile to attend is by reaching out to some of your most important contacts and asking what conferences they found value in over the past several years.

Do your homework and research the speakers, the sessions, the sponsors…If you end up registering make sure to share that you’ll be attending. You’ll begin to hear back from others from your network who are also attending. That way you can even start to set up coffee or lunch meetings during the event.

3. Network on social media

This is very relevant, especially during this time of social distancing, social media platforms are ripe for networking opportunities. Twitter and LinkedIn are particularly well-suited for meeting professionals that share common interests.

Groups on LinkedIn and Facebook are a great way to connect with others (both locally and nationally) with similar views and aspirations.

If you have a list of key people in your industry, city, or company, and you’re trying to build a new professional connection with them, you can find them on social media and ‘follow’ them.

Once you’re connected and actually meet them, there are a variety of ways to follow up.

You can send them an email them mentioning your conversation and thanking them for their time. You can send them an invitation to connect on LinkedIn or start to endorse their Tweets.

You can comment on updates that they share. Even small things — such as a ‘like’ — don’t go unnoticed.

These actions give you multiple touchpoints with them and decrease the likelihood that they’ll forget who you are, especially if you continually take steps to engage virtually and stay top-of-mind.

4. Create content

Content creation is often looked at as a great ritual to undertake for building your brand. But the networking benefits of pushing content are frequently overlooked

However, when done right, it can be one of the best ways to meet people and attract them to you.

One effective method for combining social networking and conference attendance is to create and content that will resonate with your network.

Writing articles to share online, starting a blog are all ways to build your portfolio and give you credibility while potentially expanding your network.

You can write publish articles on LinkedIn or Medium for free — there are no barriers to do this. Just think strategically about which issues or topics you want to cover when creating content. Blogging, podcasting, or video production are other options. If you consistently create content that’s relevant to a particular industry or theme, over time you will begin to start ranking in Google searches and see that people are discovering your work organically.

5. Giving Back

This is crucial and so rewarding if done right. Once you’re networking with the right groups and you’ve found your professional “tribe,” so to speak, you can start to offer your skills and find ways to give back.

When recent graduates start to flood the job market with applications, it can be overwhelming when they start to experience rejection for the first time. Many go months without getting a job offer; some go even longer. With the economy still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and many companies still instituting hiring freezes, it’s more difficult than ever before for young professionals to get their start. You can offer to speak with them, share your insights and experiences, and maybe even recommend them for an opening at your company. Sometimes, just a short informational interview can make a world of difference for a 20-something who is still trying to figure out what they want to do.

Similarly, I highly recommend that people focus on building their portfolio through volunteering their skills to a cause or organization that aligns with their personal and professional interests. Chances are, in doing so you’ll be connecting with others who have similar interests and are in roles that you might be interested in. Building relationships with these individuals can only help long-term when you ask for referrals and recommendations.

Getting started is easy — look for local nonprofits, all could use extra help for fundraising, event planning, and social media. Sell your skills and pursue causes that you’re passionate about.