How To Find, Grow And Keep Your Network
The value of your first, second and third-degree contacts
What is the best way to build a solid network of relevant contacts?
The people you meet are your gold
In a lifetime we meet many people. Every single one of them could be interesting for your career and business. That is why we are going to look at your contacts. Before the internet, we would meet people in another country or at a course and afterwards lose them out of sight. The internet has changed a lot. Through online social networks, we can easily stay connected or find them again. This doesn’t have to mean that we talk to them daily. There are varying degrees of staying connected with someone. I believe that your success is a product of the relationships you have. Whatever you are trying to achieve, you will get there faster by leveraging your network.
First, second and third-degree contacts
Your network doesn’t only consist of the people you know. You can make a distinction between first, second and third-degree contacts.
- First-degree — People you know personally
- Second-degree — The connections of the people you know personally
- Third-degree—The connections of your second-degree contacts
My experience
I have a lof of examples of how being in contact with many people worked for me. I will share three of them.
- When I worked for the government, Twitter just became well-known. I met a lot of other early adopters from the government on that platform. I connected with the manager of a team I wanted to work for there, by asking his opinion on a certain topic. So before the job interview I had with him, months later, I already had been in contact with him online, which obviously was not a bad thing! (I got the job)
- At a networking event, I met a man who was the partner of a consultancy firm. After the event, he connected with me on Twitter. While checking out his profile I realized that this consultancy firm was working on projects I was interested in. I asked him to meet again for coffee. This helped me to get to know him and his firm better and stay connected. It also gave me the change to show my interest in working at his firm. 4 Months later they were looking for someone and guess who got the job…
- After I made my decision to move to Berlin I tried to connect with people who were already living there and were interested in a change management theory I liked (theory U). In a theory u LinkedIn group I asked if people could use some assistance in projects. I also send individual messages in which I shared more about my experience and future plans. They all replied and for one of them, I started working as a training assistant as soon as I arrived in Berlin!