Bob Williams

Networking. Is your circle too close?

Back in February I wrote about why we network with others. I’ve scheduled a four networking events using a social media group on LinkedIn.  While each event hasn’t been attended by a large number of people, we have had very meaningful conversations at each event. Thus far everyone that has attended one of the events has worked directly with me in the past.

This had me thinking as I drove home from the last meeting:

Do people only network within their closest circle of friends? How many people are truly using professional social networking tools to network? Are people scared to create content on sites like LinkedIn for fear …Continue reading >>

Bob Williams

Why do you network with people?

I’ve been planning a networking function for present and past employees at my current place of work. Planning in this context, is really just trying to find a venue. That’s challenging because there is a wide geographic dispersion where everyone lives. The last event I planned was close to my house and I received a few comments from people, that presumably would have come, indicating it was too far to drive. So this time, I am looking for a venue in a different part of town.

While discussing with a colleague, he asked me “Why are you doing this?” And then as if by automatic queue, he asked if I …Continue reading >>