Examination of Discovery - Finding the Right Networking Group

Why would I pick this group over another group?

How many business leads groups have you heard about? I have heard of dozens and each has a group of 20 or more people. The problem is that they often have restrictions on the number of people in a particular category. Fortunately or unfortunately, this limits the number of groups that you can choose from. Sometimes a group will have several Chapters, especially when one group gets too large and people in the same category want to join. These splinter groups are often small to start with and then find themselves on the same treadmill. So how do you find the right group for your business? I suggest that you get invited to several groups and test the waters.

Even if you have the same category as someone else, you should find a way to be invited. You will not find out about how the meetings are conducted and how leads are handled unless you become a participant at one or two of their meetings. Let the group know that you are looking for the perfect group to join and are researching how business is handled. You can also find out a lot about a group by contacting current and past members.

It is best to take a survey of those members that are advocates, those that have left the group for various reasons and those that are only half-heartedly a member. It pays to research. Let me say it again, it pays to research!

Once you have conducted your research, you will need to make a decision on which group is best for you. You will need to take that research one step further and compare your ideal customer with what each group has to offer. For example, a group that is composed of dentists, doctors, and other health professionals will not be ideal for a company selling beauty product. On the other hand, the group would be ideal for cleaning supplies and computer technology. Depending on your business you will have to define the best group for you.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. has been networking with others since leaving high school years ago. Realizing that no one really cared about what she did in life unless she had someone to tell and excite. She decided to find the best ways to get people's attention, be creative in how she presented herself and products, getting people to know who she was, and being visible all the time. Her friends and colleagues have often dubbed her the "Networking Queen". Blueprint for Networking Success: 150 ways to promote yourself is the first in this series. Blueprint for Branding Yourself: Another 150 ways to promote yourself is planned for release in 2005. For more information visit http://BlueprintBooks.com/

In The News:


Bradford Networks Partners With Zycko for European Distribution
MarketWatch (press release)
CAMBRIDGE, MA, May 25, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Bradford Networks, the best choice to enable secure network access for corporate issued and personal mobile devices, today announced that it has partnered with pan-European distributor Zycko.


Phoenix networking calendar for week of May 25
Bizjournals.com
To submit networking meeting or event information, or to update these listings, email phoenixcalendars@bizjournals.com. Arizona International Growth Group, first Monday of the month, 7:30 am, SkySong, 1475 N. Scottsdale Road, Ste. 200, Scottsdale.


Networking as the Next Great Opportunity for the Channel in the Cloud
Channel Insider
The next great bottleneck is going to be the networking layer in the cloud. A recent survey of 1300 IT professionals conducted by Cisco finds that the one of biggest inhibitors to cloud computing adoption is the readiness of the network According to ...


New York Times

Cisco Ends Investment in Cius Tablet in Face of BYOD, Cloud
eWeek
The networking and collaboration vendor instead will focus on growing its software efforts, such as the Jabber UC platform and WebEx online meeting solution. Cisco Systems' Android-based Cius tablet has become a victim of the rapidly growing ...
Cisco kills off Cius developmentITWorld Canada

all 34 news articles »

Kiwibox.com Enters Spanish and Latin Markets -- Launches Spanish Language ...
MarketWatch (press release)
NEW YORK, May 25, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The Kiwibox network proudly announces the integration of Spanish language versions on its social networking websites. The US based platform Kiwibox and the European KWICK! now each support Spanish ...

and more »

TIME

The Best Social Networks for Kids Under 13
TIME
By Jo McClelland (Tecca) | May 24, 2012 | + It's no secret that social networking is a large part of our culture. Facebook and other social networking sites have minimum age requirements that some kids get around by lying about the year they were born.


Big Switch Networks Releases Tool to Promote OpenFlow Interoperability
MarketWatch (press release)
PALO ALTO, Calif., May 24, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Big Switch Networks, the leader in Open Software-Defined Networking (SDN), released OFTest, a framework for testing OpenFlow switches to insure standards compliance and interoperability.

and more »

Smart Grid Networking and Communications
Sacramento Bee
As such, the communications networks and equipment used to construct them are shifting from the high unit volume and less expensive nodes used in smart meters, to somewhat lower unit volume, yet higher value, networking equipment and communications ...

and more »

VentureBeat

Microsoft's social networking site So.cl now open to all users
Computerworld
By John Ribeiro IDG News Service - So.cl, an experimental research project from Microsoft, that combines social networking and search to promote learning, is now accepting all users interested in joining the site. The social networking site, ...
Is this the next Facebook? Microsoft unveils so.cl social networkFox News
Microsoft silently launches So.cl, its attempt at a social networking siteVentureBeat

all 237 news articles »

IT Winners and Losers
Barron's
These names include Cisco Systems (ticker: CSCO), Juniper Networks (JNPR) and Polycom (PLCM). In our view, F5 Networks, Radware (RDWR) and Qualcomm are stocks with positive secular trends in application networking and mobile. For the defense industry, ...

Google News

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