May 5, 2010

The new person I met today was Evonne Moore of Executive Meetings & Events of Chicago. Evonne and I met on a discussion board at LinkedIn and followed up via email resulting in a telephone conversaton. It appears likely that I will particilate on a live discussion panel at Evonne’s upcoming Summer Writer’s Workshop & Book Fair planned for Saturday, August 21, 2010 Loyola University’s Water Tower Campus in Chicago. I will make more details available as they become available to me.

Interestingly I just responded today to a discussion on LinkedIn about whether participation at LinkedIn was a worthwhile activity. It is not always easy to calculate the return on investment (ROI) of social media. It does demand a substantial time commitment but it has been my experience that it is a viable way to network and has yielded clients as well as contacts such as this example that have potential to be monetized through another activity or through additional relationships. So a one-to-one relationship is not always the beneficial or expected result.

The lesson today is that there are a number of avenues available for networking and you should utilize as many as make sense for you. Whether online or offline, increasing your network is the first step towards increasing your influence and opportunities. The more people you know and the more people who know you, the greater your chances are of make a meaningful connection, whether your objective is to grow your business, get a job, or improve your social life.

So today is day 8 of my adventure and I have had the pleasure to meet 20 new people.