Are you looking to build your brand, or need some business networking tips? As a young British start-up, we’re always intrigued to hear how others have started their own brand and how they’ve taken it from an idea to a successful brand. It takes a lot of hard work for people to know you and your brand, but the one thing that is key is networking. Networking is crucial in building brand awareness.
As part of our ‘Sharp Business’ series, we recently sat down with Stefan Thomas, author of Amazon best seller ‘Business Networking for Dummies’ to get some expert tips on networking and to find out how he got to be an Amazon best-selling author.
CS: How did the book idea come about and what was the process of writing the book?
ST: By networking, of course! I happened to be sitting next to the Commissioning Editor for Wiley brand at a networking dinner and the rest, as they say, is history.
The writing process, from the moment the contract is signed to when it published, took 11 months. Four months were spent writing it and four months editing. The rest of the time was split between marketing and brand editing.
CS: How did you get to be an Amazon best-selling author? Are there any tips others can use to build their own brand?
ST: It would be silly not practice what you preach, right? Using social media a lot before and once the book became available on Amazon and in shops such as WHSmith, have all been essential in driving sales and raising awareness.
The key thing is always utilising the network you have built to market yourself and your products. By using social media you’re instantly asking for people to share your content, in this case I was raising awareness of my book by increasing my reach on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
CS: What are your top tips on networking successfully at an event?
ST: There are three stages to successfully networking at an event: before, during and after.
Before attending a networking event it’s really important to try and engage with the organisers and other attendees over social or even email. Social is a lot easier as most events have a hashtag, so you can use that to strike up conversation which you can follow up on at the event.
During the event, the key thing is to aim to be interested, rather than interesting- the people who really win at networking spend more time asking about others than talking about themselves. Another tip is to always turn up a little early. This means you have no excuse not to start talking to the next person who turns up, rather than being the last one to arrive, only to find that everyone else is deep in conversation.
Once the event is over and done with don’t think you can sit back and wait for the business opportunities to come pouring in. Follow up is vital. Engage with people over the phone, email and social. Don’t take it for granted that someone will contact you, it’s vital that you are active in engaging with others.
CS: What’s your number one tip for introducing yourself over email?
ST: Don’t. Always pick up the phone to introduce yourself and your brand first. Ironically in a digital world, people who call will stand out more. It’s always easy to hide behind emails and as with most busy professionals, a lot of emails are not replied to.
There you have it, some essential tips on how to network successfully and build your own brand. If you’re interested to learn more about networking and how to build your own brand, you can pick up Stefan’s book here.