Growing your network virtually

The longer many of us continue on with our home working lives, the narrower our networks become. We are spending so much of our days speaking and working with the same people in the same organisations. The random encounters, casual coffees and unexpected connections aren’t quite the same when we’re in back-to-back Zoom/Teams [insert tech of choice] meetings.

The idea of ‘networking’ undoubtedly fills some people with dread. At Amazing If, we just think about it as people helping people.

The community of 'people helping people' you build around your career can help you learn, develop and bring new opportunities for growth.

Whenever I reflect on my network, I often find myself coming back to Mark Granovetter's research on strong and weak ties. His work differentiates between two different types of social relationships we build.

• ‘strong ties’ refer to the inner circle of people that know you and that you can be honest and vulnerable with.
• ‘weak ties’ are the outer circle of people who you see infrequently. These are much more casual connections.

The big ‘aha’ point in his work is that the weak ties are more important than strong ties for new information and ideas. Both are ultimately important for your career, but weak ties spark inspiration and unlock opportunity and it’s the weak ties that are most at risk in the current environment (for more on this, well worth reading this BBC article or the full paper Mark Granovetter published on ‘The Strength of Weak Ties’ in 1973).

I think there are two big challenges that may prevent people from building a meaningful career community in the current climate:

• How can introverts find a way to make networking work for them that feels genuine and doesn’t make them cringe?
• How can extroverts replace the events, conversations and random moments of connection they would have natural found in pre-Covid times in the virtual environment

Some suggestion based on things I have been exploring and engaging in over the past few months (caveat... I'm an extrovert which may have biased what I've found!)

1. Career Conversations

I joined lunchclub.com last year and had some interesting in-person discussions with people it matched me with. These ‘matched meetings’ are now taking place virtually and they are a great way of investing in those week ties. This week, Lunchclub introduced me to Steve, the founder of Happy Spreadsheets, and we had a great discussion about where our squiggly careers where at and shared thoughts and insights with each other.

It’s free to join and as long as you’re brave enough to have a conversation with someone you don’t know, a great way to make new connections!

2. Like-Minded Learners

I’ve really missed the energy of events and until recently I’ve not found a regular virtual forum that could bring the same sort of benefit. However, I’ve discovered Clubhouse and it feels really different!

It describes itself as an ‘audio-based social network’, which isn’t an entirely helpful description of what to expect! Essentially, you join via an app and you can hop in and out of rooms where people are speaking about different topics. You can just listen in or become a speaker in the conversation and share your perspective. It’s like being able to drop in and out of lots of different meetings.

It's so interesting to hear different views and the audience is very international too. As I’m writing this, I’m currently in a room in Clubhouse listening to a conversation about podcasts.

It does feel like as a ‘newbie’ to the community you have to learn the rules of the engagement, but it’s a fun place to engage and follow/connect with people you don't know yet. If you’re an introvert, you might just want to listen in. If you’re an extrovert, you may be more happy to put your hand up and contribute to the conversations.

Clubhouse is in Beta at the moment and growing fast (more on it here), I just registered to join and someone in my community gave me access! You can just download the app and join the waitlist – see you there soon!

3. Curiosity Communities

Tortoise Think Ins are live, unscripted conversations where you learn and contribute to a discussion about a topic they have curated. I really enjoy being attending these events - they spark my thinking and always make me feel positive!

This week, I’m joining a session about Veganuary and next week about diversity inclusion.

You can just be a consumer and listen (again, great for introverts) but if you chose to you can also share a perspective and be part of a conversation. It’s a good way of following-up with people afterwards and connecting 121 on a platform like LinkedIn.

You get a lot of value out of a membership with Tortoise (podcasts / news summaries /reports) and they have a 30 day free trial running at the moment!

4. Squiggly Careers PodPlus

Last Year, we launched a virtual community around our podcast. For 30 minutes every week, people join a zoom meeting and Sarah Ellis and I share more insights on the Squiggly Careers topic of the week. For example, next week we’ll be talking about mindset following my discussion in Tuesday’s episode with Ben Williams about his new book ‘Commando Mindset’. It’s free to join and has been a really positive place to make new connections with people who are passionate about careers and development. You can find out more here.

Hope this sparks some thoughts for you and new communities that might be of value for you to join. If you know of any others, do please share in the comments.

Helen