Recently I went out for a ‘night on the town’ in downtown Toronto with my friend and a group of her friends, whom I had never met before. As I introduced myself to this new group of people we engaged in a variety of conversations and a few of us ‘hit it off’. We soon began joking around and discussing topics as if we were long lost girlfriends. As I got to know a little bit more about each person, their educational background, their current careers, etc. I soon realized they were very accomplished individuals all in the early stages of accelerating up their respective corporate ladders. The thought did cross my mind ‘these would be great business contacts’. But I quickly shoved the idea out of my head because how could I befriend these lovely people and then ‘use’ them as business contacts? That would be dead against the ‘business 101’ rulebook, right?

 

I find we are often given this preconceived notion that business and networking is a regimented, serious affair whereas socializing is where you can ‘let loose’ and not necessarily be ‘professional’. Now a days with so much networking, and each person we meet holding value as a business contact, it can be difficult to remember everyone. Often it is the contacts that we befriend that stick in our minds most prominently. But why is it that these friends are higher up on our ‘go to’ list of contacts as opposed to that big wig CEO your boss just introduced you to? Maybe we feel they are more trustworthy because we see and interact with them in more vulnerable situations, or maybe it’s because we enjoy spending time with that person so using them as a business contact is just an excuse to engage with them more often.

 

Whatever the reasoning in this day and age there is a need for meaningful relationships between people in order to be remembered. Networking in itself is a means of socializing, but it is a more active form. Both parties in the newly forming relationship need to take initiative to follow-up with one another as well as find and use the other person’s valuable attributes while still maintaining a friendly, conducive relationship. This may sound simple when considering making and maintaining just one contact. But I met on average twenty new people in one evening’s social interactions. So let’s say I meet roughly 10 new people each time I go out for a night on the town, and I average 2 social events per week. That results in 20 new people per week, and up to 80 new potential contacts that I have to maintain per month. Suddenly hanging out with the girls sounds like more work than fun!