Episode 196: “Three Networking Trends to Watch”

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Synopsis

This week Dr. Misner wants to discuss three trends for business networking in the next 10 years:

1. Integration of face-to-face and online networking opportunities, including niche social networks like BNI Connect.
2. Education. More private companies will offer training in business networking, because universities won’t. Consumers need to be informed: make sure the training company is qualified.
3. Association. So far attempts to create associations of professional networking groups have failed. They sometimes create conflicts of interest, which may be why.

Read Dr. Misner’s article on this topic on Entrepreneur.com.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 196 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, CA. I am joined today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you?

Ivan:
I’m doing great Priscilla. I have an interesting topic today. I did an article for entrepreneur.com at the beginning of the year on the three networking trends to watch for the future. That is what I want to talk about today on this podcast. I think there are a lot of changes on the horizon for the field of business networking for 2011-2012. Technology will continue, I think, to evolve, but really the biggest change will be the recognition of the field itself. That is, business networking will be continued to be realized more and more as a field of study. With this are three trends to watch.

The three that I am going to talk about today are integration, education and association. Those are the three trends that I want to talk about. We’ll start with integration. By integration, I mean we are going to see the integration of face to face networking and online networking opportunities. Many business people have said to me, “I have thousands of connections on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media sites. Now what?”

What they really want to know is how they turn those social media contacts into real business. I believe the answer lies in really forward-thinking networks, integrating technology and social media directly into their face to face operations. As you may recall, a few weeks ago, we talked about the BNI Connect vision. I think that is really where the organization is headed, integrating technology, as I talked about in the podcast, with face to face networking.

I think we are going to see more wall garden communities accessible only to members of that group. These communities will not only be subgroups of existing social media networks, they’ll be independent networks with tightly controlled access based on a membership database, just like I talked about on BNI Connect.

In fact, there will be media sites with a niche. That is exactly what BNI Connect is, a media site for a niche, with the niche being BNI. So the integration of online communities that are accessible to limited individuals linked with the establishment of face to face interactions will be, I think, increasingly popular over the next decade. The attraction to groups like this will be the niche orientation as well as the shared values of the organization.

The technology will allow a greater number of connections than the face to face aspect does, and the face to face aspect deepens those connections. I think you might even see the reverse come true, which is online networks doing more face to face events. So the integration of this face to face with technology and technology with face to face, I think, you are going to see in both directions. That is one of the important trends to see in really substantial networking organizations that are successful.

The second trend that I see is more private companies offering training in the field of business networking. Currently only one or two universities in the world have a core curriculum course on networking and social capital. I don’t think that will change anytime soon. I don’t think universities are going to start teaching this. Some univerisity professors prefer to view networking as a soft science. We have talked about that on my podcast before.

They feel that it is no something that can be taught. In my opinion, they are dead wrong. Networking, will in fact, be taught just outside the university environment. Much the same way that sales and selling is taught- just not at most universities. It’s taught by people like Brian Tracy, who does specialized seminars on training.

I think we are going to see the emergence of private professional training organizations in much the same way that the private industry has controlled the educational market in sales techniques as I mentioned.

The downside to this is that the comsumer needs to be well informed about a training company’s knowledge in the area that it claims to have expertise in. Fo for a course in business networking, look over the qualififcations of the company that is the trainer.

An increasing number of these programs are being offered by independent organizations. In the future , it will be really important to weed out the hacks from the experts. I remember seeing one trainer who claimed to be certified at networking, when in fact, they had just gone through one training program by a professional referral marketing organization. One training program and now they are, in fact, experts. One. I’m sorry. They’re not experts.

You are going to see a proliferation of education and private organizations teaching business networking, but you want to make sure that these are true experts who have a strong skill set before you hire them. The average person is not necessarily a good trainer at referral marketing. Make sure you do a little background on the organization before you do any advanced trainings for referral marketing or business networking.

The third trend that I see is the attempt- and this is sort of a long one because I see it pop up from time to time. But there are attempts from time to time to creat associations of networking groups. During my tenure in this industry over the last 26 years, there have been many efforts made to create networking groups. The most recent was the RNIA,which was the Relationship Networking Industry Association. It failed, as I think most groups of this type will.

There are many networking associations that exist for specific purposes or industries, like the National Association of Women Business Owners, the Transformational Leadership Council, or the National Association of Professional Organizers. An association of various networking groups then really may present conflicts and substantial overlap. For these reasons alone, an association like that will really struggle to get off the ground.

I’m afraid it’s one of those good ideas that are really difficult to sustain, and I’ve never seen anybody successfully do it. So while an association is not likely to work, the integration of technology and face to face networking as well as the developments on the educational front really point towards, I think, a positive future for business networking.

Twenty years ago, Priscilla, there were no books or articles on the topic of business networking. When I wrote my first book that was distributed nationally, The World’s Best Known Marketing Secret, there was nothing out there. There was one book on word of mouth marketing and one book that had a small section on it that talked about the future really being about business networking. That was it. There were virtually no articles on the topic.

Today, 20 years later, there is a proliferation of information. Business networking is evolving, and I think it will continue to grow for years to come. There’s more and more material available, such as this podcast. There are many more books and articles. More people can educate themselves to network more effectively and the more successful they are going to be. Those are what I see as the trends for the future in business networking.

Priscilla:
I’d like you to comment a little bit about Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. There is a huge push towards using those services, and it seems to me that I find kind of a surge of experts in network marketing and social networks.

Ivan:
Let’s make sure that we get the right term here. Network marketing is often used in terms of multi-level marketing. That is not what you mean, is it?

Priscilla:
No, I mean social networking.

Ivan:
Network marketing has been a term that has been taken over by the multi level marketing organizations, which we have many in BNI. I want to make sure that we are talking about the right phrases. So you are talking about social networking or social media.

Priscilla:
Yeah. It seems like there are people who come to our meetings that claim to be experts in that. I am always hopeful that I will learn something from them. I think that there is kind of a new profession evolving.

Ivan:
There is, kind of the social media coaches. Hey listen, they can be very good. I have used two, both BNI members, and they are outstanding. But you have to do a little research in the same way that I said you have to research people to teach you about business networking, face to face business networking and referral marketing. You want to do some research before you hire a social media coach.

Some of the research you can do would be: Do they have a website? How are they using social media? What exactly are they- have they done any presentations? Take a look at their history in terms of their expertise. One of the people that I used taught at a state university on social media. Okay, that is a pretty good qualification. Another one had a long history working in the social media field and was able to show me what she had done for other clients. Those two things are things that I think are very important before you retain somebody to assist you with your social media, which by the way, I think is a great idea. I see more and more people joining BNI from that field. It’s exciting.

Priscilla:
Yeah because it’s a little daunting knowing how to do exactly what you were talking about, making it work for you.

Ivan:
It is daunting. I think bringing somebody in will help with your learning curve. It certianly did for me. I wish that I had brought somebody in earlier because there are some things that I wouldn’t do quite the same if I had to start all over again. The earlier you bring somebody in to help you with it, the better.

Priscilla:
Well great. Thank you Dr. Misner. Do you think there is anything else that you would like to add?

Ivan:
No, I think that’s it. If you have a chance, particularly the education part of this is important. Listeners should take a look at my blog. My blog is now at a new site, businessnetworking.com. At businessnetworking.com, you get a lot of educational content on business networking. Check it out and be looking for BNI Connect because that is coming out as we speak globally. That will do the integration element. Then the blog is a great education element as well as this podcast. Thanks Priscilla.

Priscilla:
You’re so welcome. Well, I would just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. Thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you will join us again next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.