Episode 233: Don’t Wait for that Class Reunion

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Synopsis

There’s no need to wait for a class reunion to network with your former classmates. Admittedly Dr. Misner has never passed a referral to any of the other 9 people in his first graduate school class, but he’s more connected to his high school classmates today than he was 10 years ago, thanks to Facebook and Twitter.

Here are three steps to help you reconnect to old school friends.

1. Contact your school’s alumni services department
2. Reconnect using online networks (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook)
3. Seek referrals GENTLY. People will un-friend you if you adopt a pushy, hard-sell approach. It’s usually safe to announce a special event occasionally.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 233 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is 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 Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan, how are you doing?

Ivan:
I am doing great, Priscilla. And I have kind of an unusual topic from what I normally do.

Priscilla:
What is this about?

Ivan:
The full title is Don’t Wait for a Reunion to Network with Former Classmates. A lot of what I talk about on these podcasts are really aimed at what members can do a lot of times within the context of BNI. Here we are reaching out a little bit- and a number of my podcasts do reach out. This is reaching out beyond BNI. Here’s a technique that BNI members can use that doesn’t apply to BNI specifically, but it applies to networking and of course, the bigger, broader and deeper your network, the more effective it will be for you and BNI as well.

Priscilla:
Okay, how does it work?

Ivan:
It relates to your former classmates. Every year during the back to school season, I often recall my first day in graduate school in southern California. I was pursuing a doctorate with an emphasis on organizational behavior there. On the first day- it was an 8- hour class once a week, if you can believe that. There were two professors in the class, ten students. Two professors in every class for this course, by the way, for every one of the class sessions. Ten students. There was no place to hide. One of the professors spent the first two hours of class talking about the elite network of peers that we were going to be working alongside for the next two years and how we were going to make relationships that would last the rest of our professional and personal careers.

The sad news is that even though I ended up founding an international networking organization, I have never passed a business referral to or received a referral from one of these high-level classmates that I had. Instead, after graduation, we all spread out to chase our professional goals without really any context with which to keep in touch. We live in a different world today and I feel it is a real advantage to new college graduates and it’s easier because of the tools that are out there. But for us older guys and ladies out there who may have graduated some time ago, the technology that is out there is still helpful for us to connect with classmates. As a matter of fact, I am more connected to my high school classmates today than I was ten years ago because of Facebook, Twitter and other online technologies.

I was working on my doctorate in the early 80′s. Finished it in ’93 well before social networks and web services were available to help people keep in touch. Today there are a multitude of options to help you maintain the relationships that you make as you pursue a college or university degree and after you’ve completed high school, college or university.

I want to talk about three steps to help you reconnect with old school friends and convert those old relationships into current relationships. The first things is to contact your school’s alumni services department. They will be besides themselves to connect with you. Alumni departments really want to find out what is going on with students who have graduated there. Colleges and universities have been creating networking affinity groups and other opportunities to help students stay in their relationship with each other as well as their universities for years. So you can share news about your business that may catch the eye of your fellow graduates. You can also develop that network of current and former students to find out who you want to connect with.

I have found that by getting back involved with universities and sharing my story, I have gotten published in the alumni magazines. I’ve been recognized as an Alumni of the Year. All of that has happened because I reconnected with the universities that I went to, both undergraduate and graduate. As a matter of fact, two of the colleges asked me to speak at a commencement.

Priscilla:
Nice.

Ivan:
Yeah, yeah. I thought it was amazing. So reconnect with your alumni services department. That is the beginning.

Second, reconnect using online networks. LinkedIn, for instance, is the largest business only social network and you will likely find a lot of your former classmates there. And then there is Facebook. Facebook is the perfect social network.It exploded into an international network from students to parents from entrepreneurs to brands to friends to family and much more.I hear stories all the time about how people have reconnected with friends they haven’t seen in a long time. I am an example of somebody who has reconnected with somebody I hadn’t seen in years and years and years. I even did an alumni party at my house because I got on Facebook and started connecting with old classmates.

So we did a party at my house. It was overlapping years, so I met students who were younger than me when I was there, older than me when I was at my high school. So use online networks. Once you start connecting with those classmates, it’s important to keep track of those valuable contacts by setting up and maintaining a database in addition to the standard contact databases that you see in Microsoft Outlook or the most robust contact management system such as ACT. There are web based contact storage where you can store contacts in the cloud. There is Gmail, Yahoo!, or you can use your LinkedIn account or other online address books. There’s a lot out there. So that is number two.

First, contact your school’s alumni network. Number two, connect with other using online networks. And number three, seek referrals gently. That’s important. Ask for referrals. Ask for references. But do it gently. Once you have built and organized your network, the next step is to tactfully tap into your social capital. But be careful. If you conduct a constant hard sales effort aimed at your network, people might drop you or unfriend you. As a matter of fact, they will drop you or unfriend you.

I think of social networks as a brand building tool. But using it to turn followers into sales is possible if you do it tactfully. Do this by asking your contacts if they know anyone who might be a potential customer for a type of business. You can occasionally announce a special deal or announce a special event. I find that really helpful. If you have some special event that you are doing, your contacts are much more willing to promote that than, “ I have a special on my product…” They don’t like that. But an event, a lot of people come.

You can offer something like that directly to your network. A successful offering might not only encourage those in your network to show up, but they will share it with other people who show up in their networks. So it’s okay to ask but remember that VCP always applies. Visibility, Credibility, Profitability. Before you start asking for referrals, you have to be at credibility with people. They will jump before you build that credibility.

Don’t wait for a reunion to connect with former classmates. Do these three things. Contact your school’s alumni services department. Reconnect using various online networks and eventually seek referrals but do it tactfully and do it gently.

Priscilla:
All very good recommendations. I have one question. Some of the contact information that you put in the article that was the basis of this podcast, I read that. It gave some specific information about tagging your contacts and I’m wondering if you are a Mac user if there is anything that you could recommend or you think that the contact information services that you suggest would work for us.

Ivan:
Absolutely. I do have a Mac at home with my kids for their artwork that they do. I don’t use Mac a lot but there is no reason why- the Mac database is as good as any. So using that database is important, although I mentioned Microsoft Outlook and ACT, although ACT probably is for the Mac. It’s not so much the database. It’s the concept. Whatever you like to use is what you need to use. Tagging people- in the article that I wrote, I did mention tagging people. If you have a smartphone, to keep contacts organized, there are tags like go2 tag mobile application allows you to create customized tags for your contacts.

A program that I recommend: www.relate2profit.com has a lot of features in it. For example, VCP is part of that system so that you can say where am I with this person? Am I at visibility, credibility, or profitability? I have talked about them on other calls. Great system. Whatever you use, use it wisely and effectively.

Priscilla:
Well thanks. I think that might be it for this week.

Ivan:
That’s it. If you have some other ideas and are listening to this podcast or reading a transcript and have an idea on not waiting for a network to connect with former classmates, put it up here. I would love to hear more ideas on how you can connect with other people, your former classmates, whether it be high school or college. Put it up here at BNIpodcast.com. Thank you very much, Priscilla

Priscilla:
Okay, thank you, Dr. Misner. 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 next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.