Please take a look at the new video for International Networking Week, 2010. Make sure to share it with your Chapter. (You can get the HD version by going directly to YouTube.)

International Networking Week is the culmination of BNI’s public relations efforts. During International Networking Week, BNI holds events to demonstrate the benefit of networking to different groups.

PR helps you position yourself ahead of your competition. The purpose of publicity is not just to promote, but to announce and inform. PR is usually free, but you may need to hire a professional to write your press release.

What can P.R. do for you? A search for “International Networking Week” produces 97 million results on Google, and the first two pages are all about BNI.

Any businessperson can build up to powerful PR. There are many PR professionals in BNI; ask one for tips for where to start. It’s worth putting time and effort into creating brand awareness and name awareness.

Visit PRWeb.com and Beneaththecover.com for help distributing press releases.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 090 -

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’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I am joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. How are you?

Ivan:
I’m doing great, Priscilla. I’ve got a fun topic today that I’m going to be discussing, and that is PR Helping Your Networking Efforts.

Priscilla:
Oh, great. Well, tell us about it.

Ivan:
Well, PR really can help build credibility for any business. Next to word-of-mouth, publicity is one of the most cost effective strategies you can use to market your business. And BNI has been doing this and focusing on this for many years. Sort of a culmination of all of this has been our recent efforts in the last few years to develop and do International Networking Week.

If BNI members aren’t familiar with it, this podcast is being conducted during International Networking Week. This is the third annual International Networking Week that was an initiative of BNI, and so if you have a chance, to go InternationalNetworkingWeek.com to get some additional information.

International Networking Week is an initiative of BNI’s; it’s all about PR and developing the brand and recognition for the organization. It features a lot of networking events all across the world, and the goal with International Networking Week is to celebrate the key role that networking plays in the development and success of businesses across the world. We’ve been doing and will be doing simultaneous events that are being held globally, and the idea is to focus these events to bring people together in business, possible government, communities, to network and to understand the concept of relationship networking.

All of this has been really done to help build the BNI brand, and it’s a great example of how you can use PR to help your business. PR increases your credibility, helps position yourself ahead of your competition, especially if you’re in control and you’re working it, is a very positive aspect of what you’re doing. The main objective of the publicity is really to announce or to inform. You don’t want to just promote your business; you want to announce or inform. PR publicity is usually free in most cases. You don’t have to pay to get your press release in a paper, but you may need to have a professional writer. So BNI members who want to generate their own PR, you may have to hire a writer to draft the press release, to do the edits.

There are a lot of online sources and resources available to teach you how to structure, design, and format your PR. Certainly, there are many PR members in BNI, so if you’ve got a member that specializes in PR, go to them, talk to them about this podcast and how you, as a member, can use PR on a smaller level.

Again, International Networking Week is the culmination of almost 20 years of our PR efforts, so it’s very large. Just to give you a sense of how big it is, Priscilla, I did a Google search on International Networking Week a few months ago, and they had, for Google’s 10th anniversary, they had an old database that would go back to 2001. So I typed in International Networking Week for 2001 and I got zero hits. So that means if you went to Google in 2001 and you typed in International Networking Week, nothing would pop up.

Well, I went to Google a few months ago. I’m sitting in front of my computer right now. Let me type it in right now and see what we come up with. International Networking Week, if you punch that in right around International Networking Week, you’re going to get – here’s the number. This is bigger than what I did just a few months ago. I got 97 million hits.

Priscilla:
Wow!

Ivan:
Just now. Just now did it. Now it goes up and down. If it’s somewhere near International Networking Week, it’s higher than when it’s sometime away. But right now, International Networking Week, I just typed it in, and I got 97,400,000 hits.

Priscilla:
Are those all related to BNI?

Ivan:
Oh, that’s the beautiful thing. The first two pages are all totally BNI. They click back to BNI. So here’s LinkedIn groups signed in as Business Network International. Get Connected 2009, Business Network International. The official BNI podcast from episode 38 a year ago is up here. It’s one BNI Web site after another BNI Web site or some link that talks about BNI. This is all about brand building. And although this is an example on steroids, you have to understand it took us a long time to build to this and you, too, any business person can build to creating powerful PR by starting with press releases, hiring somebody to write them, working with PR firm. We work with PR firms to get our press releases up.

There are Web sites and distribution services such as PRWeb.com. A good friend of mine, Mike Drew, at BeneathTheCover.com, is also developing an online PR service, and so I’d recommend if you – and it’s a lot less expensive than PRWeb. If you’re a BNI member and you want to start getting some PR out there, go to BeneathTheCover.com, connect with Mike Drew, and he can absolutely help you in distributing your press releases worldwide.

Networking in business is more than just going out and shaking hands. Your business also needs to generate publicity in order to increase visibility and credibility. The professionals should really focus some of their time and effort on creating brand awareness and name awareness, and that all comes through PR. I thought that this was the best week for me to talk about this since this is an example of PR that BNI has really had a great deal of success with, International Networking Week.

Priscilla:
Wow, that’s just great. You’re an inspiration to all of us.

Ivan:
Well, you know what I tell people? I’m a 20 year overnight success. It took 20 years of doing this to achieve any level of success. The secrets of success without hard work is still a secret, so you’ve got to really focus, keep your eye on the ball, and keep doing things incrementally improving over time, and you build and build and build your business.

You know, one last thing before we wrap up. With International Networking Week and PR, there’s a great example of a video. We’ll have a link on this podcast to a video that I just did that is up at YouTube right now. It’s the International Networking Week 2009 video. It’s about ten minutes long. And we’ll have a link to it, so click on that. It’s the beauty of technology today. YouTube is an incredible way to get your message out, and so what I have done is, through systems like my podcast, my blog, BNI.com, SuccessNet, I do links to the video that I did at YouTube. And technology today, it’s very easy today to stand in front of a green screen with a video guy, doesn’t cost a fortune, you do a fairly semi-professional looking video, you get it on YouTube, and it gets tons of exposure. It’s another great way of building PR.

By the way, the videos from ’07, ’08, and ’09 show up as Number 3 when you type in at Google, International Networking Week. So that gives you a sample of just how powerful this kind of PR effort can really be in whatever you do.

So BNI members go to school on me; learn what BNI has done and apply it to your business, and you, too, can build a regional, national, or international brand.

Priscilla:
Okay, great. Well, you know YouTube is free also.

Ivan:
It sure is. It’s free, and we get a lot of exposure for this and other things we do right up there.

Priscilla:
Okay, great. Well, I think we’re out of time, Dr. Misner.

Ivan:
Thank you, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Thank you so much.

I’d like to just 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. Thanks 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.

Marcus Emery of Emery Worldwide in the UK shares his referral success at the BNI Worldwide Members Event in May 2008.

In this episode, Dr. Misner calls in from Toronto to talk about Global Networking with Niri S. Patel from Yorkshire and Robert French from Korea.

So why would people want to network internationally?

1. To be really successful, you have to find a trend and work your way into it. The trend now is toward social networking and high-touch
2. The center of gravity of the global economy is shifting eastwards to China and India. Graduates of Oxford and Cambridge are being recruited to work at Indian multinationals.
3. The credit crunch opens the way to profitable East-West collaborations and means that the fast will win over the slow.

How can members develop resourceful international relationships quickly?

1. Use events worldwide, such as BNI Worldwide’s International Members Event in Kuala Lumpur in May 2008.
2. Ask your trusted network “Who do you know who…?”
3. Ask the people you see trading internationally how they do it.
4. Raise your profile with international contacts via Ecademy, LinkedIn and the BNI Yahoo! Group.

The world is moving fast. We have to move fast. Jump on it. Go to these international events.
Sponsored by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 053 -

Priscilla:
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the official BNI podcast brought to you by networkingnow.com, which is the leading site on the Web for networking downloadables. I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California. And I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan, how are you?

Ivan:
I’m doing great. This week I am in Toronto, Canada, for their national conference, which is perfect, because the topic of our podcast today is about networking globally, and we’ve got some guests on the line with us who are definite experts on that. We’re going to try to touch upon three topics with them today:

Why it’s important to network internationally;
How members can develop international relationships as quickly as possible;
Raising your profile among international contacts.

We’ve got two gentlemen who know what they’re talking about. They’re both directors for BNI, Niri Patel and Robert French.

And, gentlemen, welcome to the BNI podcast.

Niri:
Thank you, Ivan. Thank you for having us on the show.

Robert:
Thank you, from Korea.

Ivan:
You’re in Korea, and you have an announcement, don’t you, Robert?

Robert:
Yeah, we’ve had a very successful launch of our first chapter in Korea, Ivan, where we’ve had about 80 people attend. And we’ve received 32 applications to join our first group, so we’re well up into the 30s on their first launch, so we’ve had a spectacular day.

Ivan:
Outstanding and congratulations. That’s our first chapter in Korea.

Niri, you’re calling from the United Kingdom, correct?

Niri:
Yes, I am. I’m here in the United Kingdom. Congratulations to you, Robert, on getting BNI established in Korea. And thank you, Dr. Misner, for getting me on the call.

Ivan:
My pleasure.

Let’s start with you, Niri. Why would people want to network internationally? We had these members in about 38 countries around the world. Why do they want to network internationally?

Niri:
Well, that’s a great question. Global networking is something, I guess, you do if you’ve got or aspire to have an international business. But there are, I think, in my opinion, two incredibly compelling reasons to consider broadening your networking horizons, that is, internationally.

The first reason stems from what a very successful businessman, an old friend of mine, told me. And he said, “Niri, if you want to be successful in business, you’ve got to find a trend and work your way into it.”

For example, there were fortunes made by those who got into plastics in the ‘60s and those who got into dot-com businesses in the mid to late ‘90s and obviously got out at the right time. I believe there are actually three major global trends happening right now as we speak, and they’re being validated by what the media is actually reporting.

The first of these global trends is the actual trend in business and social networking. If you look at the recent proliferation of increase in popularity in networking sites like My Space and the business networking forums like Linked In and Ecademy. That’s evidence of it, and they are, obviously, all excellent.

My personal take is that high tech and highly-timed pressurized world that people are now finding themselves in actually crave more of a high touch interaction, both in social terms and as well as in business.

So, that’s the first trend. The second trend is that the global economy center of gravity is definitely shifting eastward. There isn’t a day that goes by when we don’t hear about something happening in China and India, whereas, even ten years ago, these were things that would be so remote.

And in the UK, where I’m actually based, top graduates from the top universities, like Oxford and Cambridge, the equivalent of what you in the United States would call the Ivy League colleges, are now actually being recruited to work in India and multi-national companies, for example. In fact, on a recent business trip to India, I found out that some of the large Indian companies are actually outsourcing their call centers to eastern Europe and the UK because the high net worth Asians want to speak to people with a western English accent.

And the third global trend, Ivan, is actually affecting us here in the West more than in the East, and that is the dreaded credit crunch. Now, countries like India and China are obviously aware of the global crisis in the credit market, but on the recent trip, that I just mentioned, to India at the beginning of March this year, I saw no real evidence of anything that was going to dampen the enthusiasm and optimism that they have about the positive economic outlook there.

And, the multi-nationals in this world have a strategy and a presence for these markets, which allows them to tap into this shifting balance of economic power.

But, here’s the thing. The SMEs can also tap into this global trend by actually linking in to their trusted network. So, the little guy, for example, who does web sites in India or Malaysia or China, somewhere like that, wants to partner with a similar small business, say, for example, in the UK or US, and collaboration of this kind can actually develop into something very quick and very big over night.

I am a firm believer that if good people get together, than good things can happen. And according to Mukesh Ambani, who is now regarded by the Indian media as the richest man in the world, ahead even of Bill Gates, due to the weakening of the US dollar in recent times. He says that it will no longer be big winning over small, but it’s actually going to be fast winning over slow.

And that’s were I think that tapping into global networks, such as BNI, is going to allow people to actually access the opportunity to suddenly find themselves doing business internationally.

If I could give you one very quick example.

Ivan:
A real quick one, because we only have three minutes left.

Niri:
There is a lady who is a copywriter here in the UK, got a very local business, but now she is actually writing copy for an Indian bank because they want to attract high net worth individuals from the UK. So all of a sudden, because of the power of the Internet and the trusted network through BNI, she has now actually got a client internationally.

Ivan:
Yeah, I think more and more BNI members understand the need to do business internationally, and they want to do business internationally.

But, Robert, let me ask you: How can members develop a resourceful international business relationship fairly quickly?

Robert:
Yeah, well, the thing is we have to do it fast now, because the world is changing fast. So one of the ways it can be done is to use events worldwide, and the one that BNI is putting on is an event for international members in Kuala Lumpur in May on the 27th and 28th. Check out the Web site, BNI-worldwide.com –

Ivan:
That’s BNI-worldwide . . .

Robert:
Dot com.

Ivan:
Dot com.

Robert:
That’s correct.

Ivan:
We’ll have that in the transcript here.

Robert:
Exactly. That’s great.

And, you know, the thing is, you can ask trusted network, “Who do you know who . . . ?” That’s a very quick way to do it. There are other very, very resourceful things as well, many, many ways, but you can actually develop fast, resourceful things. Don’t forget the Chamber of Commerce. It’s very, very useful. Government trade departments can be extremely helpful. Another way is to ask people already doing it. If you see successful people trading internationally, don’t be afraid to ask them, “How do you do it?” because they’ll very often give you the right answers.

Another way is, obviously, raise your profile with international contacts. Ecademy and Linked In, which we already mentioned, are powerful ways to get yourself known around the world.

Ivan:
Can I add one more, Robert?

Robert:
Yeah.

Ivan:
The BNI Yahoo Group, for BNI members who want to network with other members, they should connect on the BNI Yahoo Group. We’ll have that link on here as well. And, of course, Ecademy. As you mentioned, we have a strategical alliance with Ecademy.

Robert:
Correct.

Ivan:
But all of these things are really important, and listeners to this podcast really, really should go to the Ecademy and BNI Yahoo, but the trick is the best way to really build a relationship is to get face to face. And so, here, you’ve got a global conference that you’re putting on in Malaysia, which I went to two years ago. You did it two years ago, and you may do it again every couple of years. What a tremendous event. I saw tons of business generated. I think the biggest referral I saw was a $1 million, Australian dollar, referral for somebody who did – it was a technology business, and that was one of the biggest referrals.

So, members who are listening to this podcast, I get members all the time that say, “How can we use the international network?” The way to use it, I believe, is to go to international events, go to the national conferences of the various countries. They almost all have Members Days days. Go to this BNI global event in Malaysia, because you’ve got more than one day for members, don’t you? One day or two days?

Robert:
We have two days with the [inaudible] at the end of it, so it’s a lot of fun.

Ivan:
And you’ll meet tons of members. Yep, that’s the key.

Well, we’re almost out of time. Any last thing you want to add before we wrap up this podcast?

Robert:
The world is moving fast; we have to move fast, jump on it.

Ivan:
I couldn’t agree more. My last observation is, if you’re a BNI members and you want to do business internationally, take a really hard look at participating in some of these national and internationally events, use BNI Yahoo Group, and use Ecademy as a way of communicating with other BNI members, but go to these events because there, where the rubber meets the road, is the place where you’re going to network with people and build the relationships and do business.

So, Robert, thank you very much. Niri, I appreciate it. Back to you, Priscilla.

Robert:
Thank you, Ivan.

Niri:
Thanks, Ivan.

Priscilla:
Hi, Dr. Misner. Well, before I close this particular episode, I just want to say congratulations on this being the first anniversary of your podcast.

Ivan:
Thank you.

Priscilla:
It’s number 53, right?

Ivan:
Yes, it is.

Priscilla:
That’s great. All right. Well, thank you so much. This has been so interesting. I’m sure the listeners are going to be really interested to hear everything about the international networking. I know I was.

Thank you so much. I just want the listeners to know that this podcast has been brought to you by networkingnow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables. Thanks for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we will see you next week on the Official BNI Podcast.

International Networking week is a BNI initiative—but other organizations are welcome to participate. Chase’s Calendar of Events has already recognized International Networking Week.

International Networking Week starts the first Monday in February (that’s February 2^nd for 2008). This year there will be major events in 10 countries and special activities in thousands of BNI chapters worldwide.

We’d like chapters to invite top community leaders to BNI to show them what BNI is like and expose them to the “Givers Gain” philosophy.

Bring someone different to BNI in February and show them how BNI is changing the way the world does business!

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Watch the International Networking Week video.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 038 -

Priscilla Rice:
Hello everybody 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 coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley California and I’m joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you?

Ivan Misner:
I’m doing great, Priscilla, thank you very much.

Priscilla:
It’s great to have you on the phone today, Ivan. What do you have to share with us?

Ivan:
Well, this is a great podcast for me. It’s an important one because it’s about International Networking Week. BNI now has over 5,000 groups all around the world in dozens of countries. International Networking Week is an initiative of BNI, and it is absolutely welcome to many other networking organizations around the world to celebrate and recognize this program of relationship networking and business networking globally.

Now, since our first ever international networking meeting which was last year, we’ve had a lot of organizations and even government agencies recognize International Networking Week including the State of Nevada, the County of Los Angeles, and both the Assembly and Senate for the State of California in a recent joint resolution. We are expecting a lot more from all over the world, and as it happens we will definitely share that with members.

We even had this year — this is kind of big actually — the 2008 international Chase’s Calendar of Events recognized International Networking Week as a week to be honored each year. They don’t usually recognize it so quickly. When we first told them about it and applied for I, they said no and that it takes years. There is already a National Networking Week in United States.

After the first International Networking Week, when we showed them the literally hundreds of major events and the thousands of BNI chapters that recognized it, they immediately in the second year put it in their calendar, their book, which is very unusual. It has already gotten some great press in the media and a lot of exposure. Of course, it’s good exposure from BNI. It’s good exposure to help teach people how to improve networking skills in their business.

Priscilla:
What makes it international? Is it that everyone is doing it simultaneously all over the globe?

Ivan:
Right. It’s the same week all over the globe. It begins on the first Monday in February. This year in 2008, that’s February 4. So February 4 through February 8 is International Networking Week this year. We expect major activities in about 10 countries around the world. By major activities, I mean big events where hundreds of people come. We are expecting thousands of BNI chapters in at least two dozen of the countries we operate in- maybe all 37 countries that we operate in- to do special activities during International Networking Week.

Priscilla:
What are the goals? Where are the actual activities and you are planning?

Ivan:
Well, networking is a very powerful process, and we want people to see what we do in BNI. Since our theme for 2008 is “changing the way the world does business” – and I really believe that BNI is changing the way the world is business – I really thought it would be good to do something different, something that we’ve never done in BNI. It’s something that we don’t recommend the chapters do this after International Networking Week, but it’s a great opportunity to do it on this International Networking Week.

That is to bring in top community leaders who are almost never normally invited to BNI meetings to come see not only what it is that BNI does, but how we are changing the face of the business world with this grassroots business networking and relationship networking. We’re suggesting that chapters invite top community leaders to come and celebrate International Networking Week which will expose them to BNI and to our philosophy of givers gain. It will create, I think, a community and strategic connections for BNI members and continue to build the BNI brand.

Priscilla:
So when you invite them to the next meeting, then they just witness a meeting, a normal meeting that we do, or is there a special kind of presentation that you would like us to make?

Ivan:
If you would like to do a special presentation, that’s great. We want to leave this to be your individual events in the chapter. We’re trying to get enough notice to all the chapters. That’s why this podcast is coming up a couple of weeks before International Networking Week. So if there is some recognition that you want to do, that’s great. But our goal in doing this sort of meeting stimulant is to give an opportunity for chapters to bring in people who wouldn’t normally come and wouldn’t normally be invited, like maybe members who are senior executives with the Chamber of Commerce, business professionals who wouldn’t normally be invited to a chapter or possibly government officials. The mayor – you don’t usually invite the mayor or city officials to a meeting. But here, we want them to see how we are impacting the local community in terms of business and we think International Networking Week is a great opportunity to reach out and do that.

Priscilla:
That’s a great idea. I’m just imagining inviting our mayor to our meeting. People might get a little shy, but I think it would be perfect.

Ivan:
We don’t want to turn this into something political. That’s not what we’re looking for at all. If you have the mayor say something or have them speak- of course, everyone is allowed to speak for a minute so they certainly have a chance to do it. We would like to do it from the perspective of networking. How is networking helping the community?

If the mayor or city official wants to say something, we would like to have them limit their remarks to that. We certainly don’t want political speeches. BNI is not a political organization one way or the other. We want to focus on how we are helping business people.

We don’t have the final numbers in yet, but it looks like last year the organization will have passed over 5 million referrals and you will have generated over 2 billion US dollars worth of business for our members all around the world. We are changing the way the world does business. We are helping people increase their business through networking and building relationships. That’s the kind of communication that we like to pass on and would like to have them share what they think of it.

Priscilla:
What happens at the events that are organized by regional directors? Are they special?

Ivan:
There are a number of special events that are being done. I want to separate that out from what I’m suggesting here as a meeting stimulant. Many chapters are just having their regular meeting and we want to make sure that they recognize International Networking Week. In other areas, they are doing large regional events.

If your region is doing a large regional event, by all means, go visit that regional event. There are a lot of activities that are being done, and there are a lot of speakers. I recommend that you do go to that if you are doing them.

If not, here’s something else that your chapter can do: There is a video, and we will put a link up on this podcast where you can go to watch an eight minute presentation of me talking about International Networking Week. I share an experience that I call the butterfly effect of networking, which I talked about in a previous podcast and how it led me to spend a week on Necker Island with Richard Branson. It’s an interesting eight minute video for International Networking Week. If your chapter has an opportunity to show that video, it is up at you too. We will have a link to that so that members can go to that and include it in their meeting.

Priscilla:
Well that’s great. Do you have one last thought that you would like to share with us? I think we’ve come almost to the end of the podcast.

Ivan:
Networking is not only a great way to get business but it’s a great way to do business. What we want to teach is relationship networking, building long-term relationships to build your business. International Networking Week celebrates that, and I would really, really like to see chapters through out the world participate at some level with the second annual International Networking Week. If you do, by all means, please post something up here on this podcast about how it went and what you did. We would love to hear from you.

Priscilla:
That’s great. It sounds like a lot of fun. I’m sure our chapter is going to be doing something. Thank you so much, Dr. Misner. I just want to let all of you know that this podcast has been brought to you by networkingnow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. Thanks for listening. This is Priscilla Rice. We look forward to having you join us again next week for another episode of the Official BNI Podcast.