ISO network management Model

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The rumor on how Disney uses Network Management. When the temperature rises on the park grounds at Disneyland all the prices of the beverage vending machines automatically goes up by 10% to fully capitalize on consumer demand. I believe that is an old Information Technology rumor to explain how network management works... at least I hope it is a rumor.

Why Network Management is important.

More and more organizations depend on their networks. Business' the depend heavily on the status of their networks must have network management tools as they grow. If a network dependent business such as ebay, Google, Yahoo and many others go down for even a few minutes, they can loose literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales and even a small piece of their customer's confidence which could in turn affect the value of their stock. When every second of network time counts the system must be monitored continuously. The most cost effective way to do this is to use an automated network management tool.

Network Management Standards

The International Organization for Standards (ISO) addresses the five major functional area of the Network Management Model as performance management, accounting management, configuration management, fault management and security management.

Performance Management

Performance management is monitoring, assessing, and adjusting the available bandwidth and network resource usage in order make a network run more efficiently. Performance management is a very important part of the network management model particularly to the business and/or organization that wants to streamline their network's performance. SolarWinds is a great tool for performance management.

Accounting Management

Accounting management monitors and assesses the usage of data and/or resources for the purpose of billing. This aspect of the network management is by Internet Service Providers to bill customers for the resources they use.

Configuration Management

The configuration side of network management is for tracking the hardware and software versions on the network to identify their effects on the network's operation. An example of this is Microsoft's System Management Server (SMS) which has the capability to monitor, manage and track every piece of software and hardware on a given network.

Fault Management

Fault Management is what most people think of when they think of network management. The purpose of this area of network management is to detect, log and alert the system administrators of problems that might effect the systems operations.

Security Management

Security Management deals with controlling access to resources and even alerting the proper authorities when certain resources are accessed. In the same way that a network manager can be paged or emailed when a resource goes down, network management systems can be used to send messages when certain files, servers or routers is accesses. Intrusion detection systems such as Symantec's Intruder Alert have this security management capability.

There are many products that support some or even all of these areas of network management. What most network management systems have in common is their use of protocols such as Simple Network Management Protocols (SNMP), SNMPv3, and Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP). There are a variety of Network Management tools ranging from Intuit's Network Management Software to IBM's Tivoli, Fidelia's Helix to AdventNet. Maybe your network management solution does not include a system that increases vending machine prices as the heat rises, but you can definitely find what you need among these and other excellent tools on the market.

References:

Cisco. Network Management Basics. Cisco.com. Feb 2002

http://www.cisco.com/

RFC 1157. Simple Network Management Protocol.

http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1157.html

Wikipedia. Network Management. Wikipedia.org.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_management

ITPRC. Network Management. Itprc.com

http://www.itprc.com/nms.htm

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Why most financial professionals just don't get it when it comes to social networking

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Four Key Reasons Most Financial Professionals Don't "Get It" When It Comes To Social Networking

Most of the Financial Professionals I have talked to seem to be saying the same thing: "I really don't get this social networking thing". Well if you don't get it, my strong suggestion is...YOU BETTER GET IT!

Why? Because there are two things we know to be true:

1. PEOPLE TALK

2. WE KNOW EXACTLY WHERE THEY ARE TALKING THESE DAYS

All you have to do is take a look at these eye-opening growth statistics and you can clearly see why this new opportunity for your business simply cannot be overlooked or ignored:

Facebook has over 300 Million users, and about 600,000 join every day

50% of Facebook users are online every single day
The two fastest growing segments are people ages 35 to 55 and women ages 50 and older

LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter have over 150 Million users
Twitter's growth rate is currently over 750%

IT JUST MAKES SENSE:

If you take a look at the business relationships you treasure the most, they mainly consist of your family, friends, loved ones, co-workers and many other people who directly or indirectly support the growth of your business. The truth is that one of the key ingredients to a successful business is the ability to build and maintain high-quality, meaningful, and credible relationships with their clients and within their community. I'm sure this sounds familiar, because THIS IS THE ESSENCE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING!

WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS?

If used properly, social networking becomes an excellent supplemental marketing strategy, serving as the perfect complement to your existing business plan. The reason why is because it is an extremely low-cost way to expose yourself and your business to the most popular places on the Internet, which directly connects you to the various communities, organizations, and groups that you care about.

From what I can conclude, there are essentially five key benefits:

1. Increase your business exposure and visibility

2. Improve your reputation and credibility

3. Increase brand identity and recognition

4. Enhance awareness of your products or services

5. Provide the opportunity to build a network of people and see this network exponentially growth...because PEOPLE TALK are constantly hearing from and talking about YOU

NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS:

Many studies, including ones in which I have personally conducted, prove that most financial professionals simply don't have what they need to be truly successful in Social Networking, and I have broken all of these details that should hopefully help each of us:

FOUR KEY REASONS MOST FINANCIAL PROFESSIONALS MAY NEVER REALLY "GET IT"

1. DESIRE:

Most financial professionals enjoy doing key things in their spare time that they are passionate about, such as their careers, hobbies, family, faith, sports, traveling, or whatever makes them genuinely happy.
Surveys show that Social Networking is at the bottom of this list of passions.
Most professionals today lack the time, skills, and most importantly, the inclination (or that "burning desire") to build, cultivate, and maintain a successful social network...particularly on an ongoing basis. In other words, this is not something most financial professionals "choose to do", but rather they feel like the "have to do it".
Every Social Network expert will tell you that success is largely driven in social networking through your ability to constantly offer new, valuable, and useful information and ideas. In fact, this is by far, their biggest challenge in working with their clients, since most don't have enough content and materials to continuously educate your social networks.
The reality is that most financial professionals are not gifted or skilled writers or editors, not only for their own industry, but particularly in designing pieces that fit well within the guidelines and purposes of social networks
Also, most financial professionals are not familiar with exactly what to write about, what topics to write about, how often to write about new topics, and how often to submit this information to these networks.
2. TECHNOLOGY:

Studies prove that most professionals who are 40 years old or older are at a big disadvantage, mainly because we didn't grow up in the "computer era". Therefore, we were never afforded the luxury of growing up in their early years to capitalize on the advent of the Internet and the every-growing capabilities of computers and technology.
The reason this makes this particularly challenging for most financial professionals is because most social experts will tell you Social Networking requires at least 10-15 hours of work each week, along with the aforementioned high level of computer and Internet skills.
Purchasing and maintaining all of this technology and computer equipment can be very expensive, as it almost always includes things like training, software, security, database backup, tech support, etc.
There is a never-ending need and requirement to ensure you are constantly staying updated on the newest and most innovative state-of-the-art technologies, which can also add to additional time, expenses, and training.
These social networks are growing exponentially in size and complexity. In fact, today there are over 70 Social Networking websites. This poses two big challenges:
1. It makes it much more difficult to keep up with all of the latest technologies associated with each social network, like blogging, tweeting, uploading, scanning, managing databases, navigating software, keyword tagging, search engine optimization, filtering spam and viruses, and much more.

2. It becomes vitally important that you know which of these Social Networks are worthwhile for you and your business, and which ones are not a good fit. This is an extremely important, and yet often overlooked, point about the number of social networks you belong to.


Many financial professional think they need to be involved in "as many of these networks as possible so they can get the most exposure" when it fact, the reality is the most important focus should be on the quality of these social networks...and NOT the quantity"!
3. INTEGRATION:

If you can believe this, even though most of us have heard of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and maybe a few others, there are approximately 70 different Social Networking websites today...and growing by leaps and bounds!
The good news is that this has brought about many new strategies and cutting-edge technologies that are specifically designed to help integrate and coordinate these social networks...which essentially allows them all to be able to "talk to each other", and share information. This is being made available because it helps to minimize your efforts to send a message out to multiple networks, and also attempts to eliminate mass-duplication of content.
The bad news is that, with the exception of a tiny minority, most financial professionals are simply not interested (or capable) of investing the time, training, resources, to keep pace with all these new tools.
The other harsh reality is that most financial professionals simply don't have the time, desire, and/or the quick and easy access to keep up with all of these new tools that can help them coordinate their efforts among this wide range of social networks.
One thing we know for sure is that one of the most critical ingredients to Social Networking success is making sure each of your multiple networks are working in harmony together, saying the same message at the same time. Given the current and future levels of growth in these networks and technology, this dramatically decreases the probability that financial professionals are likely to create the best possible results from these social networks unless they are all simultaneously working together.
4. TIME

The truth is Financial Professionals are not any different from other professionals. They too have a huge struggle to find that "perfect" balance between their everyday life events such as their career, marriage, friends, social events, kids and their multiple events, health and fitness, hobbies, sports, email, etc.
Today's difficult economic environment has clearly played a big factor in making it even more challenging for Financial Professionals to find that "proper" balance in our lives between family, work, and other "life events". These restrictions even further limit our ability to set aside a few hours each day to work on these social networks.
The harsh reality is that Social Networking requires a serious and dedicated effort and many hours of your personal time every day as a result of these sophisticated networks, technologies, and constant communication with a large number of changing people.
Among some of the extremely time-consuming Social Networking tasks are: regularly writing emails/blogs/tweets/updates, constantly creating target marketing campaigns, joining a large number of groups and networks, contributing regular and valuable information to these groups and networks, learning how to adapt to unique groups of people, regularly researching and provide new and current content, closely monitoring and managing an increasing group of friends or followers, working in harmony with the many different social networks, keeping up-to-date with the newest and most innovative technologies, etc.
IS EVERY FINANCIAL PROFESSIONAL DOOMED FOR SOCIAL NETWORKING FAILURE?

Of course not! However, unless you are one of the rare few financial professionals with an extensive background in technology, a vast array, access, and the ability to keep updated with the newest and most innovative technology tools and resources, an extensive understanding of all these 70+ social networks, and which one is right for you, a large amount of free time, and a burning passion to become a social networking expert, your best bet is to choose one of two routes:

1. Set your expectations low, work at often as you can, and just have fun.

2. An alternative is to seek the help of the wide array of social networking companies who can help do the large majority of this for you. This frees up much of your time, gives you the ability to maximize your results and efficiencies, and can also dramatically expand your social network and business opportunities.

MY PERSONAL SOCIAL NETWORKING STORY:

I decided to take advantage of the second option above. I hired a professional company who does this for a small monthly fee. Like many of you, I am busy and cheap, so my focus was on paying a small monthly cost, having NO long-term commitment, and having almost all of the work done for me. And so far, I have been extremely pleased with the professional support and progress I have made!

Granted I've only been doing this for about two months now, but if you look at the number of connections I have made, the people I have been introduced to or connected with, and the people that have contacted me, it is truly amazing. Other benefits include joining multiple networks of people and groups, "branding" my name/firm/products/services, and also developing partnerships and relationships that are extremely valuable.

HOW DID I FIND THE "RIGHT" PROFESSIONAL HELP?

I performed extensive research on what types of professional Social Networking Companies are out there today, and who are among the industry leaders. I looked at everything including cost, contractual commitments, what would be required on my part, and what could I expect. I finally chose a company when I saw an impressive interview with their President on Fox News who worked as a Business Coach and Social Media Specialist for major celebrities and corporations for over 25 years..

I strongly suggest if you decide to seek professional help that, like I was, you do some extensive research on your own. With the geometric growth potentials that lie ahead in this great new business opportunity, this is an extremely important decision. Or, in an effort to save you valuable time, I am happy to provide each of you the findings of my results, the company I am currently using, as well as several companies I would also suggest you look into, and which I feel comfortable recommending. So by all means, please don't hesitate to call or email me if I can help in any way.

I hope I was able to help you see why most Financial Professionals not only "don't get it", but even if they think they do, it is very unlikely they are "getting the most out of it". And if you go back and reread everything I talked about above, it should be very easy to understand why most financial professionals are simply not cut out for this kind of stuff...for a wide variety of reasons.

I can honestly tell you that for me personally, this whole Social Networking world has opened my eyes to a new way of growing my business that has extended far beyond my wildest dreams. And the truth is, just a few months ago I really "didn't get it" at all.

So the morale of the story is this; most financial professionals are just like me. They don't really "get" how social networking TRULY works, they probably never will, and their best bet is to work with a professional. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for.

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Top 10 affiliate and CPA network

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Affiliate Networks are a great way for website owners and content producers to monetize their work with related products and services. With literally hundreds of affiliate networks in existence, it can be an arduous task to stay in the loop about the network options with their respective pros and cons. We've picked our favorite 22 affiliate networks; included in this list is a little something for everyone. From the beginner affiliate marketer to the Fortune 500 company, these affiliate networks have the tools, campaigns, and integrity that other networks continue to strive for. Here they are, in alphabetical order:  

Affiliate.com 

Affiliate.com is a Media Breakaway, LLC company who has been involved in the affiliate marketing arena since 2001. With value added services that include domain registration, email list management, and website hosting, Affiliate.com has proven they are one of the leading affiliate networks. Affiliates are paid on a net 15 basis, and advertisers can place offers on their network with no setup fees. Affiliate.com's blog is the place to check out their new offers and company announcements. Their website home page lists all of their social network profiles so potential affiliates and advertisers can follow them too.

Buy.at

Buy.at has been a pioneer in affiliate marketing since 2002 when it was launched by Perfiliate Technologies. They were then acquired by AOL in 2008 and have become part of the Platform-A department of AOL, and are a business unit of AOL's Advertising.com. Buy.at is the second largest affiliate in the UK, and has been aggressively expanding their offerings into the U.S. Buy.at has many well known advertisers including Ticketmaster, The New York Times Store, Discount Tire, Speedo, and TurboTax to name a few. Buy.at offers a customizable reporting dashboard to publishers, and pays affiliates monthly. Advertisers and affiliates alike enjoy the added level of transparency that Buy.at has become known for.

ClickBooth

ClickBooth is an industry award winning CPA network with many exclusive advertisers. With over 5 years experience in affiliate marketing, ClickBooth has become the premiere network for over 20,000 publishers and brands like Blockbuster, ADT, Dish Network, America Online, and VistaPrint. With a continuing effort to ensure the quality of affiliates and advertisers, ClickBooth has maintained a superior level of network compliance within their network. The ClickBooth Blog features even more info about the company, contests, and links to the major social sites so you can easily connect with them.

Commission Junction  

Commission Junction is one of the largest affiliate networks in the world, and they work with some power-house companies like Yahoo, Home Depot, HP, Apple Store, Dell, Staples, Buy.com, E Harmony, and Expedia. CJ has a pioneered many affiliate resources which have been adopted by many other networks. Among those resources is CJU, an area of the CJ website dedicated to educating CJ publishers about affiliate marketing's best practices. CJ was also one of the first affiliate networks to make public internal performance metrics (like EPCs or Earnings per Click) for both publishers and advertisers, enabling both groups to make better decisions about their campaigns.

CrispAds  

CrispAds is the affiliate network arm of Intela, a performance-based marketing company with offices in the U.S. and UK. They feature a "blog advertising network," which has allowed bloggers to sign up and earn revenue in a format that is designed for bloggers. Some of CrispAds advertiser brands include Visa, DirectBuy, Gerber, and Toyota. Their blog is the best way to stay current on new campaigns and special announcements.

CX Digital Media  

CX Digital Media, formerly IncentaClick, is an affiliate network based out of Toronto, Canada. CX Digital Media works with advertisers like Netflix, DirectTV, U.S. Army, FreeCreditReport.com, and FlyCell. The blog has details about their current affiliate bonuses and promotions, as well as links to their social profile pages. CX Digital Media has an agency component designed to work with traditional advertising agencies for online media buys.

DirectAgents  

DirectAgents is an interactive marketing agency from New York specializing in affiliate and search marketing, lead generation, and media buying. Some of their high profile advertising clients include Experian, Scholastic, SnapFish, Terminix, and TruGreen. DirectAgents has been presented with numerous awards, including the Inc 5000 for fastest growing companies. The DirectAgents Blog is a very active affiliate blog, with posting occurring almost daily, and is the best source for media mentions and company events.

FluxAds  

FluxAds is a CPA network that takes a hands-on approach by matching up affiliates with offers that match the demographic of their audience. The FluxAds website even has a live web cam where visitors to the website gain a visual insight into the daily activities of the FluxAds team. Their blog is full of quick tips, conference reminders, and has the links to their company's social profiles. They have been actively posting content on their blog since January 2009.

Google Affiliate Network

The Google Affiliate Network is a relatively new player on the scene but has quickly become one of the primary destinations for both advertisers and affiliates.It is one of the more strict networks for allowing publishers to sign up without the proper verification; they take a close look at publisher websites and promotion methods prior to account approval. The Google Affiliate Network hosts their blog on Blogspot. They frequently blog about new laws that affect affiliates and system maintenance schedules, and they have a section for GAN frequently asked questions.

Hydra  

Hydra Network is one of the most popular CPA networks and has won numerous awards including Inc 500 Fastest Growing (2007, 2008), and 2009 Internet Advertising Competition Award for Outstanding Achievement in Internet Advertising. Hydra features many exclusive campaigns that can only be found on their network, as well as offers that can be incentivized. Hydra's affiliate dashboard is very well laid out, making it easy to access reports, campaigns, and account settings.

LeadFlash

LeadFlash is a CPA network and is one of the largest players in the cash advance/payday loan vertical. More recently LeadFlash has moved into the home loan modification, debt, and automotive loan verticals as they continue to host some of the highest paying CPA offers on any network. The LeadFlash affiliate dashboard is one of the most simple and easy to use dashboards of any CPA network. Finding the category of offer to promote and integrating it into your website or email campaign is very intuitive. LeadFlash is located in Florida and employs nearly 50 people.

LeadPile  

LeadPile is one of the largest lead aggregators and they feature one of the most diverse selections of lead types for both affiliates and lead buyers. Through their custom forms, LeadPile reports that over the last 30 days they have served 61 different lead types. LeadPile has a few different options for affiliates; they can send traffic to a LeadPile web property, embed a form on their own website, or HTTP and XML post directly into a LeadPile server. Their demo videos clearly explain and illustrate many of the CPA lead concepts and decrease the learning curve when starting to work with them for the first time. The LeadPile blog has current company news and lead-gen tips for their affiliates.

LeadPoint

LeadPoint is a lead network founded in 2004 in Los Angeles offering services for both lead buyers and sellers. With many lead types, LeadPoint has services for voice leads, custom forms, and other creative solutions for lead delivery. The LeadPoint Blog is a great resource for all topics pertaining to lead generation and links to their social profiles. LeadPoint also has a UK arm of business that works with many of the same verticals as their U.S. counterpart.

LinkConnector  

LinkConnector is an affiliate network which launched in 2004. Their client list includes JC Whitney, MyLife, American Muscle, WordTracker, PR Web, and Monster Learning Network. LinkConnector's platform features some great benefits, including an affiliate widget builder and a linking technology that allows for affiliates to link directly to the advertiser's site while still maintaining a high level of tracking. The LinkConnector home page also has links to their Facebook and Twitter profiles so you can quickly connect.

LinkShare  

LinkShare is one of the largest Affiliate Networks and boasts one of the most impressive client portfolios. Advertisers include AT&T, iTunes, Delta, CompUSA, Enterprise, FootLocker, GNC, Hotwire, Macy's, McAfee, PetSmart, Toshiba, WalMart, and Zales, to name a few. LinkShare's affiliate platform features an exclusive CPA area called "Lead Advantage," where publishers gain access to high performing lead offers. LinkShare was founded in 2006 and has offices in both the U.S. and Europe.

NeverBlue

NeverBlue is a lead generation affiliate network headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia. It began business in 2004 and is a subsidiary company of Vertrue Inc. NeverBlue's advertisers include GameFly, MindSpark, PerfectMatch.com, and CellFish. The NeverBlue blog gives potential affiliates some insight into the corporate culture of their company, and offers some helpful tips to affiliates. Their "meet the team" pages are filled with fun facts about the people who work there.

PartnerWeekly

PartnerWeekly is the largest full-service player in the cash advance/payday loan space today. That didn't happen by accident. Their philosophy of continuous improvement makes being sensitive to affiliate needs a way of life. Today, that means offers that convert extremely well, and that generate industry-leading ROI. Tomorrow, that means a dedication by the company to diversification within other non cash verticals. More choice. More opportunity for profit. Business relationships, and how to make them great, is a PartnerWeekly mantra. That starts with the best offers. An unmatched capability to customize them. Supported by world-class customer service from experienced affiliate managers, and real-time communication tools to maximize business results. PartnerWeekly is a business unit of Selling Source LLC, which earned its place in 2008 at #68 on the Inc 500 list. That didn't happen by accident either.

PepperJam  

PepperJam was founded in 1999 by internet marketing expert Kris Jones and has successfully integrated several core services to their affiliate network side of business. Among those value added services are search, media buying, and design services. The PepperJam was recognized by Inc Magazine as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. Their blog announces new campaigns on their network, company events, and links to a few of their social profiles.

ShareaSale  

ShareaSale is an affiliate network with over 2000 merchants and numerous awards. Their website features a preview of all merchants that they work with so potential affiliates can search by category, allowing easy look-ups of relevant campaigns. Merchants to ShareaSale have a minimal network access fee and a very competitive pricing structure. The ShareaSale Blog is the prime source for company info and events.

Share Results

Share Results is an affiliate software and network with merchants that include PhotoBucket, Nero, eLearners, and PlanningFamily.com. Founded in 2002 by Nicky Senyard, Share Results is known for, among other things, the high level of transparency the network provides to both its affiliates and merchants. Share Results features multiple campaign types like CPA, CPL, referral, and rev share, and they make their affiliate payouts monthly via wire, check, or PayPal. The Share Results Blog is packed with great affiliate information and video interviews with industry professionals.

Tribal Fusion

The Tribal Fusion network serves over 20 billion impressions per month reaching over 230 million users. Clients include Classmates.com, Morpheus Media, Beyond Interactive, PowWeb, and Artifact Software. Tribal Fusion has a very handy "channels" page which compares some of their network metrics with some competitors. Potential clients are also able to drill-down the category that their site fits in and see landscape of Tribal Fusion's reach within that vertical.

Zanox

Zanoxis a leading affiliate network with advertisers that include Jamster, 1&1, ZoneAlarm, GameOn, and FerrariStore.com, Amazon, Lycos, Procter & Gamble, Citibank, among others. The Zanox blog features a live cam of their office in addition to links to their Facebook Group, company Twitter account, Flickr photos, and their iGoogle gadget. Zanox works with over a million affiliates in over 190 countries and offers direct support in about 30 countries.

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Networking-how effective are you?

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Let's face it, you are not necessarily going to find your next job via a headhunter or in the newspaper (though I am not saying that it never happens this way, it is just more difficult to do so).  The best jobs are often not advertised.  Most likely, you are going to find your next opportunity via a network you have created - a network of friends, colleagues, and acquaintances - who have access to companies and know about opportunities that you couldn't find out about any other way.  Or, if you did find out about an opportunity through a newspaper want ad - you likely have a better chance of getting noticed among the many resumes received when you are introduced through a network connection.  However, networks can help in ways other than helping you find a new job.  Your network can be a sounding board to help you solve a particularly difficult problem. They can help you further develop an idea or concept you have and can assist you in understanding market trends and help keep you updated on current business topics.

(Social) Networking Tools and Groups

There are some great tools available for social networking.  One popular tool is LinkedIn.  LinkedIn is a great way to keep in touch with individuals you have worked with before or know from college.  It is also a valuable method for sharing your expertise and knowledge in discussion groups and/or responding to questions from others on LinkedIn ("Answers").  LinkedIn enables you to expand your network and meet others by asking for introductions from your current connections to others to which they are connected.

Twitter is another tool for networking.  Through Twitter you can share information with others and learn from them.  With Twitter you don't need to have a prior relationship or know someone in order to follow them.   This enables you to reach individuals you may not otherwise ever have the opportunity to reach.  Specific topics of interest on Twitter, such as #projectmanager or #leadership, enable you to connect globally with others who share your specific interests. 

There are other groups you can likely find to participate in with like-minded people.  For example, I belong to the Employee Engagement Network. This is a global group of individuals who are interested in and involved in employee engagement.   Another group I belong to is Business Exchange. BusinessWeek's Business Exchange allows users to create business-focused topics and share information with other business-focused users who are interested in the same topics.

I'm sure you know of other networking tools and/or groups that you have found of value - please share in the Comments field below.

Networking Events and Conferences

Attending networking events is another way to meet others.  You can find professional networking events in nearly every city.  These events are sometimes focused on a specific topic or group such as for marketing specialists or individuals who are unemployed and job searching.  In addition, conferences offer the opportunity for building your network also.  For example, PMI® Global Congress is a great conference to attend to network with other project managers and increase your skills and knowledge around project management-focused topics. Most conferences provide networking sessions during lunch or in the evenings - another great way to meet others, make connections and share information!

Networking isn't Easy! It's Work!

Networking does not come easy to many people - you have to work at it.  You can't just expect someone who you met once to recommend you for an opportunity or to share information with you unless you work on maintaining and building the relationship with that person.  The ability to nurture relationships is a key component of building and maintaining an effective network.  Also key is remembering that networking is bi-directional.   Your network is just not a group of people who are there to help you find your next opportunity or introduce you to someone who may have a job for you.  Basically, they are not there only for when you need them. These are individuals you need to be actively interested in and involved with - people you want to keep in touch with and share information with. You need to devote time to your network on a regular basis.  Bottom line - don't just contact your network when you are in desperate need for help.  Keep in touch with them regularly and be interested in what they have going on themselves - not just what they can do for you.

For example, let's assume that someone in your network is interested in coaching others.  Maybe you just came across an article on the benefits of hiring coaches.  Why not share this article with that individual?  Include a short note that the individual may find the attached article of interest.  Ask them how they are doing in finding coaching opportunities.  Maybe someone else in your network is already a coach - connect these two individuals.  They have a lot in common!  Or maybe someone in your network just moved to a new position in their company or took a new job - send them a note to congratulate them on their new opportunity.   I regularly share white papers, articles, and interesting books I have read with my network. 

Broaden your network. Don't just network with others in your specific industry.  Networking outside your specific job function or your specific industry is a more creative approach and helps you to gain a broader perspective on the opportunities available and on business in general.  What you learn from others in your network can help you grow professionally and personally. 

Ask for help in building your network.  Your network members can introduce you to others.  For example, if you are interested in understanding more about the manufacturing industry, ask individuals in your current network if they have any connections in that specific industry.  Ask them to make an introduction for you.  Similarly, if someone in your network mentions that they are interested in a specific industry or company, and you have a contact in that area - offer to make an introduction.  By sharing your resources, you become a valuable partner in the network and help you broaden your network.   

What are your networking stories - the good, the bad and the ugly?

What has worked for you?

How has a network helped you develop professionally?

Resources - Harvard Business Review Articles on Networking

The following can be found online at: http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/.

Harvard Business Review, 2008: Start Networking Right Away (Even If You Hate It)

Harvard Business Review, 2006: How Leaders Create and Use Networks

Harvard Business Review, 2005: How To Build Your Network

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