Harnessing the social network revolution

This week, acclaimed business networking strategist Andy Lopata explains how to take advantage of the social-networking phenomenon

In my last two blogs, I discussed the most effective use of networking groups. I touched on the impact of online networking and this week, I develop that theme.

The latter part of the last decade has seen a revolution in the way we communicate. The growth of social networking has changed the way we interact with friends, both new and old; how companies engage with their customers and now even shape the way that government policy is set.

The influence of social media has even led to the sentencing of two men to four years in prison for setting up Facebook groups to incite rioting, and to talks of the influence online platforms have had in both the instigation and clean-up of last summer's civil unrest in the UK.

Behind the headlines every minute of every day social networks connect people in a series of conversations on a range of topics, from sports to films to business. Much of the interaction can be dismissed as inconsequential but important information and ideas are also shared and discussed online, both in closed and public forums.

One of the consequences of the popularity of such networks has been the growth of interest in networking in general. Previously perceived as a pastime of the few, either through 'Old School Tie' connections or small business exchanging business cards over breakfast, networking is now seen as essential for business growth or career development.

The growth of an entrepreneurial culture and increased competitiveness and scarcity in the jobs market have both played a role in the increased importance of networking, but the popularity of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn in particular have brought networking into the mainstream. In every workshop I run or talk I give, irrespective of industry or seniority, the vast majority of the audience are members of at least one social network.

Unfortunately, as with face to face networks, many people join social networks because they receive countless invites and see their colleagues already there. Little thought is given to the benefits that would justify the time spent online and the sacrifice of privacy. That's fine when networking is purely social, but if the objective is to use social networks for professional benefit, more consideration is required.

Broadly speaking, we network for one of three main reasons, to become:
- Better known

- Better equipped or

- Better connected.

Your choice of social network, and how you participate in that network, should be guided by those objectives.

Eyes on the prize

Is the goal to raise your profile? If so, where and for what? If you want to be well known in a particular industry, look for niche networks based around that industry, or join appropriate discussion groups on a site like LinkedIn. If you want to get your name recognised in a particular part of the world or within a certain demographic, find out which networks are the most popular with your audience.

Once you have chosen the appropriate network, decide what you want to stand for in that market and what you have to commit to in order to get the message out. There is no point joining a platform with the right audience but then staying quiet. You need to blog, post links, ask questions and join in with discussions. Engage rather than promote and be consistent in your approach so that other people using that network get to recognise you and what you stand for.

Is your goal to learn or seek out support? In which case, which networks boast the expertise and people with the experience you lack? Niche networks or groups may come to the fore here, but searches on mainstream sites like Twitter can also produce powerful results.

If your goal is to increase connections and get referred, you need to be focused on the quality of relationship you have with other members with whom you connect. Just sending out a mass of invitations and accepting all incoming ones won't lead to the introductions you need to boost your career or your business.

Start by connecting with people you already know, like and trust and, if you accept requests from people you haven't previously met, find out what you have in common and look to establish mutual understanding based on that.

LinkedIn is a very powerful tool for referral generation, as I discuss here. Most people, however, don't understand how simple yet effective this approach is and spend their time just accepting connections and updating their CV.

Don’t neglect the real world

However you want to use social networks, they don't operate in isolation. I meet a lot of people who tell me that they are now focusing their networking time online rather than meeting people in person. I believe this is a big mistake. You can establish and develop relationships to a certain level online, but nothing beats the rapport building made possible when you physically shake hands and see the whites of the other person's eyes.

Relationships lie at the core of networking, however it takes place. People are more inclined to support you if you have both invested time in developing trust and mutual understanding first. Online and face to face networking work hand in hand but the basic rules stay the same:
- Show an interest in the other person

- Develop the relationship over time

- Stay in touch

Despite negative stories in the media and concerns in Government, the social networking revolution is here to stay. In career and business terms, we now need to move from curiosity and experimentation to focus and strategy if we are going to make it truly drive us towards our goals.

Andy Lopata has been named by the Financial Times as "one of Europe's leading business networking strategists". As an exclusive offer for Business Sense readers, he is offering our readers his acclaimed book, Recommended: How to Sell Through Networking & Referrals published in July 2011 by Financial Times Prentice Hall, for a special price of just £12.25.

To find out more about how to pick the right networks, implement a successful networking strategy or how to generate more referrals, see Andy's website.

Networking Groups (Part 2)

This week, acclaimed business networking strategist Andy Lopata delivers the second part of his guide to getting the most from business networking groups

Choosing the right one

Once you have identified which networks help you towards your primary goals, you can begin to take into account a range of factors, which are also going to influence your choice.

Time of day is an important choice for many people. Despite running networking groups that met over breakfast for many years, and writing a book on the subject, I am not a morning person. Now that my business is no longer focused on early morning networking meetings I make a personal choice not to attend too many, although I am a member of one group that meets over breakfast once a month.

That’s a lifestyle choice for me and one I feel I am entitled to make. Occasionally the business reason for attending is stronger than that choice, with the monthly group I now belong to being a case in point, but generally I prefer to avoid early meetings.

Others simply can’t make morning meetings, for example parents with school run responsibilities. For other people, they are perfect. Many people like them because they don’t cut into the business day. Be careful about this argument, networking meetings should be a fundamental part of your business, not set aside. There is certainly less chance of you being caught up in the office before a breakfast meetings by client demands or the phone starting to ring just as you are about to leave.

Similar arguments can be made about evening networking events, and I have recently seen a growth of late-afternoon events, starting about 4pm, that allow people to attend at the end of the working day but still get home at a reasonable hour.

Lunch events tend to be popular but can take a huge chunk out of the rest of the day, particularly if you make the most of the time by arriving early and leaving late. If attending such events I tend to make appointments either side with people who will also be there, blocking the day off in my diary and making the most of the opportunity.

Attendees

Along with the time of day, the makeup of the attendees at a networking event is an important influence for many people. You can look at the industries, businesses and seniority of the people attending, their gender and age.

Don’t get too carried away by the business or seniority of attendees. Too many small businesses turn down small business networks because they want to meet large companies. Sometimes I wonder if they’ve looked in the mirror recently!

It certainly is a good idea to network among your potential customers if you can, as long as you remember that you’re not there to sell. And if your goals are based around meeting people in certain industries or positions, then it will help to network where they meet.

However, if you are networking to generate referrals, don’t put too much weight on your preconceptions about how well people are able to help you. Remember, it’s not about who is in the room but whom they know.

I have heard many people put down local networks because they are “full of hairdressers and plumbers”. Yet what do hairdressers and plumbers do all day? Talk to people in the local area! If you are looking for connections locally, they could be your greatest Champions.

Geography should also play a role in your decision. Is the group situated where you want to raise your profile or do business? Is it convenient for you to get to at the time they meet?

Don’t be fooled into having to join groups in city centres rather than suburbs or rural areas. If you’re looking for referrals it may not matter where people live, it’s the people they know.

When I was running networking groups we opened a group in Cannon Street, in the City of London. We quickly built a strong membership of people who travelled in because they wanted to do business in the City eventually. Yet nobody in the group was actually based in the area. Many members did not yet have clients in the area. It was an aspiration.

You could argue that they would have found it just as productive to network close to their homes and offices and ask for the referrals they needed.

Andy Lopata has been named by the Financial Times as "one of Europe's leading business networking strategists". As an exclusive offer for Business Sense readers, he is offering our readers his acclaimed book, Recommended: How to Sell Through Networking & Referrals published in July 2011 by Financial Times Prentice Hall, for a special price of just £12.25.

To find out more about how to pick the right networks, implement a successful networking strategy or how to generate more referrals, see Andy's website.

Networking Groups

This week, acclaimed business networking strategist Andy Lopata looks at how to get the most from business networking groups

Setting goals

Once you have a clear idea of your objectives from a networking event, you then need to ask yourself what needs to happen for you to achieve those goals. Within any network you will depend upon the support of others to be successful. After all, this is essentially what networking is. So, in order to help you, what do others need to know?

This is an area where people fall down with networking. We understand that joining a networking group or attending events might help us, but fail to think through what we expect of others in providing that support.

There are three key things you need to consider when searching for a network that will provide the support you need. You need to be able to build the relationship with fellow members, have the opportunity to deliver the right message and look at the level of commitment required of you and others.

Relationships are fundamental to networking success. People have to want to help you and the deeper your relationship, the more likely it is that they will do so.

Picking the right events

When you look at networking groups the frequency of their meetings and the actual time available to network are going to be key in driving relationships forward. If you are looking at a network which meets once a quarter and whose meetings are focused predominantly around a guest speaker, there will be little opportunity to build relationships with fellow members within the meetings.

Look also at why people have chosen to attend the event. If events are subject-matter focused and people are there predominantly for the guest speaker, they may not be receptive to connecting with new people. If there is a talk, make sure you remain at the event afterwards. You’ll have more to talk about with the people who remain, and it is more likely that they are open to new conversations.

Does the format allow you to continually share your needs with the group and educate them about your business? If an understanding of your business is an important step towards your goals (which it will be if you focus on referral-generation), look to establish what opportunities there are to build on that.

Referral-focused networks, such as BNI, don’t have guest speakers. Instead, each member has 60 seconds to present their needs each week, plus a ten minute slot once or twice a year. In theory this should be perfect when looking to generate referrals.

Don't be complacent

One of the most common problems when I ran networking breakfast meetings was seeing many members fail to make the most of this opportunity. There was a risk of becoming complacent because they knew they were speaking in front of the same people each week. Many members, therefore, prepared inadequately and wasted the opportunity.

It was interesting to see how things changed when there were visitors present. If you visit such a group, listen to people’s presentations and ask yourself how much preparation they have put in and how well focused the presentations are towards generating referrals. Try to go a couple of times to see how presentations are varied and how focused the requests are.

Many members walk away from networking groups before they have had a chance to realise any success. If you are looking for strong results, they will be built on deep relationships, which won’t happen overnight. You have to be prepared to stick around to make it work.

Understand what commitment is required of you before you join. Are you prepared to make that commitment? Equally importantly, are existing members committed? Are they turning up regularly, preparing and participating fully in the network?

Showing commitment

In the UK there has been a backlash against networks, which require strong commitment. BNI is a classic example of a network that expects its members to turn up early and every week. In fact a member’s membership may be cancelled owing to lack of commitment.

It is important to recognise, however, the reasons for this discipline. After all, if the membership is exclusive, allowing only one representative of each profession, this is understandable. If people don’t show, they are not there to listen to the needs of their fellow members, to know which opportunities to look for or to pass referrals. With limited membership in a group, the dynamic can also change dramatically when just a few people are missing.

Other networks have been formed having recognised people’s resistance to being required to attend every week and bring referrals to the table. Groups like 4Networking and Business over Breakfast meet fortnightly rather than weekly and don’t compel people to attend.

That is fine; you have to work out what is best for you but be aware that different formats will provide a different return.

Referral groups need lower numbers to succeed as they focus on forming a bond between everyone who attends. I believe that the optimum number is closer to twenty-five members. Any more than that and people tend to break into cliques and not get to know the majority of members of their groups.

When numbers are lower a loose discipline of attendance can lead to the group falling apart as numbers drop each week. Additionally, weekly meetings are designed to generate much stronger relationships and deeper understanding, the less frequently a group meets the more diluted and slower the process.

Find what's right for you

My analysis is not designed to criticise other groups. Many of us are unable, or unwilling, to commit on a weekly basis. You have to decide what’s right for you and then pick the option to fit. But you should recognise the rewards on offer are reflected in the commitment made by you and fellow members.

The key is that you ensure you have a strategy in place and make your decisions based on this. As long as you have clear goals and understand how each membership will help you achieve those goals, you are in position to get the return you need from your investment.

Andy Lopata has been named by the Financial Times as "one of Europe's leading business networking strategists". As an exclusive offer for Business Sense readers, he is offering our readers his acclaimed book, Recommended: How to Sell Through Networking & Referrals published in July 2011 by Financial Times Prentice Hall, for a special price of just £12.25.

To find out more about how to pick the right networks, implement a successful networking strategy or how to generate more referrals, see Andy's website.

Focusing on your goals

Acclaimed business networking strategist Andy Lopata looks at how setting clear goals could pay dividents for your business

I cannot emphasise enough the importance of setting clear goals if you want an effective referrals strategy. The clearer you are in your own mind about what you are looking for, the better placed you are to communicate those needs to your network and to help them find and convert the opportunities to refer you.

If you are going to attend networking events or join groups, you need to pick the right ones for you and understand what success is going to look like for you.

Your main reasons for selecting a network should be goal-oriented. Ask yourself what it is you want to achieve from attending or from your membership. Apart from new business there are a number of other goals you can set from networking, which I will cover so that you can make the most informed decision possible.

Your goals can be split into two key areas, Business and Self-Development. Business goals include the obvious, tangible benefits such as new business generation and also supply-side benefits, such as sourcing trusted suppliers. A balance sheet has two sides after all!

Less tangible but often equally powerful benefits from networking include local and industry knowledge, feedback on business ideas, profile building and identifying opportunities to collaborate. Each of these plays an important role in building a business, but can be much harder to measure. I always recommend focusing on what is important to you though, if you are not aware of what you need to achieve the opportunities to improve will pass you by.

Self-development goals are often overlooked by people looking to network. When we think of self-development we automatically tend to look to training courses and books, both of which I naturally feel are important. However, we can learn a lot from other people around us and feed from their support and encouragement. Networking with others has taught me more in the last eleven years than any previous education or work experience.

Look to your networks to help you develop more self-confidence, presentation skills and knowledge. Career development relies on networks to raise your profile, get you talked about and to help you understand what opportunities may lay in store for you.

Andy Lopata has been named by the Financial Times as "one of Europe's leading business networking strategists". As an exclusive offer for Business Sense readers, he is offering our readers his acclaimed book, Recommended: How to Sell Through Networking & Referrals published in July 2011 by Financial Times Prentice Hall, for a special price of just £12.25.

To find out more about how to pick the right networks, implement a successful networking strategy or how to generate more referrals, see Andy's website.

Your ideal referral: it's a question of influence

In my last blog, I talked about how to help people understand what you do in order to help you more effectively; making it easy for them to do so rather than antagonising them.

Once your network understand what you want them to say about you, you then need to focus on who you want them to share your message with. If, for example, you are looking for contacts in the public sector, there is little advantage to be gained if your message is being shared with small start-up companies.

Think of your ideal referral and write down a list of people or companies you would love to meet. You should have a clear idea of the groups of people and businesses you want to reach and who they might be listening to.

The people they are listening to may be the key for you. Rather than targeting individual sales direct, focus your networking on building influential connections. Who are the key influencers in your arena and how can you get in front of them?

Start by considering your existing network. Who is talking to the people you most want to meet? They are the people you need to be spreading your message. Think of it as a list, or table:

Before you do so, ask yourself why they would want to build a relationship with you. If they are the most influential people in their field, many people will be looking to meet and influence them. Why should you stand out from the crowd? Why would they want to associate with you?

Once you have made the connection, supporting them in what they are trying to achieve will help. Find out their key goals and provide good and appropriate connections, timing them for the best impact.

But you need to be known by them first to do that. Being seen as an influencer and expert in your own right certainly helps. Using social media to raise your profile and establish your credibility and expertise may bring you onto their radar.

To join the RBS Business Sense network on Twitter, click here – or follow us from the homepage. To join our network on LinkedIn, click here.

Andy Lopata is a business owner named by the Financial Times as "one of Europe's leading business networking strategists". As an exclusive offer for Business Sense readers, he is offering his acclaimed book, Recommended: How to Sell Through Networking & Referrals published in July 2011 by Financial Times Prentice Hall, for a special price of just £12.25.

Guest blog: Andy Lopata on planning your referral strategy

In many ways, an effective referrals strategy can be seen as a form of ‘passive marketing’. After all, if implemented correctly, you can have potential clients being told about your services and ‘warmed up’ to speak to you when you are busy working on other areas of the business.

Don’t get fooled though. There are still major costs involved in creating an effective referrals strategy, with many of them coming at the beginning of the process. Building a network that will support you takes investment, both financial and in other ways.

You need to factor in such costs as the time you spend building relationships, attending networking events, taking people out for meals or meeting them for coffee. There is the opportunity cost of other activity you could be undertaking alternatively, the patience to ignore potential immediate sales as you focus on building a longer-term relationship and the financial costs of some of your networking activities.

In order to ensure you do have long-term relationships with people who work for you when you’re otherwise engaged, you need to nurture that network once it’s established. Time still needs to be invested in staying in touch and maintaining relationships.

Find time to make calls and send emails that don’t appear to be relevant to the work in front of you at that time. Make sure you see your key Champions in person, for the occasional coffee or at networking events.

Social media is a fantastic tool for keeping you in front of your network, with status updates, the ability to post interesting links and blogs, and micro blogging with Twitter, you can keep people aware of you and what you are doing. It makes staying in touch with a large and diverse network so much easier than before, but you should be wary of allowing it to replace a more personal interaction.

In his book Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi talks about the importance of constantly ‘pinging’. According to Ferrazzi, “becoming front and centre in someone’s mental Rolodex is contingent on one invaluable little concept: repetition.”

Ferrazzi explains how people with whom you’re establishing a new relationship need to hear or see your name in at least three different types of communications, such as email, phone and a meeting, before there is substantive recognition. In fact, advertising uses this very principle, where a campaign message is reinforced heavily over a period of time using a wide range of different media.

Once you have gained that recognition, Ferrazzi advises that you need to nurture the new relationship with a monthly call or email. To transform that contact into a friend, you need at least two face to face meetings out of the office, while maintaining a ‘secondary’ relationship requires two to three pings a year.

Investing all of this time and effort in establishing strong relationships should ensure that you have a network of people happy and able to refer you effectively. It is important that you then focus on the long-term possibilities and continue to nurture that network.

Andy Lopata has been named by the Financial Times as "one of Europe's leading business networking strategists". As an exclusive offer for Business Sense readers, he is offering our readers his acclaimed book, Recommended: How to Sell Through Networking & Referrals published in July 2011 by Financial Times Prentice Hall, for a special price of just £12.25.

To find out more about how to pick the right networks, implement a successful networking strategy or how to generate more referrals, see Andy's website.

How can PR be turned into hard results? Business Sense's networking strategist explains.

An effective public relations strategy has long been a core part of many businesses’ marketing approach and the growth of social networks in recent years means that the power of good press can be magnified many times over by anyone, irrespective of the size of their business.

PR has always worked best when used in conjunction with other routes to market. Positive coverage in the media can help ensure people are more likely to buy from you but that message needs to be reinforced elsewhere, with a more direct call to action. You’ll be more likely to respond positively to an advertisement, for example, if you’ve read something good about that company in a newspaper or magazine first.

I have been very fortunate to be able to get a fair amount of good national media coverage for my business in the last few years. That coverage has helped to establish my credibility in my market quickly and globally.

I have, however, rarely been able to attribute new business directly to the coverage I have received. What it has done has been to reinforce my positioning and credibility and raise my profile among more potential clients. For that to work effectively, social networks have come into play.

Before the advent of social networks it was difficult to spread the word. Now, however, it is much more straightforward. Once an article appears that I want to share, I can post it onto Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. My network then shares it with other people, making the coverage far more viral.

Mike Southon is a well-known UK entrepreneur and author of the Beermat Entrepreneur series of books. Mike has a weekly column in the Entrepreneur section of the Financial Times. As well as sending out a copy of the column to his subscriber base by email each week, Mike tweets a link to the column and posts it to LinkedIn, Facebook and Ecademy. It also goes out in a newsletter to his Ecademy contacts.

“Social networks represent a highly effective and almost free way of spreading my message to very large numbers of people. Having a weekly column in a national newspaper is not enough nowadays; you must also have a regular and effective way of communicating with people online,” says Mike.

“Interestingly, both act symbiotically with each other. Having a traditional newspaper column makes me more interesting to the social networks, and the social networks drive people to my newspaper column, creating a virtuous circle of personal brand enhancement."

Good coverage in the media is great to have, but if you can leverage it effectively, it can help you drive the third party credibility and word of mouth buzz that word of mouth campaigns thrive on.

To join the NatWest Business Sense network on Twitter, click here – or follow us from the homepage. To join our network on LinkedIn, click here.

Andy Lopata is a business owner named by the Financial Times as "one of Europe's leading business networking strategists". As an exclusive offer for Business Sense readers, he is offering his acclaimed book, Recommended: How to Sell Through Networking & Referrals published in July 2011 by Financial Times Prentice Hall, for a special price of just £12.25.

Guest blog: Andy Lopata on why, for networking and referrals, quality will always beat volume

A recent article in the London Evening Standard suggested that people are moving away from collecting as many friends as possible on Facebook and have started to ‘defriend’.

That’s a positive thing. In both business and in our day to day lives, networking is not a numbers game. I don’t simply want to be a notch on someone else’s networking bedpost.

Over the last few years, a culture has developed around networking where the aim seems to be to gain the maximum number of business cards, connections, ‘friends’ or ‘followers’.

It’s understandable. When we launched networking groups in the early days of Business Referral Exchange we gave a prize to the person who collected the most business cards in a short ice breaker at the start of an event. When I started networking I foolishly counted the number of cards I collected to determine how successful an event had been for me. On some social networks we see people ranked by how many connections they have, on others there are special groups for the ‘most connected’ members.

It’s far easier to measure the quantity of connections rather than the quality of relationships and there has traditionally been little guidance to do otherwise. Short-term measurements aren’t, however, a true reflection of the quality of your network. Rather than focusing on the numbers of people in your network, it is far more valuable to understand the value those connections bring you.

I use the strapline ‘Connecting is not Enough’ in my business because I believe very strongly that many business people are being misled. The focus on connecting with as many people as possible is leading to shallow relationships and little return. Eventually such people will turn their backs on networking and, in the process, miss out on the true potential they could have realised.

I wrote a blog ‘Why Connecting is not Enough’ after receiving a connection request on Ecademy. In the request the person looking to connect with me said, “I have been working several hours every day at making contacts with as many people as possible.” He had reached 1000 contacts in two weeks of membership of the site by sending out similar messages across the network.

The message he sent focused on him rather than me, but of course it had to. How could he possibly read 1,000 profiles and send personal messages to each and every person? A mass approach leads to broadcasting rather than engaging, telling rather than asking and speaking rather than listening.

Look around a networking event and you can identify who has a numbers approach to networking and who is focused on relationships. Watch people and see who is exchanging business cards as soon as they shake hands and launching into elevator pitches and compare them to people enjoying a relaxed conversation and building genuine rapport.

Some people, when asked for their business card, like to hand out two or three. In case, of course, you meet someone who might need their help on your travels. How many people carry around all of the business cards of everyone they meet though?

You need to be in people’s memory, not in their business card holder. After all, they are going to be in a greater position to help you if they recognise opportunities when they’re out and about, without a computer for reference.

That ability to recognise opportunities comes from developing a deep relationship where other people understand what you do, who you do it for and like and trust you enough to want to refer you.

Connecting is still not enough. You can have all of the friends and followers you like but without genuine relationships you might find yourself standing alone when you most need their help.

It would be interesting to know, if someone has ‘defriended’ you recently, did you even notice their disappearance from your network?

To join the NatWest Business Sense network on Twitter, click here – or follow us from the homepage. To join our network on LinkedIn, click here.

Andy Lopata is a business owner named by the Financial Times as "one of Europe's leading business networking strategists". As an exclusive offer for Business Sense readers, he is offering his acclaimed book, Recommended: How to Sell Through Networking & Referrals published in July 2011 by Financial Times Prentice Hall, for a special price of just £12.25.

Guest blog: Leading business strategist Andy Lopata looks at the invisible factors that hold many business leaders back

What's holding you back from achieving your goals? What is stopping you making the most of the networking opportunities that come your way? Is it possible that the answer might be you?

Some time ago, I spoke at the Executive Club in London. The Executive Club is a network and a resource for non-exec and company directors who are looking for career development and new business opportunities. I focused on how networking can play a key role in moving your career forward.

At the beginning of my talk, I asked who had come to look for a new opportunity. Some three-quarters of the audience put their hands up. I then asked who would like to tell everyone else present what they were looking for.

Not one person put themselves forward.

Not one single, solitary person took the opportunity to tell a room of over sixty well-connected businessmen and women how they could help them. What could possibly explain this?

I addressed this question later in my talk. I suggested that two factors were prevalent in holding people back from volunteering. One was, quite simply, fear. We have an inherent fear of speaking in public, and that fear strikes people irrespective of their experience and success in business. If we are going to grab opportunities as they come along, we have to learn to overcome this fear first of all.

The second factor is a lack of focus. People had come to the event with a general idea of what they wanted to achieve but no firm picture of the introductions they wanted, the information they were seeking, their dream position. As a result, when offered the opportunity, they were not in a position to grasp it.

At this stage of my talk, one of the attendees put his hand up. He had not been in the room earlier, he said, and could he take his opportunity now? He explained that he was looking for a career change, wasn't quite sure where he wanted to move and was thinking of setting up his own business. After asking him a few more questions, I asked the audience who felt that they may be in a position to help him. Five people put their hands up.

Subsequently, I had an email from him telling me how a number of doors had opened as a result of the conversations he had after the seminar and, as a result, he was now in the process of following some of the advice received which would propel him towards establishing his own business.

Are you holding yourself back from achieving your goals? Is fear stopping you from taking a step in the right direction? Do you lack direction and a clear vision? And if so, what are you going to do about it?

And if you are prepared to do the right things to help yourself, what can you achieve?

Andy Lopata is a business owner named by the Financial Times as "one of Europe's leading business networking strategists". As an exclusive offer for Business Sense readers, he is offering his acclaimed book, Recommended: How to Sell Through Networking & Referrals published in July 2011 by Financial Times Prentice Hall, for a special price of just £12.25.

Guest blog: Ruth Badger on social media... overcome your phobia now, or you'll be poorer for it

It’s incredible the amount of social media phobia you still find in business. Yes, there are lots of businesses that are embracing social media and using it to successfully to improve their brand and grow their firm, but there are also a huge number of businesses that are completely unengaged.

In my time mentoring businesses, I’ve noticed that there is a real split between people I work with – for every active user of social media, there is another business owner who runs a mile from anything Twitter or Facebook related! What I tell those people, is that in the current economic climate you would be crazy to ignore a free marketing tool. Social media lets you connect with your target audience, communicate what your business does and it can really help with lead generation.

Business owners seem to think that it’s a really time-consuming activity and that they’ll spend half their day writing tweets or updates, when in actual fact, you can get away with around 30 seconds a day once you’re up and running. All you have to do is link your Twitter account to your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile and website and then one update goes to all your communication channels at the same time. Just this morning, I checked the response to a Tweet I sent out a couple of days ago, and I had four good sales leads as a result – it really can be that easy if you use social media in the right way.

First you need to have a good business with a solid brand in place. Then all you need to do is set up your accounts on the social media that suits you best – if you don’t feel confident doing this yourself, you can ask your website builder to do it for you. You can then log in just as you would your personal email account, type an entry and hit send. Ideally you want to update it as much as you can to keep and build followers.

Once you are up and running, I have one golden rule for using social media, which is that you must communicate, not sell. Pushing product non-stop is a waste of time because people become bored and will quickly stop following your updates. You need to mix your comments and try to get your readers/customers to engage with what you’re saying rather than giving them the hard sell. However, you must keep the posts you put up relevant to your business – people don’t want to know what you had for dinner or what you think of the latest blockbuster release.

It’s good to let people know what you and your business are doing, and to try to encourage people to give you feedback. On Twitter you can also retweet useful information that you read elsewhere and other people may retweet your posts if they find them helpful. Social media isn’t difficult to use, it costs next to nothing, and done effectively it can generate sales for your business and give your brand a higher profile – what have you got to lose in trying it?

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