Develop a Strong Professional Network for Your Career Growth

A Professional Network is a valuable means of exploring opportunities, exchanging information and improvising your skills. Read on to know how it is an integral part of your professional life.

Networking is one of the most effective career development tools that can be carried on with your entire professional life. A professional network is a kind of social network that is focused solely on interactions and relationships of a professional nature rather than personal, and other non-business interactions.

Besides assisting you in career advancement, Professional Network helps you gain knowledge and information for your professional pursuits, get inputs to do your job more effectively, and help colleagues in their professional commitments.

What is Networking ?

In simple words, networking is all about establishing and maintaining relationships with people whose acquaintance could fetch advantages to your job, profession or business domains. In practical form, networking is talking to people, becoming acquainted or friendly with them, and building relationships by getting to know more about them. 

In professional networking, people tend to learn more about others and their jobs and career experiences. Like all good relationships, networking relationships are reciprocal, where each person hopes to give and receive something, like information, advice, and referrals.

What is the purpose of Networking ?

In the words of Jim Rohn, the legendary entrepreneur and motivational speaker “Your net-worth is your network”. Networking provides you the opportunity to interact with people outside of your regular social circle. You should consider your network as a long term investment in your career where the key purpose is to build meaningful, mutually beneficial relationships, with other people who can:

·         Tell others about your skills and talents

·         Send clients, professionals, and jobs to you

·         Introduce you to their contacts so their contacts’ contacts come to know you

·         Provide you assistance and information that would help you stand out to a potential client or employer

·         Keep an eye out and send you opportunities as and when they arise

·         Give you support or ideas when you need 

Who should be in your Network ?

People who know you well, including your family, friends, classmates and colleagues, are the best people to be in your network. Through these contacts, you can make connections in their individual network, and the cycle continues. In your evolving network, you would want to include those people with whom you can build relationships based on common fields and goals, and with whom you can develop a relationship for mutual gains.

Developing and Maintaining your Network

Developing an accomplished network is a continuous process, which has to be done along with all other activities of your life. It is with these day to day activities that you identify people whom you would like to be in your network and build relationships with. The most difficult part is to determine why to include someone in your network, and what to do with people in your network. But sometimes it is immediately clear that a certain person would be a good connection for you.

With the growing use of networking by professionals and business people, many professional networking sites like LinkedIn, Biznik, Focus, Entrepreneur Connect etc have become extremely popular. 

Moreover, you can also build, grow and maintain your Professional Network through Enterprise Social Software as well as Online Collaboration Platform within your organization for developing long lasting professional relationships for mutual benefits.

Ref : http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/develop-a-strong-professional-network-for-your-career-growth-7345160.html