One of the best things about networking is the more you do it, the easier it gets.  As I mentioned before, I am not a natural schmoozer(in the good sense).  Far from a social butterfly.  Without question heavily leaning on the introvert side of scale.

What seems to be happening though is the more I put myself out on the scene, the more I evolve into an extrovert.  I give thoughts and answers during roundtable discussions, take the initiative to introduce myself to others and can flow through a conversation without becoming “are-beads-of-sweat-breaking-out-on-my-forehead nervous.  All actions I only dreamed of a few years ago.

Consistency is key.  I attend at least two regular occuring networking events a month, often more than that.  These events enable you to build a rapport with people since each tends to have a core group. So what are these events programmed into my Outlook calendar?  Here’s the rundown including when they meet and what I like about each one.

Young Professionals Network of the Urban League
Meets: 1st Thursday of the month
Likes: It’s a member-based organization which leads to more a tight-knit relationship with others. Non-members are welcome to attend general body meetings, which usually include a presentation. Cultural similarities.

Boston Black Professionals Meetup
Meets: 2nd Friday of the month (usually)
Likes: Held at different venues that I had previously not been to.  Intimate but lively discussions.  Topic based such as the AIDS discussion at the Multicultural AIDS Coalition last week (Thanks Shanita). Cultural similarities.

Boston Entrepreneur Meetup
Meets: Every other Wednesday (they have a Holiday one tonight)
Likes: Business focused.  Enlightening roundtable discussions. Free food and wine! (Thanks Chris) Interesting people of all ages and backgrounds.

Boston Young Entrepreneurs
Meets: Third Tuesday of the month
Likes: Business focused.  Presentation by one member about their business followed by Q & A on said presentation.

The E & E Club: Professionals of Color mixer series
Meets: Last Thursday of the month (usually)
Likes: What’s there not to like?  I run the show!  But seriously, as the organizer and host I purposely avoid setting up my event as a meeting since that sphere is well covered.  What I try to provide guests is a welcoming, friendly atmosphere and a come and go as you please timeframe.  Guests can show up when they want and leave when they want at anytime during the event. They can spend an hour power networking or three hours of light mingling. I try to be very hands off about forcing people to circulate.  Will that change this year?  I don’t know yet.  What I do know is you are guaranteed a good time.

Between these groups I’ve met well over 100 people in the last year and have gained tremendous knowledge, not to mention extrovertesque tendencies

Technorati Tags: Boston, networking, entrepreneur, meetup, professionals

One of the advertising changes that will be made to the E & E Club mixers in 2007 is the use of more eye-catching graphics.  I believe this will make the biggest difference on web outreach as opposed to email outreach since most people on the newsletter already have either been to one of the mixers before or already know about it.
However I do expect it to have a sizeable web impact as the graphics will be used on the homepage and via MySpace since most people will just skip over text, no matter how fancy the font is.
Here’s my first real attempt at designing a “professional” flyer.

Not bad for a couple hours fooling around with Photoshop.  I may have a second career as a graphic designer.

Technorati Tags: adobe, photoshop, myspace, graphic design

Put the URL on all marketing collateral

• Business cards
• Letterhead
• Envelopes
• Invoices
• Promotion Items (I like using calendars as they are actually useful unlike many promo items which get tossed in the trash and they will be looked at every week if not every day.)
• Flyers

I make sure anything “public” has the URL on it.

Tell everyone you know and remind them regularly 

Sending the link to my friends and colleagues and asking them to forward it is not enough.  Nothing beats face to face interaction where I can explain to people what the website is about and why they should visit it.  And this why I am so big on attending networking events, especially if the other attendees fit this website’s demographic.  I get the opportunity to talk about the site to a good number of people in a short amount of time for little to no money.

One of my worst fears is for this site to become a “faceless” site where it’s nice to look at but there’s no personal connection.  It’s JUS (just another site).  That’s why I try to attend one or two networking events a month, not including the E & E Club mixers.  My belief is that the more people get to know me, the better the chances they will become repeat visitors and will help in the all-important word of mouth advertising.  And that is priceless.

Thank you to everyone who came out last night to the season finale mixer.  The mixer series will be back in full force next year!

Check out pics from last night.

Procrastination.  It’s not called the thief of time for nothing.  A few weeks ago I had the brilliant (at least I though so) idea of giving away logoed mini-calendars to all the attendees for Thursday’s mixer.  What was the opposite of brilliant, aka dumb, was waiting until last week to order them.  They will not be arriving till next Thursday.  I’m sure I’ll come up with a way to distribute them but having them at the mixer would have been preferred.

An unprecedented 8 hours of enjoyment.