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Connecting Online
How do we diversify and expand our connections? Well, there’s a lot of ways that you can think about doing it. And social media platforms give you a lot of access to people who you might never, ever meet in person. So choose the platform that works for you. You can’t be on them all.
I talk a lot about LinkedIn. It’s one of my favorite platforms because it’s purely a professional platform. We don’t have to worry about that discomfort some people have with the personal blending into the professional. Now, I’ve connected with people all over the world through Twitter. You know, you think about the different platforms and that can help you with geographic reach but it can also help you with the diversity in the function, the education, the demographics – all the ways in which we can diversify. You can connect to anybody in any region, in any area, just tell them why. And that’s a really important thing to do.
When you do reach out to somebody, let them know why you’re reaching out. Was it something that they wrote, something that they posted? Was it an area that they live in that you maybe you were visiting that caught your eye? Give them a reason to click “yes, I accept your connection request.” And then once you do that, don’t leave it there. If they accept and didn’t send you a note back, send the note saying, thanks for connecting, you know, and ask them a question. Just like you would in a regular conversation, see if you can get an exchange going.
Connecting In Person
When you are thinking about going in these environments and you’re live, another way to think about diversifying your connections is to have a host mindset. In whatever situation you’re in, think about how you can welcome all the people that are there. One of the things you can think about is look for the person who seems that they might be the most out of place, and go up and introduce yourself.
We often will look at somebody and see – very quickly – our differences. I’m female, you’re male. I’m short, you’re tall. I’m this age or that age. Whatever it might be, we see those differences quickly. What I want you to do instead of calling out the differences is call out the similarities. Look for those ways in which we are all the same because when we look for them, we typically find them.