What’s Your Network Value

On the website http://www.mynetworkvalue.com/ you can do a small test to determine your network value.

It is a website made by business networking platform Xing.

I’m curious what your opinion about this test is. It takes 2 to 5 minutes (depending on your own speed :-))

Let me know privately or react on this blog post.

Have a great networking week !

Jan

Jan Vermeiren, founder of Networking Coach and networking speaker

Networking Event of the month: Contacten bij de Vleet

This post is in Dutch since it is a Dutch conference.

Op 26 februari 2009 is er het netwerk evenement “Contacten bij de Vleet” in Groningen.

In de Euroborg zorgen organisatoren Josee Camfferman en Birgitta Tijhaar voor een uniek evenement in de regio.

Tijdens deze eerste versie van hun Noordelijk Netwerk Seminar heb ik zelf de eer gekregen om niet enkel netwerk tips en strategieën te komen delen, maar ook iedereen direct te laten ervaren wat de kracht van een netwerk is.

De deelnemers zullen dus niet enkel geïnspireerd naar huis gaan, maar ook met een heleboel waardevolle contacten.

Wellicht zie ik je en zorgen we samen voor contacten bij de vleet?

Jan

Jan Vermeiren, oprichter van Networking Coach en spreker over netwerken en referrals

How the Network of Your Network Influences Your Happiness

I have already written about the theory of the 6 degrees of separation before and also to give thought to people who lift you up or pull you down.

A study by Harvard social scientist Dr. Nicholas Christakis and his political-science colleague James Fowler at the University of California at San Diego revealed that both aspects might have more impact than we thought.

The following parts comes from an article on the Time website.
 
“In their most recent paper, published in the British Medical Journal, Christakis and Fowler explored the emotional state of nearly 5,000 people and the more than 50,000 social ties they shared. At three points during the long study, all the participants answered a standard questionnaire to determine their happiness level, so that the scientists could track changes in emotional state. That led to their intriguing finding of just how contagious happiness can be: if a subject’s friend was happy, that subject was 15% more likely to be happy too; if that friend’s friend was happy, the original subject was 10% more likely to be so. Even if the subject’s friend’s friend’s friend–entirely unknown to the subject–was happy, the subject still got a 5.6% boost.

The happiness dividend is more powerful if two people not only know each other but also are equally fond of each other. Happiness is more infectious in mutual relationships (in which both people name the other as a friend) than in unreciprocated ones (in which only one is named).

They also found that environment didn’t have nearly the power that relationships did.”

The article covers more than only happiness, but it is very interesting to see what the impact of our second and third degree network on us is.

Have a great networking day !

Jan

Founder of Networking Coach and Speaker about Networking and Referrals

Networking Event: David Allen (Getting Things Done) Making It All Work Seminar

David Allen, the author of the best seller Getting Things Done, the Art of Stress Free Productivity is coming to the Netherlands (Feb 19) and Germany (Feb 17). See http://www.life-architect.eu/gtd_roadmap.html

It will be a great event where you won’t only learn about how to get things done, but also will meet interesting people. For me one of the principles of getting things done is to leverage your network. So it’s going to be an excellent networking event as well!

My friend Nathaniel Stott of Life Architect, who organises these meetings is also conducting a survey about stress and effectiveness at work. People who take part in this survey have the chance to win a ticket to one of the two seminars. This is the link to the survey:  http://www.life-architect.eu/survey/

If you are interested in the principles, but can’t make it to the events, there is still hope 🙂 Nathaniel also promised me 5 copies of David Allen’s new book “Making It All Work”. Of course I’m not going to keep them for myself. So send an email to connect-with-us at networking-coach.com and we will randomly chose 5 winners.

Have a great networking day !

Jan

Founder of Networking Coach

Can I Ask You For Advice + New Year’s Present

Maybe you have already heard it: I’m writing a new book about the real power of LinkedIn and how it can work for anyone.

The title of the book is “How to REALLY use LinkedIn?”

The remark we heard the most the past year in our presentations and training courses was that most people have a profile on LinkedIn, but don’t know why and how to use the website.

In the book I will cover many topics among which: why is LinkedIn so powerful, which is the one and only strategy that produces real results, several little known, but important details and also which tools can help to reduce the time spent working with LinkedIn.

Why now this post?

Because I want to ask you for some advice about these two topics:

1.Which question do you have regarding LinkedIn? The danger of being a specialist is to look over “basic” questions. So that’s why I would like to know which difficulties you have working with LinkedIn (or why you don’t use LinkedIn at all).

2. Probably you know that at Networking Coach, we find it important to give back. That’s why a part of the revenue will be donated to 5 charities. I want to give you the opportunity to do something for your favorite charity and to “nominate” it.

In order to have a smooth processing of all the answers, we have made a webpage where you can answer these questions: http://www.ask-jan-vermeiren.com (English) or http://www.vraag-het-aan-jan-vermeiren.com (Dutch)

At this webpage you will see that there is a gift to thank you for your time and advice. Every year we create a New Year’s present without an ecological footprint and we think you will like this one at least as much as the previous ones.

Thanks in advance for your cooperation and … have a great networking day !

Jan

Best Of The Blog 2008

In the beginning of the New Year I would like to look back at the most important posts in this blog of 2008. To make the overview easier, I have made 5 categories and picked the three posts with the most important information in each category. Enjoy !

Category Networking Insights

– How to deal with the 5 barriers that prevent people from helping you?
– Don’t ask for a favor, ask for advice
– Who is in your network, people who pull you down or people who lift you up?

Category Referral Tips

– How to ask for referrals?
– Referrals will become the primary sourcing channel for all positions
– Do people know, like and trust you?

Category Interviews With Other Networking Experts From All Around the World

– Michael Hughes (Canada)
– Robyn Henderson (Australia)
– Will Kintish (USA)

Category How to use LinkedIn

– LinkedIn explained in 3 minutes
– I’m on LinkedIn, but still don’t get a customer or a job
– How to use Linked to find the right networks?

Category Networking Tools

– Xobni
– Texter
– LinkedIn toolbar

I wish you a fantastic 2009 and look forward to your suggestions and comments on posts !

Jan

Jan Vermeiren, founder of Networking Coach and Speaker about Networking and Referrals