Building a Professional Network That Outlives Your Job
A friend from high school recently told me she's starting to explore affiliate opportunities as she grows her social media presence.
My friend response: “That could be exciting!”
My marketer response: internal screaming.
Not because I don't want her to make money from something she's building. I absolutely do. I wanted to scream because she's building two things at the same time, whether she realizes it or not: An audience and a reputation. Once you start monetizing either one, you need to understand what you're actually putting up for sale.
Your Audience Is Not the Product
This week I've been writing about affiliate marketing and trust. Commander Shepard taught us why everyone can't be your favorite store on the Citadel. Wednesday, I looked at what happens when a brand becomes dependent on someone else's reputation.
My friend made me think about the other side. She's not a marketer. She's building a social presence around things she genuinely cares about, and now she's reaching the point where companies may be willing to pay for access to the people she's attracting.
That's exciting but it's also where I want to grab her by the shoulders and say: Your audience isn't valuable because you can sell things to them. You can sell things to them because you've built something valuable with your audience. Those sound similar but they're not.
Every affiliate relationship might create revenue. It also teaches your audience something about what your recommendation is worth. That feels particularly relevant to me right now because I'm learning the professional-network version of the same lesson.
“Build Your Network Before You Need It”
I've read some variation of that sentence approximately 7,000 times during this job search. It's good advice. It's also incredibly annoying advice to receive after you've been laid off.
Cool. I'll get right on that several years ago.
There are a lot of talented people caught in the latest rounds of layoffs suddenly being told they should have spent the last several years building a professional network, developing their personal brand and maintaining relationships outside their employer.
Some did. Some were busy doing their jobs. I've realized I did more of it than I thought. I just didn't call it networking.
Building a Professional Network Isn't Collecting Connections
Last week, I was writing about live events when I unexpectedly popped back onto the radar of some people I hadn't talked to in a while. Happy accident.
Then I saw a job opening at a company I knew well. Years ago, during my Sinclair days, I worked regularly with one of their affiliates. I had a primary contact there and knew several members of her team through the work we did together.
So naturally, I did the professional networking thing. I opened LinkedIn and messaged her. Then I metaphorically smacked myself in the forehead. Why am I messaging her on LinkedIn? I have her cell phone number. I had her number before we ever “officially” connected on LinkedIn so I texted my friend. Because that's what she is now.
She's one of the professional relationships I'm grateful to have made through my career that eventually became a friendship. She immediately rallied a few former coworkers who knew me and my work. One was already writing a message to HR to vouch for me. I don't know what will happen with the job. That's not really the point. What struck me was why those people were willing to help.
The Relationship Outlived the Reason We Met
None of us work together. We don't even work for the same companies that originally created the relationship. The affiliate relationship that introduced us is gone but the relationships aren't. My friend didn't help because I added her on LinkedIn years ago with the strategic foresight that she might someday know someone at a company where I wanted to work.
She helped because we worked together, got to know each other and stayed in touch. The others weren't willing to vouch for me because they're part of my “network.” They're willing to do it because they know my work and there's a huge difference. My professional network isn't valuable because someone might refer me for a job. Someone is willing to refer me because we built a relationship that had value before I needed one.
Personal Branding Isn't Just Posting
That's also changing how I think about building a professional network and personal brand. It's easy to reduce personal branding to LinkedIn activity.
Post regularly. Grow your followers. Optimize your profile. Comment strategically. Make more connections.
Those things can help. Your personal brand is also what someone remembers about working with you five years later.
Someone answers when you text.
Your name comes up in a conversation when you're not in the room.
Someone is willing to put their own reputation behind yours.
And yes, it's publishing your ideas somewhere that doesn't disappear when your employer shuts off your company email. Story Behind the Strategy is part of that for me. Sherwood Communication Strategies is part of it. So is staying connected to people I genuinely enjoyed knowing long after the business reason for knowing each other disappeared.
The Story Behind the Strategy
My friend's affiliate opportunity and my job search look like two completely different situations. I don't think they are. She's learning what happens when companies see value in a relationship she's built with an audience. I'm learning what happens when a company relationship disappears but the human relationships built inside and around it remain.
Neither relationship should exist only because you might eventually get something from it. Your audience isn't valuable because you can sell to them. Your professional network isn't valuable because someone can get you a job. The opportunities exist because there was already something worth trusting.
If you're employed right now, building a professional network before you need it is useful advice. If you've already been laid off and you're reading that thinking, “Well, that would have been helpful six months ago”...Yeah. Me too.
We can't go backward and build every relationship we wish we'd maintained. We can be more intentional about which ones we carry forward from here because a company can give you a platform. A sponsor can give you revenue and an employer can give you a title.
The relationships you build along the way can outlive all three and sometimes the best networking advice is considerably simpler: If you already have your friend's phone number, stop sending them LinkedIn messages. 😁
