5 Ways to Increase Your Professional Social Network (And Life Expectancy)
Everyone from Voldemort to your next door neighbor has wondered how to increase their lifespan. One of the natural questions of human nature is to ask how to live longer. And the answer may be lot easier to achieve than you may think.
Researchers at Brigham Young University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined over 300,000 men and women from across the developed world.
They discovered that people with poor social connections had a 50 percent chance at dying earlier than those with strong social relations, which is the same difference between smokers and nonsmokers.
The study also points out that the quality of your friendships doesn’t matter, as long as you have connections. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, the study’s lead author, advises, “We need to pay better attention to naturally occurring relationships and to fostering those.” In other words, any friendship, no matter how strong or weak, will help you live longer.
Many of our naturally occurring relationships are at the workplace, where we spend around half of our waking hours. As such, here are some tips to improve your professional social network, which will not only increase your profits but also your lifespan.
1. State Your Purpose
Dr. John Lund, a business communications expert, further illustrates the dilemma of connecting with people you are working with, saying that businesspeople want to know three things before entering a conversation.
- Is what you want to talk about going to be painful?
- How long is it going to take?
- When you are done talking, what do you want from me?
He explains that those who do not answer those questions up front will often be ignored. If you are calling a client, instead of asking how they are, you can say, “Hello, I know you’re busy, so I will take a few seconds of your time to tell you about ___”. This will help ensure that your call is answered, taking you one step closer to building a connection.
2. Actively Listen
Actively listening improves your communication abilities in any professional situation.
The more you listen to someone, the better you are able to address your needs.
Nevertheless, successful active listening means that you not only listen, but also question and repeat. Asking sincere and inquisitive questions tells whoever you’re talking to that you are making an effort to understand them. And repeating the conversation’s key points confirms that you understand the message. With these active listening techniques, your conversation partner will likely think more highly of you, and be more willing to connect with you.
3. Be a Giver
In the business world, common knowledge is that the more self-interested you are, the more money you make. Adam Grant, NY Times best selling author of Give and Take, flipped this knowledge on its head in his new book, Originals.
Grant explains that the business world has three kinds of people: takers, matchers, and givers. Takers are self-interested people who make business deals to benefit themselves and no one else, while givers look to make business deals to benefit all involved. For example, if a taker were a car salesman, he may try to coerce a customer into buying an expensive car that he knows does not, while a giver may suggest the car that he thinks best fits the customers needs, whether that is the cheapest or most expensive car.
Logically, the taker would make more money than the giver.
However, Grant explains that givers make more money in takers, because their kindness increases their social networks, which helps them make more money over time.
So be nice, and you’ll see both your profits and social networks increase.
4. Prepare Stories
Networking 101 teaches you to that the best way to network is to listen, listen, and listen.
While it is important to listen more than you talk, you also want to share a personal story that makes you memorable.
At every networking event, you will be asked the question, “What do you do?” So before attending a networking event, prepare a response to the question that will make you stand out. These anecdotes could be a story from college, an issue you’re passionate about, or a personal hobby. Stories will help your be both remembered and liked more. And who knows — maybe someone will be able to relate.
5. Get the App
There are numerous apps aimed at optimizing your business communication. Below are some of my favorites.
- Addappt is an essential for all serious networkers. When your connections changes email addresses or numbers, they will ask you manually change their information. Addappt solves that problem by allowing them to change the info in your phone.
- As previously mentioned, Dr. Lund discussed how many colleagues won’t answer your calls unless they know why you’re calling. inCaller solves that problem. You can add text and stickers to your call, allowing your receivers to know why you’re calling before they answer.
- Slack, a cloud-based communication software used by thousands of businesses, is an internal communication platform. It enables employers to create various group chats for their employees, enhancing their businesses’ internal communication processes.
- If you plan on attending any conference, be sure to see if its organizers are using Bizzabo. If they have, download Bizzabo instantly — it will help you find potential business contacts attending the event, so you only have to introduce yourself to the people who matter.
- LocalVox will expand your network, by increasing your brand’s visibility. With a simple click, users can publish their brands content around the web, and the app automatically optimizes search listings.
With these five tips, you’ll be on well your way to strengthening your social networks and life expectancy. Just make sure to share them with your neighbors, before they start collecting horcruxes.
By Jesse Gurney
