How to Research Good Networking Connections

To make great connections networking for your VA business, all it takes is a little bit of strategy.

It’s not about the quantity of connections, it’s about the quality.

One of the best things you can add into your networking strategy is research. Researching the people you want to connect with helps you identify what you can talk to them about, learn more about them, and build more quality connections.

Now I’m not talking about doing a large research project on everyone you want to connect with. This research is a quick checklist/system that you can use to learn a little bit about the connections you want to make.

Don’t make connections just for the sake of making a connection.

By doing just a little research, we can determine if someone might be a good fit for us – it’s more efficient, and more authentic.

Doing research means learning a little bit about the person you want to connect with. This helps you make a better connection from the start.

It’s like implementing something that you have just learned. If you don’t put what you have learned into practice, you will lose the knowledge you have acquired and you will have wasted the time you spent learning it.

The same goes for our networking. If you just click names to connect without learning anything about them, you are effectively wasting your time. I don’t know about you, but my time is limited – I want to use it wisely!

So, how do we do this research?

1. Find Them

Find your people by searching job titles or industry groups, interests or hobbies, cities they live in, in the platforms you are using to find connections. Whatever the target group is you are looking for is what you will use to search.

2. What Do You Have in Common?

Look for the common ground they have with you, and with their colleagues. Do they use a certain software to run their business? Do they attend a regular event? Do they run their business in a similar way to their colleagues? Do they know the same people as you? Having something in common helps initial connections as well as conversations.

3. Check Out Their Social Media

Go to their social media profiles. Where are they most active? That’s where you want to connect with them. What are they posting, commenting on, liking, sharing?

4. Visit Their Website

Look also at their website. What is their business setup? Who do they work with? How do they work with them? How do they promote their business? How does that relate to the services you offer?

Note these few things in your follow up system so you can reference it when you do connect with them.

Research doesn’t have to take a long time. You don’t need to read every blog post. Scan their content and note what they post, where they post, and so on. You’ll use this information when you make the connection with them – to show them that you have learned a little about them and are interested in making a genuine connection.

Not only will this teach you about this ONE connection – but it will teach you more about people who are similar to them as well – your target market.

For example, business coaches often do one to one coaching as well as group programs and sometimes even live events and speaking. We can tell this by looking at their websites. That’s easy. But when we find them online, we can also find out where they are networking, what they are posting, who they are talking to, and how they are communicating with others. Research also shows us who else is in their community – and who else we might be able to help, if our services support business coaches. When you find a group of similar business owners, your networking becomes even more effective.

And last, be sure to follow them, like their content, comment where it feels right, and share it if it’s relevant.

They will notice that, and when you go to actually connect with them, they will be more apt to recognize you as someone who is interested in their business than just some stranger who is looking to sell them VA services.

Research is your friend – develop a simple system for yourself to look a little deeper at your connections before clicking that connect button, and start to build meaningful relationships with people in your networking.

It’s more authentic, and it’s more fun too!