We also asked a question that was used in the manuscript in various places: “Has networking played a role in your success?” We got some interesting findings when we cross-tabulated these two questions. We expected casual contact and referral networks to do fairly well, and they did. We were surprised, however, by some of the other results in the survey.

Online networks did very poorly, with only 27% of the respondents saying that networking has played a role in their success! Women’s business organizations did even worse, with 17.7%; and service clubs came in last, with only 17.2% of the respondents saying that networking played a role in their success.

Face-To-Face Preferred

What does this mean? Overall, people who got the most results from their networking efforts seem to participate in “face-to-face” casual contact networks such as a Chamber of Commerce, referral networks like BNI and, to a lesser extent, professional associations (such as any professional body or society representing a particular industry), while the success of online networks, women’s business organizations, social/business groups and service clubs rated very low.

Even though they didn’t fare well in this survey, I’m actually quite an advocate of online networks, women’s business organizations, and service clubs – and I will continue to be so. I thought about the results of the survey, and why these groups received such low percentages compared to casual-contact and referral networks.

I’m inclined to believe that the women’s organizations and service clubs didn’t do as well because each has another important purpose that takes precedence over networking. Women’s business organizations often provide a place where members both support and educate each other. The mission of service clubs focus primarily on providing service to the community, with networking opportunities being more of a “by-product.” With groups like these, tangible success in members’ networking efforts is much more subtle, and that may be one of the main reasons why they didn’t do as well in the survey.

Because I was really surprised by the results, I spent a lot of time thinking about online networks and their disappointing standing in the respondents’ ranking of successful networking efforts. The results are in line with a comment that I hear quite often by business owners who have begun to market their businesses via the growing number of online social and business networking sites: “I’ve got a profile page and a thousand connections…now what?”

Many entrepreneurs jumped on the “social media marketing” bandwagon and spent a lot of time and effort building their online social capital (through LinkedIn connections, Facebook friends and “likes”, and Twitter followers), but without an actual plan of how to turn this growing number of contacts into actual customers. This is one area many entrepreneurs struggle with as online networking continues to come into its own.

Another issue is that the addition of Internet marketing (including online networking) has exponentially increased the number of marketing messages that the average person sees each day – to literally tens of thousands. While online – whether chatting on Google Talk, or looking at friends’ photos on Facebook, watching a celebrity’s Twitter feed, learning about a connection’s promotion on LinkedIn, reading a blog for business or pleasure, or doing an internet search – a person is inundated with countless entreaties such as:

Read this!

Buy this!

Try this!

Connect with me!

Like my business!

It’s easy to get distracted by these messages, particularly because those who have the time, staff, or money to put out the most messages tend to drown out any messages from smaller businesses or single individuals also trying to get their messages to be “heard.”

As I’ve already mentioned, I like online networking. We may someday figure out how to make it work even better; however, the results are the results and – still a surprise to me – they’re not very good. I certainly don’t think that entrepreneurs should stop finding ways to improve their success in the online networking arena. However, as we have learned in our recent multi-national study, online networks still have a way to go before they can begin to compete with the effectiveness of the more traditional, face-to-face networking opportunities available.

Called the “father of modern networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization. His newest book, Networking Like a Pro, can be viewed at www.IvanMisner.com. Dr. Misner is also the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company.

To work in the finance services industry, whether it be financial or estate planning or business financing, requires that individuals establish trust with their clients. A great deal of trust. The kind of trust that permits a person to disclose the nature of his or her worldly possessions to someone else, to follow that person’s advice and be guided by that person in making key personal and business decisions. Such decisions can resonate throughout one’s life.

Successful financial professionals traditionally have been required to invest years and years in establishing themselves and their brand, and in building trust. In the past, you didn’t get into the financial industry unless you were prepared to devote a good portion of your life to it. Eventually, if you were around for 20 years or so, people (and clients) probably figured that you’d been doing something right to last that long.

Networking

Becoming successful in financial services requires that you learn, understand and follow the core values of networking. Every business, even specialized ones such as equipment financing, can truly benefit from building a strong network based on competence, connections and accountability. But since trust is so keenly vital to financial services, it’s particularly relevant here.

Professional networking organizations such as Business Networking International (BNI) are based on the concept of “givers gain”: I give you business and you will reciprocate. At the heart of that is trust. Each person must trust the other to do the right thing, both with their intentions and capabilities. Business networking can accelerate the development of trust among our peers and networks because by following a system such as BNI’s, you will learn to develop targeted skills in the pursuit of new business opportunities. Skills that guide you in how to act, dress, what to say and to do the key things that will elevate the trust factor and your reputation much more quickly than if you waited for it to happen on its own.

A financial planner told me once he didn’t need to network because he had regular business referred to him by his old friends. I asked him how long did it take to develop his business and contacts and he replied, “Thirty years.” Who has that much time to build a network, let alone a business? Why not build the same devoted network on a much faster pace with highly predictable results?

A finance specialist or broker or any person in the financial industry can build his or her name and reputation with a consistent dedicated effort in few short years as opposed to the decades it use to take. This is a key consideration for any profession that requires a high trust factor to be successful.

Build a diversified network, develop trust within it follow-up with contacts and colleagues and connections on a regular basis and you can establish a foundation for long-term success. Business networking and financial services such as equipment financing are on the same side of success.

Lester M. Salvatierra is an experienced and licensed Finance Specialist with First U.S. Finance (http://www.FirstUSFinance.com). He helps small to mid-size companies lease or finance a wide variety of equipment and special projects nationwide. He is passionate about referral marketing and is a business networking coach and Area Director Consultant for Business Network Int’l in Ventura County, California. Sign up now to follow his business networking blog at: http://theRogueNetworker.com

I was in Hawaii enjoying the surf when, unbeknownst to me, the water became thick with Portuguese Men o’ War. Suddenly I felt a stinging sensation across my chest. I wiped my chest with my right wrist and arm and lifted my arm up out of the water. I saw the tentacles dripping off my arm and followed the tentacles with my eyes about eight feet away to the body of the Man o’ War. With mounting alarm, I shook the tentacles off my wrist back into the water and quickly swam out of the surf to the shore.

I ran up to the first hotel employee I saw, a cabana boy who was serving drinks to a sunning couple just off the pool deck and urgently exclaimed, “I think I’ve just been hit in the chest by a Man o’ War jellyfish!  What should I do??”

“Are you feeling any pressure in your chest?” he wanted to know.

“No, none at all,” I replied anxiously.

“Okay, okay, here’s what you need to do. Go on over to the market off the lobby and ask for some vinegar and meat tenderizer. You’re going to want to spray the vinegar onto your chest and then shake the meat tenderizer onto the same spot and rub it all around. You’ll be fine,” he assured me.

Well, I must say that I was less than impressed with this bizarre advice. The cabana boy was entirely too calm and offered what was entirely too easy a solution to be effective – not to mention that it was just plain strange. I figured he was doing a version of “let’s goof on the tourist,” so I moved on to ask someone else for help.

I spotted a hotel employee standing not too far off and gingerly jogged over to him, urgently repeating my exclamation, “I’ve just been hit in the chest by a Man o’ War jellyfish; what should I do?!”

He said, “Are you feeling any pressure in your chest?”  Oh boy, I thought, next he’s going to tell me to get some meat tenderizer!  I thought he was kidding, or maybe I was in a bad dream and just couldn’t wake up.

“No, I’m not feeling any pressure in my chest,” I reluctantly responded.

“Okay, then go over to the market off the lobby and ask for some vinegar and meat tenderizer.  You have to get that on your chest and rub it around and then you’ll be just fine,” he said reassured.  I felt anything but reassured.

By this time, I thought that maybe I better find someone who might really know what to do.  I headed up to the lobby, thinking that the hotel manager would be a good choice to get a straight answer from.

There at the front desk was a mature gentleman wearing a badge that read: “Hotel Manager.” Surely, I thought, this guy’s not going to “goof on the tourist.”  I walked up to him and repeated my mantra about the jellyfish strike.  He looked at me with grave concern and said, “Are you feeling any pressure in your chest?”

“No,” I replied, “I’m not feeling any chest pain.”

“OK, good,” he said.  “You need to go down the hall to the small market and get some vinegar and meat tenderizer and put them on one at a time and rub them thoroughly into your chest.”

Finally, I said what I’d been thinking all along… “You can’t be serious, right?”  This is a joke, right?”

“No.” He reassured me that this was not a joking matter. It was clear that I needed to proceed to the store immediately and apply that remedy.

I reluctantly trucked down the hall to the store just knowing that they were all back there laughing at the goofy tourist who was actually going to do a self-imposed “meat rub” on his chest.  I was sure they had some barbecue grill going for when I returned to the lobby all slathered up with vinegar and meat tenderizer.

I entered the small market off the lobby and started my search for char-grilled products when I started feeling short of breath.  Suddenly, very quickly and forcefully, I began to experience a crushing weight on my chest.  Was I having a heart attack?  Great!  I’m having a coronary after wasting so much time talking to members of the hotel staff, who were trying to get me to rub meat tenderizer on my chest.  I walked out of the store and staggered to the front desk, which by now was very busy with new guests checking in to the hotel.  I made eye contact with the hotel manager and almost immediately, dropped to the ground, clutching my chest, barely able to gasp “Man o’ War!”

What happened next was a total blur.  I seem to remember a small child yelling and pointing at me as I lay there in my bathing suit, gasping for breath.

“Look mommy, there’s a man on the floor.”  The mother said something about staying away from people who do drugs.  I looked over and tried to say no, not drugs – jellyfish! But all that came out was gibberish.

The paramedics rushed to the scene.  Finally, I was going to get the medical attention I needed. After determining what had happened, the paramedic opened his life-saving kit and I knew he was about to pull out a defibrillator.  I made my peace with God and I braced myself for the big jolt.  Instead, he pulled out – yes, you guessed it – vinegar in a spray bottle and some Adolf’s meat tenderizer!  He then proceeded to spray the vinegar and then sprinkle the meat tenderizer on my chest, and thoroughly rub the mixture around.  Within seconds, literally seconds, the excruciating pain began to subside. Within a couple minutes it was almost completely gone.

Simple and Effective

What I thought was a big “barbecue joke” on the tourist turns out to be a well-known cure for some jellyfish strikes.  You see, the meat tenderizer contains the enzyme papain, which breaks down the toxin proteins and neutralizes them.  It sounds too simple to be really effective, but it is, in fact, one of the best things to do in that situation.

Thinking back on it, I am amazed at how many people gave me the solution before I had to learn the hard way. Sure,who’s going to believe a cabana boy?  I mean, what does he know, right?  And the hotel employee – OK, maybe there’s the start of a pattern here but, I have a doctoral degree – I’m “smart,” and these guys have just got to be kidding me… right? And then the hotel manager as well… OK, I admit it, at that point there’s just no excuse. I should have figured out these guys knew what they were talking about and I did not.

I made one of the biggest mistakes that people in business make – I didn’t listen to the people who have experience. I assumed that I just had to know better… and the truth is, I didn’t know better.

There is nothing like experience. It beats education every day of the week. The only thing better is a combination of education and experience… or a willingness to learn from other people’s experience. There are many basic referral marketing and networking techniques that any good businessperson knows to be effective. They don’t try to look for something more complicated or involved, because they know from their own experience, as well as the experience of others, what works in business and what doesn’t work in business.

Throughout your life you may read things that seem too simple to be effective or may see ideas that you’ve heard before.  Don’t dismiss them.  Embrace them.  Although these ideas may be simple – they are not easy.  If they were easy, everyone would do them – and they don’t!  Great networkers learn from other people’s success.  So, go get that vinegar and meat tenderizer and learn from other “masters” that sometimes the simplest ideas can have the biggest impact.

Called the father of modern networking by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author.  He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI (www.bni.com), the world’s largest business networking organization.  You can read more of his material on his blog at www.BusinessNetworking.com.  Dr. Misner is also the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company (www.referralinstitute.com)

When we hear the word networking, we immediately jump to the conclusion that this has something to do with meeting people, getting their numbers and email so we can take advantage of them – or at least in the back of our mind we think that way.

Many businesspeople struggle in this area because they fail to understand the real meaning of what business networking is.  So what is Business Networking, really?

In general, business networking is being able to leverage your business through your connections to other people in the same business or area of interest.  It is meant to bring a regular stream of business opportunities to you and help make you successful.  But why do many still fail?

Here are some reasons I believe why they fail:

Greed – Most of the reasons why people fail in their life is greed.  Someone told me that if you ‘want’ money, then you will soon lose it all; but if you ‘need’ money, you will soon earn it.  Greed is what made man fall in the Garden of Eden – he wants more.  Now I am not saying that we should be mediocre, but what I’m saying is that we must not do things because we want to gain more, even if we have to step on others.

WIIFM – This stands for ‘What’s-In-It-For-Me’.  My personal experience as a businessman tells me that it is easier to sell something if we use the ‘Pull-strategy’ rather than the ‘Push-strategy’.  When we push a product to the customer, they usually feel that we are only doing it because we want to get their money instead of helping add value to their lives through our product.

When we are able to present the value of something to someone, then we are using the ‘Pull strategy’.  It’s the same way with business networking, you have to show that you are a valuable asset to others rather than just thinking that they can add more money to your pocket.

Relationship – If I had to describe what is business networking in one word, that would be ‘Relationship’.  It is easier to add value to someone else’s life when we are building a relationship.  The downfall of every institution and business is that they fail to build relationship.  Relationship makes business networking genuine and thus gives you a steadier stream of business coming to you.

You cannot just build your business overnight; it takes time to build something.  If you really want to have a more stable business with long term effect, then you have to have the three components above. 

What is Business Networking? It is like building a house; you don’t build it on sand, but you build it on stable rock.

Are you building yours on the sand or on a rock?

And I bought in to what he was saying…hook, line and sinker.

As it turns out, I worked on my doctorate in some pretty impressive company. One classmate became the Deputy Director of the FAA; another the Director of Library Services for all of Los Angeles County. I even attended classes with the Captain of the Palace Guard for Saddam Hussein!

The sad news is, though, that I’ve never actually passed a referral to – or received one from – any of these high-level classmates. That’s right. Even though I founded, while working on my doctorate no less, what turned out to be the world’s largest networking organization, I never did utilize much of the “elite network” I was told I would have for a lifetime.

Why is that? Because even though the degree program certainly delivered the opportunity to meet valuable contacts, it never taught me the skills needed to utilize them. After graduation, we quickly spread out to realize the fruits of our labors, and outside of the classroom, we had no real context in which we could keep in touch.

Telling us that we had a great network, but not giving us the tools on now to capitalize on that network, was like telling someone there is a car out there but not giving him any idea of how to drive it!

In all fairness to my particular program, when I was an entrepreneur getting my graduate degree it was in the early- and mid-80s, and today’s tools – particularly social networking and other online services – weren’t readily available to allow us keep in touch. Today, however, there are a multitude of options to help you maintain the relationships you make while pursuing a college or university degree.

1. Take Advantage of Your School’s Alumni Services Department

Interestingly, colleges and universities have only recently realized this same thing: In order to increase and maintain alumni engagement long after graduation, it is vital to establish the connection with the alumni before they leave and spread out all over the country and around the world. They are doing this by creating networking “affinity” groups and other opportunities to get involved. These efforts help students sustain their relationships with each other and – through this – sustain their connections with their universities.

By remaining active with your alumni organization, you may also have the opportunity to share news about your business that may catch the eye of your fellow graduates. Because I kept my schools updated with what I was doing in business, I was given a full feature article in one undergraduate university I attended, and two features in another!

2. Technical Tools Do Much of the Work For You

With the constant moving around that everyone does today, people are making more contacts than ever…and it’s impossible to keep track of every valuable contact without the use of technical tools. For this reason, it’s vital to set up – and maintain – a database of the people you come in contact with.

In addition to the standard contact databases available in Microsoft Outlook or Apple Contacts, or the more robust contact management systems such as ACT, there are web-based contact storage systems that let you store your contacts in “the cloud.” You can do this in Gmail, MSN Live, Yahoo – or through your account in LinkedIn or Plaxo.  My favorite online system is www.Relate2Profit.com. They have elements that directly relate to someone’s networking efforts.

Don’t forget the amazing capabilities of smart phones to help you store important contact information. For example, there’s a new mobile app available for iPhone and Android phones called Go2Tag. This app literally allows you to create and apply customized “tags” to your contacts, so that you can remember who came from where, and where they’re from: university classmates, those you met at a particular chamber or other networking group, contacts you meet at trade shows…even those you make through church, civic groups, or your kids’ school or sports activities).

3. Online Business and Social Networks

Facebook was started at Harvard University, and now it’s morphed into an international network of people, from students to parents, from entrepreneurs to brands, from friends to families and more. I hear stories all the time about how adults have re-connected with classmates they haven’t seen in years. LinkedIn is the largest “business-only” social network, and you will likely find many of your former classmates on there.

These are just two of the many social networks available for you to connect and keep in contact.

As you can see, there are many tools available today for maintaining contact with former classmates; you decide which work best for you. The main thing is to maintain touch points with these potentially wonderful business contacts. You can’t just pick up the phone and ask for a favor out of the blue 10, 15 or 20 years later!

Called the “father of modern networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization. His newest book, Networking Like a Pro, can be viewed at www.IvanMisner.com. Dr. Misner is also the Senior Partner of the Referral Institute, an international referral training company.

This is the networking disconnect.

If you attend networking events hoping to sell something, you’re dreaming. Do not confuse direct selling with networking. Effective networking is about developing relationships. I know, I know…there is always someone out there who says, “But Ivan, I’ve made a sale by attending a networking event!” Okay…I am not saying it doesn’t ever happen. It does. I’m simply saying it happens about as often as a solar eclipse. Face it, even a blind squirrel can find a nut. Any businessperson can stumble on some business at a networking meeting from time to time. However, when you have most of the people at an event trying to sell something and virtually no one there to buy something, you’re crazy if you think the odds are in your favor to “sell” at a networking event.

So why go to a networking meeting?  You go because networking is more about farming than it is about hunting. It is about developing relationships with other business professionals.  It is not about “direct selling.” This means you need to move the relationship through the VCP Process^®.  Visibility leads to credibility which, with time and effort, leads to profitability.

Many people have a significant disconnect between intent and reality relating to their expectations at a networking event. This kind of disconnect leads to poor results, which then leads people to say, “networking doesn’t work.” Well, from what I’ve experienced myself over the past the past 26 years, along with the results I’ve witnessed among hundreds of thousands of people around the world – networking works just fine.  One’s intention, however, must be in alignment with the reality of the particular circumstances. If nobody at an event is looking to buy something while you’re there trying to sell something – you have a disconnect. If you’re there to meet people and move through the relationship networking process, then your intention and the reality of the situation are more likely to be in alignment.

Sometimes you go to a networking event to increase your visibility and to connect with people you’ve never met, sometimes you go to establish further credibility with people you know, and sometimes you may even go to meet a long-time referral partner and do some business. In any case, the true master networkers know that networking events are about moving through the relationship process and not just about closing deals.

Someone recently said to me, “I’m still amazed at the number of people I run into at networking events that still don’t understand it’s not a sales event, it’s a networking event!  They come to the event, try to sell, don’t get any sales, and then they’re disappointed!”

Another person told me, “There is a great opportunity to be found in connecting with people and getting to know them. We need to start seeing each other as interesting human beings as opposed to a potential sale!”

I find it ironic that so many people are disconnected relating to a process that is supposed to be all about becoming connected.

There is a paradigm shift that needs to take place before you can make your networking efforts work. That shift is to move from a “direct sales” mentality to a “relationship networking” mentality. If you go to networking events looking to meet new people and move through the relationship process with people whom you meet and get to know, then you are working the process correctly.

Here are five things to remember when attending networking events:

1.     Don’t go there to sell, go there to connect.

2.     Have some meaningful conversations with people you meet.

3.     Follow up with people you find interesting or whom you can help in some way. Don’t follow up to sell them something.

4.     Meet these people in a one-to-one setting, learn more about them, and ask them: “How can I help you?”

5.     Go for the long-term relationship, not the short sale.

Remember, networking is more about farming than it is about hunting.  So, the next time you go to a networking meeting, think about how many people are there to “buy” something. Then remember to stop “selling” and to start networking.
Called the “father of modern networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author.  He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization.  His newest book, Networking Like a Pro, can be viewed at www.IvanMisner.com. Dr. Misner is also the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company.

Almost 68% of the survey respondents said that business is growing or growing substantially compared to this time a year ago. Preliminary results for the first quarter of 2011 indicate that roughly 58% of businesses plan on hiring over the next few months.  Both of these findings indicate that small businesses are finally growing again. What the survey doesn’t explain is why those businesses are growing.

Based on my personal interviews with business people around the world, I may be able to shed some light on how businesses are building their companies during these trying times and also provide insight into how you can grow your business:

• It all starts with attitude. A product sales company in the U.K. was about to execute layoffs in order to meet payroll. When it announced this to employees, one of its sales reps wrote on the whiteboard: “We absolutely refuse to participate in the recession.” Everyone in that branch office signed below the statement on the whiteboard. They all then met to strategize about ways to seriously generate more business. As a result, they ended up with their best month all year and no one was laid off from that office!
• Innovation during adversity is a key factor. I know a commercial real estate broker in Southern California who had his best year ever in 2010 (and he’s been in business for 26 years). He cited the dozens and dozens of one-to-one meetings he had during the year to find ways to work together with other businesses. His opening approach was to help these other businesses. At the same time, however, he built his business in the process. This, he told me, is counterintuitive to what most commercial real estate people do.
• Look for new or emerging opportunities.  I met a residential real estate agent on the East Coast of the U.S. who told me he had his best year ever last year. He said he went to investors he’s worked with in the past and told them that “real estate is on sale!” He said to them, “don’t be one of those people who come to me in a few years and say, ‘I was crazy not to look at these opportunities.  I should have bought property back in 2010 when it was cheap!’”  He told me this strategy has helped him sell more real estate than any time during all his years in business.
• Be creative with your offers. I recently met a business coach in the U.S. Midwest who created a guarantee for his coaching.  He said, “If you follow my weekly coaching program and you don’t raise your income to at least six figures, I’ll continue to coach you for free until you do.” This has dramatically increased his sales, he told me, and he hasn’t yet had to provide free coaching to any clients.

The BNI Business Index survey looked at retail, service, and manufacturing businesses. All three areas had very similar results across the board with service and retail being incrementally stronger than manufacturing. In addition, business appears to be looking up consistently around the globe, with solid growth in all parts of the world.   Australia/New Zealand and Asia showed the strongest results with 74% and 79% respectively stating that business was growing or growing substantially.

Although the trends looks good, there are some areas where businesspeople still seem to still be struggling.  One respondent to the current survey says that while “Business is growing, the comfort zone for retaining clients is nonexistent.”  He went on to state that there is a “continuous feel of uncertainty for what is going to happen in the next quarter.”

Another respondent said, “There are many opportunities, but there are still not enough cash reserves or financing from the banks to take advantage of these opportunities.”

Despite the lingering concerns, the numbers seem to indicate that things are changing and changing for the better.  One respondent summed it up best when he said: “I’ve changed my target market to one that has both a greater need and a willingness to do something different.” These kinds of changes along with having the right attitude, being innovative, looking for emerging opportunities, and being creative are the ways businesses around the world are pulling out of this long and difficult recession.

Called the “father of modern networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author.  He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization and the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute.  His newest book, Networking Like a Pro, can be viewed at www.IvanMisner.com

Cutting Edge, which recruits musicians and music for films, helps filmmakers save money on the nuts-and-bolts work of assembling a movie score.

There may be something to it – as publishers look to cut their advances for everyone except perhaps the most starry authors, more and more writers struggle to exist on their writing. I’m not only talking about creative writing, but all sorts of writing that might take more time than squeezing in an hour or two before or after work.

Already, some rock and pop singers now ask for donations via social media, and promise to include contributors’ names on the liner notes, and even pay them back when there’s a profit. It takes the pressure off the artist to search for a label (since so many more are self-releasing). And some artists are evening being inspired by sites like Facebook to create works of art.

Could the same thing happen with writers? As it’s becoming more likely that authors will be heading toward a world in which self-publishing is another option, rather than a last resort, getting backing for a project seems to make sense. It means, however, that an author has to structure his project as more than one where he waits for inspiration – he needs a plan.

Maybe a collective – perhaps funded by an angel fund that wants to offer some of its money to the arts at a time when a lot of funding, including government funding, is drying up (arts are the bane of politicians, despite the fact that arts contribute greatly to local economies – politicians loathe art as vampires fear the sunlight).

In order to attract funding, through donations or a collective, a writer needs to be able to utilize social media in a good way. We have seen the power of social media with the recent event sin Tunisia and Egypt, where Twitter has been the means of getting the word out about popular uprisings. Twitter is even the preferred method of getting in touch with airlines now for updates on cancellations.

Wouldn’t it work for proposals for donations for a project/ If you’re able to craft yor proposal in under 150 characters, it means you already have a good sense of where you’re going. Investors like that.

It means, though, that you have to be willing to be rejected. But writers are used to that. In any event, there are more and more options for getting funding – it takes a little creativity. And every writer worth his salt has that.

In this country, it’s a matter of scrounging around. Hoping to sell something while working on another job to support your art. Looking for grants. Writing proposals. In Europe, a lot of artists easily receive grants from the government, which is a good or a bad thing, depending on your perspective. (Some say it leads to self indulgence, while others say it fosters a great respect for artists.)

Since we don’t live in Europe, we’re on our own. You can’t always hold bake sales and open up a lemonade stand to solicit funds, like schools did in days gone by (and that some still do). But thanks to the power of social networking, artists are beginning to find a new source of financing for their projects.

A nonprofit group, United States Artists, solicits donations from regular folks who want to help with the arts.

This isn’t entirely new. Rock musicians have begun to solicit support on their own websites from fans, to help get funds for new recordings. Sometimes those fans are not only rewarded with new songs from a favorite artist – but they get an acknowledgement on the album (and on occasion in the song itself).

But using a social networking site is something new. You don’t expect Facebook to be a place for people to solicit funds. But a site devoted to an arts community is something else. Most artists aren’t good at fundraising – but a site such as United States Artists simply allows them to put a brief description of their projects online, and hope for the best.

The social networking aspect of the site encourages artists – a solitary bunch, used to working alone and without much feedback – to interact not only with a community of other artists but, even more important in our civic age, to interact with an audience.

So far, in tests, the site has worked for projects from photographer Zoe Strauss, who got money for a project documenting the effects of the BP oil spill on the Gulf Coast, and filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris, who used the site to get funds for a project on black family photographs.

This type of fundraising has appealed even to more established artists such as the jazz musician Bill Frisell, who raised over $20,000 for a program called “The Great Flood,” about the Mississippi River flood of 1927 and its effect on society and music.

This is a way for everyday people – lovers of the arts – to contribute to the arts without feeling their money is going into a big pit of “endowments” they have no control over. It’s a direct answer to a response for something tangible: the creation of a work of art.

It’s the new paradigm of the digital universe: speaking directly to your audience.

What is networking?

The definition of networking, according to Entrepreneur.com, is “Developing and using contacts made in business for purposes beyond the reason for the initial contact. For example, a sales representative may ask a customer for names of others who may be interested in his product.”

Let’s take this definition a little bit further by introducing the force of the Internet.  Let’s define online networking as “Creating contacts in an online environment for purposes beyond the context of the original contact. For example, a book marketer may approach an Internet forum full of goat herders to see if there are any authors there who might need his help.”

What’s the importance of networking?

The importance of networking depends on the how much value you can get out of it.  If you use it to create enough business to reach your goals, then it’s very important.  If you network for purposes that don’t aid you in your endeavors, then it’s not worth much.

How you network is key to its importance and value.

How do I network online?

Let’s assume you’re just starting out with your online presence.  You don’t know anybody and nobody is aware of you.

Step 1: Determine what you have to offer.  If you have nothing to offer, then go learn a useful skill set.

Step 2:  Determine what types of people need what you have to offer.

Step 3:  Seek out like-minded people.  Using your favorite search engine, search for websites tailoring to people who share similar interests with you.  These can be interests other than the service/product you have to offer.  Take my goat herder example from above (as silly as it sounds).  You might find groups on Facebook, Internet forums, meet up groups, blogs, or any other social media site.

Step 4:  Start authentic dialogue.  This is the only way to get people interested in what you have to offer.  Remember, people are buying YOU.  Be open about yourself and what you have to offer.  Test your mettle.

I’m using this process myself.  I didn’t just make it up for the sake of making myself look smart.  Use this process and you will get results.

What kind of online networking results are you getting?

If you want more information on networking, check out Dr. Ivan Misner’s posts. He’s the master of networking.