Mastering the Art of Social Media Networking - Work in Sports Facebook Live Session #2

Join us every Thursday night at 7:30PM EST for a live sports career advice session on the Work in Sports Facebook page!

Hosted by Brian Clapp, 20-year veteran of the sports industry, WorkinSports.com Director of Content and host of the Work in Sports podcast.

Brian starts every show with actionable advice for your sports career, and then opens it up for your questions live! If you miss the live session you can always come back to our blog where we will publish the full event, including all the fan questions, after the fact.

In this episode Brian shares multiple techniques for mastering the art of social media networking.

Networking is a more virtual experience than ever before, but even though it feels like some simple key punches, you have to remember you are still dealing with people and need to have a human approach to this networking technique.

Listen in to the Live, and tune into our next session every Thursday at 7:30pm EST!

Key points made in this session:

1: Choose Your Platform – There are tons of social channels, but not all of them are a match for networking. It’s a LinkedIn World! LinkedIn is where 90% of my business/branding/networking social activities take place.

2: Make yourself a target list -  Don't just randomly connect with people and never follow up, make a plan, do some searching, create a list of people that could make a difference in your career...and connect with them with intention. 

3: Have a reason to connect and include a note - When you connect with someone on LinkedIn you have the option to add a note. Do this every single time. “Hey John, I’m Brian I heard you on the Work in Sports podcast and really loved what you had to say, I hope to work in athletic administration some day soon and would love to connect here.” When you have a reason for the connection request it makes it much easier for someone to say yes. 

4: Don't start by asking for things - build a relationship, share their content, comment on their posts...well before you ask them for anything. Someone who connects with me and then wants me to do something for them right away is an immediate turn off. But someone who reads my content, interacts with me and shares interesting content, is more likely to gain my attention for the right reasons.

4: Remember the purpose of connecting -  The final point I want to make is on the purpose of connecting. Stop treating networking like a to do list assigned by your professor. Do not just go through the motions. I get many requests per day to connect, and then never hear from the person again. What was the point of that? 

Make it a system:

• Connect with 5 people a day
• Like 5 posts per day
• Comment on 5 posts per day
• Share at least 1 post per day
• Ask thought provoking questions daily

Simple. At first it will feel weird and you won’t see results, but it will happen if you stick with it. Let’s get to some questions!