Jane Smith

Working in public relations, we come into contact with all kinds of businesses and organizations, and it makes our network a really varied one. Over the five years since we started our own business, we’ve met and worked with charities, arts organizations, private equity firms, banks, modelling agencies, retailers, lobbyists, business leaders and sportspeople – to name but a few!

Networking successfully is a bit like match-making successfully – you need to take a panoramic view and let things develop organically. It’s not about selling to someone at your first meeting or clinching a deal in the following weeks – it’s much more about bearing people in mind, keeping them on file, and helping connect them where you can to other people where both parties could mutually benefit. You have to think long-term, and think mutual!

In early 2002 I’d just set up my PR business, and I did some consultancy work for Business Link in Salford where I helped local young businesses set up their PR and marketing strategies. One of the very first businesses I helped was an up-and-coming events company who, it turned out, were extremely well connected and very well thought of. Five years on, we recently worked out that a staggering 45% of our ongoing retainer clients could be traced back either directly or indirectly to that first client, who had been recommending us ever since to their contacts in all kinds of sectors. We still work with that first client, by the way!

Treat everyone you meet with equal respect, and treat them as a person first rather than as a potentially useful business contact. You don’t have to swot up on the FT to be able to chat at business networks – general conversation is fine, and the important thing is to engage with people and ask them what they do! Make sure you keep people’s details on file, even if you don’t think you’ll need to contact them in the near future. Back up your contacts book – don’t just store everything electronically either, but equally don’t keep them all in one address book that could be lost.

The Institute of Directors has been useful in terms of networking with decision-makers, and is also great for keeping on top of policy and the latest developments in business. I liked the IoD so much that I’ve become events co-ordinator for its Cheshire branch! The IoD also has a Young Directors Forum in the North-West which is quite dynamic.

I find it very easy to network with other women, so the women-only networks work for me. I’m a member of Women In PR and Women In Publishing, for example.

The blogosphere has also been good for staying connected, and I’d recommend that people search for blogs in their own field, subscribe to them and get commenting on them! My own blog is at www.smithandsmithpr.typepad.com but it’s one of a whole online community of PR-related blogs.