IT is 8.30 on a Wednesday morning and the breakfast networking meeting is in full swing. More than a dozen people are exchanging ideas and contacts and providing each other with business leads.
The dress code is pretty relaxed — slippers and even pyjamas are fine — but it doesn’t matter as nobody can actually see each other. This is a remotely held meeting and the participants are calling in from all over Britain and beyond, monitoring the meeting online from their living rooms and offices.
Welcome to virtual networking, the latest tool for businesses to promote their services and develop new relationships. Peter Bennett, founder of the Ozone Business Network, which will be launched this week, believes that virtual networking offers small firms a way to create valuable relationships and find new business.
Instead of being reliant on the local area, virtual networking enabled more focused, sector-specific groups to form anywhere, said Bennett. “The traditional networking organisations, such as Chambers of Commerce, tend to offer fairly unstructured ways to network. Breakfast networks are more structured and more focused on finding mutual refer-rals, but these still involve people who live within a few miles of each other.
“They work well for businesses that are geographically limited in their scope, such as a builder’s merchant. Virtual networks are ideal for people in the professional-services industries or for entrepreneurs looking to find like-minded people and build businesses quickly.”
Business coach Adrian Briggs, one of the participants in the meeting, said virtual networking offered several advantages over its physical equivalent. “I find physical meetings useful but they have early starts. You have to get up at something like 5.30am to be suited and booted and ready to network before the meeting starts.”
There’s more to virtual networking than saving time and winning an extra hour in bed, however. Online networking tools offer a more powerful way to develop meaningful relationships than meeting strangers in a conference room, according to Heather Gorringe, the founder of Wiggly Wigglers, an eco-gardening business.
“I think of networking as a bunch of men in suits, each given a minute to talk about their business and then eating unpleasant fried food. I’m terrible at striking up conversations with people in these situations as I’m always afraid I’ll be wasting their time.
“I never think of myself as networking. To me, networking is about listening and having a conversation. It’s about what you can do to help others because people you help are far more likely to do things in return for you.”
Her business develops relationships with a range of online tools, including blogging and podcasting. “Our customer base is suburban but we’re 10 miles west of Hereford on a Broad. We’re not going to get much passing business, so networking online as well as off is vital in helping us to get closer to suppliers, partners and customers.”
Globalisation was making it important to establish contacts across borders and continents, said Bennett. “Geography is irrel-evant in our meetings; we’ve had people dialling in from as far away as the Middle East.”
Other technological tools add to the value of virtual networking for participants, he added. “There is a discussion area for members to showcase their wares and we’re working on software that will enable people to interact with other members outside the meetings.”
Face-to-face meetings still have their place, however, and the Ozone members meet once a month to put faces to names and to deepen their business relationships. Combining physical and virtual networking in this way might turn out to be the most powerful way to network effectively, according to Michael Jackson, vice-president for paid services at Skype, the internet telephony firm.
“I’m not sure you can network effectively entirely online but it can be a powerful way to break down some of the barriers to communication and to maintain and develop relationships. I already see it happening with the virtual groups within Skype.”
The etiquette of virtual networking is much the same as its traditional equivalent. It is important not to expect instant results or to be too pushy, said Briggs. “It’s about building relationships and trust. Expect it to take about six months or a year to start generating business for you.”
Women in Rural Enterprise was set up to help far-flung businesswomen to communicate remotely as well as to meet up physically. Its members use remote networking tools, such as e-mail groups and online forums, to advise and assist each other in ways its founders never envisaged, according to Fiona Davis, manager of member services.
“They’re doing business together, but we also see a lot of sharing of information and unofficial mentoring going on. Many members are finding our groups better sources of information and advice than their local Business Link.”
Although virtual networking for business is still in its infancy, the rapid rise of social networking suggests it may soon become ubiquitous, said Jackson. The way the young are taking to social networking is a powerful indicator of the direction that it might take.
“I just have to look at what my kids do when they get home from school. They will get online with their friends and have an audio conference,” said Jackson. “If someone said to you, ‘can you set up a 30-person audio conference in 20 minutes?’ would you even know where to start? They just do it without thinking about it. These types of ad-hoc virtual groups are going to become increasingly important, almost to the point of being part of the fabric of everyday life.”
