The Stealth Networker Blog

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Marketing mentor Adam Urbanski has assembled an awesome faculty of social media experts for a series of FREE conference calls this week on how to maximize blogs, Twitter and Facebook for networking.

 

With being on the road, I'm behind in my blog posts (sorry!), so unfortunately, the series is half over, but there's still time to hear Mari Smith TODAY on "How to Create Profitable Relationships Using Facebook" and Nancy Marmolejo TOMORROW on "How to Save Time with an Integrated Social Networking Strategy." I strongly recommend you sign up NOW.

 

My head is still spinning from the first two calls with The Blog Squad and Coach Deborah Micek. Both were jammed with content and sales-pitch free.

 

If you missed any part of the series, or just want to catch everything you missed the first time (like me!), definitely get the VIP package of audio recordings and transcripts.

 

Why try to figure all this stuff out for yourself when the experts tell you exactly what you need to do?

 

What I Won't Be Doing to Promote My Book

(Beijing, China): A small story in today's China Daily caught my eye. Not finding a link online, I've reprinted it below:

Money to Fall from Sky
"An Indonesian businessman will throw 100 million rupiah ($10,740) from an airplane on Sunday as part of a marketing ploy for his second book, organizers said. Tung Desem Waringin, author and motivational speaker, whose first book was a bestseller, is known for his unorthodox marketing methods.

A spokesman for the organizers, Diki Sidik, said Jakarta police had refused to issue a permit for the event but Tung would go ahead with the plan outside the capital. 'Rather than spend a lot of money for unsuccessful marketing, better give the money to the people,' Sidik said. Millions of Indonesians live on less than 2 dollars a day."

If I had $10k and an airplane to throw it out of, I'm still not sure I would do it (well, yeah, maybe I would, just 'cause I could). Instead, much of my book promotion strategy is revolving around relationships, developed in person as well as online.

Networking isn't just for finding a new job, or gaining more customers. It can help move you forward on any important goal you have. But you have to focus on the relationship first, so allow time to get to know people and what they're interested in. And more importantly, give them enough time to get to know you and your work at their own pace.

Otherwise, you just might have to resort to bribery to get attention...

A Bit of Wishful Thinking in a Popular Chinese Novel

(Beijing, China): Perusing a magazine called “That’s Beijing” in my hotel room, I came across a list of the most popular novels in China for May 2008, as determined by joyo.com, an Internet bookseller. One of the five includes "The Story of La La's Promotion" by Li Ke:

 “Spanning eight years, this book tells the story of La La, a typical middle-class worker, (who) is promoted from an entry-level sales manager to an experienced HR manager through personal effort, without any background or connections.”

I haven’t read the book, but had to chuckle that not having to network to get ahead in life could be the premise of a popular novel. But it *is* fiction, I guess, so no less improbable than a professor searching for clues in Leonardo de Vinci paintings while a murderous albino monk runs rampant through France, or an Italian war bride’s affair with a National Geographic photographer passing through her small Iowa town to snap pictures of bridges. As Eddie Murphy said in the movie Trading Places, "This kind of thing happens to me every week."

I know many of my capitalist friends wish for a life like La La’s, where they can be recognized solely on the merits of how hard they work and what they know, rather than who they know, or more importantly, who knows them. A noble dream for sure, but one unlikely to come true any time soon. High competence and expertise in a subject area can get you to a certain point. But it’s your ability to build relationships that will help you break through.

Still, given how popular this novel is in China and the trend for fable-like business books in the U.S., maybe I should try my hand at a networking parable for my next book? Perhaps "Who Deleted My Facebook Page?" or "Adding Friends and Influencing No One."

What do you think?