Understanding networking

Put simply, networking is about meeting people who could turn out to be useful in one way or another. These people could be immediately useful to yourself, to people you know, or even may become useful at some point in the future.

Many people make the mistake of viewing networking as an activity purely for making sales, hence their approach to networking events and other platforms such as social media being to sell to everyone. Nothing loses people's attention more than speaking to someone who is blatantly only interested in making a sales pitch; it comes across as impersonal and most likely to be of no interest. As a result, this type of approach to networking tends to have minimal impact, especially if the room is full of the same types of people who are only there to make a sales pitch.

If networking isn't about selling to people, then you are probably wondering how could it be of use to you. Networking is a useful activity to:

• Establish a reputation: First and...