A new business networking resource, plus how to CLICK with clients

As we all know, networking is an excellent way to develop clients, colleagues, strategic alliances, even friends. Before I tell you about my acronym for successful networking, I want to let you know about a resource. Business Networking Advice.com is a new blog featuring short, two-question interviews of people who do networking well; each interview includes a tip for improving your networking skills. (The creator of this new blog is Josh Hinds.)

Part of the September roster of interviewees:

• Guy Kawasaki - entrepreneur, author, and speaker.
• Jim Donovan - speaker and author.
• John Harricharan - businessman, lecturer, and author.
• John Pullum - television host, speaker, and entertainer.
• Pegine Echevarria - expert on success, leadership, teamwork, and diversity.
• Donna Fisher - author of Power Networking.
• Rene Godefroy - speaker and the author of No Condition is Permanent!.
• John Ahern - CBD Financial Planning Group.
• Sean Woodruff - entrepreneur and marketing expert.

Hinds interviewed me earlier this month. In the interview I define networking as clicking.

I think of networking as clicking into place. A long time ago, this clicking was an integral part of our early, small-town communities. People knew their role in the village. And they knew to whom to go for a service or product -- shoeing their horse, filling their pantries, treating their sick. People knew how they fit, knew how they clicked into the community, knew how they helped each other.

Our community is bigger now. With technology such as the Internet, it is as big as the planet. And yet we all can still click into our role in this bigger community and help each other. And, while doing so, we can be enormously rewarded in many ways, including monetarily and spiritually.

CLICK is also an acronym for five vital components of networking:

C-connect
L-listen
I-inquire
C-collaborate
K-keep

In this article, learn more about clicking and CLICKing. I hope the article gives you an idea or two about how to be an even better CLICKer.