The New Business Game
When I started as a freelance translator many years ago, the only way you could approach the business world, and thus prospective clients, was by sending off masses of unsolicited mail that ended up in waste paper baskets if you were unlucky, or got a polite reply if you were lucky. I sent off hundreds of such letters, and I remember sticking hundreds of stamps on hundreds of envelopes. Alas, I didn’t receive hundreds of replies.
Fortunately, things change. They are changing fast, and part of the new business game has to do with making connections online.
To me –is it age? is it cultural?– this is not entirely satisfactory, because I like to meet people offline too. So it happens that after meeting a Facebook friend in person last month, and I had a genuine interest in meeting him, since I help him with the English version of his blog, I met an American LinkedIn connection today, and a connection of hers who is now a connection too.
To make it absolutely crystal-clear, I’m not expecting these friends to shower me with translations; this is networking, not client-chasing, but I believe that mixing with people from different horizons is one of the greatest things that has happened to me thanks to my professional choices. Being used to meeting new faces virtually throughout my working life, and working with different people all the time, I have no difficulty interacting. I have worked for clients from all levels of society and I am therefore quite open to social interaction.
photo credit: garybembridge
So we had our first International LinkedIn Paris Meeting, with a drink at Hotel Lutetia. Unfortunately a French LinkedIn connection could not attend. It was a real business meeting: we described our experiences (these ladies are in the travel industry), we exchanged business cards, we discussed the respective merits of websites, blogging platforms and social networks. We exchanged networking tips and sources of information…
Have you had a similar experience? If you have, would you like to share it with us?
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