Use Referral Marketing In Your Job Search

Use Referral Marketing In Your Job Search I am constantly running across articles offering networking advice for the networking adverse, and running into job seekers who just dont get it or say networking doesnt work. Id like to offer some modern-day suggestions for ways to improve your comfort level and success networking! It is in the power of referrals.   Referral Marketing Works Im using a fancy termso what is referral marketing? It is promoting products or services to new customers through  word of mouth  referrals. Why do you think small business owners network? Why would they waste their time if it didnt? Networking is a form of referral marketing. It relies on someone saying good things about you to the right people. And when you do this right, you dont have to ask for a referral because people will want to refer you! As you noticed, I said you have to do it right. What Product or Service Have You Recently Raved About? I want you to think about a product or service you recently told your friends, family or colleagues about. (Do you hear the  Jeopardy! music?) What was it about this product or service you loved? Why did you tell someone about it? Did they ask for your recommendation or did you offer it unsolicited? How many times had you used the product or had exposure to the service? Who Are Your Fans? Who are the people you have worked with and for that loved your work? Let me say, that if you are doing mediocre work and have a lackadaisical  attitude, this may not be an easy question to answer. Get Your Reputation to Go Viral The more people who hear about the great, amazing, unique work you do and your can-do style, the better, right? So how does this happen? Make your message share-able and memorable so people can easy pass it along. Kamikasi Networking Wont Work You cant dive bomb tons of people without following up and expect them to want to help. You have to establish or re-establish trust. Rather than going in for the kill and asking them to refer you, you have to reacquaint them with your skills by reminding them of the projects you worked on together. Or when you meet someone new, if they have no knowledge of who you are, how can they refer you? They cant trust you yet. You have to establish a relationship first and that usually takes more than just a single encounter. 12 Ways To Update How You Network Yep, we can all learn a lot from really great sales and marketing professionals.  I spell out 12 ways to update how you network. There are fresh new ideas in this post that may make you want to network- or maybe not! I hope you will at least check it out!