How to Grow Your Professional Network

One piece of advice that you probably hear often is: grow your professional network. Regardless of what stage of your career you’re in, whether you’re first getting started or you have years of experience, and whether you want to stay in the same industry or take a totally new path, this advice is useful. With the right network of fellow professionals and mentors, you can work toward achieving your goals. 

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But how can you go about growing your professional network to reap the benefits of this strategy? Well, there are several steps you can take, and we’ve listed a few of them below to help you get started. 

Start with Your Online Presence

First off, if you want to grow your network, you need to consider how you are putting yourself out there. After all, growing your network by seeking new contacts on your own is just part of the process, as you also want others to be able to easily find you and ask to connect with you. 

One of the simplest ways to establish your presence online is by getting on social media. For instance, you can create a professional profile on LinkedIn and start connecting with people you have already worked with, people you hope to work with, and people you aspire to be like. Plus, you can use this profile to follow businesses you want to work for or that inspire you to run your own company a certain way. 

Reconnect with People from Your Past

If you’ve lost touch with people you used to work with, or even people you went to school with, it might be a good idea to reconnect with them in an effort to grow your professional network. The problem is that you might not have their contact details anymore. Maybe you lost them along the way, or maybe the details changed over time as people moved and took on new positions at new companies. 

When you want to reconnect with people from your past but you don’t know how, you can start by doing a search online. And one of the easiest ways to do that is where you can type in anyone’s name to see if you can find their contact details, like phone numbers and addresses. 

Also, by performing a search on Google or another search engine, you might discover someone’s social media accounts, website, and blog quickly. All of these might give you additional ways to contact someone important.  

Attend Business Events

Attending professional events that are taking place in your area is yet another way to grow your professional network. You might be surprised by the many different types of people you can meet at conferences, networking events, trade shows, workshops, courses, and more. Plus, you can meet professionals of all levels of experience and from a wide range of industries, so making these connections may help you grow in your own field or help you enter a new one. 

These days, you might be reluctant to attend in-person events because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that is totally understandable. But this does not mean that you have to sacrifice going to events and reaping the benefits that they can provide. Instead, search for the many events that are taking place online. Register for those events, which often involve getting on a webcam to interact with others and learn new things. That way, you can continue growing your network without skipping a beat.  

There you have it: a few ways to grow your professional network, regardless of what industry you work in or what your job title is. Which strategy will you implement first?