Networking is an important skill to have and one which you should not be doing just when you’re job searching. You should be networking all the time, and that can mean any number of things.  It can mean getting to know more people in your industry and exchanging tips on best practices with them, building friendships with people who share your interests, helping others with their networking or introducing your friends to others.  There are many ways you can connect with people in an authentic way and we here at about.me aim to help you do that.

Connect with compliments

With our new Search function, announced last week, it’s easier than ever to find others on about.me who are in your industry, share your interests and reside in your geographic region. But what do you do once you discover them in search? How do you reach out to them? One of the easiest approaches is complimenting a person. We all love receiving compliments and it’s a great way to grab someone’s attention.  They’re more inclined to reach out to you if they know you’ve already connected with something in their profile whether it be their biography, picture or interests.

Connect via email

Were you ever really inspired by a person’s page? Did you ever think, that person and I share so many interests, I bet he or she would be interesting to talk to. Well think no further, reach out via email. While it may take some more time and thought than sending someone a compliment, a nice email can go a long way to really connecting with another person.

Be yourself

While it can be intimidating to try to get to know new people, just remember to relax and have fun. Show off who you are on your about.me page and it will make the connections flow even more easily. A person will see your common interests and know exactly why you contacted them. And with a great profile that draws others in, you’ll not only be reaching out to others, people will find reasons to connect with you too!