The Savvy Gal Blog

Online Networking Tip: Think of web-searching as a treasure hunt

Savvy Gal Networking Tip:  Think of web-searching as a treasure hunt.  Start with search engines where you can use a few different combinations of names, including nicknames, or by using “quotation marks” to limit your search to relevant queries.  You can also combine the person’s name with her company, or even the town where she lives or works.  Try the different functions on search engines, such as “news,” “images,” “blogs,” and “groups.”  Other good sites for finding information about people include www.LinkedIn.com, www.DWCFaces.com, and www.ZoomInfo.com.   Then there are also blog searches like www.Technorati.com and www.Bloglines.com.

This tip courtesy of The Savvy Gal's Guide to Online Networking (or What Would Jane Austen Do?) available don Amazon or free with a Downtown Women's Club membership.

Prospecting clients at midnight

Ugh.  Tomorrow’s another team meeting and I’ve done absolutely nothing about prospecting new clients this week.  Shoot.  I can’t sleep anyway, maybe I’ll check out some of those networking groups I joined but never have the time to go to.  Hmmmm.  Here’s one that has online member profiles (www.DowntownWomensClub.com).  Let’s see if there are any human resource types on there.  Hey, here’s someone, and what’s this?  She even went to my alma mater. “Click here to send email.”  Maybe I’ll ask if she’s going to next month’s alumni event.  That makes this sort of a “warm email” doesn’t it?  A few more of these and at least at the meeting tomorrow I’ll be able to say I’ve started “dialogues” with a few new connections.

More ideas for tracking down a speaker

Just in case I can't get Carla to speak next month, I figured I'd do a little googling and see if there are any more places to get speakers.  I found two great sources that my pal, Diane (an occasional speaker, herself), hooked me onto.  First, www.DWCFaces.com, a social network for businesswomen that has a keyword search function.  She suggested I put in the term "speaker" along with my state as a location.  She also recommended that I check out Women for Hire's Speaker Directory.  Pretty cool.