In the professional world, everyone is aware that networking plays an important role in building a successful career or business. The common concept of networking among people is to connect with as many people as they can. Though this idea is not wrong completely, the way that people do and handle networking is.

First – Realisation of self

Self-awareness is very important because it will be serving as the base of the community and also it is the one that drives the people of the community. Self-analysation and realisation will help one to understand the type of the person they are. This will help in determining the method that they should use for building the community. For instance, analysing whether one is an introvert or extrovert will help in devising the right method to approach people. Some are naturally good at face-to-face conversations, therefore seminars and meetings can help them in getting good contacts.

Don’t mistake engagement for the community

One of the factors that make the community differ from basic networking is the actual value it adds. Social media engagements cannot be treated as a good community. For example, a Facebook post gaining a lot of likes and comments do not indicate the building of a good community. Instead, this can be used as a sort of measurement for the quality of the community but not as the actual community. Technology can be used as a tool to build community but the real ingredient is adding the value. Another good example is the online casino industry. Sometimes the posts from online casinos like ExtraVegas on social networks like Facebook and Twitter might get great engagement but in the number of players who are playing the casino could be considerably less. Instead, online casinos can grant VIP offers for its loyal set of players to create a better community.

It all depends on offering and getting help

A community is something where you offer help and get help. This makes a community to be more effective than networking. A lot of people have an impression that they can create potential contacts within a certain number of pre-determined steps in a particular period of time. A community should be built on the foundation of mutual help. Plenty of experts point out that most successes are based on the team that executes the task and the network that brings incredible value.

Not today but one day

Not every person in the community might be useful to you for time being. But as you climb up your career or business some of these people could be fundamental. So the better way to make community powerful and sustainable is to lay out a long-term plan first and then creating connections based on the plan. In general, people have trouble to connect with other people. One small trick is not to ask them what do you do directly. It would be way better if you know about them in person before knowing about their professional work.