Posted By Amanda Collins on August 2, 2009

As a business owner, I am out on the local networking scene on a regular basis, going to old and new events weekly to meet people and see friends. When I go out, new people naturally gravitate to me to find out what I do because I am wearing scrubs and a stethoscope. So, because that happens, I make it clear that I will “pimp out” my friends and colleagues, introducing them to new folks with a quick “testimonial” to create an instant connection. The thing that surprises me is that almost no one else does that.

How hard is it to introduce people? Isn’t that a skill we learned in elementary school? “Joan, this is Jim. Jim is an electrician with ABC Company; Joan owns a marketing company that specializes in working with new startups.” Simple. Now they know what the other does, have a warm introduction, and you’ve built a basis for further conversation. But recently, at a large event where I was in a small group of four, one of the people three of us knew walked up. No one bothered to introduce our new addition to the man she didn’t know – even though everyone knew the status. So I was yelling across to connect them. Of course, being me, I called them all on it, but they seemed genuinely surprised and hadn’t thought of making the introduction themselves.

So, because I help people meet others – and will do this introduction thing with strangers too – I tend to have people wanting to go out and network with me. It’s not a bad thing at all, and if you practice common courtesy and manners on the networking scene, you might see that by paying it forward, you’ll actually get a great return.

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Category: Miscellaneous
Tags: introductions, networking