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Quora Questions are part of a partnership between Newsweek and Quora, through which we'll be posting relevant and interesting answers from Quora contributors throughout the week. Read more about the partnership here. Answer from Andrew Hennigan, Networking speaker, trainer, and coach; author of "Payforward Networking": Twitter is a surprisingly powerful networking tool and can be used in different ways.First of all, Twitter can contribute to the three essential keys to building a strong network: getting to know more people, building trust with these people, and making sure they know how they can help you.DISCOVERY. The first key to networking is to have more people in your network. Not just random people, but people who can actually contribute to your network in a meaningful way. Twitter is a very powerful tool for this discovery phase. Once you have decided to build a network of new contacts in a given field you can do this very quickly using simple Twitter searches. Start by searching for a keyword related to that field. Scan through the search results looking for interesting tweets. When you find an interesting tweet, look at the person who tweeted it and follow them. Next look at who this person follows. In Twitter, like in real life, good people follow other good people. Check out the follows and if their tweets look interesting follow them, too. In addition, follow interesting tweets upstream to find the source. The best people to follow if you are looking for information are the people who originate quality information and people who curate such sources to cover a broader area. But for networking you should also be following the people who follow these good sources. In contrast, take great care to avoid people who simply waste time tweeting fake Einstein quotes and memes. People who are a waste of time on Twitter are invariably a waste of time in real life too. Using this method you can build a map of interesting people active in a certain field very rapidly. "Active" is the key word. There might be other people who are more expert but don't use Twitter, but it's the ones who are good at communicating who will be most helpful to you.BUILDING TRUST. The second key to effective networking is to build a solid relationship of trust with the people you have "met," including the people you find on Twitter using the discovery methods mentioned above. The way to start doing this is to interact appropriately with the good follows you have found. Use "Like" and "Retweet" appropriately. Like and/or retweet selected tweets that are genuinely relevant and useful to you. And when you retweet something always add a useful comment, perhaps about how the point is valid in another situation. Don't just do a plain retweet and never add a meaningless comment. Your goal in this is to make it clear that you are a sentient being, not a bot. And, by the way, never ever consider using automation for this activity. It is blatantly obvious and just makes you look foolish. Watch also for opportunities to be helpful. Sooner or later someone will tweet a question where you know the answer. It might be just a question about your town. Answer promptly—not after two weeks—and you will get more noticed. You can also start conversations by asking questions. Counterintuitively, this can also create a bond with people who answer questions. But don't be annoyed if nobody answers. Not all questions get an answer and sometimes it is just a matter of timing, or maybe you don't have enough real connections yet. Patience.BE CLEAR ABOUT YOUR NEEDS. The third key to good networking is to ensure that everyone in your network knows what you want. People in your network might be happy to help you but perhaps they have no idea what you want. Ask questions on Twitter. Mention things that you are looking for. Sometimes a response will come from an unexpected direction. Sometimes there is no reply but people might still have noticed your tweet and made a mental note and might get back to you much later if they happen to find the thing you are looking for. Oddly this is the part most people find difficult or neglect. We all assume that people know and remember much more than we think. Maybe you think everyone knows you are looking for a job in TV, but try asking all your friends and you will discover that this is not the case.Twitter is also extremely useful for some other aspects of networking.WARMING COLD CONTACTS. One of the most common mistakes people make in online networking is to send a connection request to a stranger through LinkedIn. With anyone who is not an "open networker" this is not likely to be effective. What works much better is to start by establishing contact on Twitter first, where relationships can start one-way and where the barrier to talking to strangers is much lower. Once you have been noticed you can start to get to know the person and then send a warm connection request. This also works for face-to-face meetings. If you know you will meet someone at a conference, try engaging with them on Twitter first. When you meet face to face you will then know what to talk about, know their interests and, if you have been using Twitter effectively, they will know who you are.LISTENING TO THE UNDERTALK. Before you go to any event you should be checking the conversations on Twitter and Facebook to see what the other people attending the event have been talking about recently. This social media "undertalk" gives valuable clues about what things they are likely to talk about, problems they need to solve, questions they want to answer. By listening to this undertalk you are better prepared for a conversation in real life. And if you participate in the undertalk you can also influence the conversations when you meet. Perhaps you add to the conversation some interesting new point. All of this interaction gives you something to talk about and helps people to understand how you are. When you introduce yourself as plain "Joan Smith" you are instantly forgettable. If you add that you are the Joan Smith who shared the whatever on Twitter yesterday you give them a hook to remember you. And later they can find you easily just by looking back at the Twitter conversation.ESTABLISHING A STRONG DIGITAL FOOTPRINT. When people are going to meet you they are very likely to Google your name before the meeting. Having a strong digital footprint makes you look more credible and gives the other person valuable clues about how to talk to you. By far the easiest way to create a strong footprint is to create non-trivial accounts on leading social networking sites, including Twitter. You don't need to tweet constantly but you do need to have a sensible Twitter name, a serious profile photo, a useful bio and a link to a more detailed profile somewhere else.Twitter has another convenient advantage in this area. There are many other sites where you can create a simple profile in one click, copying the Twitter profile information. This saves time when you are creating additional profiles simply to push down low-quality content on Google. Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now How are people using Twitter to network effectively? originally appeared on Quora—the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions: Professional Networking: How do I get better at networking?Twitter: What are some of the best conversations between celebrities on Twitter?Social Media Marketing: How can I start earning money with my blog? |
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Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in South Africa on Wednesday ahead of a regional summit at which lucrative trade deals and eye-catching meetings will be the order of the day. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) meets every three years since its inaugural meeting in Beijing in 2000. China is the top trade partner for Africa with some $222 billion of goods and services changing hands between Chinese and African traders in 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported. African countries have also benefited hugely from Chinese foreign aid in recent decades. Though China is secretive about its foreign aid activities, it reportedly funds more than 2,500 development projects across 51 African states, worth a combined total of approximately $94 billion. Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now The relationship, however, is not one-way. During the two-day summit, President Xi will be looking to garner political support for Chinese policies, bolster relations with mineral-rich states and seek assurances over the threat posed by global militant groups. Here are five issues the Chinese leader will seek to address during the sixth forum meeting. 1. Using South Africa to access the continent The FOCAC summit takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa, the first time the event has taken place in sub-Saharan Africa. Xi will visit South African President Jacob Zuma in Pretoria for talks ahead of the summit, with South African Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene telling Reuters he was “hopeful that a number of deals” would be signed to boost trade between the two countries. China is already South Africa’s top import and export partner, accounting for $10.5 billion in exports and $16.4 billion in imports. China views South Africa as a valuable “gateway to the continent,” according to Stephen Chan, professor of international politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). “It’s got good communications and transport networks that reach beyond South Africa itself,” Chan says. As well as giving access to other African countries, Chan says natural resources such as platinum, which he describes as being “on tap” in South Africa, are a lucrative draw for Chinese investment. 2. Building relations with Nigeria Nigeria overtook South Africa as the continent’s biggest economy in 2013, Reuters reported, and building ties with the West African powerhouse—also Africa’s top oil producer, pumping out more than $500 billion worth of oil in 2013—is likely to be a high priority for Xi. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will meet with Xi at the summit and discuss reviving Chinese-financed rail projects worth more than $20 billion, as well as construction of a major power station, according to tweets sent from the president’s Twitter account.
Bilateral trade between Nigeria and China has grown almost sevenfold since 2009, rising to $23.5 billion by June, and China was Nigeria’s top trade partner during the second quarter of 2015. According to Chan, however, the Chinese remain cautious about deeper ties with the relatively-young Buhari regime. “What you’ve got is a very strong Chinese awareness that President Buhari is new in the job,” Chan says. “He’s set about a very ambitious program of transformation of public administration...and no one knows whether he’s going to be successful or not.” 3. Garnering political support China’s long history of investment and support for African countries has created a positive image of the People’s Republic in Africa. Continuing its heavy investment and support for developing African economies is an effective way of keeping them on side in other arenas, according to Deborah Brautigam, director of the China-Africa Research Initiative at John Hopkins University. “It’s important politically because each of those 54 [African] countries has a vote at the United Nations, they are all diplomatic partners and they might be useful in one way or another,” Brautigam says. 4. Tackling regional and international militancy Africa has been beset by violence from militant groups based on a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, including the Nigerian group Boko Haram and Al-Shabab, which is based in Somalia and also active in Kenya. However, according to Brautigam, the Chinese have their own problem with militancy in the restive Xinjiang region in the far west of the country. Xinjiang has a significant population of Uighurs—an ethnic group that are largely Muslim—who have protested in recent years at perceived discrimination from Beijing. Beijing has described violence in the region as being the work of “terrorists,” with government officials claiming that some Uighurs have gone to fight with radical groups in the Middle East. According to Brautigam, China is keen to link up African and Western concerns about groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) with their own troubles in Xinjiang. “They also don’t want Al-Qaeda or ISIS or Boko Haram-type terrorism to reach China,” she says. “Right now they really haven’t, but that will be on their mind.” China has also deployed hundreds of troops to South Sudan over the course of 2015, emphasizing its commitment to maintaining African stability. 5. Handshakes and photo opportunities The FOCAC summit is a largely ceremonial event, bringing together many stakeholders in the Sino-African relationship, according to Brautigam. The meeting could be attended by some 50 African leaders or diplomats. According to Brautigam, only four African countries—Swaziland, Burkina Faso, Gambia and Sao Tome and Principe—have no diplomatic ties with China. As such, the summit functions as a glamorous occasion for China to reinforce its standing on the world stage by announcing things such as student fellowships and special economic zones. “This is a time for photo ops, for handshakes and for making the big announcements,” Brautigam says. Tags:remote-communication, wireless-m2m, remote-connectivity, remote-access, m2m-connectivity, iiot,industrial-networking, industrial-wireless, m2m-iot |