Career

Why We’re Bad At Networking: Too Much Talk of Networking

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Sometimes these posts come out of nowhere.  And they launch series.

I was discussing social capital on Twitter, as best one can at 140 characters a post while taking a walk, and one thing led to another.  Someone brought up why networking wasn’t preached enough (which is the subject of this post) and I realized it’s time to discuss why we’re bad at networking in the first place.

True it may not be “us we” that’s bad, but an amazing amount of people kind of are bad at it.  Worse there’s no excuse for it as we have the tools, technology, information, and we’re naturally social creatures.  If someone can use Facebook to declare their love of beer pong, they can network (as long as they remember to take down the beer pong stuff, seriously people).

So why is it some of us are just so bad at it?  Especially as so many people talk about it?

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How Blogging DOESN’T Help Your Career

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(The Roundup Of This Series is here).

So I’ve just spent about three months writing about how blogging helps your career.  I hope it was informative, inspiring, and at let me try out using more metaphorical writing techniques.

But there’s also the question – when does blogging NOT help your career?  There may be times, ways, things, and mistakes you can make that are actually bad for you.  Based on my experiences, I want to share this with you in the interest of fairness.

This may not mean you shouldn’t blog – but it does mean you might want to take some precautions to avoid problems.  This may not mean you won’t blog, but may mean it’s not going to help your career.  You have to assess risks and results.

So when does blogging not help or can even damage your career?

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Running a KickStarter Part 2

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(More from guest columnist Hannah Lipsky of Chaotic Shiny!  She just finished her Kickstarter from this post, and is going to tell us what we learned).

One third. That’s the magical number that represents the biggest thing I learned about running a successful KickStarter campaign. One third.

One third is the portion of my backers that found my project via KickStarter. The rest – well over a hundred people – found my project via other means.

Why is this such a big deal? Because KickStarter is sometimes considered an “if you build it, they will come” type of platform. Create a slick-looking project, make a spiffy video, carefully calibrate your rewards levels, launch the project, and then sit back and watch the pledges roll in. Post an update now and then to keep your backers in the loop.

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