I’ve been thinking a lot about how important networking is now that more people are looking for work. But more importantly than finding a potential job, networking helps you fine tune… well, yourself.

When you’re networking, you talk about yourself. You might say something you’re not too sold on so by the next time you network, you may change up your description of yourself. This doesn’t happen over night and by a few weeks or months of networking, you have your description of yourself down packed and your confidence is through the roof.

You also learn to ask questions. At first, your questions may be simple and obvious, but as you network more, you learn to really listen to the person you’re speaking with and learn to ask more probing questions. Questions that will provide you with more answers.

You will also learn to read people. The more you talk to random strangers, the more you pick up on certain signals that they send – they can be excited to hear what you have to say, bored, or just waiting for you to finish talking so they can talk about themselves.

Networking offers a plethora of exposure to opportunities and I’ve found that the most beneficial opportunity it offers is learning the lessons listed above.

You can be out trying to land a new client or interviewing for a new job when you notice these skills kicking in:

• You’ll find yourself very comfortable in a situation where most people work up a sweat in, but because you spend so much time networking, you’re comfortable around strangers,
• You know how to listen to others and ask the right questions,
• You’ve also perfected your pitch – who you are and what makes you valuable,
• Most importantly, you know how to read the person you’re meeting with. If their facial expressions and/or body language aren’t the ones you’re hoping to get, you can guide the conversation to where you want it.

Networking is very important and you’ll always get something out of it, so make sure to get out and meet as many people as possible. If you’re feeling adventurous, go to an event with an organization you’ve never gone to where you won’t know anyone at all.

I grabbed the mic and quickly thought about my own networking process, what I do that’s effective and what I do that leaves me standing in a corner, alone.

Here are my tips:

Smile

Remember that you’re more approachable when you’re smiling. Even if you had a horrible day, smile; not only will smiling make you feel happier, but you’ll find yourself talking to so many people about all sorts of topics that you’ll quickly forget about your bad day.

Limit your drinking

I know alcohol is a great social lubricant, but keep in mind that people can smell it on your breath and it can be a bit of a turn off – take it from the person who’s always sober at networkers. If you must drink, control your intake. You don’t want to go overboard and start slurring when you speak.

Dare yourself to meet new people

This can be a bit intimidating at first, but a great approach is to find a circle of people who are talking and walk up to them. Once they see you, they will open up a space for you and as soon as their current conversation ends, they will all look at you for your introduction. Just like you want to meet them, they want to meet you, so say hi and what you do.

Listen and ask questions

When speaking with someone, listen to what they’re talking about. If they’re in an industry you know nothing about, that’s perfect. Don’t be afraid of admitting that you know nothing about their work. Ask them questions – people love talking about themselves and what they do, so this is a great conversation starter. If the person is an industry that you know, ask questions about specific facets about what they do. If you have an opinion about something in their industry, share it.

Carry business cards

Always make sure to be stocked up and remember to take a business card from the people you meet. If you don’t have any, go to Office Depot and have some simple ones made: just your name, phone number and email address.

Follow up

Make sure to follow up with everyone you’ve met within 24 hours. I usually look them up on LinkedIn and send them a message saying “Great meeting you at XXX.” Make sure to let them know where you met – everyone’s memories are different.

Happy networking!

Please go to 12seconds.tv and post your Social Media predictions for 2010. How do you think the industry will change? Which network do you think will lead in popularity, usefulness, etc. Any thoughts you may have, we want to hear about it. PLEASE REMEMBER to use the #SM2010 hashtag. And make sure to come to the event to see your predictions discussed in a panel.

We need your Social Media predictions! #SMCSF #SM2010 on 12seconds.tv

Social Media Prediction: Rise of video #SMCSF #SM2010 on 12seconds.tv

Want to meet the SMCSF board? Make sure to follow Alex de Carvalho, Angie Henderson Moncada, Denise Jacobs, John Prieur, Matthew Chamberlin, Michelle Catin, Neil Bardach, Toby Srebnik, Ulises I. Orozco.

For example, I listen to NPR every morning during my commute to my office and whenever I hear Niala Boodhoo and Bridget Carey come on to talk about Social Media, not only am I eagerly nodding in approval with everything they say, but I tweet them as soon as I get to the office. I send them a tweet about how much I agreed with what they said and enjoyed hearing their story.

I’m cheating a little bit with Boodhoo and Carey’s case because I met them before hearing them on the radio. I became a fan of their work after meeting them in person and then looking them up. Hearing them on the radio only added to my excitement of being their fan, and connecting with them through Social Media helped boost my being a fan into more of a friendship.

How I met Kenny Malone is a little different. Maybe it’s the fearless publicist in me or the solid implementation of Social Media in my every day life that made me feel like it was OK to shoot him a random email expressing my opinion after hearing his report on Sesame Street (look for “Follow that (Big) Bird: Memories of ‘Sesame Street’, 40 years on” next to 11/20). His story left me in shock at how true it was and I wanted to tell him how I felt. To my surprise, he responded almost immediately with what seemed like a private follow up to his story.
Earlier this week, Malone did a story about StoryCorps and asked Miami Herald/WLRN staff members if they’ve ever cried during the four minute show. Naturally, I felt compelled to email him and tell him about how much I cry during that show and ask him if he reacts the same way – if you’ve ever heard StoryCorps, you know how heart-felt the stories can be.

It’s Social Media that encourages and facilitates conversation. It’s Social Media that makes it easy to connect with pretty much anyone online. It’s Social Media that helps fans feel more like friends. And it’s Social Media that helps build invaluable relationships.

See, I’m Hispanic and like any other Hispanic, I say “Hello” with a cheek-to-cheek kiss.

In the business world, it’s customary to say “Hello” with a handshake.

I’ve been greeted a few times with a cheek-to-cheek kiss in a professional setting and it always throws me off guard. Not that I mind it, on the contrary, it establishes a sense of comfort and trust that a handshake can’t offer. Nevertheless, it is unexpected.

I have developed a great habit of pausing when I meet someone new and waiting to see how they’d like to be greeted. It’s my safest bet.

Publicists who have been in the industry for many years possess techniques and strategies for reaching out to journalists that are not only valid, but have been proven to work. However, Social Media is changing the methods we’ve all known and loved for years. Embracing and adapting to these new methods may prove difficult, but they’re very crucial.

I’ve heard people call Twitter “lazy,” but when used correctly, it opens up a door to infinite possibilities, new contacts and strong relationships.

The good publicist understands the power behind having a strong relationship with a journalist and most often than not, spends time harvesting it; talking about activities that they both like to partake in, the latest news and their opinions on it, etc. No where in that conversation will the publicist pitch anything to the reporter, but he/she will drop hints that they are knowledgeable in a certain area and that they know people that the reporter may call on should they have a need for their expertise. This results in the publicist becoming a source to the journalist.

The majority of us already know this. What not all of us know or are willing to embrace, is Social Media’s role in making, building and strengthening these relationships.

More seasoned publicists will set up lunches or quick coffee meetings with journalists to make, build and strengthen their relationships, but as journalists’ workload increases, their available time to meet face-to-face decreases.

I spoke to Niala Boodhoo (@NialaBoodhoo on Twitter), a Business and Multimedia Reporter at the Miami Herald, who confirmed that she doesn’t have time to meet with anyone. “There’s no time for lunch, much less a budget for it.”

So what do we publicists do when our media counterparts are too busy? We tweet!

I’ve gotten mixed reactions to this solution – the good ones are from younger, fresh out of college or early adapter publicists and the negative ones are from the older school of Public Relations.

Times are changing and whether we like it or not, we need to keep up with what journalists are doing and go where they are. And they’re on Twitter!

I advised my colleague to search and begin following various journalists on Twitter. Listen to what they’re saying and chime in every once in a while. I can’t stress enough how important it is to refrain from pitching them right away. Treat your Twitter relationships like you would all others – nicely and with sensitivity. The pitching comes later.

Joy Oglesby (@SSEntertainment on Twitter), Online Producer for Entertainment and Lifestyle at the Sun Sentinel, explained that Twitter is a good tool to “build relationships and start conversations. It also cuts through the mess of imploding emails.”

Not every journalist we want to reach out to will be on Twitter, just yet, but those who are on are at our fingertips.

For those who don’t know much about Twitter, the term “retweeting” (or “RT” in Twitter lingo) is the simple act of repeating someone’s tweet. If I see a tweet that I like and would like to share it with my community, I simply re-tweet it. Think of it like forwarding an email – your mom emails you a hilarious video and you want to share with your friends, so you forward it. (I use my mother as an example because that woman fills my mornings with laughter as soon as I open my inbox. Love you, Mom!!)

Over the past few months, I’ve been getting many “direct messages” (“DMs” in Twitter lingo – it’s a message sent directly to you that no one else can read) from people I know, asking me to retweet things for them.

My reaction, at this point: I’m very annoyed.

My perspective: If a tweet is good enough to retweet, I’ll do it on my own without solicitation. If you have to take the time to ask someone to retweet something on your behalf, please keep in mind that you might be intruding. Requesting a retweet every once in a while is OK, but always make sure that what you want me to repeat is it relevant to me either personally or professionally. Or would interest my network.

When these retweeting requests become frequent, you must understand that they can become annoying and are potentially pushing people like me away. People don’t like to be annoyed by others and their reaction to the annoying individual(s) can result in a broken relationship. Just like any relationship, once it’s ruined, it’ll take a little bit of work to rebuild it, if it can at all be salvaged.

All in all, request retweets wisely. Take your audience into consideration. And always, ALWAYS return the favor if your tweet is retweeted. Just because the relationship is via Twitter, you mustn’t forget that it’s still a two-way street.

I adore my Twitter community and treat them like gold at every opportunity I get. The result? A perfect example is this morning: I tweeted “Curious about everyone’s opinions: How do you feel about people constantly asking you to RT things for them?”

Everyone started tweeting and giving me their opinions. All of which are valid and offer terrific insight to the retweet requesters:

@mklopez: “#nobigdeal”

@KiddGroup: “Good information will get retweeted. If you want to be retweeted then tweet good information.”

@TamiFromMiami: “Dpnds on frequecy”

@ctiedje: “If they have to ask, then it is a bit odd. However, if you have tons of followers it is easy to miss something you might’ve RT’d”

@robertmurray: “It depends. If I’m connected to the person asking for it and it falls inline with my interests, I don’t mind being solicited.”

@dmachiavello: “RT = FWD, just like email….if it’s “worthy” i’ll do it, but normally i’ll do it on my own accord, usually not when someone asks”

@sunlovey: “hmm, maybe tell them ‘once a week, choose wisely.’”

@ines: “people constantly asking me to retweet things annoys me, especially if they don’t pay it back – it’s all about “overdoing” it”

@ines: “there is no better retweet than the one you don’t ask for – and I love doing favors btw, just NOT ALL THE TIME!!”

@ines: “I have asked people to retweet, but for furndraising stuff – not for my own benefit”

@TheTinyJEWELBox: “RTs don’t have to be asked for. if the content is of value, it will be retweeted. You want me to tell them? lol”

@espiegler: “happy to help friends; otherwise, better b good.”

@DearYvette: “I ignore them. It’s obnoxious. I’ve never asked anybody to RT anything, and that defies the meaning of a RT.”

@SJBain_PR: “Depends on what they want RT’d! If it’s for a cause, then it’s fine. If it’s something dumb… not so much!”

@mmWine: “In a time when ppl have upwards of 3,000 following things get missed, asking for a retweet now & then not bad”

Thank you to everyone who took the time to give me your opinions!

The OEC came up as an idea after having a large amount of people ask me about what fun/cool/informative events are coming up. As the co-founder of Social Media Club South Florida, I’ve helped establish myself as a person who’s in-the-know of local happenings.

These event requests from friends became too much to handle and as a result, I decided to compile all of the events I know of in one easy-to-find place: the OEC.

Creating and managing a calendar of events is something that comes naturally to me. I spent two years as the Calendar Editor for the Miami SunPost and loved every second of it.

I’ve had a few people ask me about the name of my new project. “Why Orange Events Calendar?”

Simple. Primarily for SEO purposes.

I wanted a name that represented the state of Florida. “Sunshine” was the first word that popped up due to our being the Sunshine State, but “Sunshine Events Calendar” posed some problems. “SEC” is an acronym for two very well-known organizations: the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the Southeastern Conference (college football, for those that aren’t familiar with it).

My next choice was “Orange” for Florida’s popularity with these delectable citrus fruits and it stuck.

The types of events featured in the OEC started off as tech-related due to those being the most requested, but later evolved to include general business development events like seminars and panels. Fun events like TweetUps and MeetUps came along shortly after. And the latest category is charities and nonprofits.

If I had an endless amount of money, I’d be donating it to different charities all day long, but unfortunately, I don’t. So what’s the next big way of helping out and giving back? Promotions! If I can’t offer every charity money, I’ll offer what I can give – and that’s my voice. I decided to help local charities and nonprofits by sharing their fundraising events with my community.

And there, ladies and gentlemen is the Orange Events Calendar or OEC.

You can find the calendar and its updates on Twitter, Facebook and/or LinkedIn. And this isn’t done to saturate several social networks, but rather to give my community a choice in how they would like to connect with the OEC. I like to keep things simple and give people options.

The OEC is growing and Phase Two of the project will be announced very soon!

In the meantime, check out the awesome mention the OEC received in the Miami New Times by South Florida’s very own Social Media extraordinaire, Maria De Los Angeles.

If you have event coming up and would like the OEC to broadcast it, shoot me an email at oec@agustinaprigoshin.com with the name of the event, the date and time, the address, a few short sentences describing it and a link to send visitors to.

Natalie sent me an invite that read “Racing for a Cure. Her invites you to join Alex ‘Pink’ Lloyd for a very special screening of TIT FOR TAT, breast cancer awareness PSA, presented by Her.”

Once at the Mandarin Oriental, I was greeted by beautiful women wearing pink and white tank tops and hats that read “Her.”

Her Energy Drink was one of the hosts of an incredible weekend-long event that I had the honor of partaking in. IndyCar driver, Alex Lloyd, was the guest of honor – he made a quick appearance before going to rest up for his big race the next day.

Natalie introduced me to some of her colleagues from ID PR (based out of California), all of whom were great hosts (Her Energy Drink and Stand Up To Cancer are a few of their clients) and terrific people overall. She also introduced me to a friend who is the co-founder of Modern Mom. I always get a high from meeting brilliant and driven people like Natalie and her friends.

As the night was winding down, Natalie invited me to watch Alex Lloyd race the next day at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The only car races I’d ever been to were when my high school friends would drag race. So, excitedly, I accepted her offer.

We arrived at Homestead-Miami Speedway Saturday, received our VIP credentials and rode a tram through a tunnel and into the middle of the race track. We walked into a massive white tent and was greeted by more beautiful women with pink and white tank tops and hats that read “Her.” We were handed small Her pink lemonade cans with a straw; I used Her to keep me cool for the rest of the day.

The VIP treatment continued when we were taken on a tour of the pits. We learned all about the intricacies that go into racing. The drivers’ weight is equated to the weight of the car and slight alterations then need to be made the parts of the car to weigh in at a specific amount. We were also taken on a tour of the trucks that carry the cars and needed car parts around the world to each of the teams’ races.

The gang in the Her truck. Kathy (in white), the teams' publicist, explained how to pack the truck for each race. Alex Llyod (in the black shirt and hat), the Her driver, talked about his racing experiences.

Craig Rogoff, Ulises I. Orozco and Brian Prigoshin in front of the team trucks: McDonalds and Her.

After our tour, we headed back to the Her tent for a quick question and answer session with Alex Lloyd before his race.

Alex Lloyd

While he geared up to race, we were all given more credentials that allowed us into the pits during the race.

Standing next to the cars as they revved their engines and took off was an unbelievable feeling. I had goosebumps that refused to go away!

We were told that when the cars come into the pit, they get serviced in a matter of seconds. These guys worked so fast, you can barely tell that they just changed four tires!

Alex Lloyd finished the race in the top ten and everyone celebrated with cheers, high fives and hand shakes.

Standing in the pit while the crew worked and the cars zipped by was truly an amazing experience!

Aside from it being a terrific experience, it was all for a good cause. Stand Up To Cancer gave the Her IndyCar a number like no other. While all the other cars had single or double digit numbers, Her had #40202. If you didn’t guess it, 40202 is a text short code. Anyone who texted “Stand” to that number during the race would have $5 donated to Stand Up To Cancer in the texters’ name.

After the race ended, we hopped over the wall and took a stroll down Pit Lane in the direction of Danica Patrick’s spot. (We just had to!)

Her Energy Drink's teammate, McDonalds

Danica Patrick's car, sponsored by Boost Mobile and Go Daddy.

Danica Patrick talking to her teammate.

Thank you so much Natalie Lent for this experience and ID PR for a spectacular event!

The way I see it is, if I like your product or service enough, I’ll talk about it. I’ll tell my friends and network to check you, your product or your company out.

I know for a fact that if you’re nice enough to your friends or network, they’ll do your PR for you.

Case in point, Jose Boza and his Facebook status update this morning: ‘Friends helping Friends’ concept. I wanted to introduce a weekly announcement on my Facebook page regarding one of my friend’s business services. I have many friends that have wonderful services and I thought it would be a cool idea to share their services with my other Facebook friends. Every Wednesday I will post a different person and what services they offer.

I’m very protective of my network and don’t want to bombard them with unsolicited messages that they might not care to read or have pop up in their feeds.

I’ve had numerous people comment on my blog and Facebook status updates with messages pointing my network to their website. Just because I write about a topic that’s related to your line of work doesn’t mean I’m giving you the “go ahead” to promote yourself.

My instant reaction is to delete the comment.

I’m not speaking for everyone; some people may be OK with you promoting on their site, but do so with caution because you never know if that person will find your promotion intrusive.

My message for this post is: don’t use your friends as a billboard.