Comments on: Networking Vs. Leading

By: Shane Hancock

Shane Hancock — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:00:23 +0000

I agree, most do stop short. Many new comers to the social media world only network. The more time consuming is leading, we as America’s are becoming very over work and under paid and their for take may short cuts. We also need to consider the individual and determine if they are considered a strong ore weak tie.

By: Rachael

Rachael — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 20:50:41 +0000

I am intrigued with this idea of networking and not leading. I feel that is a perpetual problem with millennial public relations students. I often find my colleagues linking to as many people as possible for networking purposes but are missing the opportunity to lead through conversation. I find myself caught up in the same problem, unable to spark an idea with total strangers. As a PR student, I feel that my generation has a high sense of opinion and a deep understanding of social media and we need to work on leading and project execution.

While I find it crucial for upcoming PR students to engage in this notion of leading, I also find it necessary to do the “easy” networking. It is a polite way of getting to know someone online. If you were at a party and you saw the CEO of a major corporation you wouldn’t just walk up and blurt out your opinion. You would introduce yourself, find out what he or she is interested in and try to make a connection, and when the time presents itself, then share your thoughts and ideas.

While I agree that many public relations practitioners need to be firm and create an original conversation, I also find it necessary for people to create relationships first and progress from there. It is always important to find out if the person is the best contact for you. If a public relations practitioner has an amazing and original idea but has no following, or the wrong following, then he or she will have no one to lead.

Do you have any suggestions for upcoming public relations practitioners to embrace both networking and leading equally?

By: Josh Braaten

Josh Braaten — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:21:44 +0000

I dig your post, Adam. Networking, blogging and just about any other digital activity are tactics, and there’s no shortage of people employing these tactics.

But it takes the ability to put all of these together into a strategy that separates the wheat from the chaff in our space. Most people give up when they run out of “easy,” whether they stop blogging after a few posts because no one instantly loved it or they stop at networking because going the step further means creating something new instead of just emulating everyone else. Cheers to leaders, wherever they are.

By: Matt Santi

Matt Santi — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:33:02 +0000

You said “Making the decision to lead isn’t one to take lightly. It takes time, effort and dedication that few will put in work necessary to achieve. But easy is the opposite of any inbound marketing effort. Just the opposite, it’s difficult. And that’s exactly why it’s valuable.”

This is the difference willing to take a stand and actual voice their opinion, even in the unknown, versus the one who says nothing.

Meaning, they are they risk taker, when it’s calculated and a sound business decision.

By: andrew

andrew — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:15:45 +0000

I use the analogies to make things simple enough that even *I* can understand!

Also, I’ve used your post to break out of the terrible writer’s block I’ve been in lately with a follow-up over here http://www.hanelly.com/echoes-and-originals/