As a member of Upworld, you are no novice to online networking. While you probably also partake of socially-oriented networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or others, you believe that an industry-specific site such as UPworld offers great potential for your business and career. I agree - this is the business side of online networking.

Think about it; isn’t the success you’ve had in life to date attributable to the relationships you’ve fostered?  It’s about the people! (Well, it’s the people you know plus a lot of hard work, determination, education and a few breaks, maybe.) Simply stated, networking sites offer a means to take relationship building to a new level. UPworld was launched for you to get to know and build relationships with like-minded people in the allied fields of real estate, construction and design. This much you know.

There is a realm of online business networking where you’ve moved past the electronic meet-and-greet (the essence of pre-Internet networking) to a mode of intentionally providing value. This practice, as a higher level of networking, could be called netgiving. It may take a bit more time and focus, but it doesn’t really feel like working at all. Plus, it solidifies relationships in a powerful way.

Many of you, by the nature of your personality, may already reach out this way off-line. It looks like this.

• Someone mentions a problem, and you refer him or her to a recourse you know.
• You’ve read a good article, and you pass it around.
• A mishap or unfortunate experience could have been avoided, so you warn others.
• You’ve received exceptional service from someone, so you promote them to friends.

Be encouraged to carry these activities on within the UPworld community via your profile and messages to your network, and see how your relationships are enhanced. Feel free to contact me if you have a good netgiving story to tell. I intend to share instructive case studies in future articles.

Next time on this blog I will be expounding on specific means of netgiving .