Rae Stonehouse, author of Power Networking for Shy People: Tips & Techniques for Moving from Shy to Sly! Offers proven sage advice on how to maximize your business networking effectiveness. In Be the Red Car: Power Networking Tips & Techniques Rae offers sage advice on how to raise your visibility at a business networking event.

1. Power Networking Tips & Techniques: Be the Red Car
At a recent networking event I made comment to a woman that since having met her
within the past year I was starting to see her at a lot of different events. She replied
“Yeah me to. You are the red car!”
I immediately recognized the red car reference from the Law of Attraction. The idea
being that if you were to buy a red car or even were thinking about buying one, then you
would start noticing red cars everywhere. The Universe recreates itself for you. Up until
that point red cars were not in your range of focus.
Now when it comes to business networking it would be advantageous for you to become
that red car i.e. someone that others recognize easily.
One way to become more visible would be to attend local events that provide networking
opportunities and working the room so that you “touch” many people i.e. interact with
them. If you attend an event regularly, people will get used to seeing you there. It could
get to the point that if you aren’t in attendance someone might say “I wonder where ….
is?”
If you are not overly comfortable with interacting in a face-to-face situation, cyberspace
can be a good resource for you. Social media venues such as Twitter, Facebook &
Linkedin offer plenty of opportunities to create an on-line persona. By joining on-line
groups that are locally based you can easily interact with business people that you might
not meet at a networking event or in the normal course of operating your business. Both
Linkedin and Facebook allow you to post updates which can help to keep your name
front and centre. So when you actually do meet them in person you already have
something in common to talk about.
I am very active on-line promoting my articles such as this one as well as my business
and events that I am organizing. I also have quite a few websites that I have created and
maintain. This tends to provide lots of entries in Google. If for whatever reason
somebody was researching me, they would have lots of info to sift through. This works
as a promotional tool for me.
I was at a Chamber of Commerce event and a young woman came up to me and said “I
just had to meet you. You are everywhere!” She was referring to my presence on local
social media venues. To her I had become the “red car.” She was actively visiting the
sites and my name and photo were popping up everywhere.

2. I believe that there is an accompanying assumption. If you are seen everywhere i.e.
being the red car, you are obviously well-connected, that you have something of value to
share and it would be worthwhile getting to know you.
How do you become the red car? It could be blue or any other colour if you don’t care for
red. If I had my way it would be a bright school bus yellow pickup truck. But since I
don’t own one and its on my wish list, perhaps seeing someone else driving one might
not be so appreciated. I am a little leery about putting my thoughts about a new pickup
truck out to the universe. The last time I did I had a new truck within a week. All I had to
do was hit some black ice, do a 360 degree turnaround, land in a ditch, have the wheels
fall off and have the truck written off.
So if you do become someone’s “red car” use your power wisely!
Rae Stonehouse is the author of Power Networking For Shy
People: Tips & Techniques to Move from Shy to Sly! Visit us
at http://www.powernetworkingforshypeople.com Join our
discussion on Facebook & LinkedIn. Just search for Power
Networking for Shy People.