Networking and writing as a catalyst for relationships and opportunities

Joan Westenberg published I Don't Network. I Write. about how writing can be a (better) replacement for networking in the context of building credibility and gaining opportunities. I found the arguments for writing to be very much inline with my own thoughts.

Writing has given me rooms I couldn’t have entered otherwise. My words circulate in spaces where I am absent. They argue for me, persuade for me, provoke on my behalf etc. And unlike a conversation at a bar, they persist. They can be returned to, challenged, reinterpreted. Writing isn’t opposed to networking at all. It’s networking’s more honest sibling. One is presence; the other is permanence.

When I talk about blogging for developers, I talk about building a body of work and a set of documentation that lasts for a long time in the era of social media where posts have visibility of maybe few minutes or hours and even accounts and platforms have lifecycles measured in years.

Taylor Desseyn phrased it wonderfully when he said (no direct source, I learned this through Jason Lengstorf's discussion with Maggie Appleton)

Learning in public is interviewing at scale

which is very much the same sentiment: you can network or interview personally one person or position at a time but by writing, you can showcase your thinking and your skills at scale and potentially reach many relevant people by writing something once.

Joan's description of networking rang different in my ears however. I'm not saying that this type of networking doesn't happen but I've found it to be — at least in my circles — not the main way of networking.

I encourage people to network. Both for career opportunities but also for personal relationships. I've made so many great, life-long friendships through what people would call networking.

To me, networking is about doing things together, about building trust. It's about getting to know other people who share similar interests, learning from them, sharing ideas and collaborating.

Like Joan, I don't personally find much value in the type of networking where one goes to pitch their skills or services and the goal is to collect as many business cards or LinkedIn connections as possible. That kind of networking to me feels hollow and pointless. I'm interested in getting to know people and their thoughts and ideas and passions.

When someone finds me through my writing, the conversation begins on different ground. We’re not trading business cards, we’re engaging in thought. And that makes for a stronger foundation.

I love attending events like meetups and conferences because those are prime spots for me to engage in the exchange of thoughts with people. The talks or workshops give me a frame: this person is interested in this topic (or vice versa if I'm the speaker) and we have common ground to continue the discussions and go deeper, way beyond trading business cards.

I also love organising things with other people and work with people on projects. Usually when you're deep in collaboration and focus on a shared goal, your discussions with people deepen too. Sometimes it's the content that goes deep but often it's also the level of familiarity with those people.

Some of the best networking moments for me have been late nights organising Slush startup conference, working for hours with great people making things happen, solving problems and building trust.

To me, there's no moment of separation between "networking" and "what happens after successful networking". It's all about building relationships to me. Of course, not every relationship end up leading to something that lasts but those that do, are already way ahead of what my writing leads to.

The benefit of writing is the scale but it's downside is that it's only the starting point and the relationship and trust building will follow from that.

It also makes me wonder if there's a tipping point when your writing has enough readers that it starts to heavily outweight other means in efficiency. I'm a writer with still very small audience so while I do see some benefits through my writing (other than satisfying my inner need to write and its helpfulness in documenting things for myself), they are likely very much smaller than for those with large audiences.