How to Network with Julia Hobsbawm
By Holly Howe
Julia Hobsbawm is an entrepreneur, writer, and consultant, who in her own words, “addresses the challenges of the hyper connected age”. She spoke with AWITA members on how to network successfully.
Her discussion revolved around six key network priorities:
Notice your networks
Ignite dormant ties
Be interesting/informed
Who is in your social six?
Research, react, reach out
“Peoplebase” not database
However, her main message was “Don’t think about how many people you can work a room with but think about the opposite. Think about who you can connect with meaningfully.”
Look at your networks and create a “peoplebase”
Focus on who matters to you, in your life and your network, and who’s going to make that difference. Julia believes “the more people you know from different backgrounds, different perspectives, the better. Science shows that.” She also recommends that we call our database a “peoplebase” because “it’s very important not to think of people as data points but as individuals, but it doesn’t mean you should shirk the obligation to organise them like we organise our sock drawer!”
Networking shouldn’t be about selling or branding
She also stresses that networking is not about selling anything. “If you want to pitch and sell, then that’s what you’re doing – you’re pitching and selling, you’re not networking. Networking is forming relationships, and having curiosity and connection, in a loose, un-time specific way.”
She also feels that we’re moving beyond the age of brand and into a more collaborative future. “I would urge you to spend less time thinking about promoting your brand, and more on being alive to who else is doing what you’re doing, and reaching out to them. It’s a much more fruitful way to build networks.”
Social media
While social media is really useful, in-person communication (even by screen!) is king.
“Even though we’re so used to reply-all, and Twitter and broadcast and the culture of brand projection, in the end you move the needle with people you trust, the people you are going to exchange intimacy with – face-to-face, voice-to-voice.”
Because “the microphone is always on” when it comes to social media, Julia believes “small trusted networks in the hierarchy of communication are much more important than large broadcast ones.”
Strong ties vs weak ties
Network science is to do with the distance between different connections. Julia explains “On the one hand you want very close ties to some people because if you’re way out of the loop you can’t reach people, but on the other hand if you don't have what sociologist Ronald Burt calls “in-betweenness”, if you don’t have a magic space where odd ideas and connections can happen, then you actually might be missing out.”
Six is the magic number
Julia recommends identifying your key connections. “Have a social six: identify a name, your own group of people who you’re in a relationship with now – and why, and audit how you’re connected with them… pay attention to who you really can reach out to – who you really care about being connected with…the sooner you can be yourself, the sooner you can form stronger bonds, stronger trusts.”
You get much more from the same people than you do from new ones
Reconnecting with people you already know can be more beneficial if you strengthen that tie as opposed to trying to focus on connecting with new people. Julia elaborated: “So what that means in practice is that you might want to contact a journalist that you do know and say ‘how’s lockdown going for you?’ and then maybe they’ll tell you stuff that you can learn from, rather than trying to make a new connection.”
It’s not just who you know, it’s what you know
What you know and what you share is really valuable. Once you have something of value, then you are valued yourself. Julia recommends us to “be interesting and interested”. Expand your reading. Be curious… “because curiosity is the great driver of connection. Learn, watch, listen – become an information tourist.”
Strengthen your social health and build patterns
Treat your diary like your body. “You don’t put bad stuff in your body without knowing you’re going to feel ill, so don’t do that with your diary but also don’t lose control, don’t lose track.” Julia suggests not being too regimented and only choose to catch-up with people that you know are relevant right now. “Build in some people that you are catching up with that maybe you have no idea what’s going to come from the conversation. Choose wisely who you think those people are going to be.”
Julia also suggests that we should build patterns and develop schedules. “Regularise your reach out and meetings. Around midday every day, and around 6pm every day, I have a catch up Zoom, and I mix it up between someone I do know and someone I don’t know: an established tie and a new tie.”