Savannah, GA -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/29/2013 -- When I first moved to New York City and got my first job as a publicity assistant at Penguin, a friend in the industry took me to my first networking cocktail hour. She was very patient. This was uncharted waters for a Midwesterner new to the big city. She showed me how to ease into conversation and meet new people in a positive way–people who could help me down the road.

That was my first foray into “networking” as it used to be known. After that I joined PPA (Publishers Publicity Association), I met even more people in publishing. From there I met authors, mostly over email. I always looked forward to meeting people in person at conventions, events and through my travels. I was a good career gal. I dully collected business cards and kept that Rolodex with me to this day. It’s overflowing. I’ll keep it forever–a reminder of my first years in the world of networking. It’ll be next to my camera that requires film!

I looked at it the other day, as I was setting up my new home office in Savannah. When was the last time I looked at it? I honestly can’t remember. Except for a few numbers it’s probably severely outdated. People move jobs, change careers and move from city to city these days. How do we keep in touch?

Through the nature of RTC Publicity, I have had clients all over the country. I was able to do business in New York for many years, build my business and meet many of the people I collected cards for in person. Some of these contacts have become dear friends to this day who I hope to see again in future travels as I work to rebuild my business in Georgia.

In 2005, a client introduced me to Linkedin (I even remember her name-Angela Culver of ACLynn). This was before the term “social marketing” was an everyday phrase in this modern world. I accepted invitations for many years and in the past year I re-evaluated linked-in. It gives us all the opportunity to keep our “contacts” in a central database online. When someone changes jobs or moves, they change their contact information along with it. Same goes for Facebook. Today it’s easy to keep in touch and to meet people 1000s of miles away. Now I well over 2000 contacts on linked-in and I can honestly say the majority I consider quality relationships. Some are old friends, old clients, vendors but some have become NEW friends, NEW clients and NEW vendors. And I met them all without having to leave my home or office.

It’s now commonplace to say “link-in with me” or “friend me.”

This year I have been lucky to meet a lot of new people and haven’t gone to a single networking event. In fact, I don’t have time to. Don’t get me wrong, nothing beats a face-to-face meeting and never will, but why go to a staged event when everyone is hanging out online looking for mutually beneficial relationships? I guess you can say we are “vetting” people now. For the most part, you can see past the fluff on profiles. Once I meet people in person, I often forget how we met in the first place. Networking has become a natural way of daily life, not a function you attend once a month.

My most extreme example of global networking comes from my trip to India in September 2008. I had worked with everyone in Mumbai for the majority of the year and it was my turn to get to know the lay of the land and inner workings of the hotel industry in Southern India. It was a bonding trip for me and a dozen out there. Guess what? 2 years later we’re still connected. Half a globe away and Facebook kept these people in my life. People who if I saw them in person soon, I know we could pick up right where we left off.

So instead of meeting someone and following up with an email nicety, we are emailing and connecting with people we’ll meet later on. A lot of people aren’t used to this, but it is the way now. It’s a way to keep people close by as life and careers change.

Is the old model of networking gone for good? Contrived meetings set to find people who could benefit you? Who knows? I do know I am no longer out there on a hunt looking to find someone who could benefit my career. Instead, I am looking to meet people I can help out and they can pay it forward. It’ll come back to me. What you put out is what you get in return. It’s proven to be true.

Someday soon, I’ll meet everyone in person and forge a stronger bond–nothing can replace that. This is a global society–fortunately, we are never too far from that face-to-face meeting.

As seen in “Women’s Voices Magazine”: http://womensvoicesmagazine.com/

About Rebecca Crowley
Rebecca Crowley is the Founder of RTC Publicity. She can be reached at: rebecca@rtcpublicity.com or 912-777-6965 (office phone). RTC Publicity is active on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/RTCPublicity, linked-in (http://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccacrowley) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/rtc_publicity).

About RTC Publicity
RTC Publicity was founded in July 2004 by Rebecca Crowley. Rebecca’s vision was to offer a PR shop that was an ethical and affordable solution for small companies looking to elevate their profile and perfect their branding. Though Rebecca started her career at Penguin in book publicity, the early years at RTC were spent doing consumer and lifestyle PR, servicing fashion designers, the food services industry and internet start-ups.

In 2010, RTC was re-launched as a one-stop-book-marketing shop merging Rebecca’s love of books with mainstream marketing knowledge. Working with RTC is a unique experience. Clients often come out with more than they could have imagined. Rebecca’s visionary ability coupled with her analytical thinking leaves authors with marketing knowledge and resources they can use for their entire careers.

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