As with many face to face networking events, there is very little point in going just the once, because it is the regularity and therefore the relationship building that becomes important. People want to get to know you before they feel that they can recommend you, and it isn’t really possible to get to know in just a single meeting.

The North Devon Business Alliance meet monthly, we move around North Devon (this month we are at the Pack O’ Cards in Combe Martin, next month we will be at the Chichester Arms in Bishops Tawton and in December we will be somewhere in the Bideford area) and so it isn’t possible for every member/guest to come to every lunch, but somehow you need to maintain contact and keep in touch.

That is where online networking becomes important, it bridges the gap between meetings and allows people to keep in touch in between our lunches and indeed other networking events.

Popular sites such as facebook, twitter and LinkedIn all give you the ability to keep in touch with one another as does smaller blogging sites such as this one! Here, you can post your news, write articles relevant to your industry, create discussions surrounding the news stories of the day. And, here’s where the maintaining contact bit comes in, read and comment on other peoples posts, the more you create discussion and participate in discussions the more people will take note of your posts and news.

So, what are you going to blog about?