The art of networking

It is something that you probably do unconsciously already, but that, with conscious effort and forethought, can really help you further your career and open some interesting doors.

 

Facilitating better business relationships

 

So what is this arcane art? Simply put, networking is the ability to see potential in relationships and to actively work with the people that you know in order to facilitate better business relationships. Good networking involves actively meeting new people, discovering what their work is and remembering that. It also means that you must establish a means of maintaining contact with new people that you have met so that the relationships can be extended. Don’t, however, mistake networking with making new friends. While there is a chance that you may end up being friends with many of your new contacts, always maintain the idea in your mind that this is a business activity and remember your objective: to meet and establish contact with the kind of people who might be able to assist in moving your band forwards faster.

 

Who you should network with

 

As an emerging talent on the music scene, who do you want to be networking with? Well, lets bear in mind here what you are doing. As a new band that wants to get ahead, you need to be making sure you come into contact with the kind of people who can help you along and make a real difference to your career. Thankfully this is a pretty large pool of people, as there are so many different fields that can be of help to musicians. Firstly, you need to make contact with other musicians. Your fellow players are also gigging, and know other bands, the clubs – maybe record label executives and the media. Establishing strong relationships with your fellow bands means that you have a bigger pool of shared information and potential partners to set up gigs with and create a wave front of awareness with. Bear in mind that while one brilliant new band is going to get noticed, an entire cluster of bands moving forward together can generate a lot more momentum. Don’t begrudge your fellow artists whatever success they are enjoying: it can become part of a momentum that will assist in propelling YOU forward as well.

 

The music scene is also a small one and no one likes a band that insists on being aloof and does not befriend the other acts out there. These other acts are the people in this world best-placed to understand the challenges you face and to share information with you about overcoming those challenges. Get to know them and help them, and they will help you.

 

Tactical relationships

 

This leads on to the other grouping of people you must get to know well: club owners, booking agents and other band managers. These are tactical relationships that you need to establish for later. The longer this group of people has known you, and been acquainted with your artist name and profile, the better it will go for you once you need to start calling them for booking and business purposes. Part of the process of building momentum for your act is to make sure that within the industry your name is becoming known. What many people don’t realise is that this can be achieved most effectively by talking directly to others in the business. A band or artist name that is well known by other artists and music industry professionals will circulate faster than one that isn’t. This is because these people are in the centre of the world you want to be in and they all know large numbers of people, both inside and outside the business. By converting them and spreading word of your activity to them, you are by implication reaching out to their own web of contacts. So that one day when your name comes up for a booking, in an interview or in idle conversation they are able to say, “Oh yes, I know them, I speak to their (guitarist, bassist, drummer) all the time.” It’s called top of mind consciousness, and you want to make sure that your name is right up there, both with the public and with the people you do business with, to advance your band’s career.

 

Trust in your marketing

 

No matter what your personal agendas are with regard to recording and releasing your material, another obvious group of people to network with is record label employees. Actually, you will find plenty of them at gigs. Not all people that work at record labels have any power to assist you, but by making and establishing contact with them, once again you are spreading word of your business into the places where it can make a difference. Many of the smaller independent labels are staffed by passionate young people who make a point of seeing as much new South African music as they can. You need to find out who these people are and make sure you get introduced to them. Don’t bother trying to sell yourself to them at first. Just make sure you get introduced and get a business card, and that they get to hear your name. And keep greeting them every time you see them out. To do more would be to annoy. You have to trust that all your other marketing threads are working and that the person concerned is making the connections that s/he perhaps wouldn’t make if you hadn’t met.

 

Don't oversell yourself

 

Another critical group of people that you should target to network with is the media. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this is as daunting as it sounds. At any given live show, there are often plenty of press people in attendance. Generally they are there to see what is new and cool, and are on the lookout for information. Just as with the record execs, it is your duty to meet them and establish awareness of yourself and your music in their heads. Next time they see your name in a gig listing they will remember. But please, as a journalist myself, I must stress: don’t try and sell yourself lock, stock and barrel to a journalist over a beer late at night in a venue. Trust the rest of your process. Firstly, the confidence NOT to gush will impress most journalists. Secondly, it is just unprofessional and uncool to try to persuade a person of influence with your enthusiasm on a first meeting. Remember that they are the people with the power at this stage and you need to be respectful of that. If you are committed to networking effectively, you will be seeing and speaking to these people a lot in the future, when there will be time for conversations of all kinds to take place.

 

Be interested. Be interesting

 

The point of healthy networking is to establish a network of professional people with an awareness of you and what you do, and the ability to assist you – and for you to assist them. So remember that often the exact reason for meeting someone might not be immediately apparent. Don’t NOT talk to them just because they are not journalists. In your travels as an emerging musician you will need to call on designers, cameramen, photographers, website builders, sponsors, sound engineers and many others. So be polite, be interested, be interesting. Make sure you can contact everyone you meet again outside of the place of your meeting. Take and give business cards freely, put numbers on your phone. The whole point of networking is to build as big a network as possible. So don’t be snobby about it. Embrace the process with heart and commitment. Remember that this is your life and your career you are building and that any number of people

are well-placed to help you realise your dreams if only you could meet them.

 

A two-way street

 

But also remember that, while you are out there trying to meet people, looking for influence and assistance, so is everyone else that you talk to. Networking is a two-way street and if you expect people that you have met to help you out, you must be prepared to do the same. Anyone who makes new contacts and then proceeds to just take without ever helping out in return, will soon lose those contacts. Be nice, be polite and attentive, be on time and remember to give back.

 

Originally published in David Chislett's One, Two, One, Two: A Step By Step Guide To The South African Music Industry. Download a free copy of the book at www.davidchislett.co.za.