Welcome: 30 Days of Networking Starts Now. Click to start!
July 1, 2009 by Suzi Dafnis
Hello and welcome to 30 Days of Networking – A Twitter Event for Business Women.
Watch this video to get started
Late last year I was in NYC and saw a sign on top of a cab for an event called 30 Days of Fashion.
That sparked the idea of 30 Days of Networking, which starts HERE today.
Unlike the New York event, I had to come up with a way that a national community of women could collaborate, network and share resources without having to show up in the same place at the same time, at least physically.
I’ve been using Twitter actively since last October. The more I use it the more I realise it’s a powerful tool for networking and collaborating.
For the next 31 days I invite you to join our Twitter conversation and to network with others who are taking part in 30 Days of Networking.
This month has 31 days. So… today is the ‘precourse’ day, if you like.
So, are you ready to get started?
Here we go:
Today I’d like to invite you to think about this ONE question:
What do I want to get out of participating in 30 Days of Networking?
For example do you want to:
• Build your profile
• Find like-minded women to network with
• Find at least one person with whom you can do business?
Clearly defining your objectives is really important. Then we can channel our energies in the next 30 days to help you get what you want.
Don’t Make This Mistake:
Don’t over-commit. Pick a couple of goals and then go hard.
My goals for this next 30 days are:
1. To help you realise the power of Twitter for networking
2. To leverage this platform to all women who would not otherwise have met to meet
3. To create a great conversation about networking
Each day I’ll post a tweet for the 30Days. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com.au/suzidafnis
Some days it I’ll give you a link to an article.
Other days a link to a forum for discussion.
Other days it could be a great book I’ve read or a Networking tip of mine OR, one that you’ve given me to share!
I want to invite you to take part in the conversation by actively offering your experience, your tips and your ideas.
Use this blog space to actively participate.
30 Days of Networking is a bit of an experiment, but I know it’s going to be great.
All it takes is getting women talking… and we’ve been doing that for 20 years at the Australian Businesswomen’s Network.
So, what is the first step?
1. Choose your 3 main goals for the month
2. Share those goals HERE by adding a comment
Thanks for joining me. I look forward to networking with you.
Until tomorrow…
Suzi
Brilliant idea. Can’t say I’ll be there on weekends but will make a commitment to check in and comment every other day.
First of all well done Suzi on a great idea. What a way to drive business women to your site and network!
My goals this month as Business Development Manager for Crunch Design are:
1. To establish business with at least 2 people. Looking at corporate businesses with an annual turnover of about $10 million + who need to market their business via print advertising or website development.
2. To connect with entrepreneurial women who will inspire me and who I can learn from.
3. To position Crunch Design as experts, professional, extremely creative and welcoming agency.
Hi Suzi,
interesting idea. I would love to participate even though I won’t be able to do it the 30 days as there are holidays coming up. But i would love to do as many days as possible.
My main goal is to understand Twitter better and know how to use it
If I get that out of the 30 days i am very happy.
Thanks
Barbara
This is great! Look forward to the next one!
Hi,
I would like to learn more about using twitter to grow my business.
I have three web sites, I am a crystal healer and Reiki master. I sell crystals, incense and related products, my newest web site is a membership site about metaphysics.
Sue
Hi Suzi, My main goal would be to find others in my field (healthcare) to network and collaborate with and also get better at twitter. Thanks
Hi Everyone,
Wow 30 days of networking !
Being conversative – I’m the slow & steady one – I’m going with only 2 goals for the month.
1- to really get a grip on the social medias and which is best for what !
2 – to find at least 1 businesswoman that I can help!
Hi Suzi
I would like to find at least one person with whom I can do business; increase my profile and reinforce GoMatilda’s brand as THE top of mind Australian migration and international taxation, accounting and financial advisory firm.
Not much for thirty days!
Hi, Suzi & other 30 day networkers,
I’m Margaret Gray and I’ve joined this event for 2 reasons.
Firstly I’m hoping to become familiar with the use of Twitter and, secondly, I want to use Twitter to help drive traffic to my website.
My business – DogsSteppingOut – is a mainly an on-line business where I sell handmade dog clothes. Driving traffic through Google and Yahoo pay-per-click advertising can become expensive and I’d dearly like to raise the profile of DogsSteppingOut so that I get traffic without having to pay so much to Google & Yahoo.
I missed your webinar on Twitter, Suzi, as I was flat out working in my business but I have now watched the recording and found it interesting and helpful. I now want to get working on my business and I’m certain that what I learn in the next 30 days will be a great help.
Hi Suzi,
Thanks for this twitter networking opportunity. I’m sure it will be an eventful experiment.
Intro: I’m Monique Beedles. I’m a Strategist and through my business Teak Yew Pty Ltd I work with business decision makers to help their visions become reality. This year I have started running Strategy Retreats to give business owners time, space and support to grow their businesses.
My goals for 30 days of networking:
1) to connect with business women I would not otherwise have met
2) to raise the profile of my business and in particular Teak Yew Strategy Retreats.
Thanks again,
I look forward to connecting over the coming month.
Monique Beedles.
Terrific. Great to have you involved Megan. Suzi
Hi Mardi. Thanks for being so clear with your goals. Got them, loud and clear!
Thanks Stella! Look forward to your collaboration as the days go by.
Suzi
Sue, well done. You’re networking already. Thanks for joining us.
Suzi
Julie, welcome aboard. Let’s get you those goals. Thanks for joining us. Suzi
Susan, great to have you here. Thanks for your collaboration behind the scenes to make 30Days happen (Susan helped me think through the program – she’s a great part of the ABN team of Advisors). Now.. to your goals. Great focus. Let’s make the most of the next 30 days.
Hi Margaret,
Welcome, thanks for adding your goals, and glad you enjoyed the Twitter webinar. Look forward to having you share this program.
Suzi
Dear Monique, Good to see you in this space (I normally ‘see’ you on our webinars!). Sounds like your business is committed to the same things as ABN – supporting business owners! Welcome to 30 Days of Networking.
Suzi
1. Better understand how Twitter can be used to grow my business.
2. Connect with one potential customer.
3. Connect with a potential joint venture partner.
Great Idea Suzi and love don’t over expand
1. Would like to make a business connection with one or more people
2. increase my brand- Suzie Cheel & Law of Attractionin Action
3. Find people for my new .tv podcast and video talk show
thanks for the great idea
I love this already. Well done!
My goals are:
1. Kick start embark careers in term 3 of school year;
2. utilise twitter more as have quite a few followers now, so better say more stuff!
3. enjoy this networking experience
Thanks for posting your goals. Look forward to your participation. It’s definitely a case of ‘the more, the merrier’ (conversations, ideas, participants) with 30 Days of Networking.
What a great opportunity to move forward and with woman from all over the world! I hail from Phoenix AZ.
My Goals:
1. Get a newspaper article written about my gardenings business. Down 2 Earth Gardens
2. Connect with a local TV station about a segement on Veggie gardens for the fall
3. Get my affiliates page updated with 5 new affiliate programs.
WHEW!
I’m in – although a little sporadic first few days as doing big Trade Fair in Brissie set up today & Fr runs S,S M, T
In 30 days I want to have been in 30 conversations with people who take short breaks or hollers in Aus so they are aware of our Australia Map Journals & Mail-It Maps for simply summarising their trip…. as spending time with your travel memories is like taking a mini break
I can be found @JourneyJottings -
See you in the stream!!
This is great timing, Suzi: I’m also new to Twitter.
I’m a copywriter, editor and desktop publisher. I help tell the story of an organisation through its marketing collateral.
My goals are to raise awareness of my business, Goodscribble, to learn from others and to enjoy the ingenuity of what’s out there (just saw the post-it note animation: fantastic!).
Looking forward to seeing what comes up!
Hi all – I’m in too.
My goals for the 30 days are to:
1. Connect with at least 3 people who may be interested in the services my businesses provide – AssociationWire, a content syndication service for professional associations, and FlapJack Custom Publishing, which produces magazines and newsletters for businesses and associations.
2. To tweet every day and contribute to the conversation – I’ve been hanging back a bit so far.
Looking forward to it!
Freya
Doreen… Phoenix is my old home town (lived there for 7 years). Welcome and great to have you on board. Look forward to networking with you. Suzi
Thanks Linnet. Great to see you here. (If anyone’s wondering about the animation video Linnet is referring to – this link was in one of my Tweets for today.)
Thanks Freya. A tweet a day is a good goal. Happy to support you with that (and the other goals). Good to have you ‘in’!
Wow. So much to learn. Thank you for the opportunity Suzi.
My goals
1. Pull off a fantastic launch party – 24th July, this means looking for a speaker from a large business (which began as a small business) who would like to promote themselves + is an inspiration other small businesses.
2. Get my blog up and running + add more and more interested people to the email list.
3. Connect Connect Connect. I won’t be shy, I will be young + willing + able
Hi Suzi
Great idea, love it. Think I might do “30 days of handbags”
1. meet like minded people to bounce ideas off (its tough being a business owner)
2. increase my brand to a national level (we are in WA!). We design our own handbags http://www.bragbags.com.au
Thanks
Jenny
What a fantastic idea!!!! Love to be involved and will be sharing this with all my other twitter friends. With all our combined tweets and networking who knows where this will go. Well done Suzie
My goals-
1. To build my profile
2. Triple the traffic to my Interiors website http://www.shaynnablaze.com
3. Get my subscriber list (for newsletter only!) upto 10,000
if you want to check out my Twitter acct http://twitter.com/shaynnaB
Look forward to chatting with you all
Hi everyone!
Thanks for this fantastic opportunity to learn how to use Twitter to grow my business. I admit I’m a ‘weak tweet’. My efforts to date have been dismal with 10 tweets since March, so my first goal would be to improve on that! Twitter is evolving damn fast. And those companies tweeting just to sell products may be off the mark – true? So, my second goal would be to understand, embrace and enjoy the collaborative nature of the Twitter network. Finally, I’d like to connect with other small business owners and ABN members to find out how they are using Twitter.
Many thanks and I look forward to the tweets!
Cheers,
Shahan
Hey Suzi,
Great idea, love the concept of 30 days networking. Am travelling a bit in regional nsw over next week or so, keen to be involved and will be online as much as possible where i can. So here are my goals
To better understand the power of twitter for business so that I can share that with my customers and to connect with women that have businesses in the direct selling/party plan industries.
Thanks Sue
Hi Suzi,
Yes, the stop motion video is really cute and funny – but also very clever. It got me doing my first tweet (wrongly on 2 counts but that doesn’t matter, it means I’ve learned 2 things from it.)
I have a few questions concerning followers. No sooner had I set up my Twitter account than I had 3 Twitterers (?Twits?) following me. So my questions are:
1. Do I see the tweets of my followers on my page or do I have to look at their page to see them;
2. If I need to go to a follower’s page to see their stuff, is it still worth while blocking some if they are irrelevant / unsavoury, etc?
3. Can I organise my followers into categories?
Thanks again for a great learning idea!
I do like experiments…. especially Twitter ones
I’m Cat Matson and I head up Alito, a full-service business consultancy ‘igniting the performance’ of dynamic business owners. We provide mentoring, consulting, accounting, event and education services to inform, connect and educate our clients.
My 2 goals for 30 days of networking:
1. Build my profile – I’m actively looking for 4 new mentoring clients – dynamic, savvy, funky and entrepreneurial business owners, whom I can partner to take their business to the next level.
2. Discover how to use Twitter to facilitate this kind of collective project – very cool
Thanks Suzi for being the innovator… yet again
Cat (@catmatson)
Looking forward to being part of this networking group.
My 2 goals;
- connect with other business woman, and potential clients
- like very one else increase my business profile
A little bit about me. I’m a photographer, new to the business and working on growing my business in my local area as well as wider Sydney area.
My main area of photography is weddings and family portraits. I’m a natural light photographer and prefer the outdoors to the inside of a studio.
My website is http://www.angieking.com.au
Looking forward to meeting and making new contacts.
Angie King
Hi Suzi
Yes, great idea. Think I’ll do a 30days of Handbags next month!
Anyway, my goals will be:
1. to network with other business owners and share ideas
2. to expand my customer base nationally (I’m in Perth). My website is http://www.bragbags.com.au
Thanks
Jenny
what a fantastic idea, love the idea and am looking forward to being involved as much as possible.
My goal for this 30 days is to increase the profile of the DSWA (Direct Selling Womens Alliance) within Australia & New Zealand. This organisation supports all women in direct selling (person to person sales, party plan, network marketing) through networking & education chapter meetings around the country, content rich training site (www.dswa.org) and special speaker & training events.
Thank you so much for starting this forum.
make it an amazing day…. Celine Egan
Hello,
I tend to write a lot, so Twitter is a bit limiting for me atm. When I get my website and blog live, I’ll use it more to post links. Atm I prefer Facebook because it’s much easier to see people’s feedback in order and I prefer Facebook’s layout and interlinking of pages where information is stored.
Goals for this month on Twitter:
1. To meet lots of like-minded women through tweets and online discussions. Build my profile and brand. Connect with people I can share my business with and who can refer business to me.
2. To do market research for my logo colour, mission statement, tagline, product design etc… via http://www.twitter.com/FrancieJones (should I change to http://www.twitter.com/FrancesJones or http://twitter.com/magicstars_ ?) and http://www.facebook.com/magicstars.com.au . Before I trademark my brand, I want to make sure I choose the best/most popular colours, words and designs.
Dear Cat, great to have you join us. Thanks for the compliment! I’m learning as I go!
Hi Celine, I know the organisation and once met the founder in Hawaii. They seem to do a great job within the direct selling industry. Welcome to this forum!
Hi Frances, I see you’ve disguised (maybe not that well
Great Sue. Hey… meet Celine Egan (you’ll see her comment on this page). She has a lot of women in her network who are in the Direct Selling industry (and she’s heading up a network for these women)… Hmm.. .did I just connect two people who would not otherwise have met? I think so! Happy networking. Suzi
Hi Shahan… don’t worry about what’s been. 10 tweets, is 10 more than had you not tweeted. We look forward to your tweets too. Remember to use the #30DNet in your tweets so that we can track them as part of the 30 Days of Networking conversation. Cheers, Suzi
Kish, I’m with you! Twitter is a great place to find speakers. Just post a tweet asking for what you want. I understand that shyness can get in the way of networking (trust me, I know from personal experience in face-to-face networking events), but it’s okay – join conversations you feel comfortable in, with people with whom you have something in common. Acknowledge, thank, recognise… make it about them. It’s often easier than talking about you.
Hi Jenny. Great to have someone from Perth. Isn’t it great that we can participate from anywhere? Welcome aboard.
Hi Angie. We are always on the lookout for photographers who can help our members get professional shots to use for business. A good photo is important for networking and that’ll be one of our focuses for this month (I’ll post later in the 30 days about this ) so… stay tuned.
Thanks Shaynna. I don’t know what your current numbers are for Goals 2 and 3 but I’ll assume you’re not starting from zero! Still, anything’s possible! So, go for it.
[...] you set your goals for the 30 Days? If not, you can do that now here. It helps to have direction and setting just a couple of goals will help us focus our energy over [...]
LOVE the idea! What a great way to promote networking via Twitter. Thanks, Suzi…as always very inspiring!
My main goals are:
– How to best use Twitter for networking and gain more exposure
– Increase my business by promoting my brand, services and products
– To connect with people who would like to partner with me or create a referral relationship
Thanks Suzi.
Hi Bianca,
Great to have another Australian Businesswomen’s Network member join our event! Look forward to your tweets.
Hi Suzi,
Thanks for your 30 days of Networking.
My goals are
- find one person to do help/support/do business with
- gain more understanding in how to use twitter
- have fun
x Nathalie
http://twitter.com/nhimmelrich
Looking forward to your daily inputs!
Hi Suzi & ‘fellow’ networkers,
My name is Karen Leslie and I have an online business with Money-Magnets.net. Myself and my husband have written a personal finance course (with manuals, videos, teleseminars, and personal coaching) but I realise now that all great products still need great marketing.
My goals for this next 30 days are:
1. To understand the power of Twitter (I’ve been on it for a while but not really taken it seriously)
2. To build our business profile
3. To find new joint venture partners
Regards,
Karen
Twitter: http://twitter.com/KarenLeslie
RSS: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MoneyMagnetsRss
Website: http://www.money-magnets.net
Hello Suzi & 30 days network followers. I’m Julia, creator & MD of Oradess. My goals for this month are to:
1. Find at least 3 motivated & talented make-up artists that love teaching women the secrets of our craft.
2. To introduce Oradess to women who would like to take advantage of a make-up artist to share their professional expertise with a group of friends & of course have a personalised experience with our boutique make-up collection. Checkout Oradess by Appointment http://www.oradess.com
Great to read all the posts so far. Good luck everyone with your goals!
Hello all,
I am joining a bit late. Thanks to a friend + Twitter for letting me know about this event!
I found everyone’s comments and goals very helpful already (I have ‘borrowed’ some of them myself!).
My goals are to:
1 connect with entrepreneurial women who will inspire me and who I can learn from (and hopefully to inspire some other women!);
2 to build an audience of people who my tweets are of interest to; and
3 to meet one woman to do business with.
I am looking forward to getting to know everybody.
Regards,
Catherine
I’m a little late! But my three goals are
1. Increase website traffic to the blog
2.Increase brand visibility
3. Increase my twittering frequency
Hi all, Thanks for this Suzi. 1st time ever tweeter so I have lots of goals but…
#1 goal is to learn about using Twitter
#2 Increase profile of my business
#3 Network with others providing Leadership/Personal Development programs with aim for joint ventures.
I am an Equine Specialist providing horses & programs at the cutting edge of Leadership Development. Bringing Horses and Humans together for transformation through experiential activities with the focus on developing Conscious Leadership.
http://twitter.com/Windhorses
I look forward to an enjoyable 30 days & making lots of contacts
My Name is Lucy Burns. i’m a Dr, mother of 2 and have an online business called Better than Flowers. We send chocolate bouquets across Australia that seriously are better than flowers. Oh, I also have muscular dystrophy and campaign to raise awareness of this disease.
Ok, I am practically a twitter virgin so the 30 day challenge or in my case the 24 day challenge is my Ist goal ie I will tweet each day.
2nd I would like to raise awareness of muscular dystrophy
3rd. I would like to find one person to do business with
Hey Julia, Welcome to the program. Got it on your goals. Will support however I can. Suzi
Hi Catherine, no.. not late at all. The best thing about this program is that you can start at any time! Welcome and look forward to chatting with you. Remember to post your Twitter handle.
Great Sacha. Not late at all… anytime is a good time to start. Cheers, Suzi
Hi Cheryl, thanks for joining us. Wow, I love the diversity in the businesses of women taking part in this program. Best of luck with the goals.
Great Lucy. Twitter is a great way to raise awareness. Good to have you here.
Hi Suzi and followers,
Wow, what an amazing learning month July will be…..
Twitter is an unknown territory for me and so my goal for this month is to find out more about how Twitter can help both my business and myself connect with more people by increasing my profile and improving my knowledge of how Twitter works.
I am still in my first year of starting my own business & obviously there is a lot to learn.
My business is an online business selling gift hampers, specialising mainily in gourmet food and wine from North East Victoria.
http://www.hampers4you.com.au
Looking forward to being a part of 30 days of Networking (less the 8 I have already missed).
Kind regards
Karen
Hi Karen, Welcome to the program. The good thing is the lessons are all here so you can go back to them any time!
Just catching up on this great event. My goal is to learn how to use twitter instead of just lurking in the background.
Look forward to getting up to date over the weekend and participating from here.
Cheers
Karen
http://www.mybeechworthsecretary.com.au
I joined twitter for the compnay i work for. Money 101 is an online financial education company and we specialise in optional education and a new way in learning.
1. First goal is to network and really understand how to use twitter for the business
2. to not only find business but talk to others that are interested and want to learn more
3. networking is a major opportunity for Money 101
Hi Suzi et all,
I have actually been secretly following the tips and have started implementing some of them but was unaware of this page – better late than never!!
I have been freelancing as a conference producer for quite a few years, however, I only moved to Australia 2 years ago and am now starting to launch a new event management solution (www.eventsonashoestring.com) – which in short means that I am very keen to meet new people and network in order to learn more from those who have done it all before.
Therefore my goals are:
- To learn more how I can use twitter to expand my network
- To understand how to capture useful learnings and information (I do find that there is often an overload of information on twitter – how do I filter the good stuff?)
- To meet new and interesting business women around the country
I look forward to tweeting with you all.
Kind regards,
Nadine
Hi Suzi,
I am playing catch up with the 30 day program, but I’ll get it done!
My goals are to:
- Grow my Twitter profiles (one personal, one for my main website)
- Learn to use Twitter more efficiently and effectively
Of course, I’m sure I’ll get to meet some great women entrepreneurs along the way and have some fun.
Cheers,
Nicole.
Probably should have mentioned that my website is http://www.MoneyGripp.com and it’s a blog around financial education…lots of angles on money, how to make it, save it, budgeting etc.
Thanks again!
Cheers,
Nicole.
Hi Suzi and other inspiring women!
Awesome Idea! Your truly so inspiring!
I’m a little late! but would like to add my 3 too!
1. Increase my general online appearance.
2. Increase traffic to my website and blog:
http://www.twospoonfulsofsugar.com/
http://twospoonfulsofsugar.blogspot.com/
3. Increase my twittering and contacts.
twitter@sharessmiles
Looking forward to sharing with you all!
Sheryl x
Hi Suzi,
Wow! great idea, Yes!
I’m a little late! But i’d like to add my 3 too.
1. Increase general online appearance
2. Increase traffic to my website and blog
http://www.twospoonfulsofsugar.com
http://twospoonfulsofsugar.blogspot.com
3. Increase my twittering and contacts
twitter@sharessmiles
Thanks, I look forward to networking with you all!
Sheryl x
Hi Tara, Welcome to the program. Take a look at the lessons so far to get up to date on some Twitter tips. Cheers, Suz
Hi Nadine,
Secret following no more, huh?
Hi Nicole, No problem with catch up. Take your time. It will all be here beyond the end of the month. Each day’s lesson is self-contained… so you can take it a day or more at a time!
Enjoy and look forward to your tweets. Suzi
Just heard about this today from one of my facebook buddies. I really want to learn what all this tweeting is about and how it will help me.
That will probably count for #1 and #2 goal. I’ll have to give some more thought for #3 but now I have to try to catch up.
Fantastic – love a fresh networking idea!
I am interested in getting the word out there for a range of reasons..
1. Kick off promotion of my new small business http://www.newmediamarketing.com.au
2. Actively and enthusiastically take part in women’s business networking – so we can take over the world!
3. Entice a small business to consider my marketing services.
Thanks!
Cheers, Sal
Thanks Sally. Welcome to the program. Let us know if you have any q’s. Suzi
Hi Suzi
Coming in VERY late to this program but one of the girls in the network told me how good it was for her business so I finally got myself a Twitter account and off I go – with your expert help!
Hope all’s well with you.
Michelle
Excellent way of telling, and good paragraph to obtain facts on the topic of my presentation focus, which i am going to present in institution of higher education.