Building your ProjectManagement.com Network

I've been on this site since 2007, and never had one connection until the last few months. Had rarely been to the site actually. I started exploring a few months ago. Ran across the "Build Your Network" page.

An interesting comment that projectmanagement.com places in the text of that page:

"Connecting on ProjectManagement.com is not necessarily about replicating real-world relationships. It's a way to expand the network of people who will be there to help you in the future."

I like the idea of having connections to ask questions of, and share my experiences with.

In addition, when I see someone has no connections so far, I consider the act of sending a connection request to them to be an "outreach" effort. Perhaps they too have been on here for months (or years) and nobody ever reached out to them before.

I have received numerous "thank you's" from people for reaching out to them. I've also received a couple of "don't you have enough connections already" type of messages. I politely explain my motivation, and don't pressure them to accept or do anything. Some readily accept at that point, some I never hear from again.

I also get a few requests to answer a few short questions for someone's college research paper, or start a dialog comparing notes on different industries and experiences. In my experience with having a large set of connections, I feel more connected here now than I would have imagined.

Certainly I don't have contact with everyone, but I gained exposure to people I would not have been exposed to otherwise.

In contrast, I have always kept my Facebook and LinkedIn connections/friends list small, although I did relax that somewhat with LinkedIn here lately, mostly from people who got a connection request here, and politely asked me to connect on LinkedIn because they do most of their networking on that site.

Just a couple of days ago I registered with a site to mentor a veteran who is looking to enter the civilian world as a project manager. That wasn't a direct result of a connection here, but it was a direct result of becoming more involved in this site.

I like that the bigger my network the more that shows up in my network news, and it's often dialogue that I want to get involved in. I was a bit selective at first, but I believe there's something I can learn from everyone, and I hope I have something to share as well. I would default everyone in my network if there was a simple 'add everyone' button :)

I've been on this site since 2007, and never had one connection until the last few months. Had rarely been to the site actually. I started exploring a few months ago. Ran across the "Build Your Network" page.

An interesting comment that projectmanagement.com places in the text of that page:

"Connecting on ProjectManagement.com is not necessarily about replicating real-world relationships. It's a way to expand the network of people who will be there to help you in the future."

I like the idea of having connections to ask questions of, and share my experiences with.

In addition, when I see someone has no connections so far, I consider the act of sending a connection request to them to be an "outreach" effort. Perhaps they too have been on here for months (or years) and nobody ever reached out to them before.

I have received numerous "thank you's" from people for reaching out to them. I've also received a couple of "don't you have enough connections already" type of messages. I politely explain my motivation, and don't pressure them to accept or do anything. Some readily accept at that point, some I never hear from again.

I also get a few requests to answer a few short questions for someone's college research paper, or start a dialog comparing notes on different industries and experiences. In my experience with having a large set of connections, I feel more connected here now than I would have imagined.

Certainly I don't have contact with everyone, but I gained exposure to people I would not have been exposed to otherwise.

In contrast, I have always kept my Facebook and LinkedIn connections/friends list small, although I did relax that somewhat with LinkedIn here lately, mostly from people who got a connection request here, and politely asked me to connect on LinkedIn because they do most of their networking on that site.

Just a couple of days ago I registered with a site to mentor a veteran who is looking to enter the civilian world as a project manager. That wasn't a direct result of a connection here, but it was a direct result of becoming more involved in this site.