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I have been a member of some awesome networking groups and meetups over the years -Tuttle, Cambridge Geek Night, SXSW kebab, Chinwag, London VRM, Dunedin Skeptics in the Pub.  But finding and choosing a good group is a skill.  Today we discuss how to get the right group for you.

First let me digress – indulge me

Becoming aware of new web services and tools is now part of my job. One of the best ways to find new tools is to have them find you first.

I’m lucky – my longstanding Twitter / Facebook / Blog means that Creative Agency Secrets or my personal Twitter account gets found for business development and B2B marketing searches.  Now it’s payback time – my energies invested over  the years are now sending good content, relevant tools back to me.

These people follow me and I check over every profile that is emailed over to me.  some get filed into specific client or project folders for particular follow up, a direct message or a later decision about whether to follow them back.

Others are deleted – usually because I can’t see the relevance.

Which brings me back to a new tool which is a meet up group that followed me on Twitter.

Trizz.

Even the name makes my teeth grate.  That’ll date, it’s too silly and it doesn’t sound like a business networking group [to be fair neither does Tuttle....].  I took a quick browse round their well-designed site and couldn’t find anything to endear it to me.

Why this group won’t work for me

1. Members can exclude other businesses – that speaks volumes – it prevents the group growing in the long term and finding the ‘best’ member for each  category.  What if the lousiest realtor was the first to join – does that help everyone else?
2. No quality control – if you are going to pay and exclude others I’d want tip top quality of members attending.  People who are that good and worth meeting, don’t pay to go to groups like this.  Period.
3. It’s a paid for gig – I only pay for coffee when I network.
4. Nobody is THAT motivated to promote other businesses all the time – the energy wanes
5. Why would I want to troll my way around a heap of strangers in the hope that I’m the only representative in my ‘category’? Trizz Members may visit other Trizz Clubs as a guest as often as they like provided that club does not have a member in the same category.
6. What value of new business will you get from other (desperate?) people who go to these groups just to get new business….. the world just isn’t like that any more.

If you are a local business and your clients are other locals – fine.  Go for it.

For the rest of us – stay away and focus your energies on re-writing your twitter profile – it’ll win you more new business.

The UK Digital Missions are becoming an established feature of digital conferences in US and Europe.  A highly successful package that gets UK digital brands exposure to key audiences at trade shows you couldn't afford to go to on your own.

i saw the SXSW one in person and have successfully got my clients onto Digital Missions in the past.  

Can't recommend it enough.

If you are located near Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle or London do go along the see what Chinwag and the UK Trade & Investment team can do for you. [aside it's definitely worth joining the Chinwag Linked In group too].

Anyone wanting to speak to someone who's been on the mission before to find out the specific benefits, please ask me and I can put you in touch.