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As I've written elsewhere
[1], networking has proven to be a crucial new focus (and set of skills) as I develop my
personal productivity practice. One issue that often comes up when starting out is that of finding something to give to the folks you'd like to connect with. As Keith Ferrazzi says in
Never Eat Alone:
"I learned that real networking was about finding ways to make other people more successful. It was about working hard to give more than you get."
However, I sometimes felt that, as someone new to the field, I didn't have much to offer. As I said in my
interview with Josh Hinds, one gift is that of good, honest listening, but I've come up with something more concrete that almost anyone can give.
It's simple: I noticed when doing my research on people that their web sites often had typos, grammar errors
[2], and broken links and pictures. So I decided to turn them into little gifts. In fact, they can be openers when you have no other obvious introduction to someone. I've shared a dozen or so of these, and recipients are usually quite grateful. (They're often too busy to stay on top of web site changes, or they haven't looked at their own pages in a while.)
The only advice I'd give about the approach is to keep it short, and be respectful, e.g., "your site was great; thought you'd like to know..." My main point is usually that the errors might be diminishing her message.
So if your personality runs into the detailed side of things, keep track of those errors - they can be valuable!
References
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