Modeling Business: Is There a Difference Between Networking and Relationship Building?
written by Photographer Christopher Thompson of ChrispImages
@Chrispimages
Recently the popular term in the modeling industry has become “networking”, which seems to just mean meeting people at parties or online networking sites, and then asking them to work for you for free or put you in a magazine for exposure. Meanwhile, in the business world they had a slight variation on this called relationship building. Thats where you get to know people in your industry and find ways to work together in a way that is mutually beneficial.
Networking is great. Getting to know people, expanding your horizons. You might even be able to build a fanbase. But what’s the point if you are just networking to network, I constantly get emails from models and web site/small magazine owners talking about, “lets network,” which never seems lead to WORK.
On the other hand, I am a big fan of business relationship building. I enjoy meeting new people, getting to know them, and finding ways to help them help me. A lot of my business comes off of referrals because I build a relationships with each client. People tend to want to work with people they trust which usually comes from the relationship you have built with them. There is way more to the concept but I’ll keep it simple since this is for a blog….
So in conclusion, keep networking, but build relationships in your networks to maximize the benefits of knowing all of these people. If you know a lot of photographers, find ways to set up referral systems with them, same with editors, writers, casting directors and agents.
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