 What better way to spend your evening at a networking event surrounded by people you don’t know who are eager to know you. Social networking events aren’t always pleasant, but they are much needed when you are launching a startup company. Reasons include putting a face to your company, get new customers, and hope you meet a potential investor. You’ve probably heard the cliché of having an elevator pitch ready because you never know when you’ll be in the same elevator as Mark Zuckerburg or some other famous investor. Let’s face it the chances of you being in the elevator with someone as rich and powerful as Mark Z is slim to none. However, you have a higher shot at meeting an investor at a networking event. Instead of preparing your elevator pitch, you should make your social networking event pitch. Let me give you three tips to enhance your social networking event pitch better. Short and Sweet You may have less than 30 seconds to introduce yourself and your startup before the person decides to continue the conversation or move on. First, start by introducing yourself, then move on to explain your startup and what you do for the startup. In the introduction, you should have answered what your startup company does and what your startup offers. Finish off by offering your services or product. You don’t want your pitch to be more than 30 seconds or confusing. The last thing you want is the person to lose interest or get a confused look and not know what your startup is all about. If the person is interested, they will continue the conversation and ask questions. If not, the person will move on by saying pleasure meeting you and walk on about their business. Don’t take it personally. If there is no interest, you move on to the next person. Don’t alter your pitch at the same event Practicing your pitch before a networking event is essential. If you don’t come prepared for the event it will show in your pitch, and people may get turned off. Also, be as accurate as possible with people when giving your pitch. Do not give one individual one story of your startup and then give another individual a different story. For example, if your selling oranges, don’t tell other people you are selling apples. Most networking events are small, people can overhear, and you don’t want to ruin your first impression with people by telling lies. Be consistent and practice your pitch. Carry the cards Before you go to a networking event, get business cards made. There are plenty of websites that sell business cards at low prices. Nothing amazes me more than when people come with no business cards to a networking event. Even more so when people don’t give you their business card as if they hold the keys to the kingdom of unlimited money. Always carry business cards to a networking event. It will show that you mean business and prepared. I will never forget when I was an undergraduate at a networking event. I met a business professional who handed me her business card, and I gave her back a piece of paper with my information. The disgust in her face told me everything I needed to know that carrying business cards is not optional but a requirement in networking events. Social networking events may not be your favorite thing to do, but it’s a must when launching your startup company. You don’t have to meet everyone in the room but enough people that will help you grow your business or get the word out. Prepare your social networking pitch before the event, tell a consistent story, and carry business cards. So, what networking event are you preparing for today? Dr. J Real TalkDiscussing business, ed tech, and life. Follow me on social media @DrJRealTalk
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 Online courses have become a must for students that need to have work, life, and school balance along with convenience and access. Online courses have also provided instructors the ability to reach a larger audience, give time to reflect on a question from a student before answering, and give all course content on the first day of class. Online courses provide convenience for students, but dedicated preparation from the instructors is needed, and it’s no easy task. Here are three essential elements an instructor needs for their online course. Have a welcome message A detailed welcome message explaining expectations, email response time, an outline of the course, directions for textbook access, a brief overview of assignments, what students can expect from the course, and classroom rules can set the direction of the course for students. There are two ways of setting up your welcome message. You can either write out the welcome message or create a video. In my experience, it’s more convenient to write out the welcome message. A welcome message is easy to edit. When you create a video, you have to take into consideration audio, lighting, writing out the script for the video, and closed captioning. Questions to think about if you decide to film is who is going to shoot the video? Where will you upload the video? Will students even take the time to watch the video? The goal of the welcome message is to be as detailed as possible without overloading the student and making sure the students understand the course. If done correctly, the welcome message may prevent an overload of student email questions about the course. Upload course material including the syllabus Before starting the course, assure that all documents have been uploaded to the course learning management system (LMS). Some departments upload content, and all you have to do is upload your updated syllabus. However, this may not be the case for everyone. Take the time to upload classroom material into the LMS, adjust the due dates for each assignment, quiz, and/or exam in the LMS. Uploaded content before the start of the course makes it convenient for students to access content, and the instructor can focus on teaching, grading, and answering questions. Don’t forget to adjust due dates because if you don’t, students will send you a panic email as to why the exam is not opening. Establish an email response policy In a digital society where Google can provide answers in less than a second, students may expect the same from instructors in regards to their questions. As the instructor, I suggest you set up an email response policy to let students know that you don’t respond quickly to emails and that students shouldn’t wait until the last minute to ask a question believing that they will get a quick response. A good email response policy should read something like this, “emails will be responded promptly only from university emails, not personal emails, and with a subject heading that includes the course name and section number. Average response time on weekdays will be 24 hours and on weekends and holidays 48 hours.” You don’t have to use the response that I provided, but having something similar is better than having nothing. Online courses can be engaging, fun, and interactive. Of all my years of teaching online, setting up a welcome message, uploading course materials, and having an email response policy has saved me headaches and provided for a smooth start for my students. What will you do for a smooth start to your online course? Dr. J Real TalkDiscussing business, ed tech, and life. Follow me on social media @DrJRealTalk |