Skip to 0 minutes and 6 secondsSo, managing networks is important. If you don't follow up with people, it just fades that relationship. And I want to give one practical tip, which is conferences. In my experience, conferences are a very useful place to meet people and also manage relationships. What is important for managing relationships is give an update what you are doing and what are the next steps, how are you planning to proceed, and also hear people's latest developments. And updating to each other is one of key aspects of managing the network, and conferences are a very good place. The main points in maintaining your network is for yourself as a person realising how important it is.

Skip to 1 minute and 6 secondsYou get a lot of-- when you do trainings about planning to keeping contacts with your network and blah, blah, blah, OK. This may all work for some persons, it doesn't work for me. What works for me is the continuous realisation that the network is what makes our company and what makes our company,

Skip to 1 minute and 27 secondswhat gives us credibility, what makes us important to other people, what keeps us invited at the table to talk along. And that means every now and then just dropping a message, but you have to do it by yourself, not because it's planned, but because it's an intrinsic part of your interest in that person and in what that person does. Even if you don't like the person, if he's important, there must be an intrinsic interest to stay in touch. What entrepreneurs should know and what entrepreneurs should do is to create a relationship in their networks. By simply adding a contact on LinkedIn is not going to do anything, by simply having one meeting with someone, it's not going to do anything.

Skip to 2 minutes and 12 secondsYou need to build a relationship. I don't mean you to be intimate about it, but you need to create something where you can both learn from each other, you can both add to each other. That's very important in a network. The most important aspect of managing a partnership is maintaining good relationships and-- yeah, that's also a bit fake, but how do you do that is by get in contact with your partner. Also, if you have not spoken to them for a month, call them, ask how it is, and ask for new developments, potentially, because that could also benefit your company as such. And also really treat your partners well.

Skip to 2 minutes and 51 secondsIf they have a question for you, make sure that you also that within one week or two weeks, it's really basic, formal rule, so to say, how to approach people. But it's also really important for partnerships and so.

Best practices for managing networks

In this video, University of Twente entrepreneurs share their best practices for managing networks.

Watch the video. List the three aspects which are most important to you. Why do you believe they are particularly important to you?

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