Don’t Forget The Real Life Cocktail Party

In some eerie parallel, I found paired in my RSS with the Ultimate Social Media Media Etiquette Handbook this sister article about Tips For Making The Host Of Holiday Gatherings by Julie A. Fleming. Fleming offers suggestions on how to behave IRL at networking cocktail parties in order to secure maximum benefit for your effort. While Weinberg is more about the “don’t” and Fleming is more about the “do”, I found the similarities in strategy quite telling.  Build relationships, get involved and interested, listen well, consider how you can be of assistance to your partner in conversation and follow up. While the tools to connecting IRL and on-line differ markedly, it pays dividends to remember that good manners transcend the high speed connectivity barrier.