Instant business networking
Business networking is typically something that happens at organized regular events, with plenty of notice, rsvp lists, and planning. But it’s also something that happens spontaneously all the time, right? Well here’s one more way to be spontaneous with your networking: join Biznik’s “flash networking” SMS group. The idea is simple: If you’re working at a coffee shop or hanging out with a friend or two for a happy hour drink and are in the mood for a little quick business networking, you can snd a quick invite to everyone in the group by sending a single text message. Everyone in the group then receives a text message on their cell phone, containing your invite. If someone is nearby and interested, they can send a text reply and join you. If you want to be part of this spontaneous form of networking, just add your cell phone number using this widget, and let’s invent a new form of business networking!
We’re using a free service called Swaggle to host this. Swaggle just added a new web-based interface which makes signing up and sending SMS messages easier. There are full instructions on how to use the service on their website.
I suspect a lot of indie businesses can benefit from this service. For example:
- Someone running a crew of housecleaners or delivery people could use it to coordinate (“done with house x, moving to house y”, “Whoever finished at place z first, meet us at place a”)
And, I think it would be useful for smaller groups within Biznik, too:
- If you’re hosting a Biznik event, you can create a group specifically for that event, and then if there are any last-minute changes you can notify everyone instantly. “Event cancelled because of the snow today.”
January 30th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Brilliant idea…. Although, I am worried as to how many text’s I would be getting in a day…I think I’d have to switch to an unlimited plan.
It would be nice to have a way to filter out groups you would be interested in networking with…… just joined and replied with a name and it ignored the space and second word
March 13th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Dan, the Swaggle group Biznik must encompass all the cities Biznik is in… could this one be modified to Swaggle Seattle, and other ones for each city?
March 13th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
It could be, but there isn’t enough interest yet for us to go that far. There are only like 4 people signed up on this at the moment, and no one has actually used it yet. I’m a big believer in not solving problems before they exist!
September 1st, 2010 at 8:12 pm
This sounds very much like what “Jott” could be used for with the small work groups in its inception. I am looking forward to researching this so that I can understand it better. I may jump in; I will go check it out.