Connecting with Colleagues in the Silicon Valley

How to effectively network with marketing and PR people in the Silicon Valley.

A couple of times a month a colleague will ask me how to go out and meet new people in the public relations and marketing industry. Since I'm giving this advice all the time, I thought I'd put it in one place. If you have suggestions, please add your favorite networking event in the comments.

The first place to start is Facebook Events. In the San Francisco Bay Area, this is the single best place to find networking opportunities. The digital cork board for these events changes every few years, but right now Facebook is the best place. Everyone that has an event puts it on Facebook because they know it will get easily shared on people's Facebook wall. As soon as you get to the Facebook Events page, click on the Friends' Events tab to see the events that your friends are attending or hosting. This filter will help you quickly find an event that someone you trust has already evaluated.

If you don't have a Facebook account, please create one so you can connect with all your current friends and colleagues. No need to meet new people if you aren't maximizing your current network. I strongly believe that online interactions lead to more real-world connections. If you don't believe me, come to one of these events and I'll be happy to convince you. :)

I've put together a great list of organizations that are generally focused on PR, marketing, technology and social media. I regularly attend these events and I find them quite helpful, well-organized and fun. I normally set a goal for myself to add one person to my network at each of these events. Everyone that attends is there to meet new people so it is easy to approach a new face and strike up a conversation.

Where to network with PR and marketing people:

• PRSA Silicon Valley
  
• PRSA San Francisco
  
• San Francisco New Tech
• Silicon Valley New Tech
• Silicon Valley American Marketing Association
  
• Social Media Club
• Girls In Tech
• TechKaraoke
  
• Silicon Valley Tweetup
• LinkedIn Events - Like Facebook, LinkedIn is a great place to connect with colleagues and friends. The events section should be checked if you are looking for industry specific events.

Whether you are looking for a job, new clients or just getting to know more people, the events by these organizations will help you connect with your colleagues.

Do you have a great networking event? Please let us all know about it by posting a comment.

(Disclosure: I serve on the PRSA Silicon Valley board of directors as the immediate-past president.)

PRSA Silicon Valley put on a professional development class this week titled "Social Media Realities...What They Don't Tell You" taught by David Spark from Spark Media.

One of the key things that I learned in this session was that marketers should produce multiple marketing pieces from one piece of content. For example, if you do a customer case study interview, be sure to record it, shoot a video and take photos. With just a little more effort you can create a video, audio podcast, blog, RSS feed and an online case study. Small amounts of planning before the customer interview can really expand the reach of your message.

Of course, before you decide where you want to publish, you need to decide what you are going to say. When deciding on what content to produce, an easy way to get a quick handful of content is to ask your sales team "What is causing you to lose sales?" Answering those quick questions and publishing it can quickly produce leads and add rich content to your site.

At the end of the seminar, David shot reactions from the attendees in this Takeaways video

Social media has shaken up a bit who PR and marketing people consider influential. We continue to build relationships with the traditional media, but it's clear that large companies are shifting their focus. At PRSA Silicon Valley's event this week, Andy Lark, vice president of Large Enterprise Marketing and Online at Dell, made the comment that when he wakes up in the morning he is more worried about Engadget and Gizmodo breaking a story than Walt Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal. These comments were reported by Jean-Baptiste Su at TechPulse 360 in the video below.




The event was attended by 160 PR professionals from the Silicon Valley. The next PRSA Silicon Valley event is on May 6 titled Social media realities...What they don't tell you.