Regardless of how much attention is devoted to social media and acknowledging the importance of networking, there is one thing that is not receiving enough attention, namely a better understanding of when or when not to deal with gaining contacts and making use of them. As an entrepreneur, you should seek some deeper insights that go beyond stating the obvious, such as "networking is desirable". Individual business sectors are subject to different geographies and therefore also the concentration of competition varies. According to an article at bmmagazine.co.uk, networking is heavily affected by the branch of industry you are in.
Screen your industry
Since there are often only limited numbers of potential suppliers or clients in your area, the effort you put into networking locally may not always be very productive. In an area where a certain industry or sector is dominated by a few large organisations, people from SMEs might have difficulties finding someone to make a deal with. Larger companies and concerns are probably less interested in spending time speculating with someone over a form of possible collaboration which from their perspective is really no big deal.
Don’t rush into partnerships with bigger players
Forming a partnership with a large company can be an opportunity to scale up a small business; however, such collaboration with a company operating on a greater scale can also place a serious strain on the junior partner. There are differences in cash-flow cycles, quantity of work, orders and so on. Ongoing management of the business can be problematic. Margins of the smaller partner may shrink and processes might even be compromised if the bigger partner wants bigger benefits.
SMEs should target their networking attempts geographically as well as in terms of scale. Whether this is done on the basis of social media or personal interactions is not a key concern, at least not the primary one. The important thing is to target large companies that are able to deliver an optimum return on the effort involved. Networking operates on the same logic as financial investment and return. It is an activity that must be taken seriously.
-jk-