Netweaving versus just networking

Are you tired of networking? Would you agree with the Onion’s parody article from January 27, 2011 Study: 89 Percent of Networking Nonconsensual.

Perhaps you’ve been thinking about it only for yourself and how you connect with the world, as shown above. Maybe you have believed that it’s a game whose score is based on how tall a stack of business cards you collected each month. 

There is another pay-it-forward approach known as netweaving that began down in Atlanta, Georgia. That term was coined by Bob Littell way back in 2000. He discussed its history here. In netweaving you weave a web of connections, by introducing those who you know (as is shown above). The crucial difference can be explained using the TV sitcom, How I Met Your Mother. Networking is:

“Hello, I’m Barney.”

while netweaving instead is, as shown in this brief video:

“Have you met Ted?”   

The art of netweaving was discussed in an article by Janet Hagerman in the October 2003 issue of RDH (a magazine for registered dental hygenists). Sales guru Jeff Gitomer also has discussed it. There was a detailed discussion by Robin Hensley in a 2011 article on Getting new business with Netweaving vs Networking. Another variation was discussed by Barry Glassman in a May 2014 Forbes article, Networking is Not Working: The Secret to Making Meaningful Connections.

This April Georgia even celebrated Netweaving Pay-It-Forward Week. 

By the way, David Cutler’s 2010 claim that he came up with the term netweaving is just nonsense. His blog post about it was in 2007. Bob Littell published an article  NetWeaving: More Than Simply Networking in the February 16, 2001 issue of National Underwriter (Life& Health/Financial services Edition) pages 21 and 24.
 
The image of A Live Wire woman came from a 1914 Puck magazine.