15 Tips To Master The Awkward Networking Waltz

{This article originally appeared on Fast Company}

Let’s begin with a story of our time. Joe is a recently unemployed IT specialist who is a whiz at network infrastructure. O irony of ironies. He is about to attend a meeting of a local professional group to “network” with people who might help with his job search. He has 500+ LinkedIn contacts and he tweets every day, but let’s watch him as he tries to mix and mingle.

Needless to say, he is not looking forward to this at all. Joe creeps into a room full of people who are standing around, talking in groups of twos and threes. They all seem to know each other–unlike himself. Joe spends some time at the buffet, picks up a brochure and feigns interest. He almost approaches someone standing on his own but settles for getting a drink instead. Looking for comfort, he takes out his iPhone, checks his email and Twitter messages. He then walks around a bit nibbling on some peanuts. After 45 minutes he can’t bear it any longer. He leaves, having wasted his evening and feeling unsatisfied, unfulfilled, and undiscovered.

Enter Elias Howe, the 19th-century inventor of the sewing machine and the zipper. What could Joe possibly learn from Howe? Quite a bit it seems; because Elias Howe knew a lot about people as well as technology. Turns out that, in addition to being a fine inventor, Howe cut a fine figure in the ballroom and he knew a thing or two about how to behave in social situations. Which is important today, because research confirms that the extent of your real professional social network can have a significant impact on your promotion prospects and your salary.

A recent study of 6,000 executives at 3,000 companies in the U.S. and Europe found that executives with 50% more professional contacts above the average, had a salary 3.5% or $15,000 higher than their less gregarious/friendly/sociable colleagues. So the conclusion seems simple: increase your professional contacts and get a raise. Hundreds of contacts on LinkedIn and Facebook? That’s a no-brainer. But creating “real” contacts is not as easy as it sounds.

1. Understand that networking is not “selling yourself” or self-promotion–it is about developing and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with professional colleagues.
2. Understand that you do not have to change your personality to succeed–turning yourself into a pushy salesperson won’t work. Networking has to be authentic. You can and should be yourself.
3. Get over rejection–tell yourself that a turndown is your counterpart’s loss, not yours. Besides, recent research demonstrates that people overestimate the likelihood of rejection anyhow.

Whenever people gather together in a room, known social patterns emerge; patterns which often have well-defined rules. Some are unwritten and can only be learned from the “invisible teacher” (also known as “the way things are done”). But long before the Internet, people turned to etiquette teachers and social guidebooks for written networking advice. One such guide was published in 1858 by our sewing machine inventor friend Elias Howe, whose “An American Ballroom Companion: Handbook for Ballroom Etiquette” provided valuable advice for 19th-century “Joes.” And so from the ballroom in one elegant glide to the meeting room and all you need to know to work a room with grace.

Start networking before attending the event.

1. Start with an event where it will be particularly easy to meet people, for example, a speed networking event where short three- to five-minute meetings are pre-arranged. Meeting people this way will help build your confidence.
2. Warm-up before the show–reach out to see who will be attending the event and set up appointments to meet. Most conferences today publish a list of attendees prior to the show via event-specific social networks, mobile apps, or Facebook pages.
3. Change your mindset from “I hate working the room with strangers” to “I like meeting people.”

When you arrive at the event, survey the landscape and create a plan for how to work the room.

1. Apply the 1-2-3 rule–people at events tend to congregate in groups of ones, twos, and threes. Approach the “ones” first. They are people just like yourself, shy to engage with others; they will be the most welcoming. Twos and threes are more difficult to approach, but read on.
2. Look for Twos Standing in a V Formation–when two people are standing in an open V formation, they are usually open to others joining their discussion. Avoid people standing directly across from each other; this indicated they are engaged in a closed conversation.
3. Use the ballroom waltz trick for joining a closed group of two–follow this advice for “breaking in” to talk to someone you know. Approach the other person he is speaking to and ask permission from him to join.
4. Use the O or U Rule for groups of three or more–a group of people standing in a circle is the hardest to join. Look for groups arranged in a U formation.
5. Be professional in men/women interactions–professional is not flirtatious and flirtatious is not professional. Decide which one you want.

How you present yourself projects a lot more about yourself than you may realize.

1. Stand tall, smile, and say something friendly and intelligent–follow your mother’s advice and don’t slouch. For more on this, view social psychologist Amy Cuddy’s excellent TED video on the significance of body language.
2. Act like the host–introduce people to each other. Acting as an agent for others removes some of the self-consciousness of social interactions.
3. Pay it forward–help your counterpart; helping people build trust and belief. The most useful thing you can say in a social-professional setting is, “Is there anything I can do for you?”
4. Be bold–blaze your own trail. Take a chance. Mimic Collins in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. In response to Elizabeth’s expression of horror at the thought of Collins approaching a social superior without an introduction, he replies, “Indeed I am. I shall entreat his pardon for not having done it earlier.” If Collins could do this in the rigid rules of 1800s social etiquette, you can certainly do it in 2013.

So go and meet the folks knowing that the real reasons are not to increase your chances of getting a job, get a raise or build social capital–all of which are benefits found in Berardi’s and Seabright’s research. The real reason is this; nobody’s heart was ever warmed by the glow of a screen like the way it is by chatting to a live person, and people talking to people has always been the way business gets done.