Sure, tamanguu stands for networking and relationship management. A tool that helps to strengthen relationships with important contacts in your own network.
In this blog article I explain why a strong network is crucial for economic success. Charles Fairchild writes in his book “Pop Idols and Pirates” to go with it: The aim of (the music industry) is to benefit from the dissemination of music material via sustainable networks. (…) This can best be achieved by creating and controlling effective networks of social, economic and cultural strength”.
This article discusses these components and the advantages of an effective, well-maintained network.
“Social” represents an emotional, personal connection to the contacts in the network. This connection is established and strengthened by the personal interest in the contact, the exchange of opinions, experiences and knowledge as well as by dealing with happenings of the contact. The aim is to develop a friendly relationship with business contacts.
“Economic” is a key element for the profitability of a network. Economically relevant channels, contacts and other opportunities have a direct effect on the strength of the network: it makes a difference whether you have good relations with big comedy TV producers or small cabaret theatres. Economically relevant should be the maintained contacts in the network - or at least possibly become relevant in the future. Otherwise, there is a risk of losing the focus on the important tasks and contacts. It obviously makes little sense for the effectiveness of the network if no economic (or alternatively personal) interest is conceivable.
“Cultural” brings the scene or the business branch into play in which you are active. A network is effective if the contacts in the network are or serve the correct target group. Contacts from other industries can of course also bring additional value, but it takes more effort or a stronger reputation to be relevant to them. As an example, a music artist from electronic dance music should initially position himself in his scene, cultivate and use the relationships in his niche to distribute and promote his music. However, jumping into genre-spanning media and channels is difficult if he has not achieved much in his own scene.
So much for the components!
What does an effective, well-maintained network actually offer me in practice?
Reliability:
Relying on your business partners is a luxury in certain industries. Oversupplied sectors have the problem of replaceability and attention. An example is a film director who wants to compose the cast for a new film. He has a huge pool of actors who are suitable for the roles. If you have now built up a good relationship with this director as an actor, it is more likely that you get the role than hiring an actor unknown to the director. The actor has the reliability to be hired by the director for film roles when the role profile matches the actor. The director, in turn, relies on the consistent quality of the actor and collaboration and does not have to invest unnecessarily much time in the research, acquisition and selection of new, unknown actors.
Creative industries such as the music or design industry also have the problem that subjectivity and emotional evaluation of the performance or product leads to an uncertainty whether the business partners evaluate and perceive it as positively as you do. Music and design products are experience goods. The value is not perceived until you “consume” the product. Reliable business partners are important here because they can ensure that their own product is in demand, distributed or exploited by these business partners. Apart from the well-maintained emotional relationship, reliability is influenced by the fact that the business partner has already made positive experiences with one in quality and cooperation (keyword: experience).
Multipliers:
Business partners can serve as multipliers. The potential range of your own channels is limited. With homepage visitors, newsletter recipients, YouTube subscribers and social media followers, you can reach your existing fans, customers and cooperation partners. Business partners which make you better known in their respective networks multiply your reach beyond your own network. I also addressed this topic in my doctoral thesis on the subject of artist development. A marketing manager from a major record company said in an interview: “It’s just that we don’t have the scope to break (a new release) with our own profiles yet “ (Note: “break”= lead to success).
Especially nowadays, it has become even more important to increase the range via multipliers, because it is becoming more and more difficult to reach your own network. The increased amount of information that each recipient is exposed to on a daily basis, as well as the algorithmic filters in many channels (such as Facebook) that have a negative effect on the organic reach, reduce the attention in your own network.
Multipliers thus do not only increase the absolute range, but also the qualitative range: they serve as recommendations - for other potential business partners, for the algorithms of social networks as well as for consumers. Let’s take as an example a influencer, who has her fan base on Instagram and Facebook and posts a creative, enthralling video. When other media channels report on this influencer or share her content, it reinforces her reputation that her content, statements and person are interesting and worthy of reporting. The algorithms of social networks increase the organic reach with increased interactions, especially through high range profiles. Of course, reports and well-defined algorithms have a positive effect on consumer reach.
Delegation:
A completely different aspect of an effective network is that you can delegate tasks to others in your own network in order to focus on your own core abilities. This is important in order not to stand still and use the strengths of the network. As an example, let’s take a successful and thus busy graphic designer. He must also perform administrative tasks such as accounting and tax returns. He is certainly not as competent in the latter as his tax consultant. Doing accounting and tax returns on his own would have two major drawbacks: the quality of execution would be poor, if not faulty; and when he deals with these tasks, he could not work on graphic design and thus earn money. Ultimately, the own accomplishment of these tasks would be more costly than delegating them.
Unfortunately, there is a misconception that the delegation of certain tasks is no longer necessary due to the possibilities of digitisation and the democratisation of many processes. Of course, music artists can now take care of their management entirely by themselves, but, like the graphic artist above, the management tasks prevent artists from taking care of the music and their fans. This leads to stagnation or career collapse if the administrative tasks become more intensive. In a strong network you will find suitable, competent business partners for the relevant tasks that keep your back free. This makes it possible to concentrate on the core tasks.
Identity-consistent Positioning:
A last advantage of an effective, well-maintained network is that the business partners know you well through continuous and goal-oriented communication and relationship management. This leads to a identity-consistent positioning and communication. For an example, take the manager of a professional athlete, who wants to acquire an advertising cooperation as a source of revenue for the athlete. If the manager knows the athlete well, his preferences, attitudes and opinions (in short: his identity) are known to him and he knows with which brand manufacturers a cooperation is conceivable and authentic and with which not. This not only strengthens the athlete’s brand profile, but also the chances of success in finding a suitable and interested advertising partner who is also keen on an authentic representation by the athlete.
In conclusion, an effective network is definitely a decisive factor for business success. Effectiveness can be achieved with several components. tamanguu. contacts can help to sustainably maintain the network through emotional, personal relationship management and networking. Economic and cultural evaluations of the contacts do not (yet) permit it. But to “spoil” a little bit: Thoughts and concepts actually do exist.
Well then: Happy Networking!
How can tamanguu help me to succeed?
Relationships are so significantly important in business and today’s relationship era that you can say: Without strong relationships you are not successful! At the same time, it takes a lot of time to build relationships that you often don’t have in your professional life. tamanguu accompanies and structures your business networking with focus and clear, intelligent action recommendations to build and maintain business relationships more effectively and efficiently.
Only for a limited time
Join our beta for free and manage your business relationships more productively, efficiently and sustainably!
Step by step to successful business relationships
Follow us on: