20A – Growing Your Social Capital



20A – Growing Your Social Capital

Person 1:
-Bill Hessler: Senior Mechanical Design Engineer at The Legacy Companies. Identifiable by his title, Hessler is the head designer and engineer of products such as the “chef’s choice - knife sharpener”
-Domain expert
-Found them through online research and LinkedIn. I then proceeded to send him a message through LinkedIn
-As of now, he has not responded.
-If I have Bill Hessler in my network, I could possibly get an advantage in how I could/should design the razor blade sharpener because he is an expert in designing similar products.

Person 2:
-Nadine Cernigla - Senior Marketer at Townsquare Media Albany (has worked in marketing over 30 years)
-Expert on market
-Nadine is a family friend and I reached out over text
-Through our conversation, I was able to ask what are the best ways to network, find potential customers and to best conduct customer research. There is no return expectation because they are a family friend.
-Having Nadine in my network will open up the door to many more potential clients because she has a really large network from her decades of marketing experience. Furthermore, she knows consumers really well, especially those in my area, so if I were to begin selling the product first in upstate New York, I could do this more effectively now.

Person 3:
-Doug Mcmillion - CEO of Walmart
-Important supplier (my product doesn't necessarily have an industry yet, so I decided to go with a store that would supply the product)
-Found through online research and LinkedIn. I then proceeded to send him a message through LinkedIn
-As of now, he has not responded either
-If I could add him to my social network that would be huge because if my product ever gets developed I would have an in with one if not the biggest store chains in america.

Reflection: This event showed me that getting in contact with more notorious people can often be more difficult and takes time. It seems to be more effective to connect with as many people as possible so hopefully one will give you their time, or just connect with people in the industry you know or introduced by a mutual friend.

Comments

  1. Eli NinoMarch 27, 2020 at 3:12 PM

    Hey Marcus! I like your post. I think you did a thorough search and were able to find some good sources/experts. I like that you used LinkedIn to reach out to a few of your sources. I think LinkedIn is a great resource and it's actually how I've been able to reach out to people about potential internship opportunities.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Janine SantiagoMarch 28, 2020 at 11:49 AM

    Hi Marcus, great post! I think you chose some great people to conduct (and attempt to conduct) interviews with. I think it is smart that you used LinkedIn to contact industry professionals: I did the same thing. Even though they may take longer to respond, I have found that professionals appreciate the effort students put in by contacting them and are eager to help. Interested to see what their responses will be in the future!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Janzen RichMarch 28, 2020 at 5:49 PM

    Hey Marcus, great post! It’s interesting to see the wide range of people you reached out to in this assignment, from family friends to executives of massive companies. I hope Doug ends up replying to you as that would be an amazing opportunity for a conversation! For those connections you made contact with, I think you could ask for more connections to grow your network further and get more expertise.

    ReplyDelete

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