How to Build a Beneficial Network and a Formidable Clout: Sharing my Personal Experience

I once did a piece on the role of networking in job hunting and highlighted ways of building network. The article was a bit restricted to job hunting. This article is on similar subject, but a broader approach – building a beneficial network in all ramifications. I am also including clout.  The article may be a little cocky, and perhaps flaunts relationship, but trust me, the intention is far from that. The intention is to share my personal experience on the subject with a view to letting others learn.

When I was mooting the idea of organizing the forthcoming Jarushub Conference and I shared with a friend the  people that had accepted to speak at the event, his reaction was, “wow, you are unleashing all these heavy weights at a time!”. Somebody also once commented on this blog after reading my interview of Segun Adeniyi, former media Adviser to late President Yar’adua:  “Jarus, how did you get these people for interview, when even the mainstream media houses find it difficult to get them?”. These are few of the times people have asked me (and others around me) how I built my modest network. I will answer the questions in this article.

How to build a network

1, Pursue your flair: When you have a flair for something, please pursue it. Don’t be discouraged, you never know who is watching you, but what is sure is somebody is watching. By pursuing your flair with sincerity, you are gradually building a clout for yourself. I have a strong flair for writing. I enjoy writing and I never looked back. When my first newspaper article was published Punch newspaper of May 9, 2003, I never knew that one day, it will open doors for me. I just did it purely out of my desire to express myself publicly. Today, one of my most cherished description is ‘author of over 100 articles published in Nigerian national dailies’. I have that on my CV, and it has opened doors for me. I have met a number of people  through my writing activities, some of them I have now established personal friendship with. When I first communicated with CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, in 2011, he told me he had been seeing my articles in newspapers at least two years back. I was in fact one of the very few people he granted speaking attention during the currency redesign controversy of 2011. I published that telephone conversation and it went viral on the internet that time. I never set out to know SLS when I was writing, but it got the nation’s number one economist into my network.  Another member of President Jonathan’s Economic Management Team and Chairman of a bank also once got in touch for an article I wrote in Guardian newspaper in 2010. Professors Pius Adesanmi and Farooq Kperogi are other people I unwittingly struck relationship with through my writing. Dele Momodu’s younger brother once introduced my younger brother to him, and when my brother asked Dele Momodu  whether he knew Suraj Oyewale, Momodu answered “oh, that boy that writes articles”, before my brother replied that yes I was his brother. Somebody that saw my face on Facebook once exclaimed, “So Suraj Oyewale is this under-30 young man (then), I would have sworn that the Suraj Oyewale whose articles I see in newspapers is a professor in one university”. Yes, I know that was flattering, but the point remains, when you pursue your passion, you gain clout. You don’t need to spring unnecessary controversy.

2, Be courageous: There is a thin line between being bold and being arrogant, but recognizing the demarcation is very important. I realized early in life that that the worst response you get when you approach a bigger person for something is a rejection. Rejection is not the end of life. Very few people will disgrace you for trying your luck. Even if you’re disgraced, it doesn’t remain permanent.  This principle has worked for me time and again. In all humility I must say there is hardly anybody, no matter how highly placed, I cannot approach if I have access – the worst result is being turned down. Since I am not making illegitimate request in the first place I have nothing to fear. I bumped into the email address of one highly placed Nigerian political figure (who contested last presidential election) and sent him an email, introducing myself and requesting for interview for my blog. I could have hesitated in doing that, thinking, how will a Nigerian presidential candidate accept an interview request for a common blog like mine. Well, he accepted, and his media guys got in touch. The interview is on the way. I have also approached many high profile bank and even oil company CEOs without knowing them. Some got in touch, some ignored. There is no harm in trying. Being courageous is a way of building a strong network and clout.

3, Associate with the credible: Credibility is very key in building and sustaining network and clout. I used to be an avid defender  of SLS that some people thought I was on his payroll. A columnist with one of Nigerian leading newspapers even visited me to ‘help him talk to Sanusi’ on something (it’s a legitimate thing o).  He was shocked to learn that, although I had informal access to the CBN helmsman, my articles on him were my independent opinions. His respect for me soared from that day.  Credibility can also be looked at from the angle of the people that associate with you. I call this ‘using network to further network’.  I have built further network using the network I have: for example, I doubt Segun Adeniyi would have accepted my interview request if he didn’t see Pius Adesanmi associate with my blog. When people see the type of people that associate with you, they tend to trust you and take you seriously. But this association can also be a negative point. In fact, my first interview on this blog, with Professor Adesanmi, was more of politics than anything else. It was the biggest story I had on this blog then. I sent an interview request to the CEO of one bank (name withheld) shortly after that. His hesitation for not granting the interview, I sensed, was because of Pius Adesanmi’s strong words on the presidency in his interview. In a country where presidential vengeance is the order of the day I don’t blame the CEO for not wanting to interview with a blog where someone had earlier hit the president.

4, Social Media: Social Media is another medium of building network. Some people have become so powerful in cyber-Nigeria – and even outside the cyberspace – today because of their twitter activities. I have also benefitted from Facebook. Although most of the big names I interact with on Facebook, I had already known and communicated with them at least once in the past through email, facebook brought more closeness and real-time communication. Facebook is another place to build quality network.

Benefits of Network

The benefits of network are pretty obvious. Let me state a few:

1, Credibility: It gives credibility to your work. A lot of people believe in my work on this blog because of the quality of people I have been able to attract either for
interview or some other activities.

2, Clout: Network precedes clout. If you have a good network, you have clout. Clout can be helpful in a lot of things

3, Network opens doors: Network is not about ‘top dogs’ alone, even the common guy out there with very good information, if you have him in your network, can be very useful. Nobody is actually totally useless. I have used my modest network to get jobs for a couple of QUALIFIED people. I also deploy my network in a lot of things.  All the high profile speakers coming for my forthcoming mentorship seminar are not collecting a dime from me; in fact, some others ‘queried’ me for not including them in my list of speakers for the event. These  are guys I should be ordinarily be begging, queuing in their offices to see the PAs before having access to them. But I have built relationship with them over time that an sms is enough to get their approval.

So, build a beneficial network. You never can tell where it is going to be helpful.

You may want to read some of my high profile interviews:

Pius Adesanmi – Ace columnist and Professor of English and African Studies, Carleton University, Canada.

Niyi Yusuf – Chief Executive Officer, Accenture Nigeria.

Olusegun Adeniyi – Former Special Adviser to late President Umaru Yar’adua on Media and Communication and currently editorial Board Chairman, Thisday newspaper.

Farooq Kperogi – respected grammar columnist and university don

Opeyemi Agbaje – leading financial expert and former Executive Director, Metropolitan Bank