When Contacts Aren’t Network Contacts

I got the following question today:

I add contacts from the company screen with the link that is provided. Yet when I go into my network panel, the contact I entered doesn’t appear, even when I search. Shouldn’t the contact be available in both places?

This is a great question, and brings out one of the ways JibberJobber manages your contacts.

Let me give you two scenerios:

Scenerio 1: I met someone (Ms. Jones) at Franklin Covey who can be influential in helping me network my way into the company… someone who is a considerable influencer.

Scenerio 2: When I went in to meet with Ms. Jones I met her secretary who was kind and pleasant.

Now, let me first say that I think that all contacts are, or can be, valuable. I’m not going to discriminate between the professional/boss who makes a lot more money and the secretary who makes a fraction of the income. Here are two differences:

  • The Ms. Jones will get different kinds of communication from me, like my newsletter (which they would be more interested in)
  • The secretary may not be interested in my newsletter, but she may be more open to making other connections within the company for me. I have to develop a relationship with her in a different way than I would with Ms. Jones, but this can be a great contact.

Within JibberJobber we allow you to trap contact information for people that you might not consider part of your professional network. Why? In addition to Ms. Jones and her secretary, you are likely to meet people who really don’t even want to (or shouldn’t) be in your “network.” This is where nomenclature gets a little muddled (can you have a contact that’s not a network contact??), but here’s how we handle it.

Anyone that you add as a contact in the Professional Networking section is in your network.

Anyone that you add as a contact in the Company section can be in your network, but might not be. It’s up to you.

In order to add someone to a company AND put them in your Network list panel (or, make them a network contact), make sure you choose a network to put them into (see the red 1 below):

Adding a company contact and putting them in your network

(note, #2 allows you to quickly add contact info without retyping it)

If you leave the Network Category at the default (– choose one –), this will add the contact to the company but will not add them to your network list! Let me show you:

adding contacts to your database

#1, if you leave it at –choose one– then this contact will be added as a company contact but NOT as a network contact.

#2, if you choose No Category, or any other category, then this contact will be added to the company and to your network list.

I hope this helps clarify why you might put someone in JibberJobber and not have them show up in your list panel! Also, adding more than one contact to a company is premium feature.

Does it make sense to make a contact that isn’t really a network contact?