Blog · Relationships at a distance
Successful Online Networking
Four rules for building professional relationships through a screen. They all still hold, on one condition: remembering that going online shifts the frequency of meetings, not the substance of what makes them useful.
Published 21 May 2021 · revised 16 August 2026
The rules
Four things to know before you start
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1 · Understand online dynamics
A screen makes us feel protected, and that makes exchanges more direct and more rushed. Don't trust just anyone who proposes doing business: take the time a relationship requires, and make sure the other party considers that normal too.
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2 · Join a community
There are many out there: the work is finding the right one and then actually showing up — chiming in, answering when the topic is yours, not just appearing on the members list.
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3 · Create quality content
A blog or a newsletter about what you truly know. As people read you, they get to know you and your work, which is the slowest and most solid part of the process.
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4 · Don't forget trust
Whoever refers you does it because they trust you, not because they saw you on a list on a website. It's just as true online as in person, and the two are complementary — not alternatives.
One word at a time
The fourth rule is a law, and it has a name
"Whoever refers you does it because they trust you" is the most important line in this article. In 2021 it was a common-sense observation; today it's the Sixth law of the discipline, and an entire way of measuring people follows from it.
Who takes the risk, in a referral
It isn't the person being referred: it's the one making the referral. Whoever makes the introduction puts their own reputation in front of someone who trusts them, and if the introduction goes badly, they're the first to pay for it (Sixth law, the Law of Referred Risk).
Why this changes what gets measured
If the risk sits with whoever makes the introduction, then reliability has to be measured on them, and over time: the same person at three months and at three years tells two different stories, and only the curve tells you whether trust has taken hold (Fifth law).
In the discipline, whoever makes the introduction is called a Connector, the act is called a referral, and reliability is a score that moves — not a label assigned once.
Going online changes where you meet. It doesn't change who takes the risk.
One word at a time
From "contact list" to Relational Capital
A list and an asset can live in the same file and still not be the same thing. The difference is a question the file usually doesn't contain.
A list is an archive
The database you keep updated knows who people are and what they do. It's useful, and it isn't enough: it doesn't tell you who they know, which is the only piece of information a useful introduction can be calculated from.
It's also why a calendar full of video calls produces conversations and not introductions. The question no communication tool answers is always the same: who do I introduce to whom, and why now.
Relational Capital is an asset
In the discipline, that asset is called Relational Capital: it's activated, measured and accounted for at year-end like any other line item. The map that makes it calculable is the Relational Footprint — who you are, what you do and above all who you know, declared across nineteen business sectors.
On the technical side, that job is done today by MigaMATCH: it collects the Footprint, runs the calculation with AIRA©, delivers the introductions and measures the feedback.
The first step
Where your company stands, in one number
AIRA-SCAN© measures the Relational Capital your company already has: ten questions, three minutes, no registration required. Your browser calculates the score and it appears immediately, along with the dimensions where you're losing the most points.
The extended report then arrives by email, and within one working day someone calls you: you look at the result together and assess whether the AIRA-DX© Stoic Analysis makes sense for your company. It's free and limited to twelve a week, so it isn't owed to whoever takes the check-up: it's decided together.
Would you rather just talk it through? The number is 0549 888808.