Why IRL Matters
And is integral to digital strategy
Years ago, a friend who worked as a military intelligence officer told me the best way to gather information is human intelligence. The most civilised version is talking to people in person. In the internet era this is called IRL, in real life.
In multiple previous columns I've mentioned the importance of word of mouth. It's how others recommend us, and our work. It also helps us figure out if professional contacts are legitimate and trustworthy.
But what happens at the beginning of a career, before an extensive professional network is established? Unless we come from families who are well connected in our area of expertise, it's a point at which we are vulnerable because we're not well informed about who is ethical and who is unethical (or worse) and we don't know enough people to be able to compare information from multiple sources. So how do we develop a network?