When it comes to building a rich, varied, and useful Network Graph in the Swarm, filled with talented connections from relevant disciplines and backgrounds, you need to invite the right people to share their networks.
In this section, we’ll take a look at some common roadblocks when inviting company leaders, investors, and advisors to your Swarm network and how to overcome them.
Privacy — will my data be safe?
Close investors, trusted advisors, and company decision-makers typically have broad and well-established professional networks, built on years of forging relationships.
This is precisely what makes their networks so valuable to your company, but it also makes these people cautious about who they share their hard-earned information with. Make sure to reassure your investors, advisors, and leaders that their data will be secure within the Swarm. Here’s how:
- Be clear that not everyone in your organization will be able to see the connections your members share. Only a handful of people (the account Owner and Admins) like the founder, recruiter, and hiring managers will be able to access this information.
- The data will be kept safe and will only be used when needed. Nobody who isn’t directly using the data for previously agreed purposes will be able to see or access it.
- The Swarm is fully GDPR compliant and employs a range of strict data safety & security processes to ensure all the data within the platform is kept as safe as possible at all times.
Watch an overview from CEO David Connors below and visit our Safety Center here.
Giving context
If you simply ask someone to share their network with you on The Swarm without context, it may be difficult to motivate them to do so.
We recommend you put the request in context, for example, “We need to hire a new Head of Engineering, and as our technical advisor I know you must have super relevant connections for that role. We use The Swarm to create a collective company network. I'll invite you so we can maximize the chances of us finding the perfect hire!”
Make sure to align every ask with a specific role. Don’t just approach an investor and ask to share their network because it’s sure to be filled with useful connections — be specific. Say, “We’re looking for a Head of Sales, but our team is mostly engineers so we don’t have a strong network in the area of sales. You most likely know many more relevant people here, are you willing to try the Swarm and help us find the right person?”
Note that in both of the above examples, the people being asked stand to benefit from you connecting with the perfect candidate. The advisor would gain a more relevant and qualified engineer for their team, and the investor could help recruit the perfect head of sales to grow the business and give them a better return on their investment.
Whenever you ask someone to share their network, be sure to outline how this could directly benefit the company and them.
Be clear, straightforward, and transparent
People — understandably — want to know exactly what’s happening with their data before they agree to share it.
For this reason, if you want to convince your leaders, investors, and advisors to share their connections with you, you’ll need to be as clear and open as possible about how you’ll use it and what it means for them.
For example, in many cases, you may want to assure your advisors, investors, and leaders that you won’t reach out to anyone in their network without first running it by them.
Be sure to establish the process upfront and be transparent and clear from the very beginning.
Make it easy and inviting
The most important thing to remember when reaching out to your investors, advisors, and leaders is to make the process as easy as possible for them, and eliminate as many sources of anxiety, uncertainty, and confusion as you can.
If you can show your investors, advisors, and leaders that their connections data will not only be kept safe and used responsibility, but also contribute to clear and measurable benefits for the business and for them personally, it will be far easier to get them on board.
