Top Tips for Networking in Spain

Whether you consider it amazing or a necessary evil, social media is an incredibly useful tool for a foreigner in a new country.  These days nearly everything can be done online. Social media will help you with networking in Spain, finding services like a plumber or lawyer, searching for an area to live, or even meeting potential new clients or business collaborators. Keep reading to find my 4 networking tips.

4 Tips for Networking in Spain

Plant the seeds before you come to Spain

Before you land in Spain, you will have need to spend hours in the company of Google, trying to find information on your new home, where to send your children to school, how to continue your activities and hobbies, and where to get the things you really can’t live without (but in reality are all available for delivery thanks to the world wide web).

Find the right place to network

I recommend that you start connecting with people and potential business contacts before you even arrive in Spain.  Many of the Spanish towns and villages, as well as local Ayuntamientos (Town Halls) now sport a Facebook page where events, contacts and questions can be posted and locals can help with your questions.  Your previous address book of contacts may have gone, but newly found friends on the ground can recommend a lawyer, an accountant with advice on the legal requirements to set up a business, or help you position your business for your new market.

"Successful networking comes from a place of abundance rather than scarcity, a place of stretching your hand first rather than looking for hands to stretch to you." - Anonymous.

Helpful websites to find a community of friends

In reality, when you arrive in Spain (you may well have moved over for a better quality of life and the sunshine), you will want to have a community of friends and business contacts both virtually and in real life.  We can't do everything through the screen of a computer! The virtual friends you met via Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and websites like Internations.org, costawomen.com, mumabroad.com and Expatica can be met over a cafe con leche, or copa de vino.

Remember: networking in Spain takes time

Remember that networking for social or business reasons needs a good deal of time and effort to enable blooms to grow.  You may find seeds you planted many months ago take time to grow into friends, or customers for your business.  However, patience and consistency in connecting with your new friends and networking in Spain following your arrival in Spain will ensure you have a good grounding of connections for many years to come.