The Power Of Networking: Leveling Up Your Online Education Program Through Partnerships

When creating an education program, collaboration is key.. Why you may ask? Well, for one where you lack in skill, your collaborator can help. For example, If you’re great at marketing, but lack skills in some areas like sales, a partner who has a good sales background can help you take your game to the next level. If you lack reach, someone with a vast network can be helpful.

Let’s reimagine this in another way. Suppose you work at a tech company that usually ranks high in customer satisfaction until one day, it falls drastically because of a new update. You sniff around for a bit only to find out that your teams were not collaborating. Your different departments have their strengths, but it is pointless if you don’t communicate with each other to leverage the strengths.

This is an effective partnership.

An effective partnership will help you strengthen yourself in areas where you are weak. When you collaborate and work together, your different skills and perspectives help accomplish goals for your organization at a different level.

If you’re starting something like an educational program, you’ll need a solid network, a good sales team, a next-level marketing plan, and partners who can help you with everything above.

Here are some great ways you can achieve successful collaboration and find the right partners to take your educational platform to the next level:

Step 1: State your goals

If you’re looking for a partner who can help you and give you their time, you need to make sure you both have a vital shared purpose. Common goals help you fuel passions to work together to achieve a productive collaboration. So before you start looking for a partner, ensure to take some time to define your goals clearly. It can be helpful to understand your weaknesses to find partners who can help you overcome your shortcomings. With a common goal, you and your partners will be a force of nature.

Step 2: Choose the type of collaboration

There are two types of collaboration. Open and closed.

Open Collaboration is pretty much like Reddit. Anyone from within the platform or a guest can contribute to a conversation or a thread that can be openly available to contributors and non contributors. By definition, Open collaboration includes any system of innovation or production that relies on goal-oriented yet loosely coordinated participants who interact to create a product or service of economic value, which they make available to contributors and noncontributors alike. It allows users to download, improve and reupload products and services (strictly speaking from an internet POV) so that it’s available to the public for free or for cost.

Closed Collaboration on the other hand is strictly within the organization. This works sort of like a private club. If you think your organization has the resources and capabilites to handle it internally, then you limit it to a group of selected induviduals.

With a genuine partnership, you can invite people from inside or outside your organization to develop ideas or solutions. Open collaborations work best for more significant challenges as they are open to anyone in the organization. On the other hand, closed works best when you have a specific problem to solve. They tend to be much smaller than their open counterparts.

A great example of open collaboration would be Lego’s create and share website. IT allows people in the community to develop design ideas and share them and the company. On the contrary, closed collaboration works best if you want to improve a single department like marketing.

Step 3: Get the right people on board.

Now that you have your goals and requirements in mind, it’s time to identify suitable people to be your partners. Think about people who have relevant expertise, experience, and skill. If you want to leverage their network, get a suitable person. It all depends on your requirements. Research has shown that assigning roles to your partners encourages them to take responsibility and achieve goals.

Step 4: Be clear about the “what’s in it for them” angle

When some partners would be thrilled to join you in your mission, some might hesitate because of the extra work or stress that it may carry. Before you approach a partner, make a clear strategic goal that can be mutually beneficial. Research your potential partner and pitch them the right strategic plan.

Step 5: Encourage Collaborative Behavior

Now that you have your partners on board, start coming up with ways to collaborate with them. It means being open-minded and leaving your agendas outside the room.

There are many ways to encourage collaboration between your partners; here are some:

Lead by example: Your company is your brainchild. You set the goals, and you choose your partners. People watch how you behave. Be open to their ideas and solutions, so they get encouraged to do the same.

Build trust: Start small and open up to suggestions. Conduct team activities and encourage feedback from our partners.

Foster a creative culture: Give your partners reasons to do good for the company. Drive innovation and leverage their strengths to push your website to another level.

If your partners have their following, style, and network, leverage it all. Have them conduct courses and guest lectures to tap into their traffic. Use their social media channels to widen your horizons. One such great example is blooprinted.

If you think you’ve got what a skill which you want to share in an innovative format and make money while you’re doing it, blooprinted is the platform for you. The platform allows you to connect and collaborate with likeminded induviduals and helps you expand your network in ways you could not imagine. Get a chance to interact with our Co-founder Mike C-Roc and his network of experienced entrepreneurs and industry leaders. Online courses are outdated. Blooprinted just makes it easy for learners to follow in your footsteps to easy task-based learning exercises.

We’re sure this sounds super interesting and you might have an idea or two about either starting your own blooprint or picking up a skill or two to get stronger. Show your audience how it’s done by helping them follow your own footsteps with blooprinted. Sign up and create your own blooprint today!