Networking – Quality vs Quantity
How many networking events do you attend when you feel like a guppie in a shark tank? Everyone’s coming at you, thrusting their card at you, making a few seconds of meaningless small talk and then moving on to their next “victim”?
Did you arrive home or back at your office and look at the pile of cards and think who are these people? Wonder what you learned about them and their business and even worse, will they remember you or know what you do?
Try this at your next networking event. Don’t hand out your card to all and sundry. Only give out your card if asked for a card and maybe only after people have spent some time having a genuine converation with you.
I honestly feel if I’ve made one or two good connections at a networking event, I’ve had a great event!
Making a small world smaller
It never fails to amaze me with how the universe can send the right people into your life at the right time. Last year I took VA Classroom’s social media marketing specialist program and really enjoyed it. When VA Classroom offered an updated version for 2010 I signed up immediately. I wanted to learn more about what was new in the industry.
The requirement for completing the course was to create a social media marketing program for a business.
During the course I connected with a lady by the name of Lori Shandle-Fox on Linked In. She has written a fascinating book and is hoping to get it published – it will be the first of a fascinating series of books. Honestly, I can see it as a reality show. She had questions about WordPress, should she self-host or use WordPress’ site. Many people answered her question and she ultimately decided to self host. She then asked questions about themes, customizing them, etc. and again I offered by two cents. Over the course of emails we developed a relationship which ultimately led to a phone conversation. We bonded over the fact that she is a stand up comic and I am a comedy fanatic.
I felt comfortable enough with Lori to offer to do a social media plan to get reader interest, develop a following to hopefully attract the right attention that someone will publish it for her and generate pre-orders for book sales (whether she self-published or worked with a publisher). I told her it was a win-win for both of us; she’d get a social media marketing plan and I have a juicy subject for my VA Classroom assignment.
This morning I received word from Craig Cannings of VA Classroom that I successfully completed the assignment and passed the course. This has led me to definitely decide that I want to market my social media services to authors. Why? Their work is fascinating. I’m a fledgling author, working on my first novel and I love reading. So as they say in the networking world, “you never know who anyone else knows”, if you know authors who would like a social media action plan set up and implemented, please pass my website URL along to them.
I absolutely love how the social networking world has made a small world smaller and how it brings people together and removes boundaries. Craig Cannings of VA Classroom is in British Columbia, Canada. Lori is in Raleigh, NC and I’m in Ontario. Amazing, isn’t it?
Check out: http://www.vaclassroom.com and http://www.laughingISconceivable.com (content coming soon)
Social Media is local too!
When bricks and mortar businesses think of social media, they don’t see the value in it to them. If you have a restaurant, store or hair salon, social media is low cost way for you to engage current or prospective customers.
Local social networking sites such as www.foursquare.com provide a way for people to interact with you and review your product or service. Twitter users number over 75 million people. Facebook has recently outstripped Google as the place people go to find information. Facebook is growing by 500,000 users per day.
Why not engage customers before they patronize your business. It’s a great couponing opportunity without having to spend the money to print and mail out coupons. It’s a way to engage people before they come to your business, let them see your personality and if you have something in common, people will want to do business with you. For example, I’m a dog lover. Everyone who knows me knows that I absolutely adore my dogs. I am much more likely to do business with someone who is also into dogs. I did a website for a realtor (www.duncanmcleod.ca) who has a passion for golf. We designed his theme around golf – every realtor sells houses, many realtors have the typical pictures of houses on their websites, his website will hopefully engage people who love golf. We did the same thing when we set up his Twitter account (www.twitter.com/DuncMcleod).
Search engines are picking up interaction on social media sites. A good comment about your product or service will be picked up in Twitter searches (so will bad ones). What people tweet is out of your control, but being connected in social media will help you handle any bad reviews or issues and take control of the situation. If someone tweets negatively about your service, you can do something to try and make the situation right and turn the situation around.
A really good example of someone using social media to build her brand and business is Kerri Lee of Lee Middleton Gourmet Tea (http://www.completelytea.com). She and I connected on Twitter. She had some really good information on tea and she is now our tea supplier. Just this morning I left for a networking meeting and left a cheque in the mailbox and when got home, the tea was here, as promised. If we were not using social media, she would not have found me as a customer and I wouldn’t have found her as a supplier!
A pizza restaurant in Milwaukee, AJ Bomber’s used Twitter to build their business. The following video is an example of how social media can help build your business.
If you need help establishing a social media presence for your business, contact me today. I’d love to help you get connected!
Are you promoting your use of social media?
I have two questions for you.
- Are you using social media sites such as Facebook, Linked In and Twitter?
- Are you letting customers and prospects know that you are using social media?
If you answered yes to question one and no to question 2, my next question is, why not?
I recently received a directmail piece in the mail from the store, Winners. On the back of the flyer was a little Facebook logo inviting consumers to follow them. This is a great idea – it’s a perfect way for Winners to keep people up to date on what is happening in their stores.
So if you are connected with Social Media, shout it out to the world, let everyone know. If you have a Facebook fan/business page, invite your customers to become fans. If you are on Twitter, ask your customers to follow you and follow them back. Keeping conversations going is a great way to keep you top of mind to your customers.
You can find me on:
See you in the Twitterverse!
Social Media is like a Plant
Nancy was given a Dieffenbachia plant for her birthday. She thought it was really pretty and she put it on an end table in her living room and tossed out the instructions for its care. She went about her business and forgot about it. Her friend came over one day and saw the dying plant on the table and said, “Nancy, what happened to the plant, didn’t you water it?” “Oh I forgot about it, I kept meaning to water it and said, I’ll do it tomorrow. I guess tomorrow never came”.
And so it is with Social Media.
You’ve paid someone to set up a Twitter account with a customized background and they’ve had you follow 2,000 people. Some of of the people you followed followed you. Then the consultant set up a service to automatically tweet for you based on news items. Your consultant also set up a Facebook account for you and a fan page and sent out a standard friend request to a list you provided. Some of your contacts accepted your invitation, some didn’t. The consultant then offered to provide coaching on how to manage your social media, but you didn’t think it was necessary and declined the offer.
Satisfied that you had a social media presence, you moved on to other projects and ignored your Twitter and Facebook accounts. You occasionally looked in to see how many followers you had. Strangely enough, as time went on, some of the people who initially followed you stopped. Your Facebook friends stopped posting on your wall. You then wondered why. You aren’t receiving a return on your investment.
Here’s why . . .
You forgot about the Social part of Social Media. Just as a plant dies when it isn’t watered, if you don’t interact with your followers, your social media efforts will not produce results. Social media should be considered the same as any other networking activity, Chamber of Commerce, BNI, Meet-ups, etc., it is all part of building credibility and relationships so that when someone says “do you know someone who . . .”, that person asked can refer the business to you.
Then your time and monetary investment in your socal media strategy will start to pay off. Don’t let your social media efforts die like Nancy’s Dieffenbachia. Prime Admin Consultants can help you with your social media strategy and coach you on how to manage your social media channels.
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