Using Social Media for Networking Success
The secret to successfully Network and regain a personal touch in the new digital world, is to accept that it is never about how many contacts you have. It is always about the number of quality contacts you have. These are people that you can connect with and develop mutually beneficial relations with, whereby you can support each other, share ideas, leads and information.
The need to be a great matchmaker is as important today as it was before the advent of social media. Yes we need to be seen, build credibility for our brand and bring attention to our businesses. So it is imperative that we have a blog, comment on other peoples blogs, retweet things that are aligned with our vision and values and most importantly we must make online intros between people that we feel will benefit from connecting with each other.
These new high-tech methods of networking have opened new doors of opportunity. We can very easily identify and meet the right people and have direct access to our markets. This ability to communicate a relevant message that is of value to our market makes creating awareness about our products and services simple. It allows us to appear to have a very large presence in the market place. When managed properly all this marketing will not cost you a cent, which is ideal for businesses on a tight budget.
Learn to use social media as an effective marketing tool. This will give you access to a system that will allow you to leverage maxim advantage from technology for very little cost. During this entire process, always stay focused on building only mutually beneficial relationships and you will have the added benefit of enriching your life too.
When you read a tweet, blog or an online post and you support the author by offering them a compliment or a different perspective. You are opening up a whole new world of opportunity. You get to connect with new friends online. These are by no means the type of relationship you will need to develop if you want to grow your business. You cannot depend on any of these connections to support you or to help you with meaningful referrals. If you want to really network with these people you will need to pull them out of your social media pool and make real contact with them.
Always have you antennae out; looking for ways to connect people that you feel will be beneficial to each other. As you grow your list of contacts and connections always remember that networking is not about how to get the cash registers ringing. It is about connecting with people and, forming mutually beneficial relationships, where the payoff may only be sharing information, support, advice or introductions. The advantage may simply be the benefit of sharing a cup of tea with someone that will expand your thinking.
The way you can stand head and shoulders above your competition is to commit to blend old school networking with social media. If you are planning to attend an in person function, follow the simple procedure as laid out below:
1. If it is possible contact the organizers and see who is attending the function.
2. Research the people by visiting LinkedIn and see who you want to connect with on the day.
3. Does the event have a # tag?
4. Follow anyone that is tweeting about the event on twitter.
5. Tweet any specific attendees, before the event and invite them to connect at the event
6. Make a twitter list of all attendees and tweet about it. This will make you the go to guy for information.
7. Identify key individuals before the event and research them on LinkedIn, Facebook or Google searches.
8. Subscribe to their blogs or e-zines.
9. Take a look at their pictures online so that you will know who they are when you meet them.
10. All the information you gather before the event will help you to build rapport with these really important contacts at the event.
11. At the event tweet live about the event via your mobile device with the # tag.
This will help you build rapport with other attendees and build relationships with the organizers. They will love the visibility you are creating for the event.
Author: Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers
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