Social media is one of the greatest marketing and networking tools available to business today. The numerous Social media forums that are available, have given business a platform to firstly listen to the needs and expectations of their target market and the opportunity to communicate with the people they have targeted, within specific businesses, in those target markets. Any business that is not using this very powerful new marketing tool, in their business is missing out on one of the greatest marketing opportunities ever presented to business, namely to connect with the right people, in the right place, at the right time Social media is the perfect opportunity for the right people to get to know like and trust you and your business.
Social media is also an incredible tool for improving your businesses networking activities. It offers you the opportunity to research people before networking events, to see who you want to meet and connect with at any Chamber networking events. Prior to attending any Chamber networking event ask any the event co-ordinator to send you a list of the people and companies that are expected at that event. Identify which companies and individuals are aligned with your marketing strategies and then use the various social media platforms, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google to research these people.
Most social media sites have pictures on them, memorise the pictures of the important people you want to connect with at each networking event. This will allow you to use your time at the networking event, as effectively as possible. You will be able to walk straight up to the right people that you want to meet and begin the process of building connection with them.
These social media sites also give you the opportunity to research the people you want to connect with at any chamber networking event. As you know networking is never about selling, it is about connecting with the right people and looking for mutually beneficial opportunities to assist each other. In this vein it would be of great value to know a little about the person’s interests or hobbies etc. This would give you material to use at the networking event, to begin building connection with the people that you have identified as your prospects.
The Chamber has seen the opportunity for helping businesses to utilise this new technology in their businesses. To this end we want to help businesses to connect, network and market themselves via the JCCI social media forums. The two forums we have chosen to use are Facebook and Twitter.
Create a Facebook profile for yourself and your business. This is the first step required, to begin the journey to use the chambers Facebook platform to market your business. As your Chamber we are committed to offer you and your business as many value add services as possible. This is just another attempt on the part of the Chamber to keep adding value to all our members, by offering you and your business, this new platform to market your business and an additional opportunity to build connection with other chamber members.
Once you have set up your Facebook profile, it is really easy to find the chambers Facebook page. To find the chamber on Facebook, simply type in JCCI Sandton Midrand Chamber, into the search window on the top of your Facebook page, as highlighted by the big red arrow on the screen and then click on the JCCI picture that will come up. This will take you to the chambers Facebook page.
Please click on the “LIKE” button, located in the middle of the page. This will allow you to join the chambers page. You will then be listed as one of the followers of the Chamber. This will allow other businesses to search for and find you on the Chambers page.
After liking the Chambers page, you now have the opportunity to post something of interest on the chambers page. Look at the block identified by the second red arrow on the screen; this is where you can post your item of interest. Remember if you start trying to sell your business here, people will simply ignore you and your business. Selling here is as ineffective as standing at a networking event with a loud hailer, telling everyone how great you and your business are.
The second social media platform we use is Twitter. Please create a twitter profile by visiting twitter.com, as soon as possible. We have decided to use twitter to offer a further opportunity for businesses’ to get value from the various networking events. At all the Chamber networking events we are using the # tag feature, to create a closed social media platform for people to offer feedback and to connect with each other, during and after Chamber networking events.
Using your smart phone please type in #JCCI, followed by any message you want to broadcast at the event. Anyone that types a search on twitter using the #JCCI tag will be able to access all the info transmitted during each event. Nadia will also collate all the #JCCI comments broadcast, during each Chamber networking event and send this to everyone that attended that networking event.
Please follow the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SuNx0UrnEo as seen on the screen to view a great video on the new social media revolution. If you need an expert to assist you with any of your social media strategies please contact either of the experts shown on the screen right now.
Please follow the link below to view a YouTube video detailing this strategy.
Author: Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers
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