Blog posts tagged comment

Small business networking: Are you making the most of it?

In less than twenty years, networking has gone from something done informally to being a prime marketing tool for small business.

The opportunities are endless. You can network at any time of the day or night – face to face and online.

The big question is “Have your social networking skills and practices kept pace?”

What are the changes?

• Small business networking is now one to many and many to many, not just one to one.
• Business networking and your website are intrinsically linked.
• Networking effectiveness is boosted by switching from sales oriented messages to content and permission-based marketing.

To make the most of these, here are five networking tips:

Online social networking profiles
Create or update your online profile for all the networking groups to which you belong. Be consistent with what you write and keep them up to date.

Join social networking sites
Choose the ones that best suit your business. The top social networking sites are Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Generally, Facebook is great if you have a large following already. Linkedin is a business-oriented site. Twitter is good for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer markeitng, providing your market is there, too! There are smaller ones, most of which are industry specific or geographically based. Still, choose the ones best for your business.

Create content
If you are already glazing over at the idea of creating articles and content generally, come back!

With online networking, posts are like attending an event where the emphasis is on sharing information.

There’s a bonus for this activity; you can use this content in other areas of your marketing. What’s more, you can create lead magnets from these and the comments received.

Comment of what’s being said
Monitor what others are saying and add your thoughts – just as you would in face-to-face networking. Remember, nothing is deleted on the Internet, so keep your comments in line with your business aims and values.

People buy from people they trust and the easiest way to build this is through consistency.

Have one-to-ones
It doesn’t matter whether you network face to face or online, you want ways to explore potential. A one-to-one over the phone is a quick and easy way to decide how to move forward, even if that is to arrange an appointment.

These are five networking tips you can do today and over time they increase the effectiveness of your marketing. Tell me which of these are you doing now?

This blog post by Karen Purves originally appeared at KarenPurves.com