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Blog posts tagged networking
Be the host with the most at your social media dinner party
May 10, 2011
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, forums, groups, communities… With so much going on in social media, how can you be sure you’re getting the best ROI for your time?
It’s easy to fall into the social media trap and open profiles and pages on every network going. After all, everyone’s doing it, right? But, as my mum used to say: if everyone jumped off a cliff, would you do it too? I didn’t think so…
The real value of social media marketing is in the doors it opens for interaction and engagement with your end user. It’s about creating the opportunities to have conversations with your customers so you can better understand them and they can let you know how they feel. It helps us as businesses to better tailor our services to the needs and motivations of our target audience.
One way to think of social media marketing is as a dinner party (stick with me on this one); treat your activities as you would a dinner party and you can’t go far wrong! Here’s how:
Know your guests
If you want to engage with your target audience, it’s important to understand who they are and what they are interested in — and what you want to achieve with them. This should be the basis of your dinner party plans and will guide the rest of your decisions.
Choose a party location your guests like and can easily access
There’s no point holding your party in London if everyone you want to invite lives in Scotland — in the same way, there’s no point trying to engage on Facebook if the majority of your audience is active on Twitter. Select your party location carefully.
Understand the dietary needs of your guests
You wouldn’t serve meat to a vegetarian (not if you want them to have a good time, anyway!). Do your research to understand what your audience likes and what will provide them benefit, then identify the products you have in your business that appeal to those needs and add value to the party guests.
Be a good host
You’re the host of your party so you need to make sure your guests are comfortable and having a good time. Guide the conversation but don’t talk at them – your party is about conversation and everyone should be able to get involved.
Keep in touch after the party
Be available to your audience beyond your social media interaction – ensure there are ways for people to get in touch and find out more via your website and consider email marketing campaigns.
So don’t just jump on the social media bandwagon because everyone else is — make sure you’re making the most of your time and your investment.
Laura Hampton is a copywriter and online marketer at Zabisco, a digital agency in Nottingham
Find out more in our dedicated section on social media and online networking.
Next Generation approaches to persuade, engage and stand apart
October 27, 2010
Phone and email for new business generation are still at the heart of all new business marketing programmes when reaching out to an audience; however social media is playing a growing part in these strategies.
Neilson research reveals that social networks are now more popular than email. And yourBusinessChannel highlights this well in their online video: The world has changed (for business).
Here are a few suggestions showing how you can widen your reach to be noticed, to persuade your audience, engage them and stand out from the crowd.
Join discussion groups — those your key targets are part of and active in. Get involved and offer your expertise, help solve their problems.
Follow key targets, including a sample of their targets, to get a feel for trends, issues, challenges and popular topics being discussed.
Online expert forums
Independent expert status will deliver a deeper level of trust. Get involved with forums that will be most valuable to you and share relevant content across these platforms.
Regular media monitoring
Have a close look at media in your sector, the angle taken, your targets’ positioning and the audience they are reaching out to.
Trade events
Attend all key industry events and engage with your target audience. What are your targets showcasing, how strong and professional is their positioning, collateral, understanding of their audience?
Whitepapers
You’re an expert. Share your knowledge and industry opinions.
Networking events
Attend carefully chosen conferences and seminars, consider speaking at them, particularly those that are the benchmark for your specialism.
Your website
Your website needs to be interactive to allow your audience to connect with you. Make it easy for them to reach you through an online blog where they can post comments or find you through other social media platforms and connect with you there.
Sally Danbury is an expert contributor to Marketing Donut and the founder of Cake Business Matching.
Our take on networking
July 26, 2010
Networking is a great and powerful way to meet people, get your name and business cards out there and even win some new business. We've done our fair share of networking now, and quite successfully, but it's always surprising that some business people out there make a few mistakes that are a huge turn off.
Here are top tips, do's and don'ts from your team at ahp design:
- Do you have an elevator pitch prepared? Is it exciting and interesting or do people start looking around the room for their next target? I'm not saying it has to be the world's best motivational speech, but show your passion, know what you are talking about, know your business and read people's signals. If they start to wander, ask an open ended question - people love talking about themselves.
- A footnote on the elevator pitch - don't take a hard sell approach. Networking is about building relationships. The hard sell will inevitably put people off you right away (huge personal bug bear).
- Set yourself a goal or work rate. Yeah, the free nibbles and drinks are great but what's the point if you don't come away with meaningful connections?
- Make sure you have business cards to hand and also make sure that they are quality!
- Be polite. No one minds if you join their little conversation if you're polite. Read the signals: are they standing in a closed circuit excluding everyone else from joining in? If not, then a "Hello, may I join you?" will go a long way.
- Please please please refrain from garlic the night before and brush your teeth. Yes it's common sense but you'd be surprised!
- Be positive and get off your soap box. Do not take networking as an opportunity to air your gripes about the world, the economy and the government. We get enough of that all day, every day, thank you very much.
- Ready for the kicker... follow up. If you've had a great conversation with some one, follow it up with a phone call, email or whatever feels right. Add your new connections on LinkedIn and Twitter to reinforce your acquaintance.
- Above all of this, be yourself.
Now go and find yourselves some networking events to attend, go to as many as you can until you find ones that you enjoy and are worthwhile, and then stick with it. It's not a quick win but it will help your business.
Have fun...
Tips on managing a multi-cultural, de-centralised workforce
May 26, 2010
I currently find myself in the fantastic city of Chennai, India. Sadly it’s a strictly business trip. I’ve flown in for six days to spend time with the Actinic team and hire a new team member. Hiring outside the familiar waters of the UK has been a very interesting process. Sometimes it’s a little frustrating, but it’s been a masterclass in managing a distributed team.
So, while it is fresh in my mind here are my top three tips for managing a diverse, dispersed and multi-cultural team:
1. Communication is key
Of course it depends on the roles and responsibilities within your organisation, but having everyone well-versed in a common language is the essential requirement for any team. However it’s also important to remember that you may not be talking to someone in their native dialect. So take care on phrasing, be patient and understanding.
2. Encourage questions
If someone hasn’t understood something you have communicated, it’s easy to put your head in the sand. Some cultures find it embarrassing to ask questions, especially to supervisors. So my tip is to actively encourage queries and questions as much as possible. Also, put yourself into situations where you have to be the one asking the questions - it’s empowering for the others involved.
3. Boots on the ground
Nothing beats getting together. If you are willing to employ people in far-off lands you need to be ready to get on a plane and visit. The Internet has given us hundreds of different ways to communicate, from Skype to Twitter, but nothing compares with talking face-to-face. You learn more about a team and its dynamics over a five-minute coffee break than you would ever do over the phone or by email.
Ben Dyer is director of product development for Actinic
- Get more tips on recruitment from our Management, recruitment and training section
Small business networking: Are you making the most of it?
May 04, 2010
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
Want my vote? Then tweet me
April 30, 2010
I was never really interested in politics at school. My younger brother studied it at A-level, but I couldn’t think of anything more boring. I watch the news every night but, as I approach my 30th birthday, I have not yet voted. Of course, I feel bad that women died in order to get me a vote. But, at the same time, I just get so bogged down and overwhelmed by what appears to be three grown men bickering like schoolboys.
So what do I think that these three men vying for my votes should do? Tweet, Facebook, blog - that’s what I want to see! If they want to be talking to the youth of today, they need to be interacting via social networking.
I speak from experience. As I write, I’m trying to drum up voting support for the title of Dorset Business Mum of the Year 2010. I’ve been shortlisted along with nine others and I’m now depending on votes to get into the top three.
What was my game plan? Social networking; tweet and retweet as much as possible. On the first day of voting I secured a thumbs-up, vote and retweet from Claire Young, a finalist in The Apprentice 2008. “Supporting enterprise in the UK is something important to me and my work, so its great to see a young mum such as Joanne strive forward and inspire others,” said Claire, very kindly.
On Saturday night I was very excited to see a tweet stating “Joanne Dewbury calling for votes for top Dorset businesswoman” from none other than Sarah Brown herself. I feel honoured, as I know that Mrs Brown is an advocate for women, especially mums, with campaigns such as Million Mums. This could be a crude tactic from Mrs. Brown to get me to vote her husband, but let me revel in my glory!
I’ve also been getting votes via my Facebook fanpage. The lesson? Mr Brown, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg - if you want my vote, tweet me!
- Follow Joanne on Twitter
- Joanne is also the founder of Networking Mummies (Dorset)
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