Social media is all the rave these days. Each social networking site has it’s strengths and weaknesses, and each network can be leveraged by it’s strengths to help you continue growing your business.
The Purpose of Social Networking
The main purpose of social networking—online or in person—is to continue to build your reputation.
By using social media networks, you can extend your reach to more people in less time with less effort and create a tribe of followers that will help you to build your reputation.
Four Benefits of Social Networking
There are many benefits of using social media sites to extend the reach of your networking efforts. Four key benefits are follow-up, creating tribes, research & development, and networking.
Follow-Up
To get the most out of networking, you actually have to put some work into it. One of the ways to make networking actually work for you is to follow up with the people that you meet. Instead of just sending a quick email or hand-written note, invite those you have met to connect with you on various social networks. This will be mutually beneficial, as it will keep you at the top of their mind and vice versa every time that they see your name or organization show up in their feeds.
Creating Tribes
As I said, if you create a tribe of followers, they will inadvertently become advocates to your cause. The primary motivation for any consumer purchase is a recommendation given by someone they personally know. Closely following is online recommendations, comments, or opinions. If someone follows you on Twitter (and especially if they retweet one of your tweets), is a fan of yours on Facebook, or is a connection of yours on LinkedIn, other people will notice. This will create value of your brand in their eyes, because someone they know and trust also trusts you.
Free Research & Development Department
The best example of a company creating their own free R&D department via social networking is Starbuck’s My Starbucks Idea website. By listening to their customers’ opinions, Starbucks has saved money in field testing and inaccurate measures of the marketplace. More importantly, they have proven to their customers that they are listening by implementing changes based on their suggestions, thus reinforcing and continuing to build their brand.
Networking
It should come as no surprise that social media “networks” are a perfect place to meet new people and interact with those that you already know. LinkedIn groups, Facebook Groups, Twitter conversations and more allow you to interact with potential clients and customers, demonstrate your expertise, and get to know your current connections better than you would in seeing them even once a week at networking events.
If you need help figuring out how each Social Media site works, make sure to check out our online screencasts to learn how to use social media.
Great information. I can’t belive how many of my age friends joined facebook in the last 6 months. I havebeen terrible to kkeeping up to date on face book. Does the new smart phones make it easer to add and follow the new media? Would like to hire your services to help me get going on the media links and find out what is best for me. Plus I just to see you again and have a catch up time. Just let me know.
David Worrell