Posts Tagged: LinkedIn
September 1st, 2010 | No Comments
The question, of course, is, “How can you develop more people in your rolodex?”.
Social Media is an outstanding tool to develop your rolodex, and more importantly, how to develop the people that you already know into legitimate referral sources.
Capitalizing Upon the People That You Already Know
How many times has your mother, father, sister or brother referred you business? Usually the answer is fairly low, and oftentimes none. The same can be true for your friends. This is not because they don’t love and respect you, but rather because they don’t think to do so. Heck, oftentimes, these people whom you are closest with have no idea what you actually do for a living! Sure, they may know a job title, or a business industry, but they don’t *really* know what you do. Short of sitting with everyone and explaining what it is you do and teaching them how to sell (a technique I encourage, actually), you have very few ways of getting them to sell for you.
Enter Facebook. Facebook is usually used for exclusively social reasons, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be used for promoting your business. With over 500 million users and over 50% of those users checking on a daily basis, Facebook affords small businesses a unique way of connecting to users.
This doesn’t mean that everyone should immediately create a Facebook “like” or “fan” page for their business. In fact, this technique is usually worthless and unnecessary (although sometimes very effective). What it does mean is that in addition to letting people know what random fun activities you are doing, you can also help educate your friends about what you do for work.
This can be done directly by letting people know about new products or promotions, or by way of happy customer stories or excitement over a finished project. By letting your friends and family know what you are doing everyday for work, they can be more informed when it is time to potentially recommend you.
Increase Your Audience
While Facebook allows you to inform people who you already know, it does very little for increasing your audience. Corporate Blogging and Twitter are exceptional ways for expanding your audience.
As the fastest growing platform in the history of the Internet, Twitter allows you to connect and reach entirely new audiences than you ever had. By developing “Followers” that are either prospective customers or referral sources, you create an entirely new group of people that are learning about your business. It increases the size of your Rolodex.
Corporate Blogging is simply a platform that allows you to write about your business. Much like the article you are reading right now, it is a way to share your knowledge with the world. While the topics can be sales driven, I usually recommend they be informative. Allow your audience to be aware that you are an expert in your field. If you accomplish that, when it is time to refer someone, or hire them yourself, it is more likely you will do so with the person who has proven their worth.
The coolest part is that you can use Twitter and Facebook to point to your Blog, further increasing the exposure that it gets.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Website Integration
An added benefit of using these tools, is doing so in conjunction with your website. By integrating your Blog and Twitter feeds, you create a more dynamic website that has more user retention for repeat viewings. Further, search engines like Google and Bing love the relevant and refreshed content that Blogs and Twitter feeds provide. Better Search Engine Optimization (SEO) means more hits. More hits usually means more money.
In Conclusion
This was intended as food for thought on how Social Media can be used effectively to promote your small business. There are, of course, many other ways that these tools can be used for business that I will address in future articles, but for now I encourage you to think of how these tools can improve your rolodex.
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- Facebook (1)
- Flash (1)
- LinkedIn (1)
- Miscellaneous (1)
- Small Business (1)
- Social Media (6)
- Trade Show (1)
- Twitter (3)
- UI / UX (3)
- Web Design (3)
