Posts Tagged ‘Business Name’

Social networking v social media marketing

Social networks and marketing

If you run a small business you may have accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or other social networks. If you haven’t, you’ve probably been told many times that you should have.

Why? I bet you’ve been told that, with millions of people in these networks, it’s a good place to market your business. And it is, but maybe not in the way you’ve been led to expect.

When these social networks started people joined to network – socially. Then people who spotted the opportunity joined just to market their businesses – but nobody — *NOBODY*– has ever joined a social network to be sold to.

What this means is that there are thousands of small businesses using social networks in a way that actually turns people off and works against them

Despite all the psychological research that shows the importance of a profile picture having a face that people can relate to, smiling and with good eye contact, there are thousands of small business owners on Twitter lurking anonymously behind their logo and business name and spouting out the equivalent of an elevator pitch.

Why would anyone handicap themselves like this when nobody wants to be sold to?

There are people auto-posting their own blog links in multiple LinkedIn Groups under the disguise of discussions and displaying desperation by ‘liking’ their own submissions with the result that members are flagging them as inappropriate because nobody wants to be sold to.

Facebook is littered with unloved and unseen business pages as, even if they’ve liked them out of politeness, no-one sees the posts because nobody wants to be sold to.

The problem is that everyone is using the term ‘social media marketing’ without fully understanding what it means. SMM is an art and a science used to great effect by big brands and specialist agencies that use complex tools and algorithms to decide where to place adverts and where to create engagement with their fans on social networks. It is not simply broadcasting a marketing message at people who don;t want to hear it.

This begs the question, if you run a small business; can you use social networks for marketing?

The answer is an emphatic ‘yes’, but you need to adopt different strategies. Instead of social media marketing, concentrate on becoming an expert social networker. I’m guessing that as a small business owner you are already pretty good at face-to-face networking so you already know the basics.

You wouldn’t turn up at a networking meeting with a bag on your head with a business card stuck to it, so don’t do that in social networks.

You wouldn’t burst into a room and blurt out a sales pitch – or worse, send a recording of your sales pitch to be broadcast at scheduled intervals at several meetings at once, so don’t do that in social networks.

You wouldn’t ignore people in the room who spoke to you until you found time to reply to them a couple of days later, so don’t do that in social networks. Show up regularly.

How does social networking work for small businesses?

Imagine visiting a prospect in their office. You’d see what books they read, pictures of their family, certificates they have on their wall. Imagine taking them out for lunch. You’d get to know their likes and dislikes and maybe their hopes, dreams, disappointments and achievements. Connecting with them in social networks can be just as revealing if you take time to get to know people and make *them* the most important part of the conversation. As Dale Carnegie said in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People; “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”

But first you have to meet the PERSON.

The second important aspect is to have good content. Whether its a Twitter stream, a Facebook page or a blog, the content is what people will look at, sign up to and come back for. All of these things should draw people in, make them want to be part of the conversation or discussion and want to comment.

There are lots of great ways to make social networking part of your business growth strategy. If you want to have a chat about it, call or skype me on 07711 705038 or leave a comment below.

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Ann Hawkins is a business mentor, founder of The Inspired Group and presenter of The Business Hub Radio Show. If you’d like to talk to Ann about how to take your business from OK to Excellent call her on 07711 705038

Posted in Social Media |

Tags: Algorithms, Business Account, Business Name, Business Pages, Complex Tools, Desperation, Disguise, Elevator Pitch, Eye Contact, Facebook, Good Eye, Linkedin, Networking Marketing, Politeness, Psychological Research, Small Business Owners, Small Businesses, Social Marketing, Social Networking, Social Networks, Specialist Agencies, Submissions, Twitter, Unloved, Using Social Networks, What This Means |

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Why LinkedIn is the Most Important Site for your Business

LinkedIn is great for small businesses

It may not be immediately obvious because LinkedIn was designed as a site for on-line CVs for professionals and high flyers but these days its also great for the owners of small businesses to show their expertise, make connections and build a reputation.

It’s all in the way you use it!

Here are a few tips that will help you to grow your business through LinkedIn

(there’s a podcast at the end that talks in more detail about using groups)

Build your profile

LinkedIn terms and conditions only allow profiles to be in the name of a real person – not a business. If you use a business name you’ll get away with it for a while but eventually the account will be removed.

You’ll get lots of prompts to complete your profile 100% but remember the site was designed for people looking for their next career move, not for owners of small businesses so don’t worry if you don’t fill in all the boxes – this is not the most important area for you.

Add a good photo

There’s a ton of research that shows that people are more likely to connect with you on line if you have a photo of you smiling and that clearly shows your eyes. More importantly, what you’re doing here is networking and its hard to do that with a faceless person. Don’t use a logo – you’ll just make people think you’re going to sell to them and they won’t connect or interact with you.

Ask to connect with people you know

Whatever LinkedIn suggests DON’T add your whole contact list. It’s likely to get your account suspended for two reasons: the first is that LinkedIn sets a limit for how many people you can invite to connect in one go, the second reason you’ll get suspended is when five people respond to your request by saying they don’t know you. Better to build your contacts slowly from people you know well.

Get some recommendations

One of the most useful areas of LinkedIn is where people can read testimonials from people who recommend you. Update this regularly but make sure the recommendations are relevant to your business and not for a job you used to do. Again, despite what LinkedIn suggests, resist the temptation do swap recommendations with friends, its easy to spot and makes you both look a bit desperate.

Join some groups

This is where you, as a business owner, can make a real impression. There are over a million affinity groups on LinkedIn and you can join up to 50. Its better to be active in a few than passive in 50! You can see how many members each group has and how many new discussions they have each week. You may want to join some groups to get information and others to add your voice to the discussions.

The nature of groups varies dramatically. Some are full of sales pitches – everyone talking and no-one listening and these are best avoided. Others are well moderated and have some genuine opportunities for you to add your opinions and expertise to the discussions, make some interesting connections and build your reputation. Resist any urge to make a sales pitch in a discussion, you’ll just piss people off, your comment will be flagged and a good moderator will remove it, making you look like a pillock. Instead, share ideas, ask questions, be helpful and supportive.

Things to avoid

Don’t link your Twitter account to LinkedIn. If your contacts want to follow you on Twitter they will (you can add your Twitter name to your profile). If you fill LinkedIn with tweets your contacts will stop following your activity on LinkedIn so you’ll defeat the point of being there. Twitter is social, LinkedIn is professional.

If you have a blog, don’t spam multiple groups with blog links. This is the equivalent of fly posting and one of the main reasons why people leave groups so again, you’re defeating the object of being there and its just rude and annoying.

Don’t spam your contacts.

Starting your own group

This can be real gold but takes a lot of work. As the owner you’ll need to prompt discussions, moderate discussions, invite people to join, monitor people who want to join, reject discussions, comments and people if they’re unsuitable or don’t fit the purpose of the group and generally devote a fair chunk of time to making it work.

Listen to the podcast

This is the recording of an interview with Jon Buscall of Jontus Media that explains in more detail how to build your reputation and contacts without selling and how to mesh face to face networking with on-line networking.

Click the speaker to listen

Posted in Social Media |

Tags: Boxes, Business Name, Business Profile, Career Move, Contact List, Contacts, Cvs, Dross, Groups, High Flyers, How Many People, Job, Linkedin, Networking, Next Career, Podcast, Profile, Profiles, Real Gold, Real Person, Reason, Reputation, Small Businesses, Temptation, Testimonials From People |

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Networking – time to move on.

More and more business networks are popping up but there is a quiet revolution going on in the way they are working.

I just saw someone tweeting from an event, saying they’d connected with the speaker on LinkedIn and were carrying on the discussion. At the same event, delegates were using a hashtag (this symbol # that creates a clickable link on Twitter) to tweet about the event, connect with each other and share pictures and slides from the presentations with people who couldn’t be there.

This is networking.

These people all have a common interest, established immediately. No-one did an elevator pitch and no-one swapped business cards or asked for referrals. No breakfast was partaken. The connections will be strengthened or fade according to the individual’s preferences, needs and interests.

The organisers of the event did nothing to facilitate this, except, when pushed, suggest the hashtag. They could have made much more of it, and possibly increased attendance, by inviting people to use it when they registered to connect with other delegates before the event and create a buzz about what was happening – but that’s another story.

The real story here is that business networking has moved on.

Savvy folk are using new ways to connect with interesting people and build relationships using social NETWORKING platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MeetUp to network effortlessly, sometimes in very innovative ways, and at no cost. The trick is to see it as social NETWORKING and not social media or marketing. That means using your own name and picture in your profiles and not your business name and logo.

Some organise casual “tweet-ups”, some have regular meetings with no little or no ritual and they all offer on-line connections as well as face to face meetings at little or no cost.

With on-line profiles no-one needs an elevator pitch.

We’ve always been told that networking isn’t about selling and yet encouraged to introduce ourselves at traditional organisations with an elevator pitch. With on-line profiles no-one needs an elevator pitch. Everyone can see what you do, so they get straight to the much more important bit of establishing who you are and what values you share.
Networking is a human activity that was hijacked by business organisations. Now it’s back in the hands of the individual and freely available to everyone.

Some examples I’ve come across, local to me are:

Huntingdon Business Women: approx 100 members, no committee, no fees, uses LinkedIn, highly supportive monthly meetings.

The LikeMinded Network St Neots: – over 100 members, no membership fees, uses MeetUp, Facebook and organises business and social events.

Cambs Mums Business Clubs: – over 170 members, children welcome at meetings, uses Facebook, blogging and a special Twitter #BizMumQTime every evening to answer questions.

CamCreative: – over 750 members, no fees, uses MeetUp for monthly meetings.

The Inspired Group: – (my own group – evolved over six years) no members, no fees except for events but approx 4,000 connections worldwide. Discussions on LinkedIn, #binspired on Twitter, blogs, free programmes, highly interactive and supportive.

Huntingdonshire Business Network: This network is over 20 years old but embraces the use of LinkedIn and Meetup and uses the hashtag #HBNEvent to support discussions from members and non-members alike.

Ann Hawkins, Inspired Business Mentor