Posts Tagged ‘Social Networks’
Networking Revolution
Its time for a revolution in networking.
Life has always been, and will always be, more about who you know than what you know.
People have always collected and shared useful contacts and always will.
In recent years, business networking has followed a set pattern: join a group, deliver a quick sales pitch, ‘work’ the room, follow up. Keep doing this (known as a slow burn) until people get to know you and trust you and maybe they’ll do business with you or refer you to their contacts.
I’ve always been puzzled by the dichotomy of the ‘quick sales pitch’ and the ‘slow burn’ of the ‘know and trust’ process.
If a quick sales pitch is so effective why do you have to wait for people to get to know you and trust you before they’ll do business with you?
On the other hand if the know and trust stuff is important (and it obviously is) why bother to introduce yourself with a sales pitch?
Many business people have embraced social networking as a way to enhance their business networking and those who do it best have realised that they need to be fully rounded people, not just business people. Instead of spouting sales pitches, they engage and have conversations (just like networking has always been outside of the business community and why it is called ‘social’)
Clever folk use social networks to figure out who they want to meet before they turn up to a face to face event.
Time is precious and petrol is expensive so why would anyone pitch up to an event on the offchance that there will be someone worth meeting? Why not research attendees on-line then break the ice so that you never need to walk into a room full or strangers or ask “what do you do?”
We can find people who share our interests, values and beliefs and who therefore don’t need to be ‘sold’ to. The ‘slow burn’ is much faster and often takes place before people meet face to face and geographical barriers are no longer an issue.
Networking is returning to its roots. Its about creating contacts for life, not just for business.
Wherever you are in the world, you can join The Inspired Group (no membership fee). Join in the discussion on the A-Z of Business Success on LinkedIn to exchange experiences with other business owners and make great connections.
Whether or not you choose to attend our events, you can engage with the speakers and other participants both before and after the event.
You can carry on the conversations on our Facebook page and enlarge your network even further on Twitter by following the hashtag #binspired.
Participate! Inspire and be inspired!
Posted in Networking | 
Tags: Attendees, Business Community, Business Networking, Business Owners, Business Success, Clever Folk, Conversations, Dichotomy, Exchange Experiences, Geographical Barriers, Linkedin, Membership Fee, Networking Revolution, Participants, Roots, Sales Pitches, Slow Burn, Social Networking, Social Networks, Speakers, Values And Beliefs | 
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How DO you market your business in an age of mass empowerment?
A recent meeting on changes in buyer behaviour and marketing styles raised more questions than it answered so here are a few thoughts to help clarify things:
We used to say, find out where your potential buyers hang out and go talk to them, advertise to them, socialise with them, network with them, get in their face wherever they are.
In recent times consumers simply don’t accept that any more. They have become virtually immune to most forms of advertising and there are so many marketing messages vying for attention that it is difficult for any but the truly exceptional to be noticed.
And yet, buyers still buy.
The big difference in buyer behaviour is that they seek out suppliers, not the other way round. This means that, as businesses, we need to be found when our potential clients come looking for us.
So, the big question is: If you were searching for your product or service, where would you go to find it?
It might be Google, it might be a business directory, it might be a group of friends or a peer group.
We all know the power of Google and the importance of having a web site that shows up in Google searches but increasingly, people are turning to their social networks to ask for word-of-mouth recommendations – and the giant of the social networks is Facebook with over 500 million users.
In the background of this organic change in consumer behaviour is the change that is being driven by the big battle between Google and Microsoft.
In a nutshell, Microsoft wants a piece of Google’s market share of the search advertising revenue stream. It launched its own search engine (Bing) and bought out Yahoo search and then did a deal with Facebook that gives Bing huge amounts of information to draw on in searches.
Every time anyone clicks a Facebook ‘like’ button (now used on more than 2 million sites) the information creates Facebook’s Instant Personalisation which gives each Facebook user a unique experience.
This in turn feeds Bing which means that it can provide what is called a ‘social search’ that shows the searcher what their Facebook friends have liked in relation to that search. In effect, Facebook, in conjunction with Bing, is now challenging Google as the main driver of traffic to websites.
Just today (17th Feb 2011) Google has announced a subscription service allowing publishers to charge for content from which Google will earn a fee.)
Do you have a Facebook ‘like’ button anywhere on the web?
Is your website optimised for searches, including video content?
How else can a business be ‘found’
Google ad words and Facebook ads are both cheap and easy to use but Facebook has the edge on targeting ads.The only real answer is to experiment and see what works for your business.
YouTube and Twitter are also huge influencers on how people find and visit websites, drawn in because they were actively searching for something or were sent there by a friend.
LinkedIn is another major player in on-line business to business networking. Since the recent introduction of ‘open’ groups, discussions are searchable and it is easier than ever for the 80 million members to be found because of their area of expertise.
And then there are smartphones. Anyone with a smartphone can search the web on the go and find suppliers for their needs. If your website displays well on mobile phones and your competitors doesn’t that’s great. If it’s the other way round you’ve lost the game.
If your product label or special offer flyer has a QRCode (a Quick Response bar code) a smartphone will read it and bring people to you.
So, you make sure your website is optimised for search engines like Google and Bing (SEO) and that it displays well on smartphones. You swap your email newsletter for a blog, set up a Facebook page, a Twitter account and a LinkedIn profile, start your own YouTube channel, make some videos, optimise those too and then resume blasting out your sales messages, right?
Wrong!
If your buyer behaviour has changed then your marketing style must also change.
The reason buyers changed their behaviour is that THEY DO NOT WANT SALES MESSAGES. If they find you on Facebook and Twitter and you are just broadcasting the same old stuff in the same old way they’ll ignore it in the same way they do direct mail or unsolicited email.
So here’s the second big question: If a buyer can find your competitors just as easily as you, why should they buy from you?
Go on, answer that question. If you don’t know why, how will a buyer know?
How well do you know your customers? Do you know what they are trying to accomplish in THEIR business or THEIR lives? Does what you do provide them with what they need to do this? Where do you fit in with what THEY want?
It used to take masses of market research to discover this but with the technology we all have at our fingertips it is much easier to find out what your potential customers are thinking, what they need, what they like and what it takes for them to trust you. It involves having conversations – real, two way communication, not one-way sales broadcasts.
When they find you, you need to engage them and encourage them to engage with you. If this sounds time consuming and laborious think about it this way. A conversation with one person on Twitter or Facebook or via a comment on a blog or a forum will be ‘overheard’ by hundreds of other people. All of these media are platforms for you to engage with more people, more closely targeted, more quickly than ever before and for them to pass those messages on to others in their network at the click of a mouse.
Its not easy but its not that hard either. The technology is made for non-techy people to use so don’t get hung up on that. A few simple pointers and some common sense will help you to avoid wasting time.
The main thing we all need to do is change from thinking of mass, largely untargeted and one-way sales messages to discovering individual needs by engagement and two way conversations.
Considering how few people like to ‘sell’ and how many love to help people to discover what they need, it’s really not that hard once you get your head around it.
So, how DO you market your business in an age of mass empowerment?
- Be found
- When you’re found, be engaging
- When you engage, listen
- When you listen, offer help
- When you help, develop trust
- When you’re trusted you’ll be bought.
Should you pay for this or DIY?
You CAN do all of this yourself but you need work out how much it costs you. If you are running a business your time is not ‘free’ it is valuable. Spending earning time on these activities needs to be balanced with everything else you could be doing to grow your business.
Marketing agencies, web designers, SEO experts, social media experts (treat these with great caution – what did they do before they were SoMe experts?), copywriters and graphic designers all need to know how these new tools and strategies fit together. Most of them are learning as they go along because everything is so new and changes happen fast and often without warning. If they admit that and work WITH you, they’re worth talking to.
The key is to see if they are using these techniques in their own businesses and how successful they are at making it work. There is no one person that can do all this for you. If you are a small business, don’t try to imitate a large company – it just won’t work.
There is no one-size fits all so explore what is the best solution for your business and don’t be shoehorned into a pre-determined process.
This is a huge subject and I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions so please share them below. ……….
Posted in 12 Steps to Success, Social Media | Tags: Advertising Revenue, Business Directory, Buyer Behaviour, Consumer Behaviour, Consumers, Facebook, Facebook Friends, Giant, Google, Google Searches, Market Share, Microsoft, Nutshell, Peer Group, Personalisation, Revenue Stream, S Market, Search Advertising, Search Engine, Searcher, Social Networks, Social Search, Word Of Mouth | 5 Comments »
Twitter Business for Beginners
Can you really get business from Twitter?
(3rd update Nov 2010)
“Yes you can, and this is how.”
Business Basics
Twitter can do what every business owner wants and needs: it can allow you to listen to what potential clients and customers are looking for, need and think and it can be the means by which you connect with them directly as individuals and create rewarding relationships. In Twitter terms you ‘follow’ the people you want to listen to and attract the people you want to talk to as your “followers” (more of this later).
Ignore media reports
You probably need to ignore most of the media reports about Twitter which are either focused on celebrities and totally irrelevant or intent on rubbishing a new media that threatens the established ways of reporting world events. Neither of these viewpoints has much to do with using Twitter for business.
Getting started is easy
If you haven’t already got a Twitter account go to www.twitter.com and follow the instructions. Do write down the password you use for your account as you’ll need this for all sorts of applications that come later. It is essential to personalize your profile. Use your own name rather than a company name but make it short, simple and memorable.
Your bio
This is often the first thing people look at when they are deciding whether or not to follow you. First impressions count and you will be recognised both on-line and in face to face meetings from your avatar picture so its really important to use a good one (close up head shot is best) and don’t change it too often. People form relationships with people not companies so don’t use a company logo.
You will be found by people doing searches so include your nearest city location and the keywords that will make it easy to find you.
Include a link to your web site or blog but also some information that is not just about business. For the same reason make sure you turn off the “Protect Updates” option. There is no point in using any social networks if your aim is to be private. Lighting a beacon fire or using semaphore is likely to be more private than any communication via the internet.
Who to follow
Use the search facility or the ‘find friends’ option to start following people you are interested in. Another way to find people to follow is to use www.twellow.com (the Twitter Yellow pages) or www.tweepsearch.com – a way to find people based on keywords in their bio.
You may find that some of the people you follow will follow you back or random people will find you. You will get an email to let you know who they are. If any of these look like spam accounts or have content that you find distasteful (remember Twitter is completely uncensored) you can use the “block” facility. No-one knows if they’ve been blocked or by whom. It just means that you won’t see their tweets and they won’t see yours.
If you don’t enjoy your Twitter experience you can change it by following different people. Think of it as leaving one party and going to another one!
Sending your first tweet
To send your first tweet type something in the box at the top of the page – max 140 characters. This will go to all the people who have already decided to follow you. What you’ll see on your home page now is a stream of tweets for the people you are following. Underneath each message you will see options that let you ‘favourite, re-tweet or reply’. ’Favourite’ stores that tweet in the “favorites” on your Twitter homepage. ‘Re-tweet or RT’ sends the message on to your followers and ‘reply’ means you answer the person who sent the tweet – but publicly. This will put an @ symbol in the text box followed by the twittername of the person you are replying to. Type your message and send. Your tweet will be seen by that person and also by everyone else who is following both of you.
Jump in
When you see a conversation or a comment that interests you, just join in. They are public not private and most people are happy to hear new comments. It’s sometimes hard to follow conversations because people dip in and out but don’t let that bother you. Anything really interesting will probably come round again. Think of it like a party in a big house – you can’t join in every conversation at the same time.
If you want to send a private message to someone (not often necessary) use the Message option on the top menu bar. You can see all the DMs you’ve sent and received on this page. You can also see all the replies that have your @twittername in them. Always try to reply to these as they’re from people who are talking to you or about you!
What to tweet about
Join in as many conversations as possible, establish relationships, be as interesting as possible and your number of followers will build. Unless you are really, really funny or the circumstances are exceptional please spare us weather reports, your tea making habits, ablutions and health reports. Think about standing in a room full of people where you can be overheard by anyone – would you spew out quotes or endlessly repeat everything that others are saying? I hope not!
Selling on Twitter
As with all networking you need to get to know people before you start selling. An intriguing link to a subject on your blog or website will start to build an interest in what you do but if you blast out sales messages or are just plain boring you’ll lose followers pretty quickly.
When you get a really interesting tweet or a request for help, for example: “anyone know a great packaging company/hotel/printer?” etc., you can re-tweet the message using the re-tweet button. You’ll build a lot of goodwill and friends by re-tweeting. A good strategy is to send as many tweets as possible that other people think are worthwhile re-tweeting. Some people seem to think that if they re-tweet the millions of inspirational quotes that come their way their name will get re-tweeted too but if they’re not original or really funny you’ll just bore and annoy your followers and lose them.
Remember that the people you are interacting with aren’t virtual people. They are real people in a virtual meeting place so behave as you would if they were in the same room as you.
Automation
Some people use a system called autofollow which means if someone follows you, you automatically follow them back and if they unfollow you, you automatically unfollow them. This is generally only used by people who care more about the numbers than the quality of the people they follow. It’s easy to get thousands of followers if you choose to follow thousands of people but you are probably following a lot of automated accounts that just spew out sales messages rather than having meaningful conversations with people. Its better to choose who you follow by looking at their profile. If I get an automated Direct Message (DM) I generally unfollow that account as I’m not interested in anyone who treats me like a number instead of an individual.
There are lots of scams offering ways to get more followers but these often link to automated systems that take over your account so treat anything like that with extreme caution.
That’s the basics covered and I’d recommend you spend a few minutes every day getting comfortable with those and build your followers before looking at what else is going on.
Beyond the basics
You’ll find that people on Twitter talk about the best way to use it, the various applications and options and send out links to guides and tips. This is the easiest way to learn about all the various ways that have developed, usually independently of Twitter, to make it even better. If you see someone doing something or using an application you’re interested in, just ask them how to do the same.
A couple of the most popular free applications to keep track of your account are TweetDeck www.tweetdeck.com and Hootsuite www.hootsuite.com which allows you to arrange your twitter stream into groups. You can group together people whose tweets you definitely don’t want to miss so that they all appear in one column. You can see all the tweets that mention you in a separate column. All remaining tweets will just stream past in another column and you can dip in and out of those conversations as you choose.
If you use Facebook and LinkedIn you can set these pages to appear on these application too and manage all your accounts from one place.
There are various other applications for PCs, Macs and mobile phones. You can use some mobile phones to tweet messages and photographs http://twitpic.com The best way to find out about these is to listen to others, experiment & play until you find what suits you.
One of the easiest and quickest ways to get more business using Twitter is to have a blog that is configured to update Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks whenever you post a new entry. As long as the blog subjects are of interest to your followers they will RT these links and lots of people will visit your blog and help you to build a reputation as an expert in your field and make you easier to find on Google and other search engines.
There are lots of useful tools at www.tweetlater.com including setting up automated tweets and numerous analytical tools at www.twitteranalyzer.com. Again, use these with caution or your will either bore people or annoy them and lose followers.
How it works for me
I have been using Twitter since January 2008 and choose the people I follow very carefully. Because much of my business is local I started out by selecting local business owners and connecting with people I already know.
However, I quickly found and joined in some really interesting conversations about things that are nothing to do with my business and started following and being followed by a wide variety of people from different countries that include writers, artists, journalists, photographers, musicians and TV producers. I’ve learned a lot, expanded my interests, made friends and laughed so much that at times I couldn’t see to type.
I’ve built my business connections because all of these people are connected to others who have been drawn into the conversations. I’ve been invited to write for other people’s blogs and I’ve had blog posts re-tweeted by people who have no interest in my business but because they’ve grown to like me they promote me to their followers and I do the same for them.
As a result I’ve had more people attend my workshops, mastermind groups and other events and I am building a reputation that goes way beyond the local people that I regularly do business with. I’ve also been invited to join and contribute to a private international discussion group of people who value my business ideas.
As all this activity is free, the only investment is my time which is a lot less than any efforts I could have made to get my business known by so many people.
I only ever tweet from my PC, never from my phone and I’ve never posted a twitpic. I use TweetDeck and HootSuite as I find they both have features that are useful. I follow about 1100 people (its too many really, I need to prune the list!) and am followed by about 2,000 people. However, the people who are following me have between them hundreds of thousands of followers so the number of people I am able to reach goes way beyond my own account. My account is a small one by many Twitter standards but it’s manageable and gives me great results.
If you’d like to know more about using Twitter I’d be very happy to help. Just email me or send me a Tweet http://twitter.com/AnnHawkins/
This article was first published in Aug 09 and updated in June 2010 and Nov 2010
