Social Networking Ok its different Paul M Johnstone

Social Media is becoming more and more an acceptable face of networking.  Like all networking it has it’s us as well as it’s downs. But you can’t ignore it.  It it’s LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter.  All have a place in the networking marketing mix.
There are lots of people on both sides of this argument.  Many have had considerable success using the power of social media.  But many people have spent lots of time fumbling in the dark, getting nowhere. 

Social media is like any other form of marketing, it takes time or money or both to complete.  It’s not free there is a cost, but for most small business people that will be in time.  OK small business people and time are not usually words used in the same sentence but here it’s worth looking a little closer.

Lots of people look at social media and ask the same question “What’s the big deal and what do people spend their time on social media?”

The numbers involved in social media alone are staggering which is a start as well as hooking up with lost school mates and ex colleagues what else is there?   It’s called sharing. 
When you go to visit a client or prospect or even talk to them on the phone, there is a degree of social interaction before you get down to business.  It’s natural – How’s the children - What was your holiday like – Where are you having your birthday party – How’s your golf handicap and so on.  We all do and social media allows you to have those conversations with potential business people where ever you are.

There is a great piece I read recently which shows how several companies have made it big and in some cases bigger with the help of social media.  Read it at http://ow.ly/53l7z 

Social media is not for everyone, but by simply interacting with others, contributing to discussions and sharing some f your tips and experience does not have to take up much time.  But it will raise your profile, help create a Buzz about you or your business.  And That’s no bad thing

Next Time Training and social Media

About the Author

Paul M Johnstone is a Professional networker, he build two businesses by using the power of the network and with almost no other marketing. He has worked for 3 of the largest networking organisations in the UK and is a network mentor. He can be reached at +44 (0)7711 324362or through his website at http://www.paradigmshakers.co.uk/ 

Please comment on this or any of my earlier Blogs. All feedback is great feedback

Helping Real People do Real Business Through Real Networking

©Paul Johnstone

The New Year approaches

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with Santa bringing just what you always wanted……

Wishing you a prosperous New Year

Paul

How do you maintain a Twitter presence?

Paul Johnstone

Twitter is a great way to generate business, but it can eat into the time you have top devote to your business.

There are some techniques to success on twitter and Nancy Williams from Tiger Two has some great ideas on who to follow and why.

In her article ‘Do you follow Back’ she opens up the dabate on how to get peole to follow you

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Helping Real People do Real Business through Real Networking

TOP TIPS FOR TWITTER

Is Twitter was any good or is it just a waste of time?

As You know I am an advokate of Face to Face networking, but all networking has advantages and Twitter is up there with the best

Lets start with a simple fact or Twitter. By having people follow you, the chance is if you promote a blog or a web site of ask for feedback 2% of your followers will take that action. So it is a route to market, just like face to face networking

The simple fact that any method that helps you identify emerging trends and engage with huge numbers of people has to have potential as a business tool. Here are a few ways it helps business people get ahead.

Track your reputation It is fast becoming a good indication of how your business is viewed by its customers. Twitter allows you to get an open view of what people actually think. While Twitter is still not a complete representation of the whole of your customer base, it provides a good vehicle for viewing feedback on your brand in real time – good or bad.

Twitter also allows you to communicate with your customers in a way that they want to be communicated with – i.e. on an individual level, so they feel like more than just a statistic.

Recruiting people How do you find good people? Word of mouth and recommendations are always key methods. With this is mind, Twitter can be a useful recruitment channel. Not only can you ‘tweet’ your vacancies, but people will also 're-tweet' (forward around your message to their 'followers') your requirements amongst their friends and contacts - spreading your message to different sets of followers who may have remained previously untapped.

Advertise your promotions Some companies have been able to demonstrate that their use of Twitter is positively impacting their bottom line. For example, Dell uses its Twitter feed to advertise promotion codes and special offers on its products; it recently estimated that doing so had brought in $3m in extra revenue.

Identify customer issues and solve them Twitter is an open forum, handy - where customers and businesses happily talk with each other. It has been used to raise and resolve service issues since its very early days. Their search tools can help your business to identify who is talking about you. Also provides a way to engage with them, helping your business to resolve issues directly. This is FREE market research on your company and can often turn a complainant into a advocate when you respond to their problem.

Talk to don’t preach at sales prospects Monitoring sales needs to be handled very cautiously. You can use Twitter's search functions to find people who have openly expressed an interest in buying a product you offer, and suggest that you help them through the process.

A word of warning here: Twitter etiquette: observe and succeed ignore and fail! Think of it like being stood at a hotel bar. You can say hello to someone and attempt to start a conversation - if they start talking to you, great; if they don’t want to talk, then it’s best to move onto someone who does. So absolutely never use pushy sales techniques or be a foot in the door operator.

Network in a relaxed environment Twitter is a relaxed form of networking as most people are quite happy to say who they are and what they do on their Twitter profiles and as such you can amass a rather powerful network quite quickly. However, personality is important – it’s what social networks are all about, after all. If you want to build up a productive network, it’s important that you sprinkle your tweets with normal day-to-day conversations rather than view it as an ongoing sales platform. Those businesses who are using Twitter to the best effect appreciate this balance. But as a route to market if is not as good as face to face networking

Be on top of emerging trends Twitter is a place to watch trends emerge - where news breaks and where 'grassroots' action happens. Twitter provides a 'trending topics' list - which gauges in real time what's being discussed. Through the use of 'hash tags' (words preceded by # usually at the end of a message) such trend tracking is easier. You can use a combination of automatic trend tracking tools and human intelligence to discern what your followers are talking about.

Drive more traffic to your website You can tweet your news, press releases, and other stories of interest with a link to the relevant page on your website. Due to the 140 characters or less, nature of messages, software like Tweetdeck will help you automatically 'shrink' your URL into only a few characters. Whilst this removes your website address from your 'tweet', Users are used to clicking on links through these URL shrinking services (like tinyURL, bit.ly, etc). These same services will also provide measurement for your response with full click-through tracking.

Improve your internal communications Although Twitter is traditionally seen as a public communication method, there is private direct message ('DM') functionality, and you can form ‘closed networks’. While it isn’t recommended to DM your colleagues or team any sensitive information, it can come in useful to send short messages back and forth – especially for individuals who favour the medium of social networks. This acceptance of social networking within a business can also engender a sense of collaboration among co-workers who prefer that format of communication - particularly those who work remotely and don’t have the benefit of face-to-face time with colleagues in the office.

Promote yourself Whilst I’m not suggesting you'll become the Stephen Fry or Jonathan Ross of insurance or finance, you can very quickly become an expert in your own marketplace. Sorry about this has to be repeated as so many people have got this very wrong in the past - don't be pushy, and don't use Twitter as a constant stream of advertisements for your brand. Engage with people, start or jump into conversations with great insight, and become someone who people want to read updates from.

If you’re looking for something that will be a magic bullet to increase your sales, Twitter isn’t it. What it is, however, is somewhere you can find out what people are talking about right now. And if that happens to be your product, your competitor’s product or a problem that you could help solve, that’s well worth knowing.

Paul


Helping Real People do Real Business through Real Networking

Twittering Along

A lot of people I speak to ask why they should be on twitter? What good does it do my business?


I have to say that at first I was like that what will I get out of it?

Well there are two reasons I am on Twitter: -

1) I make connections with people I don’t know but would like to know. AND

2) I can connect with people who are good for my business.

There are lots of techniques on the web showing you what to do but for a simple explanation

Take a peek at the vid it was put together by Lee and Sachi LeFever who do lots of ‘plain English’ coments on technology. I hope you enjoy it?

http://commoncraft.com/twitter


Paul
and remember to put the work into Network