123PostcardMarketing.com REAL Relationship Marketing … Easy as 1-2-3

A Beginner’s Guide To Social Networking

Are you a business owner or entrepreneur who hasn’t started using social media yet? Networking on various social sites will allow you to improve your Web site traffic and build your online presence. Whether you are a small business owner or communications director for a large corporation, adding social networking to your marketing strategy is imperative.

On a strictly business level, social media offers three key components: it allows you to connect with and engage current and potential customers directly; it allows you to connect with colleagues and business partners; and it allows you to leverage those connections to connect with others to meet needs you don’t even know you have yet.

Building stronger relationships with colleagues and business partners gives you the opportunity to add people from their network and to pick their brains for expert information or opinions on vendors. Getting to interact directly with your customers or potential clients allows you to gain a stronger understanding of their needs and how they would like to see your business or service offerings develop.

There are an ever-increasing number of social sites available to you and it would be impossible (and unnecessary) for you to be active on all of them. To start off with it is only necessary to be active on three: LinkedIn (professional), Facebook (social) and Twitter (immediate). If you still feel overwhelmed, just get involved on LinkedIn and Twitter for now. You can add Facebook later.

Sign up for Twitter and LinkedIn, using your real name as your screen name. Use a professional photo for your “avatar” (the thumbnail that appears by your profile). If you have email that is compatible with these two sites, do allow it to search them on the sites for you. You can always deselect someone if you don’t want to interact.

Your bio is the most important thing to work on, aside from being active. People want to know who you are so be interesting and thorough. Be sure that you add your URL for your Website or blog. For Twitter, have a graphic designer build a background for you (this will be cheap and there are also free sites if you want to do it yourself). Facebook and LinkedIn do not offer much ability to customize your page or profile so the written content will be even more important.

Get involved. If you are on Twitter, follow appropriate people (use the search on the main page for types of business people: entrepreneurs, artists, attorneys or go to WeFollow.com to find a broader selection). But don’t just be an observer. Share information, share articles you’ve found online, ask questions, cheer people on, connect people to other people! On LinkedIn and Facebook, sign up for groups or fan pages in areas that truly interest you and participate in discussion groups. Offer your expertise.

Don’t push too hard. You will recognize site members who are there simply to sell. This is very transparent and very annoying. Remind yourself of the goal of social networking sites: to connect, engage and serve others. Others will serve you, but not if you hammer them with sales messages and automatic responses.

You may get the chance to meet some of your online contacts in person. Take advantage of this opportunity to build even stronger connections and loyalty among within your network. You can find events listed on Facebook and LinkedIn and do a search on Twitter for “tweetup”s.

Social networking is more time-consuming in the beginning as you get set up but you should not be intimidated by it. A few minutes each day once you get started should be plenty to build your online presence and expand your reach to new customers and new experts. Go get started!