Social Networking For Your Business

Social Networking for your business can take on two forms:

1) Offline networking meetings – Meetup™ Groups that cater to your topic or category are best because you already have people that are interested in what you have an interest in.  I do not recommend pitching in these groups.  

Share value and ask what people are trying to accomplish first. Genuinely think about the people you know in your sphere of influence that could help them, that might make a good customer for them.    You will find the more you can put others in front of yourself the more will come back to you.

 If you help them first, people will feel obligated to reciprocate.  But, when you do help them first do it with no expectation, do it from your heart.  Really try to just help them get a new customer.  

Do not worry about whether you get a customer because you helped someone.  It is one of the tenants of Rotary International that I learned when they were one of my clients for their Centennial Celebration in Chicago.  It is called Service Before Self.  It is a great philosophy.  It is why they have almost irradicated Polio in the World, through the power of this philosophy.

 

 

2) Online social networking.  Here is where you need to do social networking the right way.  Please do not be the kind of social networker or marketer that thinks it is a good idea to spam their link in your in your inbox on LinkedIn or facebook or any other social network.  Don’t be pushy either trying to get the sale.  Social networks are supposed to be social.

You just look foolish and it does not work, does it?  Professionals on LinkedIn and facebook  hate it.  Don’t do it, because you do not know any other ways to market and advertise your business, regardless of who you see do it.  It is never a good tactic and it will hurt you in the long run.

What you want to do, is learn new marketing tactics and strategies that provide value to people.  They will appreciate that more and value it and you.  For example:

in one of my industries, network marketing, people struggle with sales online.  They struggle with building teams that stay around long enough that they start duplicating. The struggle with team mindset and they struggle with gaining mass influence in their company and in the industry.

I use my products which are different audios and videos from 5,6, and 7 figure network marketers that talk about how to do those things above.  The value I provide helps them with one or all of those problems by giving them a solution, whether they work with me on my team or not, again using a philosophy of Service Before Self.  

If I can help them solve their problems and succeed in their company, maybe one day, if they ever decide they are done with that company for whatever reason, like it shuts down as many do in the network marketing industry, maybe they will remember I helped them and then join my team, maybe not.  It does not matter.  I am helping people solve their problems with my products or with my content. Either way I win.  It feels great to help people.  It builds a great brand too for you, as in network marketing You are your brand, and how you conduct your business will effect your results.

When you establish this kind of posture in the marketplace, you never have to market at anyone ever again.  In fact it is exactly the opposite.  People just show up and buy, or they just find me and ask about my business.  They have to ask for my link, telling me they are ready to buy before I will give them my link.  

With this system of not selling, I am building followers, that read my content.  When people read my content, then the search engines put my content on the front page of Google and other search engines.  Then, more people read it.  Eventually people opt-in to my list, eventually 30 people a day do this and of those 30, two join my business as a monthly member, using my products to help them with their business.  

That’s how it works.  It is less direct.  I get people requesting my friendship every day now in 2015(when I wrote this) by doing this system.  It is a cool way to run your business.  

Have people want to come to you rather than you going after them.  This way you are the hunted instead of being the hunter.  It works.

 

 

The social networking sites I like to use are Plurk.com, facebook.com,Google+, Linked in Groups,

Instgram,Pinterest, and socialmarker.com.  I also like Twitter.com,Tumbler.com,StumbleUpon.com and Imgur.com.  

Also, you’ll find many other social networking sites connected to share this buttons.  This is the way that people all over the World are reaching out to me rather than me “push marketing” out to them, that is so 2008.

If you are push marketing you can learn a new way that actually works, Right?  Don’t beat yourself up, you didn’t now any better.  If it is working for you keep doing it, you do not need me, but I doubt it is really working.  People do not like it when you are pushy with your marketing, Right?

When you are ready to look into this more, let me know.  You can find me on facebook here  We can chat about it then.  I help two people a day.  It takes about 20 minutes with each person to help them get clear about how they want to run their business.  Then the rest of the day is mine to do as I please.  Ultimately we all want this kind of freedom,Right?