Social media marketing is all the rage, you have to be under
a rock if you have not heard that your business will die a horrible death if
you are not using Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. So what has happened to good
old fashioned in-person networking?
Having been in marketing a really long time, I have seen
must-have marketing properties come and go. In the past, having a yellow page
ad could almost guarantee sales and a basic website was enough for most
businesses. Now it may feel like you have to have a degree in marketing and
communications to succeed, and that humanity has gotten lost.
Working with hundreds of companies on their marketing
programs and campaigns, I can tell you for sure only one thing. Each marketing
item you do has to be targeted to one person only. If you are sending an email
to your huge list, make sure that you are writing it as if there is only one
reader. If you are doing a blog post, write it as if your best friend is at the
other end of the internet hearing your words.
So how does this apply to in-person networking? Having scads
of “internet friends” is nice but will generally not convert to paid business
as well as having real connections with other human beings. In my business,
most of my sales come from someone who I have met in real life and who I
maintain communications with via email or social media.
The beauty of social media is that you can “contact” your
database of potential customers and clients on a regular basis without them
feeling as if you are trying to sell them something. Sharing company news,
upcoming events and interesting information is built into social media
marketing and is not offensive if done correctly.
Here are my Top 5 Tips for incorporating social media
marketing into your real-life networking:
Make
sure that you are loading business cards into your Facebook account too!
Do not just put someone into your database and figure you have done your
job. Do a search on Facebook to see if you can find them and ask them to
be your friend also.
Once
they are your Friend, send them a message reminding them where you met and
let them know you were happy to meet them. This can take the place a
writing a personal note after meeting a new business contact. Extra credit
if you Facebook them AND write a personal note.
If
you know their Twitter account name, follow them. Then send them a public
message by using the @ sign before their twitter name (example
@taradactyl). This is much like messaging them on Facebook.
Share
your new Friend or Twitter buddy with your current contacts on social
media. Getting your business connections new Friends or Fans goes a long
way towards cementing relationships.
Finally,
make sure that everyone you know has been found in Facebook or Twitter. It
is easy to overlook a longstanding real world client or past client while
you are adding all those new people in!
In-person and
social media networking go hand in hand and the more that you bring the
contacts from one to the other the faster your business will grow!
