Archive for social networking

Business networking – don’t just gather names

by Andrea J. Stenberg
April 4th, 2013

Gathering a stack of business cards at a networking meeting isn’t the way to grow your business. It’s a way to add more clutter to your office.

business cards pileSeriously – having a superficial conversation then grabbing their card does you no good.

If you are one of the rare people who actually does something with the cards you collect you’re still not likely to get results. If you email this person it’s SPAM. They won’t remember you and didn’t ask for the contact. In fact, your message may hit their SPAM filter.

You could send snail mail – an actual letter. Better than an email but seriously, what kind of impact will it have if you know nothing about this person and they don’t remember you?

You could Read More→

Categories Networking
Comments (6)

What is social networking? A beginner’s guide

by Andrea J. Stenberg
March 13th, 2013

Social networking – aka social media – is a way to connect to people online. The people component is often overlooked when people talk about social networking – they focus on the technology rather than the people.

technology-vs-peopleFacebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are examples of social networking sites. It may surprise you to learn that YouTube and blogging are also considered to be social networking sites.

However, it doesn’t matter which site you’re on, the main purpose is making a connection with real people. Think back to the days before Alexander Graham Bell. When you wanted to do business with someone you had to get off your bum, go outside and walk down the street to find the person you wanted to talk with. But after the phone was invented we could talk to other people without leaving our homes or offices.

Jump forward to the 1970s and 80s when the fax machine became common. Suddenly you could send documents to people across town or across the world.

Social networking is a similar technological advance that allows you to communicate with people around the world. But unlike the telephone where you can only talk one-on-one (or one-on few in the case of conference calls) with social networking you can “talk” to many (even thousands) of people at once. I addition, these people don’t have to be listening live; you can post now and they may see your message later.

The key features of these sites are:

  1. You create a profile for yourself or your business
  2. You connect (Like, Follow, Friend) other people and vice versa
  3. You makes posts or comments for your followers to read
  4. You comment or share what others are posting

How does this help business?

Just like businesses quickly jumped on board with the telephone, social networking is a great tool for small businesses. It provides an opportunity for people to get to know, like and trust you in a non-threatening way.

You can showcase your expertise, let people know about new products or simply be entertaining. The choice is yours.

Like all effective marketing strategies, doing it right isn’t always easy. And it does take time. But an effective social media campaign can make a world of difference in your marketing.

Andrea Stenberg

Categories Like and Trust Factor, social media
Comments (1)

Don’t lie to me on LinkedIn (or anywhere else)

by Andrea J. Stenberg
February 10th, 2010

I’ve been seeing a disturbing trend on LinkedIn; a trend that is making me angry. People are starting their relationship with me by lying.

Let me backtrack. LinkedIn has a much more rigid code of conduct than other social networking sites. On Twitter you can start following anyone you want: celebrities, politicians, brands, random strangers. It doesn’t matter how or if you know them. You can start following them and they don’t have to approve you.

Facebook is slightly more formal. While you can invite anyone to become Facebook “friends” they have to approve you before you can be connected. Slightly more formal than Twitter but less than LinkedIn.

However, on LinkedIn they’ve put up barriers that make it harder for you to connect with people. In order to send an invitation to connect, you must already have some sort of relationship with that person. You need to work together, belong to the same group, have worked at the same company at some point in your history. If you don’t have any commonalities in your profiles, you have the option of choosing “other” at which point LinkedIn will ask you for the person’s e-mail address. The idea is to cut down on SPAM and ensure your LinkedIn network is of true value to everyone.

That being said, it doesn’t mean you can’t connect with people you don’t are ready know on LinkedIn, it’s just a little harder to do.

On LinkedIn I’m what’s known as an Open Networker. I am happy to receive appropriate invitations from people I don’t already know. I like meeting other business professionals because I never know who will be my next great customer, a great referrer or who I might be able to help.

The problem is Read More→

Categories LinkedIn, Networking, social media
Comments (10)

Why would you “unfriend” someone on Facebook?

by Andrea J. Stenberg
October 1st, 2009

If you are using Facebook as a business networking tool, you’re probably trying to build a broad online network. Many people on Facebook only connect with people they know in the real world. Business people who are using Facebook as a virtual networking meeting however, need to be more of an “open networker” rather than a “selective connector”.

If that’s the case, why would you ever “unfriend” someone?

I personally have only done it once. I received a very polite, and personalize friend request from a gentleman who seemed to be interested in business networking. After accepting his invitation I checked out his profile. He stated he’s looking for “sexually adventurous women”. I unfriended him immediately.

This got me to thinking. How many other people have “unfriended” someone? So I did what I always do when I have a business question. I got online, asked my Facebook friends, asked my Twitter friends and went to the ever trusty Google and “asked” it.

Liz Lynch wrote on her blog that she unfriended someone who “was trying to friend everyone and their brother by sending invitations to connect to people in my network (and who knows who else’s) without explaining how he knew them or why he wanted to be their friend.”

This harkens back to my number one advice when sending invitations on Facebook. Always include a personal note telling this person why you think you should connect. The is doubly true if you don’t know this person outside of Facebook

There are lots more stories of unfriending however. Read More→

Categories Facebook, Networking, social media
Comments (15)

Your Reputation is Everything on LinkedIn

by Andrea J. Stenberg
August 13th, 2009

One of the reasons social media has become so pervasive is that we all prefer to do business with people we know, like and trust. We’ve become suspicious of marketing and advertising; too often people don’t deliver what they promise.  We can’t afford to spend our money on the unknown. But if I know you, I can trust my money won’t be wasted.

But we can’t always be intimate acquaintances of everyone we need to do business with. That’s where networking comes in. I may not know you, but if my friend Mary knows you and vouches for you, then I’m willing to trust that you’ll do what you say.

The internet changes networking – a little

However, the world has grown. As the internet makes Marshall McLuhan’s global village a reality, we want and need to do business with people who are further afield. We can’t meet everyone we do business with if sometimes they are in different cities, time zones, countries or even continents.

That’s where social media (also known as social networking) filled the gap. Read More→

Categories LinkedIn, Networking, social media
Comments (4)
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