Sales Strategy

Leverage online social networks to grow your business

Online social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook can be a very effective way to demonstrate expertise, build credibility, and increase your brand exposure.  There are two rules for growing your business with online social networking: “build your network before you need it” and “give more to get more”. 

Online social networks can be very powerful tools once you have a network in place, but it takes an ongoing time investment to build your network.  Once you select the services you want to participate in, complete your profile, add to your connections, and begin participating.  It may take months of building your network to develop the critical mass that you can leverage when you need it.

Just as with face-to-face networking, Emerson’s rule of compensation “give more to get more” should be your mindset.  Focus on giving recommendations to others you trust and respect, answering questions in discussion forums, and sharing information that others might benefit from.  The great majority of your online networking communication should be value-added to your network, with commercial messages that benefit your business sprinkled in (similar to commercials on television).

A couple of tips for using online social networks for business:

• Identify a small number of online social networks that you can actively participate in – it’s better to be active in a few than present in many.
• Don’t put off posting a photo in your profile – people will recognize a picture much quicker than they will recognize your written name.
• Join groups within your online social networks – and participate in group discussions.
• Focus on helping others.  Write recommendations for people you respect and reply to questions posted from your network and groups.
• Don’t get caught up in the social side of social networking, stick to those activities that will help you promote your business.
• Update your presence often – at least a couple of times a week.  This can be as simple as changing your status, something you can do from most smart phones in a matter of minutes.