Social Networking For Business

I recently wrote an article “The Power of Social Networking for Business.“  It seems like social networking is the trend everyone is following.  Yet, when we look below the surface, most businesses either are not social networking in a business sense or simply not social networking at all.  Large businesses that have marketing departments are most likely utilizing Web 2.0 and social networking, it is the small to medium businesses that I believe are not realizing the benefits that could be obtained if they started an Internet marketing program that utilized social networking.

The problem is that the small to medium business could really profit by getting involved in social networking.  I like to think of it this way.  Imagine that instead of calling yourself the owner of a business, you start calling yourself the CEO of your business.  In fact, call yourself the CEO of your life.  By attaching the title CEO to our persona we start thinking of life and how we interact with it in a whole new perspective.  As a small business owner sometimes you have to wear many hats.  As CEO your job is to either do the work yourself or hire it out.  A good CEO is going to have a marketing plan, period.  Your need to allocate time each week as part of your marketing plan to social network.

As part of my marketing plan I am on the social network Linkedin.  Now let’s say that you own an automotive repair shop.  You probably are thinking that this computer mumbo jumbo is a complete waste of time.  Well if you live in a town of any size there are most likely other business people and local professionals already on Linkedin.  How would you like your business to become their go to shop for automotive repairs?  Get Linkedin!  Another benefit to social networking on a site that has professional business people from all over the world is that you can meet people to outsource work to.  Me for example.  If you are the busy CEO of your life and business, you may not have time to market online.  I step in and take care of that for you.  Do you need a bookkeeper or an accountant, I have a few Linkedin connections, let me introduce you to them.  You may get a better deal and/or better work than what the local vendor charges.

As I write this we are in a recession.  No one knows where this recession will lead.  A smart business person must use every tool available to survive times like this.  Putting together a large social network will not only help, but social networking will definitely not hurt you.

Linkedin Connections

In the last month or so I have joined Linkedin and started building my Linkedin Connections.  The amazing thing is how easy it is to obtain connections on Linkedin.  Having said that, many question whether or not it is even worth it to participate in social networking for business purposes on a site like Linkedin.  Personally I say that it would depend on what you would like to accomplish.  I am a capitalist, I do business.  For me, life does not need to be complicated.  I find something to sell, product or service, and someone to sell it to.  Having a lot of Linkedin connections fits nicely into my  (under development) philosophy on life.

In order to get a lot of connections on Linkedin I joined the LION’s “Linkedin Open Networkers” and Top List as well as other groups that I felt relevant to what I do.  My business is Internet marketing through the use of social networks.   I can make connections with people from many walks of life and it be a win/win situation.  The funny thing is, there are still a lot of people on the Internet that seem to be offended by the capitalist system.  Oh well, you can’t win them all.  Notice that I do not apologize.

Questions arise when one talks about building a large network of connections using a site like Linkedin.  What are you going to do with all those connections?  How will you manage all those connections?  It is nothing for me to get a couple of hundred emails every day, not all from Linkedin connections, but a lot of emails nonetheless.  I developed my own system of managing my time so that it does not burden me.  The important thing is to figure out how much time you have to devote to social networking.  Make a plan and stick to the plan, just like everything else in life.

Last week I was talking to one of my Linkedin connections on the phone.  Andrew Stephens.  Andrew is a Search Engine Optimization Specialist out of Cincinnati Ohio.  His basic theory is that social netowking is going to become very important to building a successful Internet business in the next few years.  Right now Google dominates the market for searches on the internet.  SEO experts that help website owners get top rankings for their websites  in the search engines are in direct competition with Google’s search marketing efforts.  Why pay Google for a pay per click campaign if a SEO expert can get you on page one of a search on your keywords?  With that in mind Google is rumored to be making changes to their search engine so that it operates more like Digg and the sites that make it to page one, will only get there if they get enough votes.

So my theory is, if you want your website to be on page one of a particular search, you better start building your social networking connections to include your Linkedin connections.