Four Steps to Using Social Networking to Nurture Sales
Posted by teanpow | Filed under Networking
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Sales representatives and business owners know what it’s like to go to networking meetings, make cold calls, and knock on doors to find new business leads. While these traditional methods can produce results, online social networking offers an additional strategy for nurturing sales and growing your business. In fact, these days, if you’re not using social networking tools, you’re missing out on a wealth of untapped opportunities that your competitors are taking advantage of. But you won’t get much out of social networking if you’re not using it strategically and integrating these tools into your day-to-day selling efforts. This paper offers some crucial advice about rethinking social networking and outlines four key steps for using it to cultivate sales: being willing to try something new, digitizing your contacts, earning conversations, and maximizing your time spent on social networking.
1 - Try Something New
The first step is to change your thinking and your behavior. This means being willing and fully committed to trying new techniques that you likely haven’t used before. You’ll get the best results if you completely integrate your new social networking habits into your day-to-day business - it won’t do much good if you use it only once to fill out your profile. Invest at least one hour a week in finding new ways to meet and engage with people on a social networking site such as LinkedIn. These days, if you’re not using online social networking to nurture sales, you’re missing out on a wealth of untapped opportunities that your competitors are taking advantage of.
2 - Digitize Your Contacts
A lot of people have a substantial collection of business cards and only work from that Rolodex to nurture sales. But utilizing only these first-level connections limits you to a one-dimensional pool of contacts. Now is the time to connect your rolodex to your computer and digitize those contacts! Take advantage of the power of social networking by building a community online. Search for people you know in LinkedIn and/or Twitter, then request to connect to them. Once you’ve connected to all the people you know, leverage those first-level connections and let them work for you - see who they’re connected to and use those connections to get into an account and build relationships.
When finding others to connect to, try to balance quality and quantity - you can’t (and shouldn’t) connect to everyone in the world. To be successful, you need to feel comfortable communicating with second and third-level connections. If your first-level connections aren’t solid, your second and third-level contacts won’t be as powerful or prosperous.
3 - Earn Conversations
Connecting to others online doesn’t mean much without the actual sales conversation - and you still have to earn this. But when you use social networking the right way, it’s easier to earn the right for a sales conversation because you can leverage your existing contacts. Ask first-level connections to make introductions with prospects and to provide you with information about them. Then use this advantage as well as information from the prospect’s profile to start building a relationship. You’ll end up having warmer, friendlier calls, which will condense your sales cycle. This saves you time and increases your chances of success because you’re not starting at ground zero. Keep in mind that your conversations will be much more productive if you’ve seen each others profiles first. Make sure your profile is complete and that your website links work - people are much more reluctant today to talk on the phone with you if your credibility doesn’t check out online.
4 - Maximize Your Time
The time you spend on social networking for business development will vary depending on your role and responsibilities. Sales representatives, marketing professionals, recruiters, and business owners will likely spend more time prospecting, sharing and gathering information, monitoring their brand, and marketing their products and services online than other professionals. But no matter your role, devote time to social networking on a regular basis and make it a focused effort.
A good strategy is to set specific goals or outcomes to keep yourself focused. Make a decision to spend a minimum of 30 minutes to an hour every day or every week on online social networking activities. During this regularly scheduled time, concentrate on updating your profile(s), looking through the Companies tab in LinkedIn, finding connections to leverage, browsing group discussions for potential leads or to start a discussion, and exploring the Answers tab in LinkedIn to answer or ask appropriate questions in your field or target area. Whatever you do, make a committed, consistent effort to use this time productively. You’ll get as much out of it as you put in.
Conclusion
Selling isn’t easy, especially in a challenging economy. To be successful, sales professionals and business owners need to be able to use social networking tools effectively. Decide today to make a commitment to nurture this opportunity - just as you would with face-to-face and traditional prospecting methods. Cultivate the process through digital efforts by keeping your profile updated, using the search functions available to you, and monitoring and participating in groups. If you devote yourself to social networking wholeheartedly, you’ll quickly begin to see positive outcomes and increased results.
Kendra Ramirez, CEO/Founder of Sales Konnect, is able to teach and consult directly from over a decade of experience in networking, sales, recruiting and business improvement. Since 2005, Kendra has shown businesses how to utilize these networking tools to shorten sales cycle, find passive candidates and extend their marketing plans. Kendra also serves as a board member for Miracles For Life and volunteers her time in over 12 community and chamber organizations. http://www.saleskonnect.com
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Best Social Networking Sites
Posted by teanpow | Filed under Networking
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Connecting with long lost friends and meeting some new ones along the way are the greatest advantages of social networking sites. These websites serve numerous purposes and combine a plethora of communications functions. Email, instant messaging, message boards, discussion groups and file sharing capabilities reflect the extent to which social websites connect us through the Internet.
When one thinks of social networking, MySpace usually comes to mind. MySpace allows users to create profiles, friends lists and post bulletins to their friends or communities with the click of a button. MySpace also boasts professor ratings and college and high school community groups for anyone looking for those with common interests.
Facebook, another popular social website, began as a Harvard phenomena and eventually opened its doors to most every college, high school and eventually user imaginable. Facebook popularized ‘the wall,’ where friends can post messages to each other via their profiles. Friends can also leave birthday ‘presents’ for each other, a popular function on the website.
It is no secret that the social networking craze has opened doors for many business prospects, as well. Many college students can join industry-related groups and meet new contacts through websites like Bebo and MySpace. Politicians have also jumped on the bandwagon, adding a vast online demographic to their campaign trail targeting. Who wouldn’t feel special having Hillary Clinton on their friends’ list? Nielsen/NetRatings found social networking sites grew about 47% last year, so evidently, these sites are breaking ground for more than one reason.
Kelly Kasa is staff writer for StarReviews, a site dedicated to giving YOU, the consumer, the best product and web service reviews around. This article can be republished but must include this footer. For more information about best bocial networking, visit StarReviews.
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Social Networking - Which Network is Right for You?
Posted by teanpow | Filed under Networking
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Do you like meeting new people? Do you want to meet those who are interested in the same things you are? Do you want to connect with others?
Then social networking may be for you.
Social networking is somewhat like a forum on steroids. In addition to being able to meet new people and share information with them, you can also post blogs, videos, and other Web 2.0 content. Some of these sites even allow you to post free classified ads. The bonus to these sites is that they’re very popular and get a lot of traffic.
Before you decide to sign up for any of the social networking sites though, there are a few things you should consider.
First, you need to think about why these sites are so popular in the first place. These sites are a place where others can connect. Many people want to connect for different reasons. Some want to make new friends, find dates, and then there are those who want to find business partners or network with other business owners. After all, one of the few disadvantages to having your own home business is that it can be lonely at times working alone, and, if you live with family, they get tired of hearing about your business (ask my family LOL)
Now, if you’re a closet introvert, maybe you should consider promoting your business another way. Although these sites don’t require that you interact with others, you will see much better results if you’re out there getting to know others and sharing information. So, once you’ve decided whether or not you want to try social networking, you need to decide on what types of social networking sites you want to get involved in.
Although My Space is the largest, and the most popular social networking site on the internet, it may not be for you. Because this is a general networking site, there will be many different people there for many different reasons. It’s easy to get lost on this site.
Another issue with My Space is some of the content. When conducting a search, it’s a good idea to target your keywords as tightly as possible so that you find people, as well as the content you are looking for. It’s very time consuming to wade through unrelated profiles, and you’ll sometimes find plenty of those because so many people don’t correctly tag their profiles.
If My Space doesn’t appeal to you, there are others like Facebook, Friendster, Hi5, as well as plenty of topical social network sites, including politics, pets, business, christian, and others. Think carefully about what you want to accomplish on these sites, and this will make it easier for you to choose which sites to sign up for. If you like small groups better than large groups, or you want to develop deeper relationships, then definitely consider topical networks. Paid networks are also another option if you prefer a more exclusive network.
If you decide you really like networking, you may want to consider signing up for a combination of sites. Choose one or two general networking sites and then choose one or two topical sites. Try them out and see which ones you like best, as well as which ones work the best in helping you promote yourself, make new friends, or find your dream mate.
Want to learn how top marketers use social networking to expand their businesses? “Social Marketing” teaches you how to easily bring in more profits in just a few minutes a day. Meet me on MySpace.
Jinger Jarrett is the author of “Internet Marketing for Free: The GUIDE.” (On Amazon).
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Six Popular Social Networking Sites
Posted by teanpow | Filed under Networking
Image : http://www.flickr.com
Social networking is now part of our culture. In fact, there are so many to choose from and those who decide to become a member of one are more likely to become a member of another. Just to give you an idea of what is around, here are six of some of the most popular social networking sites.
1. The first is called Facebook. As of July last year, it has the largest number of registered users among college focused sites with more than 34 million members worldwide. Although it is the seventh most visited site in the US, it ranks number one for photos. What makes this social networking site so special is that it generates revenues through advertising which according to some is a little over $1.5 million a week.
2. Next is MySpace which was founded in 2003. According to a study, this social networking site is the world’s sixth most popular English language website and the third most popular in the US. Similar to Facebook, members are able to post pictures, videos, blogs and music.
3. The third is YouTube which unlike the other two only focuses on the uploading, viewing and sharing of video clips. Established in 2005, members are able to upload videos for free and save those which they like in their account. If you want to save this in your computer, there are software programs you can use. The nice thing about this social networking site is that even unregistered users are also able to watch videos.
4. The fourth site is Second Life which is an Internet based virtual world. What makes this so different from the other three is the fact that you are able to create a character and then interact with other members. By interacting with other members, you are able to participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items and services with one another again in a virtual setting.
To date, this social networking site has 8.9 million registered residents with a majority of them that happen to be inactive and some of them are owned by one person.
5. For business networking, one of the most popular ones around is Linkedin which has 12.5 million members. Established in 2003, this social networking site is designed to give registered users a way to maintain contact with people they know so those within the connection can use it to find business opportunities, find jobs and new contacts as well as review or recruit potential candidates.
6. One of the oldest social networking sites around is Classmates which has over 40 million members. Established in 1995, it is a great way to connect with old friends back from high school or college. After so many years, you and your friends have changed and now have successful careers which you can use should you decide to go into business together.
These are just a few of the hundreds of social networking sites around. What makes each of these so popular is the fact that members are able to use it for free and when used for business, they don’t have to pay for advertising. That is unless of course you will be utilizing pop up ads and banners. But the simplest way is to post links to your webpage so members who may need your products or services will get in touch with you or recommend you to someone who needs it.
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