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Shashi and Barbara on Social Media for Business and Networking

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The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. To underscore the importance of relationships in business and to have a chance to make and celebrate a few while we’re doing that, I’ve opened up this series by successful and outstanding bloggers like you.

Two SOBCon09 attendees have great new slideshare presentations online.

Social Media To Get More Business (DC Web Women) by Shashi Bellamkonda

Shashi Bellamkonda can be found at Happenings, advice & other technology thoughts ! and his twitter name is shashib

Social Networking 101 For Consultants by Barbara Rozgonyi

Barbara Rozgonyi can be found at wiredPRworks.com and her twitter name is @wiredprworks

Time to buy Liz’s ebook NOW!!

Connecting with New People

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People talking
People talking

Here are some simple to follow steps toward developing your people skills and enhancing your network:

1. Be nice, and everything else will fall into place.

Our friend and mentor Liz Strauss has a motto for SOBCon, “Be nice.” How hard is that? How many people do it? Being nice creates likability and trust. People do business with other people that they like and people they trust. Ask yourself “How friendly are you?”

2. Project yourself in a way that creates a positive attitude in others.

Your handshake is an indicator of your self-image. So is your wardrobe. Everything from your hair to your shoes is an expression of who you are and what your style may be, or not be. Is your image acceptable to those you seek to connect with? Do you make them feel comfortable in your presence. Reach out with your personality in a positive way and help the people that you meet be positive too.

3. Make eye contact.

Making eye contact is a display of confidence and a display of respect for the other person. Do you find it easy to make eye contact? Do you feel suspicious when others do not make eye contact with you?

What are some other things that you can do to meet new people and grow your network?

Get Positive Attention in the Twitterverse and Other Networking Situations

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Anyone who’s spent time in the Twitterverse knows that every person uses it in a way uniquely suited to his or her own purpose. That’s the beauty of a great tool. But if your goal is social networking and conversation, you want to have folks around. Conversation without a few and followers is usually called a monologue.

The art of attracting fiercely loyal twitter followers can make the time we spend twittering useful, productive, and significantly more fun! Great Twitter followers are friends, business colleagues, and people who inspire us. Be a great Twitter conversationalist and those followers will bring their friends join in. These traits in a Twitterer always catch my attention.

Want to have new Twitter friends? Here’s how to be one …

  • Have a presence. Make a Twitter home page with some self-expression. Have a name that I can remember, even if it’s not the name your family calls you. Have a picture as your avatar to let me know that you’re serious about being around long to finish a conversation.
  • Don’t wait for people to talk to you first. Follow about 30 people who are interested in these same things you are. Find them at http://search.twitter.com Take a look at their profile or their blogs. Reach out to them using the @ sign and their name to share a comment on what you found.
  • Show up in new places. Sound obvious? Maybe it’s not obvious as we think. Most of us tend to hang where we are. If you want to make new friends, show up in new places and new times and talk to new people about new ideas. New situations stretch our brains.
  • Respond personally. When someone follows you, explore their profile before you say hello. Know who you’re talking to. A statement about something someone wrote will get you noticed in a way that a “Thanks for following” response never will.
  • Share your best ideas and strategies. Get them out there. Let other folks use them too. Everyone likes a generous soul. Generosity come back to you in the most interesting and intriguing ways. Just as @inspiremetoday about that.
  • Showcase great stuff. It’s charming to point to something another person has done well. It shows generosity, gives respect, and adds value to your conversation. Showcase the people you care about. Care about the people you meet.
  • Give credit, give links, give a hand. Be generous of mind and of spirit. People remember and respect generosity. It’s a statement of character. It also gets their attention. You never know who might want to thank you one day or what shape that thank you might take.
  • Treat everyone as an influencer. Everyone wants to feel a part of something bigger than they are. Let your influencers be a part of what you do in every way that you can. Encourage participation. The more they feel they belong, the more they will bring friends along.
  • Be passionate, fun, funny, and human, If you are, other people will feel they can be too.

Be the kind of fiercely loyal, intriguing follower-friends you’d want to have and you’ll find those are the kind of fiercely loyal, intriguing follower-friends who are attracted to you.

But you knew that.

What gets your positive attention in the Twitterverse?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

The Power of the Strategic Alliance

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After reading this post from Jason Falls – about the ROI of Social Media – I have been thinking a lot about a quote from Jeffrey Gitomer:

“Most people have powerful connections. Very few people have harnessed the power of their connections.”

“Because of”- Not “With”

It occurs to me that there is a lot more to a Strategic Alliance than simply promoting yourself. In fact, Gitomer gives pages and pages of reasons to do it in his Little Black Book of Connections. I would like to suggest that the strongest reason for creating strategic alliances is that you can build your business because of your them, rather than with your strategic alliances.

Just as with all of your other promotional efforts, networking is a way to establish yourself as an authority – the “go-to-person” in your field. Establishing your credibility and creating an emotional bank account with the people that you meet are important tools for building your business, not on the backs of those that you meet, but through their own word of mouth.

Put the Strategic Alliance to Work

The real benefits of creating a network of powerful friends and an alliance of business-people are many. Here are just a few:

  • To make an impression – Meeting new people and asking them about what they do is a great way to make an impression. This is also the time to ask them about what you might be able to do to help them, not your company, you. For free.
  • To get an audience – Attending meetings, after-hours events, and lunch-and-learn events can be a great way to meet new people. You will also discover that these events are nearly always looking for speakers or presenters. Volunteer to speak or give a presentation. You will have the opportunity to put a face with your business. You can do similar things online through guest-posting and forum discussions.
  • To get to the decision-makers – As in the above example, speaking at an event will often get you noticed by the very people that make decisions about your products and services. They may have questions. Networking gives you the opportunity to answer those questions in a safe, non-selling environment. Again, the online forum is a good facsimile.
  • To build business with your existing clients – It is easier to build your business with your existing clients than to get new ones. It is easier to build your business with your existing clients if they know you and if they know other people that know you. Word of mouth is one of (if not the) the most powerful methods of advertising. Becoming known in your industry is your primary goal when networking. When you are known, you will get business.
  • To expand within your industry – There comes a time for every business when it is ready to grow and expand, into new fields or markets. The best way to do this is through networking. Your strategic partners can give you advice and direction, introducing you to new clients and markets. Then it’s time to make an impression again.

What do you use networking for? Which events or functions do you attend in order to interact with new people? Do you do more networking online or off? Why?

Leave a comment.

“I don’t have any friends like that . . .”

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Welcome to Saturday Night at the Movie

About a week ago I saw this video from IBM over at Client Magnet.

Of course, it doesn’t show the experience of anyone we know.

A visit to their site shows that IBM doesn’t offer much in the way of community connections. Don’t they think any friends are important?

Social media connects information and relationships. It offers a venue for people of likeminds to find each other — it’s unlikey we could do it any other way in such numbers. It’s great way for a company to get to know its customers.

Social networking is about the quality of relationships, not the quantity.

Do you find many people like this guy when you’re at your local social networking site?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

SOBCon 08 – The Update

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Greetings all!

@Stephen’s mugStephen Smith here, or @Stephen as some of you may know me. Liz and Terry have invited me to do a little guest-posting here at the SOBCon blog and I am thrilled to be here.

I trust that you are all still as excited as I am about what you learned and the people that you met at SOBCon 08. I am working diligently on applying this crash course in Biz School for Bloggers and can hardly wait to show you all what I have been up to (it would go faster if I was better at code!). I’d also love to see and share what all of you have been up to as well.

To that end I have volunteered my services to Liz, Terry, and Co. to get in touch with all of you and help you get the word out. These are some of the things that the SOBCon community is interested in:
taking notes at SOBCon

  • Do you have a new blog, inspired by something that you learned?
  • Do you have a new product or service?
  • What are you doing to make your blog into a business and what would you like to tell the SOBCon community?

How would you like some help in getting the word out to the thousands and thousands of subscribers that we collectively communicate with? Of course you would, and here is how you can do it.

Please send me an email [stephen at hdbizblog dot com] or

DM me at Twitter [hdbb_stephen],

I will be happy to write/collaborate with you on an article for the newsletter and/or the SOBCon blog. We all have our own communities and could definitely benefit by sharing our efforts in new circles, to new eyeballs.

Who knows? One or more of us may be able to help you over an obstacle, see a new perspective, or make a suggestion about something that you haven’t anticipated.

Two heads are better than one, even if one is a cabbage. Think about how much 200 heads can achieve!

I am looking forward to hearing from you.
All the best,
@Stephen

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