Hot Topic of The Month - November
If you’re not linked-in then you’re definitely going to be left out
If you’re like me, less than 12 months ago I was aware of social media networking
but like many I was overwhelmed with the proliferation of sites, such as Ecademy,
Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, to name the key players, I therefore,
did little or nothing about contributing to any of them.
And now? Well, I have come to recognise that if you are not participating in
any of these sites to market your company then you’re unlikely to be on the radar
of the people you could be doing business with right now.
Social media marketing is here to stay and is transforming traditional business
networking and not to be promoting your business this way means that you run the
risk of fast becoming a social and dare I say business outcast.
When I ask someone if they’re on LinkedIn, the response I usually receive is..
‘well yes, I am signed up and I have started a profile but I’m not really doing
much with it’ and there- in lies the problem, most business owners are approaching
online networking without any clear measurable strategy.
It is important that as a business owner you understand the power of this revolutionary
medium. Take LinkedIn for example with over 50 million registered users worldwide,
13 million-plus in Europe alone and 50% of these decision makers, this is a marketing
tool without compare and to not be considering online media as part of your business
marketing strategy is no longer an option.
So, which online medium do you go for? Well it would appear that the men are
beginning to sort themselves out from the boys and just as MySpace appears to
have surrendered to Facebook, late last month, LinkedIn appears to have become
the business network of choice for those who want to promote their products and
services and market their band to those they want to do business with worldwide
or locally.
How should you approach online business networking?
1. Choose an online network that includes the types of businesses you want
as your clients, suppliers and centres of resource information.
2. Understand why you have decided to get involved with social online networking
in the first place.
3. Be clear about what you want to use your chosen network for i.e Positioning
you as an expert, promote your services, selling directly to end users, information
and resource collation for business development etc.
4. Identify who you need to be in contact with to develop your business i.e
Type of company and position and title within that company.
5. Then decide how you will allocate your time consistently to using your chosen
online site. How many days a week, how many hours? What will be your strategy,
what messages do you want to convey and to who?
Just as you would plan and implement any other aspect of your business, treat
your online networking time as seriously (or more so) as you would do any other
marketing activity and you’ll definitely reap the rewards.
Last month Over 2,500,000 people researched products and services using LinkedIn
and almost 2 million people exchanged business advice and as I mentioned, over
50% of the total number of business users on LinkedIn are decision makers.
So, if you’re a business owner or a key decision maker in any size of company
and you’re not on LinkedIn you’re missing an enormous opportunity to promote who
you are and what you do to the people you want to do business with.’
Steve Phillip
Co-founder of Linked2Success www.linked2success.co.uk and MD of Red fm www.red-fm.co.uk
Harrogate