Networking Archives - The Social Media Advisor

July 25, 2021
Social Media Marketing

Are You Incorporating Your Networking Goals with Your Social Media Marketing Goals?

Networking, virtually or in person, can really enhance the connections you are building and support your efforts in social media marketing. I’ve been using networking as a marketing growth tool for the entire time I’ve been a small business owner and social media manager. While the groups have changed over the years, the benefit of connecting with other biz owners on a regular basis has remained the same.

Find New Followers

How does networking and social media connect? Exposure to any new group is an opportunity to find new followers for your social media channels. There are clever and engaging ways to encourage new people to follow you on social media and once you’ve identified how to do that, the sky’s the limit! It’s important to have 1-3 goals for any networking meeting, event or opportunity and one of those could be convincing 1-5 people to follow you on your favorite social media platform or channel. Give them a good incentive to go out of their way and hit the follow, like, or subscribe button to make this task even easier!

Invite Your Followers

Have you considered inviting your followers to your next networking event? You can build trust with your followers or customers by inviting them to connect deeper while networking. How does inviting others to network with you enhance their own businesses and endeavors? This gets you valuable face-to-face time with them while they get the benefit of marketing their efforts with new people. Not only is this a win-win situation, if it’s successful for them the trust you’ve built is likely to convert to success for your biz in the future.

Grow Your Followers

Additionally, networking groups can help you build your tribe of supporters and expand your social media audience through the supportive engagement and shares of the other businesses in your networking group. When you leave a networking group, take time to post about the experience on social media. Tag the group, other businesses that attended, or even people you think may benefit from the next meeting or gathering. Tell your audience your favorite takeaways, give shout-outs, or recommend someone new to you people (if appropriate). By extending your networking through the use of social media marketing, you amplify both your networking AND social media marketing efforts.

Where are you networking and what accomplishments has the group seen over the year so far? What groups have you heard good things about but haven’t tried yet? Some business owners thrive when given the opportunity to connect one-on-one with other people each month. If that sounds like you, let’s talk about how you can optimize your networking returns using social media. Give the Social Media Advisor team a call today to discuss options.

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Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

January 17, 2021
Relationship Marketing

The Current Pivot to Online Networking

If networking was a part of the marketing strategy for your small business before 2020, you’ve seen big pivots and shifts this past year as connectors scramble to keep meetings happening and maintain their relevance during a pandemic. While it’s true that online networking looks quite a bit different than connecting in-person, months of testing, creative ideas, and innovation from caring and charismatic leaders have shown us that not only do online events work – but they have their own benefits and rewards.

Finding the Right Networking Group

If you haven’t dipped a toe into networking yet, now is a great time to start. What better way to try out new groups than from the convenience of your computer or smartphone? We encourage networkers – old and new – to visit a variety of groups that are hosting online events to see what synergies may develop.

Follow-Up Strategy

Just like with in-person networking, it’s more effective to have a follow-up strategy devised before you attend any new meetings to ensure that you are maximizing the connections you make online and nurturing those leads into actual relationships. Make it a point to set one-to-one appointments during these meetings with both potential collaborative partners AND any individuals that fit your ideal client avatar. A goal of even one meeting with someone new can lead to great things. Having a plan and being consistent are the keys to a successful follow-up strategy.

Make Connection Easy

Everyone is busy. Make connecting with new leads and partners easy by setting up a process for future connection. Create a Zoom account and offer to host a get to know each other meeting. Make it easy for them to schedule by setting up an online scheduling tool.

Our advice is that you make the focus of that first one-to-one meeting relationship building, collaboration, asking deeper questions, and getting to know one another. Save the sales pitch to use after a relationship has been established and nurtured (unless they ask the right questions, of course!). The goal is to make new connections, establish yourself as an authority in your field, and explore opportunities that benefit everyone.

Looking for new groups? WEBO Network provides Professional Development Trainings, Masterminds and connection building opportunities on a regular basis, in a safe, virtual environment. I’m proud to lead the Southeast Denver chapter and would love the opportunity to introduce us to some fantastic women entrepreneurs and business owners!

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

July 5, 2020
Relationship Marketing

Celebrate Your Networking Goals

Did you set goals for your networking efforts this year? If you want to get the most out of the time you spend networking for your business, it’s essential that you set goals for your efforts. In fact, we wrote all about setting networking goals here.

When you celebrate your wins on a regular basis it helps with confidence, positive thinking, forward momentum, and motivation. Knowing you on the right track with your efforts and that, even when things are tough you are achieving your goals, is a small business success technique.

Identify Your Personal Wins

Midyear is the perfect time to evaluate the various networking groups you participate in. Have you met any of this year’s networking goals? If yes, then celebrate your progress! It takes time and effort to participate at a level where you start seeing true results so, if you are, congratulations! Taking time to honor these small successes gives you the opportunity to evaluate what is and isn’t working, as well pausing to recognize the benefits of all your hard work.

Group Accomplishments

If you are struggling to identify any individual goals you’ve met with your networking groups so far, perhaps there are group accomplishments you could celebrate instead. Has the group grown this year? Did it pivot in an impactful way? Has attending the meetings helped you build an audience or a tribe? Most businesses join networking groups to find clients and make money but there can be other results from attending these events that may benefit your business.

Invite Others

Once you know that you have found a beneficial networking group that is helping you achieve your business goals, one way to celebrate is to share the group with others! Your audience will be motivated by your success and bolstering the group could bring additional benefits your way.

If you did select goals for business networking this year, now is a great time to pull out those goals and do a self-evaluation of your progress. Can you celebrate any networking wins right now?

Sharing your successes on social media allows others to connect with you, build rapport with you, and become motivated by your progress. Did you know that every social media platform is searchable? Each channel is its own search engine and also appears in the results of popular web browsers (like Google). Every word matters. Have you completely filled out your social media profiles? Is your messaging current? Have you optimized your opportunities to be found in search using your social media accounts? If not, now is the time to get your channels revamped! You’ll be amazed at the results. Book a discovery session here and ask us about Robust Profile Optimizations.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

January 20, 2020
Relationship Marketing

Setting Goals with Your Networking

I’m a big believer in the power of networking to grow your business. However, having overdone this myself, I also know how important it is to be intentional about where you network, how often you network, and how to get the most return for the time, energy, money, and effort spent. Here are some things to think about as you are planning your networking strategy for your small business this year.

Timing

Before you start making big plans to get out there and meet people this year, take some time to really think about how much you can handle. It’s easy to burn yourself out on networking everywhere, making this a less effective strategy for your business than it could be if you approach it realistically.

Where in your calendar do you have wiggle room to attend networking events? How often can you realistically be away from your business without it suffering? Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Your energy will be impacted differently, depending on your answer to that last question.

Before you seek out the right networking groups, be certain you have an idea of what you can handle. This will help your networking efforts be more successful. Then you can jot down your networking goal of attending X number of networking events each month.

Picking the Right Group

Just as important as factoring in your time and energy, find the right group(s) is essential. There are plenty of options available from large, national groups to local meet-up opportunities. Each group will have their own schedule, leadership, costs, and set of rules to follow. Some groups are more formal with lots of expectations and rules because they are dedicated to getting results for their members. Others are quite a bit more informal with less rules and little to no cost, but your return on your time can vary. If you aren’t sure which networking groups to try this year, visit a few. Also, ask around. Other small business owners you know will probably have recommendations on groups they love to network in!

How You Network

Turns out that people approach networking differently. There is a traditional way of meeting and connecting with people and that works because it doesn’t surprise anyone. It’s expected that you offer to go on a coffee date or phone call to get to know one another better. In some groups, you are required to do a few of these each month. However, as networking progresses, people are finding that being generous, listening, be specific about their ask (instead of just delivering an elevator speech), and creating an easy way for people to say yes to you may be more effective than setting up a ton of get-to-know-you meetings. As you are identifying your networking goals, take some time to get creative and find out how you can stand out and do things differently as a networker.

Being Intentional

I’ve found, from talking to other businesses who regularly network, that it can be quite effective to set goals for each networking event. A tough goal to reach is to sign up 2 clients at each event. There are a lot of variables involved and most people need a chance to get to know you better and build trust before they are ready to sign up for your product or service. A reachable goal, however, could be to introduce yourself to 3 new people at each event. It could also be to arrange 2 coffee dates a month. How about practice your pitch 5 times this month? By getting intentional with what you want to accomplish, you can walk away from each networking event knowing that you are making progress towards your networking goals for the year.

I love networking. I truly consider it one of the most valuable tools in my business-building arsenal. I love networking so much that I now manage my own chapter of WEBO in Southeast Denver. If you are seeking a group of passionate, motivated women entrepreneurs and business owners on this side of town, I hope you’ll check us out here.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

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Tag: Networking

The Current Pivot to Online Networking

Setting Goals with Your Networking

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