Network Without Leaving the Office

I remember having a conversation with my cousin Jamey a year or two ago. Jamey is a senior in college now and we were talking about Facebook. She was saying that she didn't like non-students on Facebook. Jamey isn't an agist or anything, but I took her to mean that she felt like the newcomers were kind of ruining a good thing. I guess it's like when your favorite band starts to make it big and suddenly everybody loves them. It sort of ruins it because they were your band.

It wasn't until Facebook first began allowing non-students to join (much to Jamey's chagrin), though, that the true power of this networking juggernaut became apparent. What was once solely a social tool opened itself up to allow people to use the network to promote themselves or their businesses in a friendly and comfortable manner.

I will admit that I am a very reluctant networker. I go to the Chamber of Commerce events and I talk to people, but I'm not one of those folks who enjoys making the rounds and introducing myself to everyone. I enjoy meeting new people, I really do, but going around and handing out business cards to strangers feels awkward to me...it's outside my comfort zone. Networking is not about closing sales, it's about getting your name out there and letting people know what you do—Facebook is a great venue for doing just that.

A lot of businesses steer clear of networking sites because they write it off as something for kids. Facebook is definitely not the right venue for every business, but that's okay because there are a lot of different networking sites. So it's important to think about who your core customers and clients are. Once you have an idea of who you want to target, you can figure out what networking sites work best for you. Maybe it's myspace (event planners, for example) or maybe it's linkedin (great business site with a wide variety of individuals and professions represented). Maybe what you really need to to is to set up a blog to let potential customers about your business.

Take the time to look into networking sites and decide if there is one that makes sense for you and your business. The best thing about these sites is that most of them don't cost a dime. The only investment to be made is the time it takes to put the page together, so what do you have to lose?

If you think you would like to look into this further, but would like some help putting everything together, give us a call. We're pretty comfortable with new media and would love to help you out in any way we can. We can make recommendations on which sites work best for you, create the pages you need, write the blog or anything else you need help with.