[Show Transcript]
I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!
In this week’s report you’ll learn how to benefit from the massive power of social networking. From creating your profile the right way to contacting key people to boost your business without coming across the wrong way, you’ll be armed with the fastest way to make social networking work for you!
Ah…social networking. Everyone has a different idea that comes to mind when they think of this topic. Some folks think about MySpace, while others think – Twitter or Ning. Students might lean more towards Facebook for their social networking fix. No matter what site we’re talking about, the main goal of social networking is to bring people together.
Before I get ahead of myself, let me start at the beginning – a very good place to start! Social networking is about connecting with people who share common interests or background with you. As an online business owner, this means hanging out with other people who are also building businesses. It can get even more specific than that. For example, most of you tuning in might remember that I used to be a professional magician. Social networking lets me stay connect with other magicians to talk shop, exchange ideas, stay in the magic loop, and just plain old get to know each other! You can think of social networking as a big party that everyone’s invited to join, but you’ll wind up talking to certain people at the party more than others. There’s nothing like connecting with people who totally understand your passion!
So, why bother with social networking in the first place? That’s easy. I mentioned the rush of being able to connect with people who share a common interest with you. But in business, you should be adding social networking to your to-do list because it can lead to serious money making opportunities. You can surf around the web and find communities about your specific business and team up on a campaign with a fellow professional. Each of you has connections that can be used to bring in more customers, more leads, and of course – more sales! Now that’s what I call “raising the bar”!
Whether you’re dipping your toes into the social networking waters for the first time or are already over on the deep end of the social networking pool, there are three key tips that will help you get the most out of this platform without taking time away from your business.
First, make sure you know what’s allowed on the site you choose. Every social networking site has different rules. A good example of this is Facebook. You can’t have multiple accounts with Facebook. If they find out you have multiple accounts you can get in trouble and lose all the accounts for good.
Knowing the rules isn’t just about staying out of trouble, it’s about making sure your time on the social networking scenes lasts as long as possible. Besides, following the rules isn’t hard and lets you focus on what you came to do in the first place: connecting with great people to do great things!
Next, you have to get personal on the site. While its fun to talk shop with people that “get it”, there’s more to life than business. Don’t ignore those “hobbies” and “music” spaces on your profile — fill them out! If you like listening to Howard Stern in the morning, like I do – put that on your profile. You’re bound to find someone that shares the same interests you do. Even if you think an interest you have is odd, put it out there – in the world of social networking, nothing is truly as odd as you think it is!
You might be a little worried that getting personal online like this may scare off more business opportunities than it attracts, but these days people want to know more about the person they’re dealing with. In other words, it’s high time to peel back that formal professional layer over your life and reveal the fun, warm person you are to the world!
It goes without saying that this is all about revealing your authentic self – don’t get tempted to put in false information, even if you think it sounds better. If it’s found out later, it’ll only lead to a decline in the trust you’ve built up with your new social business associates and colleagues. Definitely not something that’s going to increase the bottom line, that’s for sure!
In short, there’s a certain balance that’s necessary to make the most out of your social networking time. Think of it as a see saw – the fun is the back and forth motion, not one side or another. Too much personal interaction can take away from the business goals you’re trying to reach, but too much business discussion can give newcomers the impression there’s nothing interesting about you. If people think there’s nothing interesting about you, they will carry that assumption with them when it comes to evaluating your products and services to see if a business alliance might be a good thing.
So what do you really include in a personal profile? At bare minimum, you want to include your name, the company’s name and general location, some information about you and your business, as well as some contact information. Don’t forget to add those interests to your profile, either – as I said earlier, these help draw in other business owners that share your hobbies. No matter how you spin it, a list of hobbies, interests, and music is a great conversation starter – everyone has them!
Let’s move on to the final tip to get the most out of social networking: give amazing value. You can think of social networking as its own little world with various steps. When you first register, everyone starts on the same level – fresh and new with a profile to fill out and a need to search for good people to connect with. What pushes you up the ’steps’ of social networking into being someone worth connecting with is the value you deliver to all of your contacts.
Giving amazing value sounds hard at first, but it’s something I’d like you to be driven to do as a good business person and member of society. If you make friends with someone on a social networking site like Twitter, why not send them a few links based on their interests? If they write that they’re having problems with a piece of software you have experience with, why not send them a quick solution to their problem? Being proactive and offering solutions without being prompted makes you look genuinely concerned for your fellow professionals.
Even if you aren’t able to actually fix the problem, a few links to resources and your efforts in trying to get the mater solved speaks volumes to your newfound social networking friends. It tells them a lot about your character without you having to brag about it or make a big deal out of it, which ends up just making you look silly anyway.
Overall, you need to be on the look out for opportunities to show value to other people by being informative, sincere, genuine, and friendly. Social networking contacts aren’t that much different from the clients, colleagues, vendors, and even friends and family we have in real life. Whether you’re online or offline, you want to be the person that YOU would want to make a connection with. If you take that approach, there’s no way you can go wrong!
Our question this week comes from Ben P. from Springfield, IL who wrote:
Randy,
I love your show – not new to business but I am new to this whole social networking thing. I’ve always been told that this online social stuff can take up too much time and cause me to get distracted in my normal business. How do you make it worthwhile?
Hi Ben, thanks for writing in. You know, this is a common concern for people that are new to social networking, so I’m glad I can help.
You want to keep social networking worthwhile for you by limiting your time to select blocks. In other words, social networking needs to have its own time slot in your daily calendar.
A lot of people think that you have to spend your whole life on the social networks, but that’s not the case. In fact, by limiting your time on these networks, you’re much more likely to contribute better stuff.
It’s all about the quality, not quantity – focus on showing your new social group the very best you have to offer!
Well, that wraps up this episode of Randy Report. Since company’s websites, prices and quality of service on the Internet change rapidly, for my up-to-date recommendations on resources and for free tools and training, visit me today at RandyReport.com.
Today you learned
how to get the most out of social networking by starting with a good foundation. The same principles that work for building a business work for promoting yourself and networking with like-minded people that can really make your business soar! In this economy, everyone is looking for the magic steps that will create the perfect business for them. If there is a magic ingredient in all of this, it’s definitely people.
To recap, you’ll want to get started with social networking by picking a few social networking sites – two or three, but one that you will spend the bulk of your scheduled time on. Next, you’ll need to create a profile that doesn’t just talk about your business, but also includes interests, hobbies, and goals that others will most likely share as well. Finally, you want to immediately give value by answering questions, giving suggested resources and referrals, as well as just lending a supportive ear when someone’s having a tough time. If you follow these steps, there’s no doubt you’ll be a social networking powerhouse!
Thanks so much for watching. Remember, if you’d like more free reports, resources and training then visit RandyReport.com and join me again next week where you’ll discover
blogging, the tool that’s creating more entrepreneurs than practically anything else! If you’re ready to take your business to the next level in as little as an hour, you’ll want to stop everything to tune in for this show!
I’m Randy Charach, and this is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!
[End of Show Transcript]
