1.  All Dressed Up But Nowhere to Go…?

 

 

My favorite is LinkedIn – by far the best way to connect and communicate with professionals in your field.  There are may useful ways to leverage this social media platform for networking.  Here are just a few methods I use:

• find relevant groups of interest, or groups that are in your field of expertise.   One local group I like is called Business in Burlington (Ontario).  Connect (most are open to everyone) – then comment on topics where you can be helpful.  This is a great strategy for sharing knowledge and business intelligence.
• connect with great people… who know great people – here are just a few experts I connect with both in person & via Social Media –> Mic Berman, Jamie Shanks, Rob Wieske
• update your ‘Status’ daily or at the very least weekly.  Not with irrelevant spam (this can get annoying real fast), but good helpful relevant content.
• create your piece of virtual real estate – you have experience, now let people know about it!

 

2.  Twitter – Elevate Yourself.

 

 

When people think Twitter, they think ‘Oh, I don’t need to tell people I’m eating a sandwich or going to the bathroom’?  Fair enough, if you are sharing that information regularly and people are Following you… well, enough said.

Here are a few ways I leverage Twitter for Networking:

• use #hashtags to search for content of interest to you.  Example – go to www.twitter.com, create a free profile (should take no more than 30 secs), and search for the hashtag #strategy
• using hashtags, start ‘Following’ folks that are sharing content related to that topic.  You will notice once you start Following people, they will follow you back if applicable.  *Tip: Share 80% business intell, 20% fun, personal and edgy content
• Here are some Twitter pros I love following:
  • @danmartell (Canadian, VC, CEO / Founder of Clarity),
  • Paul Castain (Sales jedi, Keeper of The Whupass),
  • @GuyKawasaki (Former chief evangelist of Apple. Co-founder of Alltop)
  • @KevinMartin (fantastic marketer, and someone who introduced me to Twitter)
• share your experiences, blog posts, job changes, marketing updates etc

 

3.  Blogging – Create Your Own Soapbox

 

 

Start blogging.  This has been my personal goal this year – 1 post a month to get started.  I want to use it to connect with people interested in sales and marketing.  It will be a collection of my experiences, thoughts, and a great way to share with others interested in sales and marketing.  Ear mark 10-20 mins a day to invest in social media – it will be time well spent.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on social media – what other suggestions can you think of for effectively using it to network?

 

 

Cheers,

Dave Malda.