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:
- 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.