Make It Real! Using Social Media for Business

If you’re using social media tools for professional networking and to promote your business, strive to make real connections. Do this by connecting with people that have the same objectives and a desire to have your online communications evolve into a real connection.

Advantages

A few advantages to using social media tools for networking are:

1. It allows you to connect with much more people than the average attendance at a local networking event.
2. It allows you to evaluate people and their business activities in a way that in-person networking does not allow. You can immediately view their bio, review their web pages and blogs and even Google them if you have time.
3. It provides a system for automatically organizing your connections. You don’t need to CardScan or type in the information from the stack of cards you would obtain from an in-person networking event.

Disadvantages

The disadvantages are actually the same as the advantages.

1. It allows you to connect with much more people than the average attendance at a local networking event. As your number of connections increase, you will find that it’s almost impossible to connect with everyone on your list. You could lose the opportunity to make a valuable connection because you simply don’t have the time to review everyone’s bio, blog and web page. You have to work too.
2. It allows you to evaluate people and their business activities in a way that in-person networking does not allow. You can immediately view their bio, review their web pages and blogs and even Google them if you have time. This is an advantage and a disadvantage. Some of the connections that you make offline may not have “made the cut” if you had a chance to review their bio, blog and web page. Due to the volume of potential connections that people can make on the internet, most people have developed some hard standards (sometimes subconsciously) for determining when to make a connection. Standards such as the quality of your web page, how often you post to your blog, if there are typos in your bio, your bio photo and how many other connections you’ve made. And if you’re new ‘on the scene’, you have to pass an initiation phase that proves that you’re not a spammer. This is usually accomplished by enlisting the support of friends, family members and former coworkers. God help you if you don’t have friends, family members and coworkers to get you started (sarcasm alert).
3. It provides a system for automatically organizing your connections. This is an advantage and disadvantage because while it saves you time, it awakens the ego. Unless you’re a robot, human nature will prevail and you’ll start to play the numbers game. This is the game where you monitor your connection numbers like your blood pressure and cholesterol scores. Always trying to ensure that you appear “well connected”. The data is right there in front of you and each time you log in, the system will remind you of where you fall on the lame scale. Connections entered locally, on your PC, aren’t compared and measured against someone else’s Outlook database. Connections maintained online are analyzed and evaluated to death and you get to witness the final verdict.

The Problem

Avoid falling pray to the disadvantages mentioned above. This could lead to an over inflated “network” that is essentially filled with a bunch of folks that don’t know you from a can of paint. And some of them don’t even want to know you; your job in their eyes is to stay on their list (so their numbers don’t decrease) and to not start any trouble.

Phony “connections” are simply not effective for professional networking.

Let’s take a moment to be honest and clear, people use social networking tools such as LinkedIn for a reason … not simply for kicks and giggles.

If you plan to use social media tools to promote your business or to build/enhance professional relationships and you have thousands of connections, but you haven’t made it past the introductory phase or don’t feel comfortable emailing them a simple greeting or announcement, you have not made a connection at all. You’ve simple padded your numbers with phony connections that are potentially meaningless. If you’re growing your professional network and promoting your business, what good is there in having 3,000 LinkedIn connections if you’re ignored or tagged as a spammer the moment you send them a message?

The Solution

Be honest about your intentions, find others with similar objectives and reduce your connections down to something that is real and meaningful to get an accurate picture of your network. A good rule of thumb is to send a friendly greeting (“Hello!”) and an open ended question (“What’s going on with you?”) to anyone that you choose to “connect” with on sites such as LinkedIn. UPDATE: Be sure to personalize your initial message so that the receive will know that you actually wrote the message. Also, when you receive a response, respond to it. Many “spammers” use auto responders to automatically send similar messages; you will want to ensure that you stand out from that pack. This message is an attempt to find a common thread and to express your objective to further the conversation. If within a reasonable amount of time, you don’t receive a response, you have my permission to delete them.

Make It Real!

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