Using Social Networking to Grow Your Business

Social Networking has become the number one way of successfully promoting your business. If you’ve been fighting this trend and holding off on participating in this type of marketing, you need to change your mindset and get involved now! Trust me, your competition is doing it and benefiting.

It may seem intimidating at first, but in no time you will find that this type of marketing will pay off in big ways. The first step is to open accounts on the various networking sites and start exploring and learning how to use them. Here are a few recommendations for getting started:

1. I recommend that you select the “top three” sites. They happen to be LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. (all can be found easily online)

2. Develop complete profiles which includes your employment history, education, and summary about who you are and the service or products you provide.

3. Make connections with others – develop a network of other business people (the more contacts you have the better).

4. Always keep in mind that you are there to promote your business. All posts should be related to that, not personal things like “visiting my grandchildren.” It would be better to add information like “attending class on how to better market my business.”

5. Begin blogging. Create your own short articles expressing your opinions. You then send them to others and post the blogs on other social networking sites. Remember: as the author of a helpful and interesting blog, you are assumed to be the expert.

6. Try article syndication of articles of 500-800 words. Submit to free article websites and bloggers specific to your industry. To find these free sites, Google “blog websites.”

If you are telling yourself “This sounds like good advice, but how do I do it?” please know that a good solution is coming your way soon. Two local business women and I have established a new company, Innovative Ventures Consortium, LLC. IVC will be offering help, advice and training in many subjects that can help businesses and we’ll also be expanding into a variety of areas. We will be offering webinars about social networking in the near future.

This method of marketing online is here to stay. If you don’t start now and learn how to use these sites to grow your business, many others will surpass you and succeed while your business struggles to survive.