To many people, “networking” conjures up images of awkward breakfast meetings or even pyramid selling. Which is a shame, because in its broadest sense, networking is a great way of getting clients, and the science of good networking is neither unethical nor difficult to master. And as usual, the internet has made it all much easier.
Face-to-face networking
The old way is to join local networking groups, and ply your wares at regular meetings. You get your name out there, and then when someone finally needs your kind of service at some point in the future, you’re in the frame. Until then, you help your fellow networkers out with anything you can, keeping the relationships alive. For this, you have to be as reliable as your word – and that’s where web-based customer relationship management (CRM) software comes in.
A CRM is like an address book, but one that tracks all touch-points between you and a contact, allowing you to follow up effectively on any promises you’ve made, and on potential work, however tentative or long-term.
As well as remembering cliché icebreakers like birthdays, CRMs can log all email conversations or phone calls you’ve had with a contact, accessible from your phone or laptop as well as your office. How good would it be to be have all of this information available whenever someone contacts you?
Not only that, but you can make seemingly throwaway promises long ahead (“I’ll call you in the spring to see how that went…”) and always follow up; such systems will email you reminders way into the future.
The industry-dominating web-based CRM, SalesForce (www.salesforce.com), often scares small businesses with its cost and complexity. But now, competent and attractive products like Highrise (www.highrisehq.com) and BatchBook (www.batchblue.com) make such technology available to all cheaply, quickly and with easy set-up.
Getting social online
It’s a mark of the times that “social networking” has taken on a meaning of its own, but make no mistake – this is real networking. Social networking sites give your business the chance to develop relationships with new types of clientele, winning evangelists who’ll pass the word along for you, helping to create a network of people that you’d struggle to reach otherwise.
LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) is the choice for many professionals, being built around the whole notion of new introductions through trusted contacts. You can post your reasons for being there (career, expertise etc) and answer people’s questions and queries in your particular area, gaining friends and influence along the way. This is traditional networking on steroids, so if you’re not a member – join. For a perfectly usable basic membership, it’s free.
However, don’t ignore Facebook (www.facebook.com). With its Facebook Pages function, you can have a commercially minded “fan” page for your business. Add a link to this page on your company website and email signatures and you’ll start to get visitors, who can join in the conversation around your brand, posting on your “wall” and conversing with you and others. Post some compelling content, dish out some free advice or help to the right person here and there, and you stand to gain both friends and clients.
Dip your toes in!
The online networking work can seem alien, with its own norms and vocabulary, but nowadays you really can’t afford to ignore it. Keep up the traditional networking, manage it well with a decent CRM, and join a couple of online services (with a pledge to do something on each once a week), and pull ahead of your competition and their Rolodexes!
This article first appeared in Essential Magazine Marbella
