By Kim Garst
Before the Internet and social media channels, gaining access to the people you need to connect with required a great deal of work, time, and often times, a degree of proximity. Today, with social media, you can be anywhere in the world and connect to the people who are critical to growing your business.
The need for networking hasn’t changed, but the tools have — and leveraging those tools to tap into that wealth of opportunity is easier than you might realize.
Tools vs. Strategy
With new social media platforms emerging at an alarming rate, it can be easy to discount the social media revolution as a fad. What you need is a strategic plan — and a platform that can help you accomplish that plan.
How do you know which platform is right for you? What I’ve found is that it’s best to identify your target audience and your business goals. Are you trying to increase sales? Are you looking for strategic partners or additional qualified staff? Are you targeting consumers or do you want to connect with other businesses?
Getting Started With Social Media
If I had to choose a favorite social media platform (or a great place to start networking), I would pick Twitter. I can say with certainty that Twitter is the number one tool I’ve used to grow my business. It’s amazing how much relationship-building you can do in just 140 characters! Twitter is incredibly dynamic, allowing you to customize your experience to meet your networking goals.
Twitter in and of itself can be overwhelming. You’ve got to have a plan and use it strategically to accomplish that plan. If I could give you just a few critical tips they would be:
● Filter your Twitter stream by building lists so that you can closely follow the conversations of a small group of influencers. This allows you to interact and build closer relationships.
● Use Twitter as a search engine. Attempting to tune into the noise of all of Twitter is like trying to look at every webpage on the Internet without using Google, Yahoo, or Bing to filter the information. Using Twitter’s search feature allows you to zone in on the information that is relevant to you.
● Respond to every retweet (RT) and person that reacts to one of your tweets. Keep the conversation going while being yourself. Your followers will appreciate a live, real human being’s response — it can be rare these days!
Of those currently using Twitter, 34 percent of marketers say they have generated leads using the social media platform, and 20 percent have closed deals.
Twitter Success Stories
No matter how much practical, theoretical information I read, I tend to learn more by reading about the successes of others who have used Twitter to network and take their careers or businesses to the next level. Here are some of my favorites….
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Levine Communications Office 