In the last two weeks, I’ve written about social media roles which would be good for fairly small business owners and sales people in particular professions. Today, I’m heading in a slightly different direction.
What if your goal in social media is to meet cool people and build relationships with them? Don’t laugh. I have a client who told me that was his goal, so we’re working toward that.
Traditional networking can be done effectively through social media. Choosing the right channels can extend your reach more easily than can face to face networking, and social media can be used to maintain relationships begun face to face.
Who would fall into this role? Job seekers are the most obvious. Owners of multi-level marketing businesses could also use this role effectively.
What are the best channels for the social media networker? Facebook and LinkedIn are the best, though Twitter could also be considered.
LinkedIn is the foundation channel for this role. Using LinkedIn, you can get a detailed view of someone’s contacts. Are you targeting a particular person? Use the Search function to see if you are connected in any way. Targeting an industry? Search again. Once you have found your target(s), request an introduction.
The Friend Finder and Search features of Facebook can do something similar, but they aren’t as powerful as LinkedIn’s.
Once you’ve found someone and been introduced, I’d suggest moving to another social media channel for building and maintaining the relationship. Twitter can be good for this because there’s no awkwardness about “friending” on Facebook. A new contact might not want that level of engagement but mutual following on Twitter allows for communication and staying in touch. If the relationship grows, moving to Facebook makes sense.
What about time management? Depending on the size of your network, the time commitment can be manageable. You’ll want to join a few targeted LinkedIn groups, keeps tabs on Facebook updates and monitor your Twitter stream with some regularity. A tool like Hootsuite will allow you to group your contacts into various lists and manage them.
Your “content” will mostly be conversation and perhaps promoting links. Note the example in the image for this post. You’ll also want to post updates about what you are doing, keeping them professional and pertinent. If you need help, especially with finding a job, ask for it. You’d be surprised how often requests for help finding a job get forwarded.
If you are a multi-level marketer, how do you get business out of this? Remember that we refer people we know, like and trust. Your social media activities will lead (I hope!) to all three of those. Sprinkle occasional mentions of your ideal clients in your stream, and if you’ve done it right, you’ll get referrals.
Sound like you? Great. Now, you have a place to start.
Are you a business looking to build and maintain a brand? The next two posts will be for you.
I’d love some feedback on this series. I’ve not seen anyone in the social media sphere writing about roles quite this way. Is it working for you?