Participating on Online Social Networking tools like Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin can be an effective way to build your reputation and reach an expanded audience; if you connect with the right communities, share quality content and engage your target audience effectively.
To increase your Social Networking effectiveness, identify which of the following stages you are currently in and if you can move to the next stage.
Stage 1: The Conversationalist
Profile: Uses Social Media for sharing personal photos and updates. Doesn’t use Social Media for business purposes and only networks with people they know.
Audience: Friends and Family.
Opportunities: Keeping up to date with personal relationships that are most important to you.
Risks: Missing out on opportunities to expand your reach in your niche and generate new customers.
Effectiveness: Unless you have lots of family and friends in your niche, you are probably not going to generate any business.
Moving to the next stage: Shift your focus to building your business network and break past using social networks strictly for personal. Start with creating a Linkedin profile, or a Twitter account.
Stage 2: The Connector
Profile: Uses Social Media for networking and keeping up-to-date with their existing business network. Doesn’t share much content, just adds people as they meet them. May not be open to networking with people outside their existing network.
Audience: Existing business network.
Opportunities: Keeping up to date with what is going on in your business network may lead to increased visibility and opportunities.
Risks: A very time consuming way to network that doesn’t take advantage of social media’s one-to-many approach as you rely on meeting people first.
Effectiveness: It is limited by the opportunities available in your current network.
Moving to the next stage: Brainstorm a list of subjects that are interesting to your target audience and find sources for content, such as blogs, videos and news channels. Follow industry leaders, share their content and look for ways to network with people outside those you’ve met in person.
Stage 3: The Filter
Profile: Sees the opportunities in sharing content, but doesn’t blog or create original online content themselves. Finds and shares a lot of content with their network or niche. They are open to networking with people they don’t know and could be trying to grow or build their mailing list.
Audience: Your target audience of existing and potential customers.
Opportunities: Build a reputation as someone who is a Hub for great content.
Risks: Sharing content that is interesting to you, but not your target audience could cause people to tune out and if you only share content and don’t engage people, you just look like a one way broadcast service.
Effectiveness: Sharing good content, even if it’s not your own, can help effectively build your reputation and associate you with quality. It’s better to be a good filter than a bad content creator.
Moving to the next stage: By monitoring what content your target audience enjoys, you can begin to create similar content with your own twist or perspective.
Stage 4: The Creator
Profile: Creates and shares content regularly with their niche and actively tries to expand their reach and build their reputation. Networks with people they don’t know and often has multiple social networking and content channels such as blogs, podcasts, video, pictures.
Audience: Your target audience is existing and potential customers. Potential strategic alliances with partners who also service your target audience.
Opportunities: Expanding your reach in your niche beyond what you are physically capable of doing yourself becoming a 24-hour marketing machine. Increases website traffic and visibility to get you in front of more potential customers.
Risks: If your content doesn’t appeal to your audience, lacks quality or is too “salesy,” your reputation is at risk and may cost you potential customers and opportunities.
Effectiveness: Extremely effective if you have a strategy to move people past being a connection on a social network and into your sales cycle.
Moving to the next stage: Look at ways that you can improve your field/industry/area of expertise and create content on it. Collaborate with other Thought Leaders.
Stage 5: The Thought Leader
Profile: Contributes to shaping their field or industry, usually having a fan or customer base of peers who are seeking guidance and direction in the industry.
Audience: Industry Peers, Conference Organizers, Media
Opportunities: Travel, speaking at events, book deals, interviews and media coverage.
Risks: If your Industry Peers are your target niche, fine. But if your business comes from elsewhere, it’s also important to stay focused on your current and potentials customers.
Effectiveness: Instead of having to look for opportunities and make things happen, opportunities are now coming to you with ease.
Moving to the next stage: Is there one? You tell me.
Linkedin allows you to stay in touch with your network, build relationships and keep up to date with important changes to your contacts’ situation – such as employment changes or business developments. It also has the ability to help build your credibility with new connections and potential prospects using the Recommendations feature.
