Today is the first in a series on Social Networking for Women in Business. Over the next few days, we’re going to walk through popular social networking tools to see how they relate to your business and how you may use them to best highlight your products or services. We’ll review some of the most popular networking sites. Finally, we’ll wrap up with a to-do list for you as a businesswoman updating your marketing strategy to cope with a more inter-connected world.

SHARING KNOWLEDGE = PROFIT
First of all, why social network? With the incredible amounts of visual and audio information out there, you probably have about 3 seconds to make an impact. Most Americans receive between 2000 and 3000 advertising messages a day: so in response, many resort to personal recommendations from friends, family, and associates. If referrals are the lifeblood of any organization, and reputation-based word of mouth is one of the most trusted and highest-converting methods of making a sale, then your ability to get your message out to “people who make a difference” will enhance your net profit. Guaranteed.

TRANSPARENCY = TRUST
Second, user generated content, such as blogs, podcasts, images, and videos, are rising quickly in importance. A corporate PR blog may be overshadowed by a blogger’s inside scoop. A homemade Youtube video may be more popular than your carefully controlled message. Furthermore, with so many people out there who have an ability to research your company, your motivation, and your personal “dirt,” any kind of duplicity or lack of integrity will most definitely be uncovered. Witness the “fake” Wal-mart blog (created by a web company purporting to be RV-ers) and the fake Sony PlayStation3 Youtube videolog.

BUILD YOUR COMMUNITY
Third, people most naturally connect with like-minded people. If you’re reaching your client community online, you’re two or three steps ahead of anyone who is attempting to broadcast to a generalized audience with a bland or condescending message. If you’re actively engaging your potential customers and your existing clients by offering questions, feedback, even an ability to contribute to your work (like open source user contributions), you’re leveling the playing field for everyone, and you’re adding value to your users. If you’re developing products and services directly in response to a strong stated need from your clientele, then you’re at the top in terms of your ability to convert ideas into realities.

BE AN AUTHORITY ON YOUR TOPIC
Fourth, for women, in particular, the internet offers a level playing field where your words, ideas, art, music, or ability to communicate are more important than what you look like or what your gender, relationship status, nationality, or religious or cultural heritage is. When you keep “on message” with what you’re all about and what you represent, your customers will naturally gravitate to you as one of the tribe.

SHARE WHAT YOU KNOW, LEARN AS YOU GROW
Finally, social networking, to me, is like the sharing of knowledge. When you share your knowledge of, for example, graphic design, or soy candles, or best place to visit in Italy, or hardwood floors, you’re providing an educated opinion that may help someone else make up their mind about something important. Because your knowledge is freely shared (as on a blog or podcast), you then increase your ability to spread your knowledge, connect with people interested in your knowledge (through comments and trackbacks), and you build a community of people who care about common goals.

As a note to company employees who walk a fine line between sharing ongoing developments behind-the-scenes and disclosing company trade secrets, the best bet here is to always represent yourself as a single individual, not as a company representative.

My belief is that the rise of user-generated content and online communities will foster an era of cross-cultural understanding, a feeling of being part of a global village, and personal actions that take local realities as well as a holistic worldview into consideration.

Two of my more well-used social networking sites are Linkedin www.linkedin.com and Facebook www.facebook.com. The two are very different in terms of purpose, levels of formality, layout, and user tools, but they both focus around person-to-person interaction and “six degrees of separation.” Facebook is more like your clubhouse. LinkedIn is more like a professional networking seminar.

Linkedin, with 15 million users as of October 2007, is a service focused on professional and career-minded networking. There is a free signup with an upgrade available to “Pro” status. You post your past and current jobs, education, and work associates. Your profile focuses on professional achievements and accomplishments, as well as your areas of expertise.

When you connect with associates (from past jobs or organizations), you are also able to view their associates, and so your network grows. I can’t highlight enough the importance of a referral or third-party recommendation when starting to transact: any kind of outside validation is so important to smoothing the way to your next transaction. Linkedin has advertised this by their message, “A contact method is 30 times more effective in getting a response than a cold call or email.”

I’ve used my Linkedin network to connect with other women of color in business, particularly when doing blog highlights and connecting with women around the country. Note that there is a “Question and Answers” section in Linkedin with many up-to-the-minute resources by working professionals around the globe on all topics of interest to women in business.

Facebook, with over 42 million users as of October 2007, is another free service that functions like your “clubhouse” for you and your friends. It’s much more informal and focuses on a profile where you list your interests, activities, music, movies, and books. You also may write on your friends’ “walls.” There are thousands of add-on applications that you may use to personalize your profile, including book reviews, Netflix feeds, music downloads, world map quizzes, and the like.

I’ve used Facebook to find and connect with folks from as far back as my elementary school years, and my primary use of this tool is to meet “online” with associates and share information in a more informal way. Plus, I get to just hang out and find other people with my same interests.

GETTING STARTED
One of the barriers to using these sites is that they’re not super effective if you are the only person in your network who uses them. So log on, use the “Friendfinder” or search for people in your Gmail or Yahoo or Hotmail account, and get started.

A Successful Woman's Handbook: Fifty-one Ways to Build your Community of Clients Online. How Women are Using the Internet to Grow their Business, Reach the Right Customers, and Make a Difference

E-book edition

E-version (PDF format)
Receive a download link after purchase.
240 pages, 5" x 9"
Price: $12.99US $10.99US use "ASWBLOG" for a blog-only discount!

Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe to my RSS Feed, or get A Successful Woman delivered by email. Thank you!