Why you should be bothering with professional online social networking
Posted by Wayne Gibbins in Marketing & PR on Thu, 25/11/2010 - 10:53
It’s a common question; why should I bother with social networking? But it wasn't that long ago that businesses were asking similar questions about mobile phones and email. Wayne Gibbons explains how online social networking can benefit your company.
Social networks are increasingly becoming a central cog in all business communications and eventually could even surpass email. As a result, it’s important to get involved and understand the key business benefits now and not wait until your company is out of touch with your competitors, customers and contemporaries.
How do I get started?
There is understandably a curiosity about social networking among small businesses so here are a few tips for turning that curiosity into a compelling digital presence for you or your business:
- Begin your professional network by connecting to people you know, you have met or worked with or people in the same industry. Don’t just connect to hundreds of people all at once and expect your network to take off. Connect to people one at a time and send a message explaining why you are connecting. Make it personal, just like you would in the real world.
- Spend some time shaping your profile, whether it’s a simple bio on a service such as Twitter or a full professional profile on sites like Viadeo. Make yours complete and engaging; tell people what you do, what you want, where you work, what you’re interested in and put a photo on your profile. Think of it like introducing yourself at an event or in a meeting rather than an online CV.
- Use Twitter to have a conversation with your network which may include customers and professional connections but do not just use it as a sales pitch. Decide whether to give only company news updates, product information or most impressively use it to solve customer service issues. It is a great tool to create an open dialogue with your customer base.
- Engage with groups on your network, read posts, comment if you have something interesting to say and post your own questions or topics and connect with members of the group where there might be mutual benefit.
- Link your social networking profiles. Also include a link to your professional profile and your Twitter account in your email footer. Add links to your slide presentations and on your business cards
- Add applications and widgets to your professional networking tools to get more out of your network such as a Twitter feed or Google Presentation sharing.
- Grow your network in the real world. Attend industry events, business networking, bar camps and meet-ups and add the people you meet to your network. It’s surprising how many opportunities arise when offline networking meets online networking.
So what are the real benefits of doing all of this?
It will of course mean different things to different businesses. As more firms join and networks widen the prospects increase greatly. Already these sites are becoming a first port of call for researching potential clients, partners, suppliers and new recruits.
There are plenty of examples of businesses finding new partners, staff and suppliers, as well as entrepreneurs obtaining seed funding for new projects. It also opens up a different way of communicating with your customers and clients; both new and existing. Anything is truly possible as social networks contain open yet personal audiences that are willing to listen and engage with ideas, to share information and ultimately to help develop business relations.
But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. You have to get involved, forge links and search for partners that may have real financial benefits. Think of it as giant, interactive Yellow Pages where you not only have access to business information but people that actually work in key positions within those organisations. And they have access to you too.
It feels like it makes perfect business sense, so it probably does.
Wayne Gibbins is communications and partnerships director at Viadeo.
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