This is from an email I wrote to a friend about how to effectively use social networks for gaining new clients. It is unedited other than making it more readable:
- In Facebook and others
join groups and then make friends.As a recruiter find
groups where your potential clients are hanging out. - Do a search under groups
for their business name, then their specialty. IT, Network Administrator, etc, keep searching - Join and lurk to see if
it is vibrant - This is where you figure
out what is the conversation and you figure out how to enter it.The old marketing advice
comes to mind: Enter into the conversation going on in your customers head - Ask yourself “what problems need
solving?” - Start participating,
answer questions, solve problems - Add commentary that is of
value, not salezy.Give your expertise, and
your personality to the conversation - Do not be just another
Indian, be the Chief - Soon you will have your
own tribe - That is adding to the
community.Now you are a
“friend”.Get known as the advisor
for job hunting - you have just built a
personal brand in this group.Now it is easy to ask for
help in placing or getting job orders.
This really should not seem like anything new. It really is networking
101 only digitally. Hence the words “social networking”.
Do you really want to blow
it up to the next level? Add video and audio and such to take
your personal brand into the stratosphere.