One story and one trend caught our attention this week. First, Smart Biz had this to say about small business and the social networking craze: "For small businesses, advertising into social network sites could soon become a key marketing strategy." Rich Karpinski's piece goes on to explain that the evolving medium, made up of "groups and hubs of users or 'friends,'" capitalizes on the increasingly powerful viral, word of mouth marketing that can be a boon for small firms.
Although large firms can afford to buy in bulk, it appears that popular social networking sites are adjusting their pricing to bring on even the little guys. Check out this Facebook advertisers page that says a business – even a sole propietor – can pay less than $30 to "instantly know what 30 million people are thinking." That's a buck per million eyeballs!
What is your small business doing to gauge the opinions of, or advertise outright to, the emerging audience of social networking site devotees?
Second, and somewhat relatedly, how many online business networks do you belong to? We received an e-mail this week from one of our webinar presenters, and his signature line directs recipients to his member profile page on no less than four sites. We're guessing you or your co-workers have similar affiliations (whether you put them in your e-mail signature or not).
One of the most popular business networking sites is LinkedIn, which has an easy-to-use interface, easy-to-read design and a good mix of free and pay-to-use tools. You can post a bio of yourself and a work summary, invite current and former colleagues to link to your profile and even ask and respond to member questions for free! Several Winning Workplaces staff members have jumped on this wagon, and we're enjoying the ride!
Are you "LinkedIn" or on a similar site? If you use the pay tools, what have you gotten out of them? Has your exposure and connectedness to others led to quantifiable business outcomes, such as a lucrative deal or a new job placement? Let us know by clicking "Add your thoughts" below.
— Winning Workplaces, September 26, 2007 | Add your thoughts
Comments:
Networking, or as we call it, Networlding today, is all about creating transformational opportunities by linking with others. But the idea of networking, my firm and I are finding, after twenty years of research and eleven books, is not as easy for many over the age of thirty-five to really grasp.
I find that speaking with top executives of large and small companies they don't see the value of online networking and this is reflected down to their sales forces that don't participate on sites like LinkedIn. To help address this problem, we just launched a site on Ning (www.networldingnewmedia.ning.com). Here, we provide a learning community for professionals and businesses to help them understand more fully how to leverage the power of online networking.
We also spend a lot of time blogging and giving away our free e-booklet on networking at www.networldingelearning.com for recent college grads so that they can get smarter starts in their careers networking to build leadership networks now so they can become principle-centered business leaders. We believe that if we help this next generation of leaders network better we'll realize beneficial results of our support for many years to come.
— Melissa, December 23, 2007