February 04, 2010

The Friends Of Friends Factor

Your friends may not be able to hire you or buy your products ... but their friends can likely give you all the business you'll ever need. 

I shared this point of view with a small business owner recently. He was trying to understand the value of social media for his contracting business and looking for a place to start. He didn't seem the prolific blogger type, so I asked him if he was on Facebook -- and he was.  He had about 30 friends at the time. 

I asked him if he went to parties or industry gatherings and why he went. Predictably, he indicated that he went to network and prospect, and wished he could get out even more.  I explained to him that he should think of social media as a digital cocktail party that you can attend or host.  If you added enough value, you'll meet new and business relevant people.  In the digital world there's not traffic, fattening snacks or boring people you can't duck. 

Many of his current facebook friends he saw all the time, but I showed him how he could add many more (sync his address book, for example) and then we multiplied all of their followings to define an extended network with thousands and thousands of people -- that could hire him! 

Here's the plan I gave him: 

1.  Create a fan page for his business. Claim an easy to remember Facebook URL (facebook.com/nameofbiz). Stock it with pictures, testimonials, DIY advice if you are a services firm and useful articles related to your industry. Let your existing FB contacts know about the fan page and add it to your profile.  

2. Use the friend finder resources to sync your address book to build up your fans.  Add a link to your fan page on your website and business card.  Tack on the FB fan URL to your email footer. 

3. On your FB fan page, explain in detail how you add value and how you make money.  Ask people to refer friends to you. If possible, make a video doing this and upload it to your fan page.  

4. Post business milestones as status updates (just closed a deal, just delivered for a customer, just forged a new partnership, just added a new capability).  Be visual and continue to share your unique point of view. 

5. Follow your personal friend feed and provide useful comments on relevant conversations. If they ever link to your expertise, provide useful information.  No need to promote your fan page, if they like what you said, they'll check out your profile and then fan you. 

Posted at 4:10 PM in Social Media  |  Permalink  |  Comments (0)  |  TrackBack (0)

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