The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, 3rd Edition

Conclusion

The key to networking—as with all of the social media tools—is to participate. Go to the sites mentioned in this chapter—LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube—and any other social network platform you can think of and create your profile and groups. If you don’t, someone else will take your name or industry group—and it will be lost forever. Robert Scoble, famous Microsoft blogger, continuously says that to be successful in networking, first listen, then participate. It’s like being at a social gathering.

So—join the party! You wouldn’t walk into a party, step over to a group of people talking, interrupt, and immediately start telling them about yourself. (Well, maybe once.) But this is how people are currently marketing; and it’s not really working that well. First, you have to actually be at the party. Then, you walk over, listen for a while, and then join in on the conversation with something valuable and appropriate to add. Social media marketing for businesses is exactly the same thing. To repeat, because it’s important: You first have to be at the party, and then select a group, listen to them—and then join in with something valuable. That’s how you build community, and that’s how you build trust both offline and online.

To hear all of the Expert Interviews, go to www.theSocialMediaBible.com.