Now that the internet and social media have become so prevalent, it’s hard to remember when we used the words “social network” to describe our real life friends, family, and business contacts, but of course this is still an extremely effective way to conduct business.
The question a lot of businesses have today is how to move that offline network to their community online to continue to build those relationships and trigger new business!
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Start by making a list of your real life “offline” network
Think about who you partner with in real life. You probably have vendors, local groups, and other organizations that you are a member of. What about the last event you attended or hosted? Did you meet new prospects or old business acquaintances there? Find that lost stack of business cards or event attendee spreadsheet and add those to your list. Lastly, think about everyone in real life that already likes you and your company. I’m sure friends, family, and current customers would “like” you online as well.
Begin by adding your website, social media channels and hashtags to everything you distribute: Business cards, brochures, event displays, ads and more! As a bonus, although this is already online, you could add your links to the email signatures of your front line employees, since those are the people that are in contact with the public and your customers 40 hours per week.
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Reach out to your offline network online
If your network isn’t connecting with you online yet, it’s time for you to find them. I’ll bet you can find all your network’s links on their business cards, websites, & emails, too. Do a quick search, then connect, follow and like your network on social sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. It’s also important to start to contribute to conversations on all social channels. LinkedIn is really the top place to start this process for B2B marketers.
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Plan a Social Referral Strategy with Your Top 3-5 Partners
To make this process simple, talk to the contacts you have the strongest relationships with offline, and plan a strategy to share and like each others social media content. You could also mention one another or guest write on your company blogs. Quick Tip: Some of the local groups and other organizations you’re a member of may already have options you can utilize as a member to be featured on their social channels and blogs.
How is this process generating leads for my company?
Three words: Search Engine Optimization. SEO best practices based on search algorithms state that generating fresh content and lots of activity on “high authority” websites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn will strengthen your website’s authority by both linking back to your website on these channels and including your company name (which already prefaces every post). It will take some time to increase your website authority, and the more your post, the more keywords will be associated with your company. Be patient, keep on posting, and lastly, make sure you have contact forms on your website to capture all those leads that start trickling in!
Want to learn more about this topic? We have a webinar you can listen to here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2xElY8jRUwzVGU5NXZ6OUdDV1k/view?usp=sharing