Entrepreneurs and Social Media
Entrepreneurs and Social Media
Entrepreneurs and Social Media
It is far too easy to dismiss social media where people post the inane happenings of their lives or where they withdraw completely from reality by playing games such as Farmville! Social media when used properly offers you much more than that.
Business people have long known that a strong network is extremely important and most people understand the principle of the six degrees of separation. In other words it is possible to link with anyone else in the world through six links. For example, my own registration on linkedin.com has over 200 links. The networks of those 200+ people give me access to over 2 million people. Imaging the size of the network by the time you take it to six levels.
However, simply establishing a presence on a social media website is not enough. As with any network it is important to develop it and to service it. Apart from the people that you already know that may be in the network, many of the social media sites suggest other people that you may know. Use this to identify other potential members of your network, but do so with care. Just because the site throws up someone that you met at your sister's wedding doesn't mean that they should necessarily be part of your network. Make sure that the person you try to add is going to be a valuable part of your network.
As a consultant, I look for other people that are in the industry and are in positions of influence. In other words, people in consultancies that deal with engaging consultants are a good choice whereas the man that pays the bills probably won't be as he will not be a decision maker.
It is also important to keep your networks synchronised wherever possible. If you are at a meeting and meet someone who you want to put in your business card records make sure you also check to see if they are in your social media group.
But my social media involvement with linkedin.com is much more than a networking tool. As someone that now lives in Turkey and hence has limited opportunity to attend courses and information updates, I make sure that I belong to all of the groups within the site that are relevant to me. Such groups send a weekly or daily digest of postings to my email and I make sure I speed read them each time they arrive. If there is something that I think may be of future interest I keep a file on my desktop and add it to the file. Then when I have time or I need the information I can refer back to it.
But there are many other ways in which social media can be used for your business. Provided you are not elitist and only want to engage with business sites then places such as Facebook can be very useful to you. Kodak, for instance, has a Facebook site that it uses to provide information to customers and to receive issues and suggestions from customers. Kodak has a person employed full time to monitor the site and they reckon that a large number of product improvements come from Facebook suggestions.
But Kodak is not in isolation. It is amazing how many businesses and governments now have a Facebook account. I have just discovered that Universal Studios Theme Park has a site for informing visitors of things about to take place and to receive comments on the good and bad things about the park. Disney has an amazing interactive graphics site for people to join.
We also know that YES Foundation has a Facebook page and when I was working on my last project in Turkey we set up Facebook pages for all of the business centres known as ABiGEMs.
As with your network, it is important to understand why you are doing this. The two most likely reasons are to pass information to your clients or to receive feedback from them. This means that, like your network and your website, it is important to devote time to regularly provide information and to respond to and act on feedback. Customers that are ignored rightly feel you do not care.
A perfect example of an entrepreneur that uses social media to the maximum is my friend Greg in Turkey. He specialises in importing meat that you cannot normally find in butchers in a Muslim country. He takes orders over the internet and then uses the email address to link up on Facebook where possible. He also runs a catering arm of the business that delivers lunches to offices. He realises that most of the people that order from him are probably European or American working in offices in Ankara and targets his lunch to that clientele. A quick posting on Facebook in the morning and he has 100 150 orders for lunchtime at no cost!
So next time you are tempted to sit and play Farmville in an idle moment, think about what social media could do for you. If you don't believe the six levels of separation get a linkedin.com account and link to the President of the United States or Facebook and link with the British Prime Minister. Check out some of the business sites and see the valuable interchange of information; and if your business stops working remember that one of the new types of jobs includes Social Media Monitor and that it pays well!
Entrepreneurs and Social Media
By: Roger Cowdrey
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