I spent the last two days poking around on Facebook. It’s really addictive, but I highly recommend it if you are trying to build a large online presence for your business! I haven’t made many friends yet because I’m still trying to understand the Facebook rules of networking, but I’m having a ball connecting with the few friends that I have met.
If you are on Facebook, look me up. I’d love to connect!
Why do I feel it is important for me to participate with social networks? It’s because I’m home-based. I don’t have a store-front (yet) and I’m not listed in the yellow pages. Because I do work from home and chose to also homeschool my son, it can be very hard for me to find time to attend live networking events during the week. These events usually hold sessions in the mornings or afternoons when I’m at my busiest or in the evenings when I’m at my sleepiest. So I rely on word-of-mouth. And guess what? I have found that it works far better than placing ads in newspapers or passing out business cards at events. It’s all about building and maintaining authentic relationships with the people that you do know.
My networking plan for 2009
Pick one live Business Networking Group to be a part of:
I chose my city’s chamber of commerce because I am very community driven and I want to connect with my local female small business owners.
Pick two Online Networking Sites to be a part of:
I chose Meetup.com to network with the members of the Moms Making Money chapters online as well as keep them informed of my live and tele events.
Originally, I chose LinkedIn as my main social networking site but, as you probably already guessed, my new love is Facebook. It’s just more fun!
My goal is to build my network of “Friends with Referrals” slowly and genuinely. I know it’s cool to have 6000 people in my network, but I haven’t the foggiest idea how I would genuinely connect with 6000 people all at once. So I’ll add friends to my network as they naturally arrive.
Wishing you good health and prosperity!