Category: Marketing
On Networking Groups (Part Two)
In “On Networking Groups – Part One”, I spoke briefly about the four types of networking groups. Now, let’s take a look at a category of networking groups.
One category that most people are familiar with is the Chamber Of Commerce. Chambers serve a long standing role in the business community. It is a role of development and support. A Chamber Of Commerce can offer business both small and large with networking opportunities, training programs, legislative assistance and a host of other benefits. A Chamber Of Commerce can be a local, statewide, national, or international organization with separate memberships for each. If you belong to an area Chamber of Commerce, you do not belong to a state or national Chamber. Each plays their own role in the business community.
Some Chambers of Commerce take more of a role in the community to influence policy while others might focus more on business development. Most of them however have a wealth of information for the member that goes unused by most.
For example, let’s say you have a business and you have a question about a city ordinance that relates to your business. Most often a Chamber of Commerce can provide you with the answer to your question. Each of them has a database of members that can often be accessed through some point. Usually computers are made available to members with databases that can be searched for information on other members.
When looking for networking opportunities within a Chamber Of Commerce, most people think only of leads groups or the common after hours. The reality is that any function hosted by a chamber of commerce holds opportunities for networking with other business owners and business leaders.
Chambers of Commerce generally have a yearly membership of several hundred dollars for an individual or company. There are various levels of membership that can be had. Most Chambers offer an executive level membership that includes exclusive meetings between a more elite level of business people. When looking for this type of prospect, you can often gain access to them by joining at this level. The problem you might have is actually paying for this level or attending the functions as they are provided.
I and many other experts on networking recommend anyone who networks to be a member of several groups. This should include a Chamber of Commerce. Keep this in mind when considering a Chamber of Commerce. If you are involved in your community in other business networking organizations like the Rotary Club, a local Merchant’s association, or smaller networking group, you might want to consider joining a Chamber of Commerce in another part of town. This will make you a part of that community as well and open the doors to increased prospects and opportunities.
In any event, you should always attend a Chamber of Commerce function in any area several times and find out what types of assistance they can offer for the growth of your type of business. Do not join any group just for the sake of joining a group. Find out what types of members attend the functions that are offered to determine the amount of exposure you will have to your target prospect.
When you attend a Chamber of Commerce meeting for the first time, look for the most popular person in the room, the one who everyone seems to want to talk to and get to know them first. This way you will make faster connections to the rest of the group. Often the leaders of the group can help you to get in the mix quicker.
Look for people who do what you do and analyze their strengths and weaknesses for opportunities to build alliances with them. If they have been a member for a long time, it is likely that they have most of the business in their industry at this point in time. It is hard to compete in such circumstances, so try an alliance before you bang your head against the wall trying to compete or just giving up.
Chambers of Commerce have been around for many years and there are all types, including minority and international. Be sure to visit many before deciding which to join and your membership dollars will serve you better.
Plant a Seed and Watch Your Business Grow
Do you have all the business you could possibly want or need? If you’re like me, you’re still growing your business. Marketing is an ongoing item on my agenda, and I’m always looking for new ways to market my services. Where do you begin the process of attracting more business? How do you get the ball rolling in the direction you want your business to be heading? Well, it’s really simple. Start planting seeds! If you can start your garden growing this spring, why not start your business growing too?
You can start by telling everyone what you do, including those people in your life you see every day. Talk to your hairdresser, dentist, financial advisor, or babysitter. You just never know who they might know who may want or need your products or services. Leave business cards with those people, so they can hand them out to others who may be interested in contacting you. That old saying that includes the line “the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker” may just ring true after all.
Plant seeds everywhere you go. Typical ways to market your business are fine, but the best way is by simply using word-of-mouth. “Who do you know…” can be a very powerful statement when you are talking to others about what you do or what you sell. Let your presence be known. Be creative! I have a Team 100 list of the top professionals I know. When someone either in my professional circle or my personal circle is looking for a particular service, I’m able to refer them to someone I know and trust. All of the professionals on my list are able to refer me to those they know as well. It’s a win/win situation. My name is on their list, their name is on mine, so the seed has been planted, and keeps growing.
These are just a couple of great ideas to help you get started in growing your business (if you want more business that is!). Taking some small action every day is better than doing nothing at all. Following a simple action plan consistently will most likely lead to several great opportunities down the road. Who knows? If you put in the effort, you just may find new business knocking on your door instead of the other way around.
Spring into action…and watch your business grow by leaps and bounds!
The Hidden Power of Networking
We all make use of traditional forms of getting new business in ñ advertising, direct mail, brochures etc but networking is one form of marketing which, has been under-utilised. Until now that is. Small business owners are finally beginning to under stand the power of networking and what it can do for their sales figures.
But what is networking?
In its most basic form, itís word-of-mouth advertising but originated by you, not your customers. It involves taking every opportunity to raise awareness of your product or service amongst the people you meet. At a more sophisticated level, networking can be achieved by taking advantage of the formal networking groups or events that have been arranged purely with the idea of putting potential partners together.
But how can you, as a small business owner, become a more effective networker and take full advantage of the opportunities presented? We are going to give you some key tips and ideas on how to be a better networker.
<b>What are the key advantages of networking?</b>
Networking has some very good advantages over the traditional type of marketing:
ï Itís free! Talking to someone costs nothing except your time
ï Itís targeted marketing in that itís likely the person you are talking to has a direct interest in your product or service. Consider newspaper advertising, which will mostly be read by people who have no interest in what you have to offer
ï Itís face-to-face marketing unlike direct mail, adverts and telephone calls. You have the immediate opportunity to establish rapport and get an understanding of the personís problems
ï You have the chance to mix with business owners in other industries, which may open the door to new opportunities you had not previously considered
ï Itís not only a way of creating business but also a great way to solve problems and seek advice. Why sweat over a solution when someone has probably already experienced and solved the same problem? Ask and find out who can help you
<b>Where to find a network</b>
Finding a place to network, where like minded business owners are present, is not that difficult. Whilst you should be networking all the time ñ taking the opportunity to promote yourself where ever you can ñ itís more effective if you can meet people who are there to do the same thing; you can get onto the same wavelength that much quicker.
Here are some possible networking opportunities to think about:
ï Your local Chamber of Commerce, BNI group or business club – as well as hosting their normal meetings (which are great networking opportunities anyway) they may hold regular networking sessions which are dedicated to putting business people together
ï Government advice agencies ñ most countries have government bodies which have the remit of helping local small businesses, some of them may already hold network meetings where they bring together a batch of ënew recruitsí. Check out you countryís small business advice agency web sites to see what support they can offer
ï Trade Associations ñ your industry may have an association which holds regular meetings. Although you are interacting with businesses in the same line you will still be able to find solutions to problems and pick up new ideas. Who knows, if you establish good rapport with another business, they may be happy to refer surplus work to you or tap into a unique specialisation you may have?
ï Seminars ñ keep a look out for seminars being run for small business owners. As well as being informative, they are a great networking opportunity, especially over coffee and lunch when you have the chance to start a conversation going along the lines of, ìHow do you think youíre going to apply that point we learnt this morning in your line of business?î
In just this one question you will have found out what business they are in and one of the problems they are currently facing. If youíre lucky, you may be able to offer help as well ñ one extra sale!
ï Anywhere and everywhere ñ remember to network all the time! Never miss an opportunity to tell people what you do. You may only get a successful hit in one out of a hundred contacts, but one sale may be enough to make it all worthwhile!
<b>Where and when are meetings likely to be held?</b>
Formal networking events can be held over breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast sessions are popular because it allows business owners to start the day on a positive note, leaving the remainder of the day free for ëbusiness as usualí. But how good are you at holding a sensible conversation at 7 oíclock in the morning? If you donít look or sound your best in the early morning, then you had better find an alternative!
The best networking events are where you are free to ëwork the roomí and not be tied to a table with food being served.
<b>What to prepare</b>
As with any marketing promotion, networking should be thoroughly prepared for. Badly presented sales pitches lead to lost sales; the same goes for networking. So what should you do before attending a networking session?
Step 1: Know your products and services inside out. If you are only just starting out, make sure you are fully briefed on all the innís and outís of your product.
Step 2: Write and rehearse an opening statement to the question ìWhat do you do?î This may sound an easy question but try thinking an answer on the spot and at the same time making it some good! Not so easy. Write a clear and concise statement, which encapsulates everything about your business. Remember, this is your chance to impress! Having decided on your opening line, rehearse, rehearse and rehearse. It has to be word perfect and confident sounding.
Step 3: Make sure you have enough business cards. You donít want to scribble your number on the back of a napkin! Not very professional.
Step 4: Double check the venue and time. You donít want to turn up late and miss any opportunities or appear to be lacking in time management skills.
Step 5: Dress to impress. Make sure you are neat and tidy ñ everything a successful small business owner should be.
Step 6: Leave your house/office in plenty of time to make sure you donít arrive totally stressed out
<b>Youíre off!</b>
You have arrived at the venue and if this is your first time, what are you likely to do? Find the nearest corner and pray that someone doesnít approach you! Networking, especially the first time, can be nerve-wracking. It does take a degree of confidence but over time this gets better.
The Importance of How You Spend Your Time Between Jobs – Various Options and Strategies You Should Think Of
With resume gaps now the norm, workers should pay attention to how they spend their time between jobs.
The reason is simple: Employers want to know how job candidates spent their time when they were out of work. Learning? Traveling? Moping? Being productive or non productive ? Planning for the future and doing things or just sitting around as if you were putting in time in a prison cell ? Unless you project the image of a can-do job seeker, you’re likely to have a tough time bouncing back from periods of unemployment.
Most job interviewers will be looking at what you doing to be productive with your time during your period between jobs.
One cannot stress the importance of demonstrating continued involvement with career-oriented activities. It’s not only critically important to the employer, but it’s important to the candidate as well . It takes away feelings of depression, discouragement and hopelessness.
To project an active, engaged attitude during a job search consider these tips for being productive when you’re out of work.
Volunteer your services . Volunteering provides “a double benefit”. In addition to giving back to a cause or organization, you get to work with people who see you in action. It becomes a great new networking environment .
Be a Leader. Join a professional organization, but don’t just attend meetings. Instead, take your involvement to the next level by serving on a board or organizing events. Through that you will often end up finding your next job .
Try taking classes . Employers are often wary about job candidates with outdated skills, especially in technical fields. If you take a class, or even begin pursuing an advanced degree, you already have a ready-made way of countering that perception as you demonstrate your engagement in the field.
Find an Internship . Those early in their careers may want to consider an internship, even if they have previously held a full-time job. The same goes for workers considering a career transition. An interneship may even help you with career transitions.
You may want to try teaching a cllass . Universities, community colleges and continuing-education programs such as in your local Y or in your local shool board often seek experienced people as well as professionals to teach classes. Aside from being a potential avenue for networking, teaching gigs look impressive to employers, positioning you as someone with expertise in your field and the ability to impart that expertise to others.
You can even try to be a Consultant to local organizations , businesses or local non-profit groups . If you are involved in a drawn-out job search try setting yourselv up as an independent consultant
Get business cards and a website. Your assignments may be small ones, but being a consultant allows you to market yourself as someone active and involved in your field.
Perhaps you should join a “Job Seekers Group”. Churches, libraries and other organizations often host groups for job seekers. These groups often serve to help people make contacts and provide support.
You should build social networks . With jobs and other commitments, many people find they don’t have time to develop the sort of social networks crucial to a productive life — and career. Often people ” get it done after they get everything else done,”
You should spend your time expanding social networks. Those connections often mean as much as professional ones during a job search. Start talking to your neighbour, and you learn they know X, Y , Z and B . It has been said by a very wise person
Raymond Strokon that if you know 5 people you know the world .
Have you ever thought of starting a business ? If you’ve ever dreamed of owning your own business, a period of unemployment may actually be the time to try to pull it off. There was a telecommunications executive who started actually initianted a Web hosting company with a number of friends during a serious time of his “between jobs “.
Now his partners have other engagements now and then, but their cooperative arrangement allows them to spend more or less time on the business as their schedules permit. And, not surprisingly, networking for tis business helps in other aspects of their careers.
Remember always to have fun . Life should not be serious. Everything always seems to work out. Remember that ” in the long run we all will be dead.”
Enjoy yourself . Play golf. Go for a run. You may even want to build something or do something that you always wanted to and never had the time before . Perhaps a rec room or a backyard gazebo . It will gives you something good to talk and think about . It can set the tone of your conversation. And conversation, whether online or off, is often the lifeblood of a productive job search.
The Benefits of Network Appliance Training Programs
Network Appliance Inc. (NetApp) is one of the world leaders in unified storage solutions. Network Appliance storage solutions account for a wide range of specific hardware, software and services, offering advanced storage management for various network environments. For the advantages it offers, lots of people these days dream to have a Network Appliance certification (NAC). NetApp certifications are highly recognized worldwide, as they facilitate the acceptance in a wide range of IT environments.
NetApp solutions and tools administration graduates can easily build a solid, lucrative IT career virtually anywhere in the world. Attracted by the benefits of NetApp certifications, lots of IT aspirants dedicate their time to expanding their area of knowledge on NetApp solutions and tools, hoping to obtain a certificate in the field as soon as possible. However, it is important to note that hard-work doesnít always improve your prospects of becoming a NetApp graduate!
In order to improve your chances of achieving your goals, you should consider replacing self-study oriented materials with appropriate Network Appliance training programs. Trainer-oriented Network Appliance training programs are by far the best means to quickly assimilate the knowledge and the skills required for becoming a NetApp graduate! Conducted upon a set of active-learning techniques, trainer-oriented Network Appliance training programs involve a higher degree of comprehension, feature that renders them far superior to self-study oriented programs!
A complete, well-structured and comprehensive NetApp training program allows trainees to quickly familiarize with the NetApp curriculum, guaranteeing students that they will be able to pass their future exams. Over the entire course of the training program, the trainees are encouraged to interact with their trainers and the other attending students, allowing them to exchange opinions and ideas regarding various topics of the NetApp curriculum. NetApp training programs are taught by the best professionals in the field, who provide students with feed-back over the entire duration of the program. Structured in various sets of seminaries, laboratories and courses, NetApp training programs allows the attending students to develop all the skills and abilities required in their future careers. Professional Network Appliance training programs guarantee graduates acceptance in the best IT companies in the world!
In present, the most requested certifications are NACA (NetApp Certified Storage Associate), NACP (NetApp Certified Storage Professional), NACE (NetApp Certified Expert), NAC-NA (NetApp Certified NetCache Administrator) and NAC-NIE (NetApp Certified NetCache Implementation Engineers). You can obtain these much desired certifications in no time by attending to a professional, reliable NetApp Storage training program (NAS).
Considering the fact that there are many websites out there that offer you the opportunity to participate in NetApp Storage training programs, the only issue is to choose the right one! In order to obtain the best results, it is advised to participate in NetApp Storage training programs that provide students with official NetApp curriculum-based study materials. In addition, donít be lured by the idea that websites who charge the most are better than others! You should spend some time in comparing the costs and the credentials of such websites before choosing to participate in a NetApp Storage training program.
Profiting From Online Social Networking
This is the second in a series of articles we will be publishing relaying thoughts and ideas from the Internet Retailer Conference in Chicago, which occurred June 5th through June 7th. Peter Kosciewicz, Director of E-Commerce for the Eastwood Company, and Chris Saito, Senior Director, Shopping Products for Yahoo! Shopping, delivered a presentation entitled “Social Networking: The Peer Pursuasion Marketing Tool.”
According to Kosciewicz, the Web today has grown into an “architecture of participation” that facilitates social networking through devices such as blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasts, and more. Forrester Research has published studies that show that traditional marketing is continuing to lose credibility. For example, in 2002, 78% of respondents in a survey said that ads are a good way to learn about a new product. In 2004, that number had dropped to 46%. In 2002, 14% of respondents agrees that companies generally tell the trust. As pathetic as 14% is, in 2004, it had declined even further – down to 7%. Social networking as a means of marketing overcomes this lack of consumer trust because it relies on the word of the consumer rather than the word of the producer. Research from Datamonitor reported that 85% of repondents in a survey indicated that word-of-mouth from friends, family, or colleagues is more trustworthy than corporate-generated content.
So how do you take advantage of social networking to sell more product? Simple – you open yourself up. You plant the seeds of a community to grow up around your site by using devices such as blogs, customer reviews, and forums to give a voice to your customers or prospective customers. The caveat is that you must be high quality. You must have high quality service and a high quality product. If not, avoid this marketing method.
Kosciewicz outlined four important rules for using social networking on your web site:
1. Guide but don’t control.
2. Never censor.
3. Don’t be afraid of the negative.
4. Don’t be paranoid.
If you open up a forum on your site but then restrict what people are allowed to say, such as removing posts that are negative toward your company or that mention your competitors, then you will do more damage than good to your reputation. Use negativity as a way to improve your business. If people are negative, look at that as feedback and act on it. Make changes, and then let your community know about it. Don’t worry about your community talking about your competition. Your attitude has to be that you are the best, so why worry about it?
As a community develops around your web site, certain members will establish themselves as more influential than others. They will be more outspoken, and will be the ones who often respond to others. Cultivate these members, because they can be powerful allies. Once you have identified the more influential members of your community, contact them regularly, give them free product, become their friend. Feed your influencers information, and they will distribute it for you. But do not make it appear that you are only interested in them because they can help you sell stuff. You need to be genuine.
Measuring the impact of social networking is difficult. Unlike other forms of marketing, there is no direct connect between social networking activity and sells. What you will want to do is track traffic to pages such as customer reviews, referral links, etc.
Social networking can be a powerful marketing tool, if you have a high quality product and are not afraid of an open dialogue with your customers.
If you would like help implementing a social networking strategy for your web site, please join our live seminar
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