April 2009
Not your boss's networking meeting

By Cindy Illig-Lum

Lake County businesses are quickly catching on to the benefits of social networking as a marketing tool. Charlene Martorana, marketing coordinator, and Dr. Timothy French, of French Chiropractic and Wellness Center in Madison, are ahead of the curve with a public profile on Facebook, one of the largest social networking sites online. Photo by Toby Shingleton

If you’re LinkedIn, have Facebooked someone or follow someone on Twitter, then you already are involved in the fastest growing trend in marketing. Social networking is the use of Web-based utilities on the Internet to build relationships through an online community of people with similar interests. According to emarketer.com, a company that aggregates and analyzes market research and trends in e-business, 79.5 million people visited social network sites at least once a month in 2008.

“The fastest growing social networking utility is Facebook with 185 million members, growing by 700,000 users a day,” said Brad Kleinman, founder of WorkSmart e3Marketing, an Internet-consulting firm in Cleveland.

LinkedIn is another popular utility offering professionals the chance to create a profile, link to business contacts and expand their network exponentially through mutual connections. According to its Web site, LinkedIn has more than 36 million members in more than 200 countries including executives from every Fortune 500 company.

Other popular utilities include Twitter, which allows users to send out messages of 140 character via mobile texting, instant message or the Web to subscribers known as followers; MySpace, an online community for posting profiles, blogs, photos, videos, music and more; and Ning, where users can create a new social network in “under a minute.”

Social network applications allow members or users to communicate directly with each other, individually or in groups, at any time, day or night, and from any Internet connection. What makes social networking most attractive is its low cost.

“In the current economic climate, I think businesses of all types and sizes have to explore new methods of advertising and marketing themselves,” said Charlene Martorana, marketing coordinator for French Chiropractic and Wellness Center in Madison. “Social networking helps with managing customer relationships and spreading the word about chiropractic to people we may not meet otherwise.”

Martorana has come to appreciate the viral nature of social networking, communicating with customers through French Chiropractic’s Public Profile page on Facebook.

“When one of our customers becomes a fan of the page, their friends read about it,” she said. “Then, if they join, their friends read about us too.”

Is social networking right for you?

“You have to approach it like any other marketing tool,” said Tamera Brown, vice president of marketing for Positively Cleveland, the Web presence of the Cleveland visitor’s bureau. “First you want to determine which social networking tool will help you reach your target audience.”

Brown recommends using quantcast.com to learn about the demographics of social networking sites. Information is also available from alexa.com and many of the major search engines like Google.

Kleinman suggests businesses get started by focusing on a few of the options.

“There is so much stuff out there that you can suffer from paralysis by analysis,” he said. “We get inundated by all this noise and we can’t figure out what tool is the best.”

Martorana started with Facebook by creating a personal profile to learn about the utility and then created a public profile for French Chiropractic.

“Now I am watching several health and wellness blogs to see if blogging will fit into our marketing strategy and in what capacity,” she said. “You can’t move as quickly into the blog arena as you can into Facebook or Twitter.”

For those who still are wary of joining in, Kleinman says: “Jump in, the water is warm. The only way you can decide if social networking is for you is if you give it a try.”

Making the most of social networking

Once you find the right tools and join a network, Brown says listen in for a while.

“See what’s happening, what kinds of things people are posting, so you understand the nature of the conversations.”

When you have a working knowledge of how the network functions, start posting your own content but, Brown warns, keep a few points in mind.

“Make sure your posts aren’t all about you – be a part of the conversation, not just a salesman. You have to enter social networking as a part of the community.”

The difference between traditional marketing and online social networking is that you are involved in a conversation. Like any worthy conversation, it has to flow both ways. There is little tolerance for the hard sale and people can turn you off with the touch of a key. In social networking, there is a premium on authenticity.

Kleinman recommends following Twitter’s 90/10 rule for social networking etiquette.

“The basic idea is that 90 percent of the time, you should be giving information away, lending free tips, suggesting links, sharing best practices,” Kleinman said. “For example, if you are an insurance company, then share information about how to save money on insurance costs. This builds relationships; it tells people you care about them and want to help them succeed.”

Once you make the effort to share, then you can use the other 10 percent of your time to push your press releases, products and events.

Another key to successful social networking is to employ a system to manage your activity. Brown’s system starts with the writing of two blogs – one for people visiting Cleveland and one for conference and meeting planners. Positively Cleveland updates these blogs three to four times per week and the subjects are generated by user questions or upcoming events.

“We then edit that copy for each type of social media we use, each with its own requirements and personality,” Brown said.

Brown posts on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube for videos, and Flickr, an online photo-sharing application. Sometimes the blogs have a ripple effect, resulting in stories on radio, television and newspapers.

“We blogged about the upcoming Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies and then there was talk about our blog on a radio show. We have answered questions for travel writers about restaurants and the information ended up in a newspaper story. It doesn’t seem like a sale but you are making connections with people,” Brown said.

As the director of membership at ERC, an employer’s association in Mayfield Village, Marty Modarsky has been using LinkedIn to connect to his target audience of human resource professionals and business owners and directors.

“We’re really starting to find that it’s a great resource to help us to encourage member engagement and strengthen our connections with many of our members and clients,” Modarsky said.

The value of LinkedIn for him lies in keeping in touch with current and past customers.

“When we find a member or client through LinkedIn and invite them to connect, it’s a nice personal way to demonstrate how much we value our relationship,” he said.

Avoiding the pitfalls of social networking

While there is nothing conclusive about social networking translating into profit, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence on the mistakes being made. When asked about the pitfalls, Brown refers to a quote from Thomas Edison: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Employers should be careful about expending the effort to build online presence to no avail. Be selective, set up a system and give it time to work. Make sure the conversations being held in your name are appropriate in both content and purpose. Communicating over social networks can be very relaxed, running the risk of compromising professional reputations.

“Don’t talk out of turn,” Brown said. “You can erase it but it may still come back to haunt you and affect your corporate profile.”

Even though social networking provides users with the ability to network with hundreds of people, the tools do not correct for poor communication skills.

Kleinman also cautions those entering the social networking milieu not to expect immediate results.

“People will start a Twitter account and then no one signs up to follow them and they quit,” he said. “It takes time and will not generate leads overnight.”

Social networking is more effective if you are proactive.

“Find people that you find interesting and connect with them,” Kleinman said. “Social networking is about the altruistic desire to build relationships as opposed to just getting more contacts.”

Another way to avoid major pitfalls is to set goals and objectives for your social networking strategy.

“Decide if you are looking to get people signed up for an electronic newsletter, come into your store or buy something,” Brown suggests. “Make sure it is a goal you can measure so you can determine if social networking is working for you.”

Cindy Illig-Lum is a Madison Township freelance writer.