Build Your Own Network

Networking is a powerful tool for anyone in business, but it's especially useful for salespeople. Network contacts give you access to opportunities that you'd never have without them. The most difficult part of networking is getting started with your first few contacts. Then once you have the beginnings of a network, all you need to do is treat them right and you'll be able to keep it growing indefinitely.

How To Work Your Social Media Network

Unless you have been sleeping under a log for the last six or seven years you know that social media has changed the sales world.

Last Friday, I outlined why the size of your social network doesn’t matter and today I wanted to look at how you can leverage your network into actual sales.

You can have thousands of people in your social media network but unless you actually work that network you are wasting your time.

Basic Business Networking Tips

Salespeople can and do succeed without ever building a network, but these salespeople are probably working ten times harder to generate sales than their colleagues who do practice good networking. A solid business network will bring you leads... help you set up meetings with otherwise unreachable people... and even give you a few shoulders to cry on when things aren't going well.

Social Networking Meets B2B Marketing

Ed Buchholz found venture funding for his startup on Twitter.

After releasing the first version of its forecasting and management tool for small businesses, 60mo, a 10-person startup in Cleveland, Ohio, needed to raise capital. Buchholz's first choice was Lightbank, a new fund in Chicago. Buchholz tried all the usual channels -- phone calls, emails, submitting through Lightbank's website -- but received no response.

So he Tweeted, "Hey @Lightbank, we should chat sometime. Mid-westerners gotta stick together, yo."

Someone from Lightbank responded immediately, setting up a meeting for two days later. Buchholz left that meeting with an offer.

The Power of Networked Customers

During the Industrial Age, companies were formed for a number of reasons: to achieve scale; to increase reach; to simplify access to capital; and to contract for benefits. And, as Ronald Coase reminded us seventy-five years ago, to reduce transaction costs. Firms were therefore built on the industrial model, focused on transaction costs, integrating vertically whenever and wherever relevant.

As companies grew, management structures evolved in response to the task at hand. Management was about developing and setting priorities, allocating resources to the requisite tasks, monitoring progress against the priorities and providing mechanisms for intervention and conflict resolution. With scale came the need for hierarchy and for standardised processes.

Social TV: Forget the Telly You Once Knew

With the onset of Social TV, and both hardware and software innovations on the horizon, television is on the verge of undergoing its most radical change since the introduction of cable/satellite.  But at the same time, viewers are exhibiting behavior that reinforces what’s made television so special up to this point.

We’ve all seen pictures of families in the 1940’s gathered around the radio.  They would even stare at the glowing dial, even though there was nothing to see.  But it was a special experience.  It was something families could do together.  They enjoyed discussing what was happening on the show.  And there was just one chance to hear it, after which, it was gone.  Every broadcast was an “event.”  That shared experience carried forward into the early days of television.

Workouts for Your Social Network: How To Build and Strengthen Your Social Presence

So you’re on Facebook – now what? Create your profile and post a million pictures and status updates for yourself? Start friending everyone else on Facebook until you have 2,000 new “friends?”

That’s not quite how social media works these days, actually, and in fact, if you’re using today’s social media outlets in this way, you’re missing out on all of the benefits it can bring to you, your career and even your business. So what do you do?

Well, when you want to strengthen something, you have to work it out, right? There’s no reason not to “work out” your social network to help it grow and have it help you in return. Here are some simple practices to follow to build and grow your social network so that you and your business can take full advantage of all of its benefits.

The Art and Science of Social Caring

How many times have you heard someone comment that they do not care about the idle chatter their connections publish on the social networks?

This may be what they enjoyed for lunch, how blue the sky is today, and that they are loving life or otherwise … HAVING AN AWESOME DAY!
The truth is you should care about everything your social connections share with you.

Here are two important reasons why.

Report: Broadcast Tops Cable, Viewers Embrace Key Nets

Top-rated networks are generally the brands viewers remember and want to watch.
A new marketing survey shows the broadcast networks getting top scores over all cable networks. But top cable-rated networks performed well. These networks include ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, as well as ESPN, Discovery, History, USA, Food Network and TNT --- brands "American consumers can't do without" according to Solutions Research Group.

3 Ways to Get B2B Social Media Value from Google+

Many B2B marketers have already been scratching their heads trying to figure out how to make use of Facebook and Twitter. Along comes Google+, another social network that the average B2B marketer just doesn’t have the time to learn and master.
There are, however, reasons to believe that Google+ will be more valuable to B2B companies than Facebook and Twitter put together. And since getting in early is a big factor in determining long-term success, B2B companies should test the waters with Google+ right now. Here are a few reasons why B2B companies, even in niches like restaurant card processing and orthondontic website design, should be using this network.

10 Great Social Networking Tips and Tricks

Finding Smarter Ways to Use Social Media

These 10 social networking tips and tricks will help you build a stronger network and take your online presence to the next level. All are designed to make you think strategically and take advantage of timesaving tools to boost your effectiveness.

Here are 10 ways to boost your social standing online.

1. Listen to Your Audience

   The three most important factors in social networking are audience, audience, audience. Identify what kind of people you're trying to reach and pay attention to what they're saying. Build RSS feeds and monitor conversations using listening tools like TweetDeck, Social Mention and Seesmic. (Take this 10-step tutorial on how to use Social Mention to monitor many social networks at once.) Learn the basics of social metrics, or what to measure and why.

Mobile Technology Is Changing The Face Of Business Networking – But Not The Psychology Behind It

Bree Verity is the Head of Public and Business Engagement for INTRO Labs, a mobile company creating products that connect people. She says:
Whether it comes to you naturally or not, every entrepreneur knows the value of networking to expand their reach and find people that can help them make their business a better one.

When Best Practices Are No Longer the Best

Along the way we adopt practices that were considered the best. We do it in our personal lives—diets, exercise trends, and fashion. And we do it in our businesses—outsourcing, automated phone systems (”Please listen carefully, as our menu options have changed.”), and marketing trends.
Sometimes there comes a point, though, when those best practices are no longer the best. They’re tired and ineffective. They might even have become the worst, but we don’t know it. After all, they were the best when you implemented them, shouldn’t they still be good? Not necessarily.
One such thing is the use of customer satisfaction surveys. Yes, we want to know if our buyers were happy with the service we provided, but as Charles H. Green points out “the digital age has taken a good idea and flogged it to death.”

Rethinking the social network

(Copyright: Getty Images)

It’s not how many friends you have in your social circles but who you are friends with that matters, argues columnist Tom Chatfield.  
At some point later this year, Facebook will connect one in every seven people on the planet. When it passes the billion user mark – and really it is a question of when, not if – it will inevitably be accompanied by the common lament of the social media critic: social networks degrade the idea of friendship. It’s absurd, they argue, to be “friends” with thousands of people – and an alarming sign of shallow times.

5 Steps To a Winning Social Media Strategy

If I could teach companies one thing about social media and know that they'd "get it" before I walked out of the room it would be that social media is not a quick-fix. Like most strategies in internet marketing it takes time, commitment, consistency and effort. If you are not willing to invest in social media it will never bring you the results that you desire.

Social media isn't just about signing onto Facebook, Tweeting, creating a LinkedIn profile or signing up for Google Plus. To get value from social media, you must share value. I'm going to show you how to get, share and integrate value into your social media strategy.

Build Your Social Media Strategy

Social media started off as a fresh new online channel where everyone has a voice. It lifted the boundaries of communication and should spell some potential for marketers to make an impact on their customers. However, not everyone was liking the idea of giving people the freedom to do what they like. The lack of control intimidates these PR individuals but that is not the case for everyone. There are people that come up with solid strategies to bend the platform towards their favor.

2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report

While the speculation, pontification and monetization of social media is reaching momentum of tsunami proportions, many businesses looking for practical advice are asking, “Exactly how are marketers using social media to grow their businesses?”
Michael Stelzner from Social Media Examiner has posed that same question and others like it to a sample of marketers on the front lines of the social web to help bring some clarity to what works, what doesn’t and where to focus.
When asked about the bearing of the report on the intersection of search and social, Mike said, “With Google integrating results from its Google+ network into search, we’ll begin to see an Amazon type social proofing of search results based on the activity of friends.  This will make search even more important.” We agree!
The 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report is out today and offers 42 pages of insights, tables, graphs and examples of tactics. Over 3,800 respondents provided their advice on the who, what, when, and where of social media marketing. They also shared where they plan on investing in the future.

Internet Week New York 2012

                      MAY 14-21

About Internet Week

Since 2008, Internet Week has taken place all over the city, thanks to our many partners hosting diverse events in different locations.The result is a critical mass of web-focused events that raises the profile of NYC's industry as a whole, as well as the partners who participate.

The 2012 Festival Headquarters

Just like in 2010 and 2011, Internet Week NY HQ will be home to stages, a classroom, lounges curated by Design Within Reach, installations from Ivan Toth Depeña in collaboration with Jared Schiffman's "Spatial Media" class at NYU's ITP, and more. With 20,000 more square feet of Digital Playground as well as Conference Theater—Internet Week HQ at 82 Mercer is poised to be the best yet.

Things To Do To Be Successful In Network Marketing

While it is important to have a solid operational plan as the foundation for your business, it is equally important to include contingency plans that allow some degree of flexibility. Be aware of what needs to be done each month, and then adjust this according to what you are actually capable of doing. A good business plan should help you work efficiently toward your goals.

To stay up-to-date with new information, join a network marketing forum. You will find lots of knowledgeable people in online forums including newbies and experts; everyone has something great to offer. These forums are useful places to make business connections too, so maintain a high online presence.

Το Daily Secret συγκεντρώνει χρηματοδότηση $1,85 εκατομμυρίων

Το Daily Secret, μια ελληνική start-up που έκανε την εμφάνιση της το 2010 κατάφερε να συγκεντρώσει χρηματοδότηση αξίας $1,85 εκατ. από τις αμερικανικές BV Capital, Greycroft Partners και Trigger Media. Πρόκειται για μια υπηρεσία που δραστηριοποιείται ήδη σε 9 πόλεις (Athens, Buenos Aires, Instanbul, Lima, Madrid, Mexico City, Paris, San Fransisco και Shanghai) και σας στέλνει στο inbox καθημερινά ένα “μυστικό” για την πόλη που σας ενδιαφέρει. Αυτό μπορεί να είναι κάποια πρόταση για φαγητό ή ποτό, κάποιο event ή οτιδήποτε άλλο συμβαίνει στην πόλη.