Here’s a cliché for you: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Like most aphorisms, it’s true, and nowhere does it needed to be shouted from the rooftops more than in small business marketing in Tampa Bay.
It applies to both social media in Tampa as well as face to face.
Personalized Marketing | When Social Media Marketing | Don't Forget the Social
Recently I found myself at a networking group and in the course of chit-chatting, someone told me that these groups just don’t work. I asked him how many times he had been. The reply was two. Two? How can you expect to get results from two meet-and-greets?
Here are 5 tips for making the most of networking:
- First, become a recognizable face. Go to more than two meetings. Go for a month. In fact, commit to seven. That is the number of repetitions it takes for a message to sink in. It works for meeting people too. People will want to know who you are. Smile.
- Second, become an expert at being who you are. Practice your elevator speech. Out loud. Until you feel confident enough to deliver it naturally. Don’t launch into it like a caricature of a snake oil salesman. Introduce yourself. The natural question is, “And what do you do?” Tell someone And, of course, ask them. You never know how valuable a connection might be!
- Third, make it a point to go up to five people and introduce yourself. Business card in hand. It can be before a presentation, the people sitting next to and across from you at a seminar, or a cocktails-and-appetizers function. Just have a conversation. In this era of electronic communications, face to face interaction is a fading art!
- Fourth, manage your expectations. Again, we live at a time where instant gratification is the norm. The human factor is a little less automatic. You might not connect with the people you met. They might be having an off day, or you might. You may not need their service, and they may not need yours – not now. Not yet. But you never know.
- Fifth – and here is where social media in Tampa comes in – mix your social media with your face to face. Meet someone? Friend them, follow them on Twitter, email them and tell them how much you enjoyed meting them. Read their blog.
The following happens more often than you might think: You meet someone, someone prominent at a networking event. You tell them how much you enjoyed meeting them. Take it a step farther: email them. Approaching big names is easier than you think.
Classic case: Professional speaker, author and networking expert Scott Ginsberg tells of emailing Seth Godin, bestselling author of Unleashing the Ideavirus and Purple Cow (this was way back in 2004, before Facebook and Twitter). He told Godin he admired his books and his website. And he told Godin to check out his own website. Godin wrote back, clearly touched by Ginsberg’s sincerity, and said he would follow Ginsberg’s blog. Happy ending: Ginsberg’s blog got 70,000 hits – in one day!
Today, YouTube videos go viral in hours, Facebook posts and tweets are shared rapid-fire. This may never happen to you, but you can make yourself and your business memorable – for FREE.
Social media in Tampa, as everywhere, is a vital part of the mix. Trust this important part of your business marketing plan and outsource your social media to the experts at Personalized Marketing. Try – and try again!
