Three Tips for Generating Business through Online Communities
New methods for marketing your business are popping up everywhere, and online communities are no exception. So, exactly what is an online community and what does it have to do with growing your business? The truth is, you won’t know how it affects your business until you try it, but there are three key tips that can help you use them to effectively grow your business over time.
What IS an online community anyway?
First let’s be clear about what an online community is and how it can be beneficial.
Online communities are like local networking events, only they take place online. They provide a way for businesses to interact with their customers, for customers to interact with a business, and perhaps most importantly, for customers to interact with each other. Online communities are a form of social media and can often work well when mixed with other forms of social media including blogging, email newsletters, podcasts, rss feeds, and others. So how can online communities help you grow your business?
TIP #1 Be Consistent
No matter how you look at it, participating in online communities is a long term investment. If you stick with it and stay consistent, the pay-off can be rewarding. Frequent your favorite areas of the community, post a blog, post threads, but just like your local networking event, once you introduce yourself, you have to keep coming back so that people remember who you are. People do business with people they know and trust.
TIP #2 Be Realistic
Just because you joined the community, doesn’t mean all of a sudden sales will come flooding through your door (if this has happened to anyone, please send an email to my inbox and let me know your secret). Online communities can be like any other form of advertising-- you try it, you test it, you see if it works, and if it does, you stick with it, if it doesn’t; well, you move to the next thing, but you have to remember that all social media is about building relationship based business. It’s a long term investment and it takes people time to get to know you.
In addition, understand why you joined the community. Growing your business should not be the only reason. There’s significant value in gaining free insight from experts who know the challenges small businesses face better than anyone else, and that’s your fellow business owners. Tapping into the knowledge base of a good online business community, can be just as rewarding as finding a new customer.
TIP #3 Add Value
A wise man once said, “people like to buy—they don’t like to be sold to.”
There’s nothing worse than an online community member that spams everyone with their sales pitch in a discussion thread. If you want to lose respect in an online community, this is a great way to do it. Add value, provide insight, or share an experience that may be beneficial to someone else, but please don’t spam the members—we want to keep people in the community, not send them running.
For those of you that join for the purpose of growing your business, I think plugging your own business is fine, but educate people about your business and tell them what problem your product or service solves. Publish a blog and become an expert in your field, offer advice on solving an issue you recently experienced—in the end, you will get much more respect, meet more colleagues, and gain more credibility for your business.
I hope to meet many more of you as we all continue our path to growth and success.
I’m rooting for you!
KW
www.biznessdoor.com
Subscribe to my Blog
What IS an online community anyway?
First let’s be clear about what an online community is and how it can be beneficial.
Online communities are like local networking events, only they take place online. They provide a way for businesses to interact with their customers, for customers to interact with a business, and perhaps most importantly, for customers to interact with each other. Online communities are a form of social media and can often work well when mixed with other forms of social media including blogging, email newsletters, podcasts, rss feeds, and others. So how can online communities help you grow your business?
TIP #1 Be Consistent
No matter how you look at it, participating in online communities is a long term investment. If you stick with it and stay consistent, the pay-off can be rewarding. Frequent your favorite areas of the community, post a blog, post threads, but just like your local networking event, once you introduce yourself, you have to keep coming back so that people remember who you are. People do business with people they know and trust.
TIP #2 Be Realistic
Just because you joined the community, doesn’t mean all of a sudden sales will come flooding through your door (if this has happened to anyone, please send an email to my inbox and let me know your secret). Online communities can be like any other form of advertising-- you try it, you test it, you see if it works, and if it does, you stick with it, if it doesn’t; well, you move to the next thing, but you have to remember that all social media is about building relationship based business. It’s a long term investment and it takes people time to get to know you.
In addition, understand why you joined the community. Growing your business should not be the only reason. There’s significant value in gaining free insight from experts who know the challenges small businesses face better than anyone else, and that’s your fellow business owners. Tapping into the knowledge base of a good online business community, can be just as rewarding as finding a new customer.
TIP #3 Add Value
A wise man once said, “people like to buy—they don’t like to be sold to.”
There’s nothing worse than an online community member that spams everyone with their sales pitch in a discussion thread. If you want to lose respect in an online community, this is a great way to do it. Add value, provide insight, or share an experience that may be beneficial to someone else, but please don’t spam the members—we want to keep people in the community, not send them running.
For those of you that join for the purpose of growing your business, I think plugging your own business is fine, but educate people about your business and tell them what problem your product or service solves. Publish a blog and become an expert in your field, offer advice on solving an issue you recently experienced—in the end, you will get much more respect, meet more colleagues, and gain more credibility for your business.
I hope to meet many more of you as we all continue our path to growth and success.
I’m rooting for you!
KW
www.biznessdoor.com
Subscribe to my Blog
Add a Comment
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Comment by Christopher S Borowski on November 11, 2009 at 4:47pm -
I found some excellent advice in this article. Up to date as well. Exposure, tenacity, and professionalism appear to be key factors no matter how you approach it. Thank You
Chris Borowski
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Comment by Tamara Roe on June 3, 2009 at 10:32pm -
EXCELLENT information! Like many of you, I have read many social networking articles and this is probably one of the most helpful I have read! Thank you for sharing. I look forward to networking more in the future.....
Tamara
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Comment by Ted on June 3, 2009 at 11:31am -
Excellent information Kanika! I love to hear peoples views on networking. Your tips are right on and will help me in my efforts. Check out my blog here on Life and Business Networking.
http://sta.rtup.biz/profiles/blog/list?user=3owpylte6iiwu
Love & Peace
Ted
PS - what I wanna know is... how did you get your article right after a major article that I think is posted by sup.biz (Prime real estate) :-)
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Comment by Karl Craig-West on June 1, 2009 at 2:25pm -
Like this post. There's so much on the web about social networking and it's easy to over-analyse.
Many thanks,
Karl
free UK networking clubs directory
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Comment by Abd Hamid Mat Sain MD on May 28, 2009 at 3:44pm
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Networking is about relationship building. Social networking is about mere social relationship building and I find Facebook and Myspace fit into this category.Business networking is about a business relationship building which also include social nature and SU.Biz,Ecademy and LinkedIn fit into this very well.This online networking parallels very well the offline networking platforms.
Whatever platforms we choose and use,we have to be giving values to people.The more values we give,the more we gain-this is the essence of the Law of Attraction(?The Secret).
cheers
ps;I am inviting all Internet Marketers to the live broadcast of the new PPC Classroom2.0 release at http://www.ppcclassroom.com/affiliate/go?a=11731
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Comment by Phil Birch on May 27, 2009 at 7:41am - I am new to social networking and business networking (online). Thank you for this very helpful article. I am hoping to launch a new product very shortly and this has been very useful in advising some of the better techniques and traps to avoid. Many thanks
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Comment by Sherry Dossey on May 21, 2009 at 8:30am -
Just read this and I think this a very informing post. thanks for the info.
Sherry
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Comment by Felicia Chang on May 15, 2009 at 9:02am -
A great piece of insight. I'm new to the social marketing area, and appreciate to learn some basics. The three tips that you provide are clear and actionable.
Felicia
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Comment by Maureen Killoran on May 11, 2009 at 5:02pm - This is truly an important aspect of network marketing. Thank you for sharing.
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Comment by Adinda Strube on May 2, 2009 at 12:40pm - In a world where "I've got no time" is the standard for relationships, it is a challenge and a privilege to have social communities where you know there are real people, no matter what businesses they are in. We want to bring the "humaneness" back into our lives and create meaningful relationships also within our business.
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