Feb
15

How To Turn Real World Networking Into Online Gains

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handshakeOne of the most important aspects of building an audience for your business is making connections with influential people in your industry.

From search engine optimization to increasing the traffic to your site, connections like this can be used to bring real benefits.

Although ranking highly in search engines is about providing high quality, optimized content, at the end of the day you need to think about the people who read your content and recommend it to others.

Being antisocial online and offline can hurt your business.

You don’t have to suck up to anyone or be a networking addict to get people to talk about you, but you do need to be sociable.

Here are some of things you can do to turn real world networking into online gains.

Organize events

Whether you’re planning an event to launch a new product, or celebrate years of success, events are a great way to get people taking about your brand.

They’re also the perfect opportunity for you to engage with your customers and answer any questions they might have.

But don’t think about events in a strictly offline way, because they are a great way to make a splash online.

Make sure your attendees have a great day and incentivise them to blog about the event.

In fact, you should make sure you identify influential bloggers working in your niche even if they are not existing customers and invite them along – they will appreciate you thinking of them and the extra exposure you get will be crucial.

By doing this, you’ll increase brand awareness and get some links back to your website into the bargain.

If you run an international business, you can also organize a webinar to make sure no one gets left out.

By doing something exciting and unique, you can get them talking about your brand and linking to your site, boosting visitor numbers.

Get involved in communities

No matter what business you’re in, you need to find out where your target audience is spending its time online and offline.

For example, if you make bespoke wedding invitations, search for blogs where people write about weddings.

If you sell books, seek out good blogs and sites where people write book reviews and make recommendations on what to read.

Find influential people and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Join their email lists, subscribe to their newsletters and get to know them better.

Compliment them for their great work if they deserve it without making it look like you’re after something. Promoting yourself too quickly can turn people off.

Once you build a relationship with them, you can ask them to write a review about one of your products which will send some traffic and customers your way.

Offline, joining local business groups can help you make similar connections which can bring the same benefits.

Organisations such as chambers of commerce can allow you to find a whole new bunch of allies willing to help you boost your business online.

Successful business people have been using these kinds of organisation to network offline for centuries, now the savviest of them have started bringing those gains online.

Guest blogging

Offering free and unique content on authority sites in your niche can help generate traffic, especially if the site you’re publishing your content on has a huge subscribers list.

So if you’ve worked with someone in an offline capacity and you later discover they have an authoritative blog, then use this connection to secure a guest post on their site.

Ask the site owner to include a link to your site in your bio at the end of your guest post. If your post is interesting with plenty of useful information, it will get people’s attention and they’ll visit your site to see what else you have to offer.

Don’t keep your personal and professional lives separate

It’s always tempting to view your work and personal lives as being totally separate, yet increasingly the most successful people around have blurred the line between the two.

Look at how high-profile people act on Twitter – yes, they talk about their work sometimes, but they also present a human side which appeals to a wider audience.

But don’t view it as a one way street – it’s not just about your work life invading your personal life, things work both ways. Just because you’re with people who might be interested in your business, doesn’t mean you have to be selling.

When you’re attending conferences or events, try to connect with people on a personal level, not just because they are potential customers.

Meet for coffee or a drink, breakfast or lunch and make sure you talk about things outside of business.

If you are approachable, friendly and kind, people are more likely to help you out. In online terms, that means you’ll be getting the links and shares that lead to increased traffic.

Connecting face to face creates a whole new level of engagement that can last for years and brings great benefits, so make sure you’re not missing out.

 

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Although I give away a LOT of info, I do promote some third party products that I use and find great value in.
Usually, I will receive a commission when these products are purchased from this site.
But as I said, I NEVER promote anything unless I find it valuable in my own business.