I’m going to share a very clever networking strategy that was performed on me today.
But first, let me ask you a question.
How would you like to go to a local networking meeting where you were the star?
A networking meeting in which everyone knew who you were and saw you as their local leader. And how would you like to double that group every month until you have hundreds and perhaps thousands of LOCAL business people interested and following YOU.
If so, you’re gonna LOVE this strategy.
It’s called the, “Local Reciprocal Social Networking Strategy.”
And Here’s How It Was Done To Me Today
I checked my Facebook inbox this afternoon and there was an FB message to me from a friend that I know who lives here in Houston. She introduced me to one of her friends who also lives in Houston. In fact, he lives about 10 minutes from me.
I was delighted to be introduced to him. I “friended” him and he “friended” me.
He wrote on my FB wall and I wrote on his. Now we’re connected on FB and I’ve made one more friend today through social networking.
So it got me to thinking what actually happened and I believe this is a very very powerful networking strategy.
Here’s Exactly How It Works…
STEP 1
Get together with a friend of yours who lives in your local area that you know is active on Facebook.
STEP 2
Start introducing all the people that live in your local area that you’re connected to on FB to your friend. Use the private messaging feature so that your wall isn’t cluttered with introductions.
STEP 3
Have your friend do the same thing. Make sure that your introductions don’t overlap if you know the same people.
STEP 4
Get to know the most active FB friend that you were introduced to and do the exact same thing. (i.e. introduce each other to your respective local networks)
STEP 5
Do Steps 1 through 4 over and over again.
STEP 6
Spend some time on Facebook interacting with the people you just met. Invite a few of them at a time to have lunch with you to get to know each other.
You might even hold a monthly local networking meeting to meet all the people in person that you’ve connected with on Facebook.
You can do this same strategy with Twitter and now Google Plus, but I love Facebook so that’s where I’d do most of my invites.
Oh yeah, this strategy would work even better on LINKEDIN!
LinkedIn is perfect for this. You could even start a local LinkedIn group and invite them to be a part of your group.
(I’ve already done this on Facebook)
Why Social Networking Is So Powerful
I love social networking because you can probably meet more people in one day doing http://www.marketingblogger.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=98&action=edit#Reciprocal Social Networking than you can in weeks of doing live networking.
Social networking online is a great FIRST STEP in your relationship process. And the social networks allow you to meet local people really easy.
So if you want to dramatically boost your local network and the amount of people that know who you are in your city, try the “Reciprocal Social Networking” strategy.
It works!
If you want to learn more about creating authentic relationships with your audience using social media, listen to our interview with social media professional Tina Williams.
About David Frey
David Frey is the Founder, MarketingBlogger.com. He is also the author of the best selling book, "The Small Business Marketing Bible" and many other marketing courses. To find out more about this author, visit www.WhoIsDavidFrey.com.
