Do you use Facebook?
Do you feel that you are making solid connections with people or just playing games and looking at pictures of friends from high school?
It can be challenging to break through the distractions of posted videos and Farmville requests to really connect with people. Really connect with people. But it can be done. Facebook is a great place to build connections and you do not need to spend hours on the computer a day. This is a great place to build connections and then take it LIVE!
Try a few of these methods to build some new connections:
- Identify a few people who would be great connections for you– are they in your field, influential, thought leaders, local business owners, or people with similar interests?
- Begin by simply “friending” them or asking for a connection through someone else or joining their fan page.
- Then, when appropriate, begin commenting on their posts. Not just one and two word phrases. Comments of substance. And when you have nothing interesting to say about a post, do not say anything.
- In addition, be active on Facebook yourself. Post personal as well as career/business related posts. These give people a little insight into you and the opportunity to comment on your posts.
- Tag people in a post that is of particular interest– like a great article about a new technology- and then tag the handful of technologists in your life who you are friends with and who might be interested in this new technology. Now you have expanded your name to all of their communities plus linked them to this thinking/post.
- THEN- and here is the exciting part- move the conversation off the computer to an in-person conversation! Invite them to coffee. Offer to meet them for a drink at a conference you are both attending. Go to hear them speak at an event. Suggest lunch next time they are in your city or you are in theirs. You see, by commenting and building the connection with them on Facebook, you will see when they are traveling, where they are speaking, events they are attending, and you will be able to use that to your connection advantage.
It is all about being more interested than interesting. Help people out. Comment on their posts. Share their articles and thoughts.
Build a community on Facebook. Then take that community LIVE and IN PERSON. You have built relationships that are ready to go to the next level in networking.
This is excellent advice. Bring it to the personal relationship, building it further in person!
Thanks Joan. I am always looking for any way to make social media work for me!
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Great tips! Tagging people in post is something that I usually reserve for real life friends or others I have created a connection with on FB. I assume that is what you are saying anyway. Just this week I saw a post where someone freaked out because people they “friended” but did not know in real life tagged them in video post and they stated it was a bad pr move….so I proceed w/caution on this one.
Oh Angela- you know I completely agree with you. Tagging people who you have not built a relationship with is a huge “no no”- thanks for weighing in… No one should get caught in this crossfire!
Such a great post!
1. Because it makes so much sense and if you do it “correctly” it feels natural — so you get to be yourself and make these fabulous connections.
2. This is how I connected with YOU when I decided at ERS last year that you were one of my “people” while watching you onstage.
So fun!
oh yes, that is how our relationship was built! How fun to think back on those days – not that long ago and yet I feel like I have known you forever.