Face to Face Networking has been a key business development strategy. But does it still make sense in today’s economy?
Face To Face networking is great. There is no substitute for Face to Face communication. But you can only be at one place at a time. Social Networking Strategies such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and Foursquare allow businesses to maximize networking opportunities on a larger scale than traditional networking events.
What happens when you create content and optimize it on the web?
- The content can be found 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
- It can be viewed by multiple people at one time.
- It can be found tomorrow, next week, or next year.
- It can be shared.
Your customers can rave about you in a video or written testimonial and it can be seen anytime. Content gives site visitors a way to find your business or view a demo of your product or service.
Your website visitors can learn more about your business at their pace. They may not be ready to buy or engage but you can still use content on the web to start to build a relationship with them. It’s all about “know, like, and trust,” and that takes time.
Chances are you already are giving things away to prospective customers. Maybe not on a consistent basis, but most businesses I know do so when they engage with a prospective customer.
Let’s look at an example using a garage door repair company. A prospective customer calls about a garage door problem. You probably spend time with them on the phone to determine if it’s a problem that they could take care of themselves. Why? Because you don’t like to charge someone for a 5 or 10 minute fix. You lose money and time driving for a small repair and oh yeah, you’re an honest guy!
Why not turn this simple repair information into findable content on the web as a way to help people get to know, like and trust you. Create it once and it can be found over and over again, anytime of day. How would you do this? You could create a blog post, a YouTube video, with pictures, or better yet, a combination of these. This type of content is easy to create and post on the web and they can be optimized for search.