In this ever changing world of technology, we now have blogs and social networking. Do you find that they really work for increasing your business, or are they just taking up valuable time?

Is spending 15 minutes each day for each social network or blog you've posted up to date bringing in business or is it just connecting you with online friends?

What type of business do you feel should blog/social network and what types of business do you feel are unsuitable for this?

Is blogging/social networking created for just MLM business' or can not MLM business' gain from this form of advertising and marketing?

Just would love to know your thoughts.

To begin with, I not only think that social networking works for increasing my business, I know it does. Spending time each day on the right social networks is very financially sound. Spending all day on the wrong network is just a great way to avoid working.

I don't believe there is any business that wouldn't benefit from social networking. After all, the better your contacts know you, the better they like you, the quicker they are to do business with you.

Fwiw, most of the bloggers, tweets, Facebook, LinkedIn and Ecademy business contacts that I connect with, are not MLM at all. There are very few of those.

The only thing I can tell you, is that if as an MLM you're going to "network" in order to build your business, then do it as everyone else does, because you can share your rolodex with us, not because you can recruit us to your fantastic business opportunity. That'll be the quickest way to turn other networkers off.

Aside from signing my posts with my tagline (below), I rarely, if ever, talk about my business when networking, unless asked.

I've been "social networking" since the late 90's, when most people simply thought I was wasting my time.

If it helps, I was chatting on LinkedIn about the problems I was having with our printer and one of the contacts decided to take advantage of what he learned by networking with me, and unsolicited, referred someone in my local sales office to try and sell me a different printer. Unfortunately for the local sales guy, I had just that morning resolved my problem with the printer and so, was no longer thinking of changing printers. BUT, had the printer company I'm with failed to resolve my issue, we would have been in the market for a printer that could and the referral could have been in a gift position of making a $20,000 sale. When I told him where the referral had come from, he probably signed up for LinkedIn within the day.

Ultimately, making relationships with other business people is never a waste of time.

If on the other hand, you're chatting with personal friends and not actually making new contacts or discussing business, then it's a simple matter of rethinking how much time you spend on that particular channel.

Feel free to ask any questions, I'll gladly share what I've learned.

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

Hi Tina:

Thanks so much for your insightful input. I am not an MLM business, and I do a fair bit of social networking at the moment. I'm still new to that type of business.

I am still not sure if I am doing it correctly and to me it seems as if I am spending a lot of time on this. Mostly, what I find is that in these social networking I'll be directed to someone's site or in order to reply to a blog or question I have to be added to another site.

That I find frustrating. I have made a few good contacts while in the social networking. Just still weighing if this is the right road for me.

One of the things I am starting to like about twitter is that if I connect to someone expecting certain types of tweets and I don't get them, iow I'm expecting marketing insights, but all I get are updates on the person's kid, then I'm wasting my time following them.

If the people/things I am talking about on that network have no value to me or my business, then I am not talking to the right people or about the right things... So I need to better focus.

You will quickly discover that THOSE who are directing you OFF of the social network you are on in order to network with you, are NOT using that social networking the way it is supposed to be used. They are doing, what those of us in the social networking habit call mining and their intent is not to get to know you and then to share their rolodex and knowledge with you, but rather to sell you their certain something. Aka, spam, people who behave like that are as unwelcome on this as on all other social networking sites, and they will often decide that social networking doesn't work and stop it, or they will learn how to social network.

It takes time to find your niche, sometimes, but if you know who your target market is, and you know where they are hanging out, you can find a social networking site that targets them. And, if you can't you can always create one.

T

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

Yes - absolutely! Social media marketing is here to stay and will only get bigger.

Best wishes,
Aurora

www.innoventum.com - FREE Step-By-Step Guide on How to Start a Business Successfully. Recommended By Over a Dozen Government Agencies.

I'm still testing the waters on this new form of doing business.
I checked out your site and downloaded your guide. I'll be looking it over. Thanks for giving it out.

I just got done doing a research project on this topic. If you blog from your website daily it is proven that your website will increase in the rankings for search engines.


Joanna Swank
Marketable Concepts
jswank@marketableconcepts.com
www.marketableconcepts.com

November Sales Special - 99 for 2009 - go to http://www.jswank.com/november.html for these great marketng and business plan deals.

yes it certainly works. Here are some ideas and advice about how to make it work.

ABC?s of Social Networking Success
Action- take action daily. In order to be successful with social networking you must take some kind of action every single day. Building relationships with people does not happen if you are sporadic.
B- blogs- it is a given in today?s social networking world that you must have an interesting, updated frequently blog. Take the time to do a good job, allow others to leave comments and read the comments you receive.
C- conversation- This is at the heart of all social networking communities and conversations, the ability to have a conversation with others on the internet. Become a master communicator.
D- dabble- it pays to dabble and experiment with several sites until you find 3-5 sites that you are comfortable with and where you feel like you can make a contribution.
E- effective, social networking is some of the most effective marketing today but you must make the effort necessary to make it so.
F- friends, you must have large numbers of friends in order to be a successful social networker. Make real friends with this people and take the time to get to know them.
G-groups, join some groups, and create a few of your own and contribute real value. Groups are full of spam on many of the social networking sites and if you are the one who really contributes value, you will stand out.
H-Hubpages- this is another great site, where you can develop some great content to share with others.
Ideas- share new ideas you develop with your friends on social networking communities. Seek their feedback and advice and they will happily give it to you. Offer feedback on their ideas as well.
J- Journey- social networking success is a journey. You will not know everything you need to know overnight and it is important to realize that social networking involves a journey down the path of success.
K- KISS- Keep it simple silly- you have probably heard this acronym before but it is crucial to your social networking success. The more complicated you try to make the process the less successful you will be.
L-links- give link love and you will get it in return. When you find a blog post or a useful website by one of your friends or contacts, go ahead and link to it. They will love you for it and will be likely to do you the favor as well.
M- magnetic- strive to make yourself magnetic by offering true value and a piece of yourself to those you come in contact with.
N- Nice- This may seem obvious, but too many people come across with the wrong attitude or as being only someone who wants to sell something when they are using social networking communities.
O- original- The more content and ideas you can come up with which is original and different the more people will be drawn to you and seek to be your friend.
P- Participation- You must take the time to participate in a social network. Leave comments, add content, ask questions of others and more.
R- real- be real and seek to develop true friendships with others. They will flock to you if you are real and not spammy.
S-Squidoo- make sure to create at least two good high quality lenses. This site has a lot of traffic as well as great search engine rankings and you must use this site in order to experience optimum success.
T-tags- make sure to use good proper tags. Use the ones that people will really use to find you and your success will soar.
U- upright-seek to come across as always being in a good position. Never post your status as angry, sleepy, mad or anything else negative.
V- video is the rage right now and you must have at least a few decent videos in order to experience great success.
W-wait- your social networking success will not happen over night. You need to work at it and be willing to do what is necessary and it does take time.
Z- zeal, go after your social networking success with zeal and enthusiasm. Come across as a person that others would love to meet in person.

Great article, Laura, I would love to share it with MY social networks... if you're willing, send me a copy with your desired signature lines... email tbrooks@peppermaster.com citing abc's blog in the tage line.

T

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

I love these ABC's of Netowork Socializing. Thanks, I will certainly keep them posted by my computer.

Blogging and social networking efforts are DEFINITELY worth it.

The ABC's provided in this thread are great!