Combining Online and Offline Worlds

I had a conversation last week with a gentleman who asked me if I ever made any money with Facebook or LinkedIn.

His niece had introduced me to him as someone that she looks up to due to my “Social Media Expertise” .  Her words, not mine.

I told him yes but.

The yes is because social media was involved.

The but is because social media was a tool used in the overall process.

Years ago, I started connecting with people before Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn by getting out and meeting folks face to face.  When these social media platforms came along, I simply expanded what I was already doing.

I connected with people I already knew and I also met a bunch of new folks via social media.  Over 3400 people are following me on Twitter, there are about 1000 folks I’m connected to on Facebook and about 1000 on LinkedIn.

Those numbers don’t really matter, not as much as some people think.

What matters is what you do with the connections you have.

Are you building genuine relationships or creating a “mailing list” that you want to sell stuff to?

Some of my online relationships have resulted in being involved with the monthly Social Media Breakfast Fort Wayne that meets 11 times a year, the annual TEDx Fort Wayne event, an Indy based FriendUp group and a Fort Wayne based FriendUp group along with plenty of individual and less formal relationships.

Some of those relationships have resulted in leads and referrals, some have resulted in direct sales transactions, even employment.

But the key, at least for me, has been relationship building.

I’ll wrap this up with two examples and an easy exercise you can start doing too.

A few years ago I was negotiating with the media buyer for a  “big fast food giant” who was with an out of town advertising agency.  I decided to look her up and found her Facebook profile and discovered she was a singer in a local band.

In my next email as we were negotiating our annual contract, I asked her a few questions about her band.  A wall fell down and suddenly the relationship went beyond a cold vendor style relationship based strictly on facts and figures.  She started asking for tips on promoting her band and I hooked her up with our radio stations programming folks who gave her advice.

A friendlier tone developed as we continued and finalized business and it was a win/win situation for all involved.

The other example was when I received word that a large big box store was planning on opening in my city soon.  I used LinkedIn to research who the top dog in the marketing and advertising department was and within a couple of hours was talking to him on the phone, getting the information I needed and he needed to begin a business relationship.

Here’s the simple exercise that you can do to start creating stronger relationships.

Log into your Facebook account every day.  You’ll see notifications of birthdays of folks you are friends with. Wish them a Happy Birthday.

Make it fun, do it on Facebook, leave them a voicemail, send them a text, a tweet, an email.  This one little thing could be the beginning of a remarkable relationship.