Here at BGG Melksham, many of us love social networking just as much as the traditional face-to-face method. We understand that not everyone feels the same way. Though some people may think that online networking isn’t as sincere, or that they don’t have enough time to network online, or that they don’t have the social media know-how.

However, we’re here to convince you of the value of online networking for your business and give you some helpful tips about how to be a great social networker!

Use LinkedIn’s ‘connect nearby’ feature to follow up on connections made at networking events.

Face to face and online networking might seem worlds apart, but they don’t have to be separate. Use the ‘connect nearby’ feature on LinkedIn to stay in contact with connections that you make at face-to-face networking events. This is a particularly good feature if you’re just starting out and don’t have business cards yet. To connect to people nearby, turn on your Bluetooth in your phone settings. Then select the connections icon on LinkedIn (next to the home icon) and click on the add button at the bottom right. Finally, select ‘find nearby’. The people you’re looking for will also need to have their Bluetooth turned on to be discoverable.

Remember that you can also use LinkedIn to follow up after face-to-face networking by connecting with the people whose business cards you collect. Find them on social within 24 hours and say hi! Remind them where you met and that you look forward to getting to know them more.

Send a message with your request.

This is particularly important if you’re connecting with someone after meeting them at a networking event. It doesn’t have to be a long message either. It could briefly say how you enjoyed meeting them and how you found it interesting to learn about their business. Personalise the message by including their business name and mentioning what you spoke to them about. If you haven’t met them then introduce yourself and explain that you would love to hear more about their business. So many people send generic ‘copy and paste’ messages on LinkedIn, so a thoughtful, personalised message will really stand out in someone’s inbox and go a long way.

Always reply to messages.

Don’t just reply to people who you think can benefit you. As with the advice we gave in our networking fundamentals blog, when networking on social media, think about what you can do for your connections. If you send an initial message to someone always remember to reply promptly. If you think you don’t have time to reply to all your LinkedIn messages, then consider how many people you are making initial contact with and limit initial messages to your most beneficial connections.

Use relevant hashtags to target potential clients.

Twitter Hours are a brilliant way to connect with thought leaders in your industry, as well as local businesses and potential clients. Joining Twitter Hours are a great way to reach hundreds, or even thousands of people from the comfort of your sofa! They are allocated blocks of time on a specific day where people within a local area or industry use a set hashtag to engage in real-time conversation. Twitter Hours, such as Wilts Hour, which is at 8-9pm on Mondays, can be used to start a conversation about a particular industry, or events and local businesses in the nearby area. Use Google to search for Twitter Hours that are relevant to you.

Outside of Twitter Hours, two hashtags tend to be effective on Twitter, one for your industry, and one for location.

Find your community and engage with them.

Join relevant industry and community groups on Facebook and LinkedIn to make new connections. Make sure that you contribute to the group by participating in discussions. Don’t use it to promote your business as this will appear insincere. The most effective way of using groups is to share your knowledge and help the group members with any problems that they encounter within your industry. This will establish you as a source of knowledge within your field and build positive brand awareness.

As previously mentioned, Twitter Hours are a fantastic way to find and engage with members of your community online. They are an example of how valuable online networking has become as Twitter Hours are an effective way to reach a large group of people instantaneously.

Showcase your knowledge and experience.

Share your knowledge with group members, but also take advantage of your Twitter and LinkedIn profiles to showcase your experience. This could involve helpful blog posts answering commonly asked questions by your clients. Or, you could share testimonials from your clients to establish trust around your brand. Social networking is an effective tool to establish yourself as a source of knowledge within your industry, gain trust and build up your client base.

Be an early adopter.

While blog posts and testimonials are a great way of sharing your knowledge and experience, the best way to get your message out there is by being an early adopter. This means staying ahead of the latest online trends and adopting them as part of your social networking strategy. A good example of this is using LinkedIn Live to communicate with your connections. As LinkedIn Live is a relatively new feature, live video content is featured more prominently on your connections’ news feeds. Therefore, more people see your content.

As you can see, we’re really passionate about using social media alongside face-to-face networking as a complementary way to promote your business, build relationships with current customers and appeal to new clients. Done in the right way it doesn’t have to be time consuming and should fit easily into your day.  Our breakfast networking group is based in Melksham, Wiltshire and meets every Friday morning. We live tweet our meetings, so if you’d like to get a taste of what our meetings are like before you join, then head over to our Twitter.