Building a supportive, inspiring network of friends leverages your business presence quickly. Newbie entrepreneurs can accelerate their success by surrounding themselves with as many high energy individuals as possible. Learn this lesson; you can’t do the business thing alone. People can promote your opportunity, support you during tough times and can inspire you to reach your business goals when things look bleak.
Meet people by being a friend. Generous, helpful entrepreneurs can see great business success by knowing where to find like-minded friends. Set the intent to help the right people in the right spots. Let go any need to become popular. Fame seekers often do the exact thing that will turn off the majority of individuals from their niche. Focus instead on serving others and building strong bonds to grow your venture and expand your friend network.
Relevant Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups are effective meeting spots for both online and offline marketers. As Facebook continues to grow in terms of popularity you can easily reach out and connect with people who share similar likes. Budding entrepreneur can find good networking groups by searching for industry-specific terms in the Facebook search field. Patiently sift through the results to find relevant, engaging groups.
Weed out selfish link sharing festivals. Spammy groups like these simply waste your time because greedy people are only out for themselves. Join engaging groups whose members uplift one another. Connect with like-minded people by requesting their friendship via a personalized message.
Offline Meet Ups
Local offline meet ups provide you with a rich networking strategy. Grow your business friend network by listening more than you speak. Listeners become leaders in their niche of choice. Offline events are best worked by expressing genuine interest in people whom you meet. Ask questions. Wait, and listen for answers. Based on these answers you can readily find a set of commonalities. Finding these links bonds you to other people quickly. Grow your network offline by attending events, listening and linking.
Niche Specific LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups are collections of like-minded professionals geared toward a greater purpose. Meeting and making friends on LinkedIn helps you to expand your business network quickly. The secret lies in being open to engaging versus being a link builder. Spammy practices like posting your business link to LinkedIn Groups are generally frowned upon by this community. Focus less on trying to direct people to your blog and more on helping people, answering questions and promoting your Group member’s blog posts. Use attraction marketing to draw friends to you, instead of repelling individuals with your neediness and greediness.
Online Forums
Online forums related to growing your business or sharing helpful tips concerning your niche are some of the best spots to expand your business network. Online forums provide you with rich networking potential. Most members have highly specialized interests similar to your preferences. Sharing value, engaging other forum members and being active on a daily basis can endear you to fellow forum mates and expand your online presence quickly.
Making strong connections is vital for business sucess; it allows you to reach out about questions you may have about your business, from the most viable funding alternatives to where to get the best wholesale rates. You can swap stories about marketing techniques, get motivation, and just learn a whole lot.
Kelli Cooper is a freelance writer who enjoys blogging about all things business.
