Work At Home Business Options

Posts Tagged ‘networking forums’

I firmly believe in the power of networking as I have seen first hand how this has helped me grow professionally and personally. You need to be consistent with your networking efforts and this holds true for both online and offline networking.

There are a few basic tips you should remember when it comes to networking and they are as follows:

1. Networking is not about selling your business or products to
everyone you meet.

2. Don’t come on too strong the first time you meet new people.

3. Share about yourself, not just your business. “People do business
with people they trust and people they have gotten to know.”

4. Ask people what they do and invite them to share about themselves
and their business.

5. Listen more than you talk and ask questions that will get people
talking — not just a yes or no answer.

6. Make notes on things people have that might be useful to
yourself or others.

*tip* I keep index cards on business contacts in a file box. I will write down information about this business contact on the index cards.

7. Find common ground with the person you’re getting to know. “People
do business with people just like them.”

8. If asked what you do don’t give someone a long sales pitch. Keep
it short and informative. If they want to know more they will ask.

9. Always tell the person you were talking with it was a pleasure
meeting them and ask if it is ok if you add them to your contact
list.

10. Ask for their business card — that way you can be sure that there
will be follow up. You can exchange cards if you wish but always get
their card or if online, their email or IM name. Ask permission to
contact them again.

This article is copyright 2008 by Shelly Hill, All Rights Reserved. This article can not be reprinted without Shelly’s permission and/or proper credit with live links given to the author who wrote the content who is Shelly Hill.

Networking with others online is a great way to learn more about your Direct Sales business and a great way to pick up new customers and party hosts. However, there is a right and wrong way to network on Social Media web sites like Facebook, Ning and Twitter.

When you are networking on these type of social sites, it is very important to always put forth your very best and to remain the constant business professional. When you are networking and trying to grow your home business, no one wants to read about messy things going on in your personal life. Furthermore…from time to time you will see others on various Social Networking sites who behave badly by picking fights with others, posting inappropriate comments, foul language, etc.

When you see others who are behaving online, it is in your best interest to move on…don’t engage them, debate with them etc. on a public networking site. Don’t get pulled in to their mis-deeds, don’t let others see you respond badly to someone else who is behaving badly online.

Your online business reputation is everything! Keep it clean and professional on public networking sites.

Shelly

Almost every day when I get online to check my email I receive some type of spammed invite to come join some type of social networking site or networking group. Frankly, I am just tired of it now.

In my personal and professional opinion, it is NOT okay to spam everyone on your contact list with an invite every time you go out and join some new networking site or group. Sure, so and so might be interested but surely, not everyone will be.

If I wanted to receive these types of emails from people, I would sign up for them or I would let you know. However, I feel that this is just another type of spam email method.

I am a very busy person and I am sure you are busy as well and getting emails on a daily basis to come check out this new forum, this new social networking site or group is becoming ridiculous and frankly, I am tired of it. To me and many others…its spam!

Now on when I get these types of ‘spammed’ invites, I reply with a not so nice message about it and then, I block them from emailing me that nonsense again.

If you want to keep those who are in your contact lists and email address books happy, I suggest that you NEVER spam email invites to them unless they have specifically told you that they would like to receive that type of communication from you.

How do you feel about this issue?

Shelly

The popularity of online business networking on various social networking sites such as twitter, facebook, ning, linked-in and the popular wahm (work at home mom) forums is growing in popularity with home business owners…especially with those who are in Direct Sales.

Often times when networking online, you will find a group of individuals discussing a hot-button topic and you wonder to yourself, should you voice your opinion. My answer to that is…if you feel strongly about the topic, yes…but do so in a professional and respectful manner.

I recently visiting a social networking site and saw a handful of people bashing and discussing a couple of DS companies…discussing is one thing, bashing is another. I will not participate in ‘bashing’ discussions as it makes everyone involved look catty and unprofessional. If the discussion is heated and turning into a bash-fest, you are better to leave it alone and walk away.

If the discussion is a heated topic on business such as how to properly network or advertise online…you can participate and voice your opinion. The thing to remember is to be respectful and diplomatic in your approach. If you are going to ‘correct’ something that someone has posted and you feel it was the ‘incorrect’ information, your best bet is to back it up with some facts…like a reference or link to the correct information.

You don’t have to sit back and keep your opinions to yourself…there is nothing wrong with participating in business hot topics as long as you remember to keep your professionalism in check.

To your networking success,

Shelly

I have been networking my home business online since 1997 and I have been working from home since 1989…so I have been networking for a long time.

It never ceases to amaze me how poorly home business professionals act online in regards to networking on forum boards and on social networking groups.

Let me just say this…when it comes to networking, first impression is everything!

When you are networking on forum boards and social networking sites (facebook, twitter, ning, myspace, linkedin, etc) you need to remember to act appropriately on these groups.

Way too often I see folks only join these groups to just spam advertisements and then they leave. They come back and spam another ad and it becomes routine to them.

Networking is not about spamming your business ads 24/7 to those you meet online. Networking is about building quality business relationships with others who are also running and promoting a home business.

To build a quality relationship, you need to communicate effectively, participate in non-business and business discussions and more importantly, limit the ‘in your face’ advertisements.

~ Shelly ~

Over the years, I have read many articles online about how important it is to have your business listed in your signature tag.

If you are not familiar with what a signature tag is, let me explain.

A signature tag is a link and some text that is attached to all of your outgoing emails and on your forum board posts. The hope is that whoever is reading your emails and/or your forum board posts that they will see it and click through to your website.

I have been networking my home business online for the past 10 years and I am often asked, “Does signature tag advertising really work?” My answer to that is yes…however, you will not get hundreds of sales or thousands of website visitors by utilizing a signature tag.

To be honest with you…You will get some website visitors and you will occasionally get some product sales by people who see your website link and click-thru to your website.

With all of that being said, you need to keep a few things in mind when you are setting up your signature tag. Here are a few pointers:

1. You should have no more than three links in your signature tag at any given time. Anything over three is considered link spam. You will find that a lot of online forums will only allow you to have two links in your signature tag and some others will allow you to have three.

2. Double check your links for typos. I can not tell you how many times I have come across a signature tag that had broken links in it due to typos.

3. Keep your signature tags short, simple and to the point. No one enjoys reading a paragraph long signature tag.

4. When adding text to your signature tag, make it compelling. Give the reader a reason to want to click through to your website. When I say ‘compelling’, I don’t mean sales pitch spam!

5. Change the text in your signature tag often. Those who see your signature day in and day out will eventually quit paying attention to it. To keep people interested, change up your signature every couple of weeks.

Will you get thousands of website visitors and make millions of dollars by using signature tags? No, you will not…but the few sales and visitors you do get will be worth your time and effort on setting up and maintaining proper signature tags in your outgoing email and forum board posts.

~Shelly~