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BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS :: UPSIZE PRIMER
Staying in touch
Owners add online groups, high-tech tools to networking repertoire by Lisa Stammer
LIKE MOST small-business owners, Shawn Wallace?s time is limited. Wallace, the owner of Evolutionary Studios, a marketing company in Maple Grove, depends on networking to grow his business. But he can?t spend all of his time trying to get new clients; he must leave time to stay in touch with his current customers and make money.
To balance these demands, Wallace focuses most of his networking on one weekly networking group. PNG West, which allows only one person per profession to join, is one of several groups around the Twin Cities that provides a forum for business people to meet one another and pass business back-and-forth. At the heart of this group ? and many others like it ? is word-of-mouth marketing, the idea of growing a business by building relationships.
People want to work with people they know and are comfortable with, Wallace explains. That?s why he joined PNG three years ago ? at a time when he was ready to push his company to the next level. He took the plunge into professional networking after an invitation from a business associate. And he now says he?ll never stop. ?Networking is the lifeblood of my business.?
Time as money
In today?s fast-paced world of business, relationship-building can be challenging. But it is an essential skill. ?Networking is one of the cheapest forms of marketing,? says Natalie Majerko, director of marketing for Olsen Thielen Technologies, based in Little Canada. ?If we all had budgets the size of Coke, we wouldn?t need networking groups.?
The options for small businesses to network in a traditional, face-to-face setting are almost as wide and varied as small businesses themselves. There are the ?hard? networking groups, such as PNG West, Business Network International (BNI) and Grapevine. These groups meet frequently in order to get to know one another and pass business.
Then there are ?soft? networking groups, such as chambers of commerce. There can be a lot of overlap in the professions represented here, but they cover a wider area and offer additional events and get-togethers. They don?t focus on networking and passing business, but both often become natural byproducts.
Finally, there are industry-specific events and groups, as well as large conferences that command a much broader audience.
Compared to other forms of marketing and advertising, there is very little monetary investment when entrepreneurs join one of these groups. What they must invest is time.
Some join online group
Today people are just as likely to e-mail the person sitting near them as they are to walk across the hall to have a conversation. The Internet has changed everything ? how we shop, watch movies, listen to music, conduct research, and connect with people.
Just as dating services have moved to the Web, there are now numerous Web sites offering various ways for business people to connect. Think MySpace for business. One of the largest online professional networks is LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com).
Here, business people set up profiles that help to showcase their past and present employment, professional accomplishments and future aspirations. Profiles can include resumes, Web sites, contact information and more.
One of the keys to LinkedIn?s success is that its members regularly invite people they know to join the network and set up their own profiles. Once the new people accept the invitation and register with LinkedIn, they are added to the original member?s network. Others visiting the site are able to see who?s connected.
?Anybody and everybody should join LinkedIn,? says Scott Litman, cofounder of GetGoMN, a non-profit online networking group based in St. Paul. ?It?s a great way to see who knows whom.?
Of course, LinkedIn isn?t the only online professional networking site out there. Ecademy, Fast Pitch and Spoke (just to name a few) work in a similar fashion. Then there?s GetGoMN (www.getgomn.org). GetGoMN was formed as a way to virtually connect small-business professionals?entrepreneurs, service providers, investors and associations.
?There?s a lot of energy for entrepreneurs out there and a lot of energy for people trying to expand their networks. But there?s not a good event to bind these people together,? Litman says. ?GetGo gives people a way to communicate between events.? Litman, who is also a local investor, is the managing director of SDWA Ventures, a Twin Cities venture catalyst.
In addition to member profiles and contact information, GetGoMN includes a rotating list of events around the Twin Cities that may interest small businesses. Since its launch on February 28, 2007, GetGoMN has signed up more than 2,100 members.
Stay in touch
Besides connecting business people who may not otherwise meet, online networks can also help keep business contacts organized and up-to-date. As long as individual professionals keep their personal information current, updates happen automatically in the online environment. When jobs or career goals change, there?s no longer a need to individually contact everyone in a network.
?With LinkedIn, you can set up an e-mail trigger every time a profile is updated.? Then you can use that as a reminder to contact people, says Minneapolis resident Mike Frichol. Frichol telecommutes to Alpharetta, Georgia, for his job as the vice president of global industry and product marketing at Infor, a publicly held software company. Frichol uses LinkedIn to stay in touch with business contacts around the world.
Besides providing new contacts, online groups like LinkedIn and GetGoMN can help business people connect with former colleagues, associates, classmates and friends. Simply search through members? public profiles to locate people.
Sites such as GetGoMN also offer a forum for sharing supplemental information and documents with contacts and the business community at large. White papers or press releases can be posted online and sent out automatically to individual contacts.
Track leads and campaigns
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