Social Networking and the Power of Influence

Social networking is a very powerful tool for many reasons.  And, as common place as social networking is in today’s online marketing plan — I’m still amazed at the amount of solopreneurs and small businesses that still don’t understand it’s tremendous power.  Using social networking is not about traffic, it’s about influence:  your influence on others and leveraging the power of others’ influence.

The Power of Influence with Social Networking

Social networking, when you actually take the time to participate on a meaningful level, has tremendous power in helping you influence others.  More than just spatting your brand across their wall or  in your updates, social networking can break through the typical social media noise and give you access to influencing people in a pseudo one-on-one environment.  Meaning, rather than casting a Net to catch as many fish as possible, social networking gives you the opportunity to connect with people in a way that solidifies your value and expertise.

Social networking, gives you an opportunity to stand in a crowd with another person and actually have a conversation with them - while everything else filters as noise.  When you focus on building the right relationships and focus on the right people, social networking gives you tremendous leveraging power — one that creates word of mouth and buzz marketing at levels not consistently achievable with other tools.

It’s important to see this value.  It’s also important to realize, not all social media tools are about quantity in connections, it should be more about quality of connections.  Social networking is one of those tools.  Too often people think too much in numbers — missing a ton of opportunities to actually do more with less.

Things to Remember in Your Social Networking Strategies

By far the biggest mistake is focusing on the quantity of connections, not the quality. This is really a “scarcity mindset” brought over from the old ways of doing things.  The thinking, I guess is, the bigger the Net the more catches you’ll make.  Huge mistake.  Remember these three things about connecting with social networking:

Target social networking sites that actually get you in front of your audience. Do your research friend.  What’s the point in being there if your audience is not actively participating there.  Most people assume everyone is on Facebook and everyone is on MySpace.  Possibly true, but is it wiser to just fit into the big crowd and have to shout over everyone else, or are there other places your target audience is that provide you with more opportunities to influence them.

Using a service like Quantcast will give you some directions on other places your target might also be.   (There are others, check out them out here:  Defining Your Audience’s Participation in Social Media and Defining Your Business Goals in Social Media)  Remember, quality over quantity really works in social media.  Take the time to do it right, social media is not going anywhere, it can wait a week or two

Observe and discover who and what influences your audience within that social network. Don’t jump in and start marketing.  Jump in and start observing, the various groups, the leaders, and the activities that are influencing your audience the most.  Then move forward.  Understanding your audience’s participation helps you understand how you need to participate.

This absolutely means observe first, act later.  Seriously, you’ve got a week or two to really check things out.  The key here is to find people who influence your audience, other leaders you can collaborate with or who can spread the word about you and your services… then it’s about connecting with your audience.  No more just adding as many people as you can, target your connections — you’ll get much better results.

Don’t participate as a marketer, participate as part of your audience first.  Then progress into your leader role. One big mistake I see solopreneurs and small businesses make is to participate in social networking as they see their favorite Internet marketing guru do, as an expert on a rampage to have the largest number of connections.  Big mistake.  Remember this, how you let marketers influence you while your trying to learn marketing is completely different than how you should influence your audience, the consumer of your products or services. There is a HUGE difference.

Do more with less. A lot of online gurus are talking about visibility, it’s all about visibility, blah blah blah blah.  BIG MISTAKE.  It’s not about visibility, it’s about influence.

Visibility is about being in front of as part of a crowd all looking for the same visibility.

Influence is about being in front of as part of a trusted resource pool for assistance in decision making, this clearly sets you apart from the crowd.

Focus on a few social networking sites and leverage each of them completely.  That’s much more productive than focusing on as many as you can possibly manage.  Always remember this, just being there and being visible is NOT enough. Everyone is there.  Be there and be influential.

Online Resources to Learn the Power of Influence and Social Networking

My Favorite Influence and Persuasion Expert:

To learn more about influence and persuasion, applied to the Web 2.0 environment, I highly suggest you subscribe and read regularly the Immediate Influence Blog with Ron Hudson.  Not only is his expertise extremely impressive, he has the rare ability to actually apply it to our current online marketing state.

You also want to check out his radio show, Immediate Influence, because he brings in some A-List experts, helping to link in influence and persuasion into every area of your business and life.  Great stuff, I listen regularly.

No Doubt About It, My Favorite Social Networking Expert:

Nancy Marmolejo has a Social Networking program that is like no other.  She is one of the few who actually gets it and always provides more value than you expect.  She teaches about using social networking the right way (I learn new things from her each time we talk) and she teaches in a no-nonsense, no fluff way.  I can’t recommend her and the program enough.  If you think it’s as easy as just being there, you’re really missing revenue-building opportunities.

My Favorite Social Networking Blogs:

These are blogs that are actually in my RSS Reader and I make a point to read at least once a week.

Viva Visibility Blog with Nancy Marmolejo, this girl rocks at social networking, publicity, and visibility that is meaningful and revenue building.

Sociable Blog by Social Guy.  He has an excellent Social Networking Site Directory too.

LouisGray.com is a bit more about social media and such, but great social networking information is always coming out here.

Soshable Social Media Blog is great.  Very helpful resource lists and guides are constantly being posted.

And, no list would be complete without including Scott Monty’s Social Media Marketing Blog.  Brilliant mind and always ahead of the curve.

Photo Credit:  Justice League by Levork on Flickr

Related Diva Posts:

• Social Media is About Communities Not Technology
• Doing Social Media Marketing Right with Nancy Marmolejo
• Social Networking Taken to the Next Profitable Level
• Beyond Social Networking to Profitable Community Empire
• Free “Don’t Pimp Yourself on MySpace” Teleseminar Coming Up

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