Welcome to this week’s Discuss HR, the HR blog written for and by members of Human Resources UK.
Human Resources UK is a LinkedIn group and by default is a social networking forum. As such it is only apt that following last week’s article about how and why HR should network more that we conclude the theme focusing on online networking. Today we welcome our latest guest writer, Ellen Selby, an experienced blogger and somewhat of a social media guru. (Ed Scrivener)
The big misunderstanding about online networking
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| You WILL listen to everything I say! |
The misunderstanding between social networking online and social networking face to face is long present in today’s world of constant ’dialogue’ marketing. However, you’ll find that both are equally as effective if you can understand them well enough.
Whether you’re a twitter addict, and you find – like many of us – a smartphone glued to your hand each day, or you simply cannot stop talking, you are basically using networking techniques that are the same. The only difference is, one of them is getting misunderstood far more than the other. Let me explain.
You’ve probably caught onto the relatively new craze that is Social Media for your business. Of course, whether it is working for you is another matter entirely and is dependent on whether you’re using it in the right way for the right reasons. To illustrate the point properly: what do you do when you attend a Social Networking event, to make you and your business look fantastic?
Common practise is to ask a fair amount of questions, answer the ones you can answer, interact animatedly with all potential clientele that you find, offer help to others as well as accepting help from the members of your networking group, and advertising your business where possible and when it is appropriate. It is this high and diverse level of interaction that face to face marketing allows that gives it the potential to be successful. However, many people using Social Media online find that they cannot replicate this successful social process. Rather, they are using online social media to talk AT people.
Let’s put it this way. When, at a networking event have you responded well to someone talking ‘at’ you? Unless the person in question is an incredibly inspirational speaker, you are unlikely to respond positively. Unfortunately a lot of people use Social Media for precisely this, and assume it is a free ‘Social Advertising space’, forgetting about the ‘Social Networking’, engagement or interaction element. These users post their content and leave it, without interacting with others or looking up relevant topics at the time. Not only does this make their posts uninteresting, it also makes the news they are reporting irrelevant to what is happening at the time and gives no opportunity for further engagement.
Unfortunately, of the 90% of websites and businesses that use Social Media as a networking tool, only 50% use it effectively. This leaves a large percentage of businesses tweeting and Facebooking into nothingness, when this needn’t be the case at all. The trick is to mimic the same skills you would use at your physical networking events, and use them online. For instance, the one thing everyone loves to do – business or no business, is talk about themselves! So ask your followers questions to show you are interested in helping, and give your followers the opportunity to indulge in writing a few lines themselves. This not only promotes the same feelings of involvement and community, similar to networking events, but also engages people so you are able to learn more about your potential customers.
Whether you are talking to an actual crowd or your online followers, your networking techniques need to be engaging and filled with the personality of your business. If you find yourself needing to ‘advertise’ certain aspects of your business online, ensure that your posts are enthralling and customer focused, and steer clear of saying anything on Social Networking sites that you would not say ‘out loud’.
The tone of Social Media is forever changing, and will continue to do so as we move forward, causing us to constantly evolve and change how we present ourselves. We must be flexible: but hold onto the human element that we know wins business.
About the author
Ellie Selby’s specialities lie in the realms of Social Media and helping and adapting businesses to grow their sales in the world of B2B. Quality and not Quantity is what matters when Social Media is involved: to be worthwhile it must reap results.
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Discuss HR is the blog for Human Resources UK, the leading LinkedIn group for those involved with HR in the UK. Next week’s Discuss HR will be published on Thursday 21st June and will be written by employment law expert Annabel Kaye.
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