Business Coaching

PleaseRobMe.com is meant to get Twitter users to be careful what they Tweet.

Many people think a plus to social media sites is that anyone and everyone can find you for networking opportunities or to get back in touch, discover where you work, who you’re dating and pictures of your kids, dogs and cats. It’s all accessible, depending on your privacy settings.

A con to social media? Anyone and everyone can find you and get back in touch, discover where you work, who you’re dating and pictures of your kids, dogs and cats.

Why are the pros also cons? If people with good intentions know most of your info, people with bad intentions out there in the blogosphere and Twittersphere do, too. People know what your plans are, where you’re going and why, if you’re vacationing somewhere exotic or if you’re home sick from work. This can lead to making yourself a victim of burglary.

Mashable reported about a possible Twitter-related burglary, and a site called Please Rob Me was started to get people to be more careful about what they’re announcing to the world. It has a live Twitter feed that mainly features accounts of people who have theirs linked to FourSquare or Gowalla, sites that publicly tweet where a person is.

For the record, if used mainly for business, sharing advice and networking, this doesn’t really apply to you. But when you start tweeting about being away on a business trip or attending a business conference in another city, just be careful what you say!

Even though the “hot” sites today for networking and business marketing are LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, there are a few niche sites out there that might serve you well.

People can be blinded by the “big three” named above because the goal of marketing is getting your message in front of as many people as possible. However, it’s more important to get your message in front of as many people as possible who are interested in what you’re selling. That tactic will get you closer to a sale.

From niche European business networking sites to websites linking small business owners and entrepreneurs, Sitepointe.com gathered 20 smaller networking sites that specifically benefit business owners and entrepreneurs. Check them out and see who could become potential clients and who could benefit from a business coach.

Hopefully you get it by now: social media is the way to go, and it’s here to stay…for a while, at least, as a marketing tool for businesses.

Are you caught up on social media sites? Do you utilize each site you joined to its fullest potential, so you can get the most marketing usage out of that site?

Look at our checklist and hopefully, you’re already doing the following to benefit marketing your business on social media sites:

Networking: What good are your 789 friends if you don’t talk to them? Just like in real life, networking is key. The more people you know, the better; everyone you network with starts off as a lead or someone who can refer you to a client. Get to know people at BNIs and networking events, and add them as friends on Facebook, connect with them on LinkedIn and follow them on Twitter.

Don’t Be a Spammer: Just like you’re turned off at a live networking event when someone pushes his product or service on you right away, on social media sites, you’ve got to build a rapport. Your first conversation with anyone on social media sites should be anything but “Do business with me.” On Facebook or LinkedIn, a good icebreaker is to join several groups and become a fan of pages and connect with members of the same group/page. Start up a discussion about an issue pertinent to the group or post in their forums. On Twitter, engage in conversations and reply to other users’ tweets.

Post Interesting Info: If you post useful, relevant and interesting info, people will be more likely to pay attention to you. Check out what your friends or followers are posting, and try to post news and info that are in a similar vein to connect over those topics.

Link to your Blog: Again, no one likes someone who only talks about their services, but you are on these sites to promote your business. Do it the smart way by linking to blog posts you’ve written, which will send traffic to your blog, or articles you find about the benefits of business coaching or articles about companies that have done better after getting a business coach. Avoid anything that is a blatant advertisement of yourself. Don’t have a blog yet? Start one, or link to blogs you like and read a lot. Like this one (okay, that was a shameless plug…but still, not a bad idea).

If you’ve been utilizing social media marketing strategies, comment below and let us know your success stories! To find out if you need to improve your marketing strategies, or other business issues, click here.