Consider there are a lot of people who are not on social networking sites and don’t even know what you mean when you mention it. At a recent meeting of 70 people in the age range of 20-75 with most in the age group of 40-60, I was mentioning Facebook and asked how many knew what I was talking about? 20% maybe knew and 10% used it. I think that number is representative for that age group and there are reports issued validating the number of users is growing each month.
Here is a peak at my experience with growing a network on Facebook. In literally three weeks my friends on Facebook grew from 9 to 389. In my network I estimate more than 90% of the people are most concerned about what they do and have no interest in what I do after we are connected. Many (and I have done this when I started) use the Facebook system to add numbers of “friends”. When I scan my friends list and the friends of a friend list I notice very few people have posted any recent news. This tells me there is a huge group of people not very active on Facebook - maybe 90%. I am a great example. I have been a member of Facebook for about two years and have been active for three weeks.
My conclusion is that the majority of people on line are not aware of social networking sites and of the people on these sites the majority are not active. That leads me to think that for people interested in developing business, spending time on social networks is a total waste of time like Patsi suspects. But wait a minute…
Social networking on line is only a little over three years old. The initial crowd was mostly college students and to some extent people in counter mainstream niche markets. That has changed. If you do a search on your favorite author, entrepreneur, spiritual leader or celebrity, you are likely to find they have a profile on a social networking site like Facebook or MySpace. Every author and speaker that interests me has video clips on YouTube. Every artist that I have every researched on YouTube has videos of concerts and more on YouTube. I love what is available to me based on my interests. I also feel very good about my growing network.
Many of those people and I share the same professional and personal interests. How do I know that? I have formed a couple of groups and people join. They wouldn’t do that if they didn’t have an interest.
Today there will be over 400 people who can view my profile, see a few pictures and understand my professional and personal interests. I have reviewed the profiles and commented no many of them. Every new person in my network receives a detailed message from me that includes a sincere offer to help them with ideas if I can. I have received almost zero notes in response to my offer.
I also openly tell everyone I am interested in building my client base and an ideal client for me falls into one of two categories: First a company in the retail, manufacturing, distribution, hospitality, construction or transportation industry that has 25 or more employees. Companies fitting that profile are ones where I use my on site program The Profit System for increasing their revenue and profit by 30% or more in 90 days or less. Second: for smaller businesses I am offering a coaching program that leads them through many of the same processes used for the large companies, only I am doing more of that work remote so it is affordable for the small business owner, entrepreneur and solopreneur (a term I learned on Facebook) And more than 400 new friends are recognizing that I offer very nice referral fees for new business.
By the end of May my network will be greater than 1,000 and there will be an increasing number of people from countries outside of the US who are Facebook friends with me. Will all of this mean more business? I have no idea. What is most important to me are the relationships I am forming. Do I have a relationship with each person in my network. Yes but the relationships just like anywhere else vary based on our respective interests and points of view.
I will tell you an interesting story about the lady who asked the question that resulted in me writing this series …Patsi Krakoff. I have known of Patsi for a couple years because I am a subscriber to The Blog Squad Blog (and you should be too Click Here ). As new friends on Facebook I noticed several videos Patsi posted for her Facebook friends network and… well let’s just say a bright, articulate, attractive woman gets the attention of this single man. So I sent her a polite message that included the question: are you married? Patsi’s reply was wonderful. I truly felt she was flattered that I asked and then she let me know that she was very happily married. Of course I wish her and her husband bliss forever. Patsi and I are now a little bit closer from sharing that communication. You just never know what might happen on a social networking site.
I know from personal experience that for anything to develop, personally or professionally it is important for a person to be out there, sincere and have it in their hearts to contribute to the development of the community. With that posture the energy that returns is wonderful. I believe if you sit on the sidelines you are going to witness the spacecraft take off and not be on it.
In Part 3 I will conclude my response to Patsi’s question with information on a number of experiences in just three weeks of being active on Facebook. Remember this is just one site. You are not going to want to miss this article since what I have to share actually is quite stunning even for me to think about yet alone write.
Don’t miss Part 3 and all the future editions of Steve Reports. Subscribe to my blog (top right hand corner of this page) and the articles are delivered right to your email. How cool is that?
Until then consider this:
“The significant problems that we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. ” Albert Einstein
Steve Pohlit, Business Development Consultant and Coach
http://www.stevereports.com
steve | 
08 20th, 2008| 
