Using Online Groups to Benefit Your Business
People like getting together to talk about stuff. It’s been happening for centuries in living rooms, cafes, and bars. And now, it’s happening online. The popularity of online groups, such as those found on Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, is soaring, and this technology-facilitated bonding allows people from all over the world to meet at one destination. Groups provide a forum for building relationships and bonding over a topic of similar interest, whether it’s babies, baseball, or ballroom dancing. When done right, belonging to a group can be a great boon for your business, and help drive traffic to your website.
Do Dive In!
Find your target group. Spend some time doing research on Google, Yahoo, and Facebook groups. For example, if you sell baby and children’s products, you may want to join a parenting group. There are hundreds – look for one that is active. If the latest post was three months ago, it’s probably not going to drive much business your way. Make sure the posts are recent and frequent. You want to engage in a conversation, not a monologue.
In addition to the mega-sites like Google and Yahoo, check out portals which cater to certain niche groups. www.ivillage.com targets women of all ages, and www.cafemom.com, as its name suggests, was designed for mothers. Other groups which target work-at-home-moms include www.wahmzone.com, www.mompack.com, www.bizymoms.com, and www.mommasterminds.com. Joining a site which targets your specific audience means that some of the legwork is already done! Once you’ve joined, jump into the conversation! Read posts, offer your own response or expertise, ask questions – get involved! Remember that you joined this group to build relationships and contacts, so…
Don’t Shamelessly Promote Your Business!
The other readers may be turned off – and you may even be asked to leave the group – if you use the community solely as a way to promote your business. Remember to abide by the rules of the group. Some will allow you to post a link, others won’t, so be sure to toe the line.
However, nothing’s stopping you from promoting yourself and your expertise. The key word is “trust.” People are much more likely to become clients of someone they trust (even if the person lives half a world away and they’ve never actually met), so be that person! If you are looking for groups that are designed specifically for business promotion and networking purposes, check out Google networking groups, as well as groups on LinkedIn.
Start Your Own!
The big groups are great for promoting conversation and hearing the latest news in your market, but they can sometimes be too, well, big. The multiple conversation threads may become distracting. Once you’ve spent some time in an existing group building up a core “posse,” you may want to consider starting your own group. Invite your friends and contacts within the group to join a smaller, more targeted group, either on your site, or using Yahoo or Facebook. A Facebook group has the added advantage that you have even more friends and contacts on Facebook who are potential members of your new group. Ask your friends to join, and to pass along the invite to other like-minded people. Building your own group requires more time and maintenance – you need to keep “growing” it by adding new members, monitoring posts, and responding frequently in order to maintain a robust conversation.
Conduit to your Group
Your Conduit community toolbar can be a great resource for growing your group. Add a link to your “group,” “forum,” or “community” on your Conduit toolbar. You’ve just made it simple for your existing clients to join your group and become part of the conversation. Keep that conversation fresh, relevant and engaging, and you’ve given them yet another reason to share their Conduit toolbar with their friends and contacts. (As if the gadgets, radio player, and link to all the cool parts of your site weren’t enough.)
Conversation – it is a fundamental part of how we do business. It’s not enough to say, “Hey, I sell a really awesome product!” or “Do business with me – I provide a terrific service!” In the fast-moving modern market, you can’t sit back and hope your innate intelligence and charm (which are undeniably there), combined with your power product, will attract customers.
It’s a start, but you have to get out “there” – where the conversation is happening. Join a group, start a group, offer your feedback and opinions, be the guru people want to talk to. By establishing yourself in an authentic and meaningful way, you will attract customers, and keep them, the old-fashioned way – through trust.