Use The Social Network And Crush It For Your Dream

Last updated on April 2nd, 2012 at 12:50 pm

The entrepreneurial roller coaster continues this week on the road to figuring out which social networking pool to jump in with both feet.

Gary Vaynerchuk puts it simple and easy — social networking is “word of mouth on steroids”. Letting your potential prospects find you through these outlets is just the tip of iceberg. Sometimes you have to get out and talk about what you’re after.

Here’s a tip: Networking in person helps make you a better social networker.

Really, this has precedence. But it has to be good networking. I know you have been in a situation where you’ve been accosted by the bad networking attack. Someone approaches in a business networking event and within 30 seconds you know who they are and what they sell and have a business card you didn’t ask for.

Now imagine the online version. I can make this up pretty well since I help my clients avoid doing this daily with their social network interaction. Remember, this is what NOT to do:

• Hi! You don’t know me yet, but have you heard of this great new product? It totally rocks! Check it out here (insert annoying link here)

• 20 minutes later…
  This product is amazing? You gotta check this out (one more annoying link) since it totally rocks

• 1 hour later…
  Have you heard? This product can really change your world. You gotta see this (and yet another annoying link)

You’ve got the picture. If you wouldn’t say it in person, at a networking event, to someone you just met, don’t do it while you are networking online.

So what should you do instead?

Engage.

You know the best way to get an audience? Say something useful. Make the information you are providing interesting and ideally fun and easy. Gary does this best with his wine reviews. He gets your attention!

Be authentic.

Being yourself is vital and speaking to YOUR audience is an important part of that. Listen to feedback, or lack of it, and you’ll know if you are there.

Focus on the important stuff.

This is different for every business venture, but if the important stuff on your list if “stuff” you may be off base. Are you focused on your message, or what technology is being used to deliver it? I love Gary’s comment that “One of the silliest questions I get is, ‘What kind of mic do you use?’ .”

Hustle.

Catherine really knows the meaning of what this means. Over the last several months, her work to write, produce and officially launch her eBook “Find Your Dream” took lost weekends, evenings, down time and god forbid, relaxation to make it real. Of course if it didn’t require hustle, if it was easy, everyone would do it!

I’ve talked about a couple new (to me) social networking opportunities in the past few weeks, and I’m still learning about all they can do for my products and services.

So what do you hope the social network will do for you? Create a community or provide and additional stream of income? I’m shooting for both, so let me know what yours looks like.

Comment and put it out here for all to see… it’s a great start!

~ Heather

Heather’s dream is to have multiple streams of income, starting with launching an e-commerce website that showcases her one-of-a-kind designer jewelry, which are crafted by her. Her newly launched sites are couture jewelry available through For Your Adornment, For Your Adornment on Etsy.com, and Twitter background designs on Twitter And Beyond Dot Com. She also teaches Social Media tactics for business, besides being CEO of her own web design company. Heather’s post day is Thursday.