Social Networking Skills Covering The Social Networking World

Once you have worked out who your ideal client is, then you can work out either where to find them, or where to find others that serve them, in large numbers. There are many places you can network and many different types:-

• Speed networking – Do you remember the speed dating craze a few years ago? Speed networking is the same concept, you half of you stay at your table and the other half move around. You each have around 30 seconds to tell the other person what you do, and then the bell goes and you move onto the next. Even if you choose not to make these events part of your networking strategy, it is worth going along to one for the experience as it really gets you to focus on exactly what your message is. As you will be repeating yourself several times, it is an easy way to hardwire it into your conscious too.
• Regular Breakfast Network Clubs – These usually meet at around 7am once a week and require you to join as a member, though you can usually go along as a guest 2 or 3 times before joining. These are excellent for building true working relationships where everybody looks out for opportunities for others in their network. Examples are BNI, BOB clubs, BRX. If you don’t like the idea of getting up so early, there are new clubs springing up now that meet for lunch.
• Chamber of Commerce - Again these require you to join but offer more than just networking. There are usually special promotions and training events for members and gives you a chance to meet bigger businesses in your local area.
• Associations - A great place to find your ideal client in droves, find out what associations they may be members of and become a member and attend their events.
• Online networking - You have your social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, twitter and then there are others specifically for business such as Linked in and Ecademy. Again you need to think about who your ideal client is before you decide which sites fit in best with your marketing strategy.

There are many other ad-hoc events held everyday. It’s really not hard to find where to network. Your aim is to get yourself known and be perceived as the expert, the go to person in your field. To do this you need to really raise your profile, so get out there and start networking!

Yvonne Bleakley is the client attraction coach for the self employed who provide a professional service, and founder of The Mastering the Marketing System, providing step by step information on exactly how to get more clients, in less time, with less effort.

Visit http://www.masteringthemarketing.com now to download your FREE copy of “How to get clients through networking” and receive access to FREE teleseminars on how to attract clients.