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Posts Tagged ‘business networks’

45% of Employers Now Screen Social Media Profiles But Are You Doing Business Network Screening?

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

If social media is a good way to evaluate a potential employee (or a good way to not get hired) then why shouldn’t small business owners apply the same practice when seeking new referral partners (or declining them).

“According to the study, “thirty-five percent of employers reported they have found content on social networking sites that caused them not to hire the candidate.”

- Jennifer Van Grove, Mashable

Selective networking is a big part of quality control on sites like Referral Key and to a lesser extent, LinkedIn. The social media world is in its infancy and while social networking and business networking are often clumped together, THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING!

Hiring employees polarizes the need for quality control in business networking.

It’s a very good idea to consider separating your online social networking from your online business networking.

If other professionals are evaluating you before they start networking with, why wouldn’t you do the same?

There’s No Business Like Referral Business

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

For small businesses, it’s vital to band together and actively exchange referrals. Creating an environment exchange referrals will improve your business and increase revenue. This is why business networks are so important. For many networkers the easy part may be agreeing to send each other referrals, but the hardest part is ensuring a steady flow of referral business.

This leaves small business owners asking the question, “How can I ensure this important source of revenue is consistent?”

A promotional campaign is a powerful strategy that allows you to secure a consistent flow of qualified referrals. With a promotional campaign, you offer an incentive to your contacts for sending you new business. i.e. Mary is offering an iTunes Gift Card to any of her contacts who can secure her a new graphic design  job.

If you want to add a little grease to the gears of your referral system, try a promotional campaign to motivate your contacts to send you more referrals. A promotional campaign lets you reward trusted associates who send you referrals that end in a sale. The gift is usually proportional to the amount of revenue you make on a sale.

Promotional campaigns are proven to work when your participant knows they’ll be rewarded. Through our research we’ve found that the difference between an extremely profitable promotional campaign and a flop, is how confident the participants are that they’ll be rewarded. At Referral Key, we’ve put together a tool to circumvent this challenge. There is no need for your participant to doubt whether they’ll be rewarded for sending you new business because the campaign is tracked and managed through the Referral Key system.

Referral Key is the most cost effective ways to conduct a promotional campaign. Be wary, there are a handful of services that offer costly snail-mail or stationary solutions. The success rate of direct mailings is extremely low and blowing your budget on cards that are going to end up lining someone’s garbage bin is foolish.

Ideally you are looking for a promotional campaign that fits your budget but is strong enough to drive some real revenue!