Whether you attend a formal meet up group or you have developed a referral network on your own terms, you have probably thought about how your network would compare to others.
If you ask anyone who’s been in multiple business networking organizations, they’ll likely tell you that not all business networks are equally effective at creating business opportunities for their members.
The dynamics of a networking group are as unique as the members they are composed of.
What type of professions make up your referral network? While there are no definitive rules, professionals tend to come across certain referrals more than others. An extreme example would be an electrician, carpenter, plumber, and a venture capitalist. The tradesmen may not be as likely to refer clients to the venture capitalist as they do each other. You can imagine that this system can become quite complex with a group of 50+ professionals.
Personality
How invested in the referral network are the members? Are all of the members highly motivated and serious about each others success? Or, do the members view the referral network as just one more way to try and promote their services?
No two networks are the same. Sometimes the best way to ensure top quality members is to create your own referral system. Get out there and spend some time networking. Let the cream rise to the top, hand-pick your referral partners, and invite them to join your own private referral network.
We found inspiration for today’s blog in the OED (Oxford English Dictionary). After listening to NPR’s interview with Ammon Shea, who spent the last year reading 22,000 pages of the OED in a Manhattan basement, we realized that referral networking had its own unique lexicon. Because the OED contains words and not phrases, we thought it would be interesting to fuse definitions to create a more standard interpretation of today’s heavily used networking vocabulary.
Referral Business
The referring of an individual to an expert or specialist for advice whom one is united in enterprise with.
Reciprocal Relationship
A state or relationship in which there is mutual action, influence, giving and taking, correspondence, etc., between two parties.
Promotion Campaign
The action of helping forward; the fact or state of being helped forward; furtherance, advancement, encouragement. The publicizing of a product, organization, or venture so as to increase sales or public awareness.
Qualified Sales Lead
A guiding indication which possesses a certain quality; a clue to exchange a commodity for money or other valuable consideration.
Relationship Building
To construct by a process, a condition or character based upon this; kinship.
Trusted Colleague
Confidence in or reliance on some quality or attribute of one, two or more leagued together; a confederate, an ally.
Drive Revenue
To put, bring, cause the return, yield, or profit of any important source of income.
Loyal Clients
Those who are bound by allegiance to and who employs the services of a professional or business man or woman in any branch of business, or for whom the latter acts in a professional capacity.
We proudly present Fable Fridays. This weekly installment will draw parallels between referral networking and some of society’s most cherished moral tales: Aesop’s Fables.
You could go to expensive seminars and buy up every book on referral marketing, but it doesn’t take a marketing genius to realize that Aesop got it right nearly 3,000 years ago.
A Man had lost his way in a wood one bitter winter’s night. As he was roaming about, a Satyr came up to him, and finding that he had lost his way, promised to give him lodging for the night.
As he went along to the Satyr’s cell, the Man raised both his hands to his mouth and kept on blowing at them.
“What do you do that for?” said the Satyr.
“My hands are numb with the cold,” said the Man, “and my breath warms them.”
After this they arrived at the Satyr’s home, and soon the Satyr put a smoking dish of porridge before him. But when the Man raised his spoon to his mouth, he began blowing upon it.
“And what do you do that for?” said the Satyr.
“The porridge is too hot, and my breath will cool it.”
“Out you go,” said the Satyr. “I will have nought to do with a man who can blow hot and cold with the same breath.”
Moral-
A man who talks for both sides is not to be trusted by either
The Insurance Agent and Facebook as a Sales Leads Software
An insurance agent was surfing the web one day at work. He clicked a blog which touted Facebook as the greatest referral system. The insurance agent signed into his Facebook account and kept adding strangers to his network.
The insurance agent’s colleague who happened to be sitting in the room, asked, “Why do you keep adding these contacts to network with you if you don’t know them? This is what you call referral software?”
“I could always use more referral partners,” said the insurance agent, “and this is very easy.”
Later that afternoon the insurance agent and his colleague planned to grab a drink after-work. The colleague called-out, “What are you doing still at your computer, let’s go.”
The insurance agent replied, “I’ve got way too much clutter on my Facebook profile so I’m blocking some connections, deleting spam messages, and clearing my wall posts.”
The colleague: “Why are you doing that?”
The insurance agent: “I could always use less Facebook friends.”
Networking with quality professionals is always important. In this unprecedented housing market the quality of a mortgage broker lead has never been more crucial. Whether you’re looking for a mortgage broker or referring one to a client, trust is incredibly important. Many would say that the recent activities of some lenders would bring into question the trust of many clients and associates alike.
“For the last couple of years, low interest rates, aggressive marketing tactics, scant industry oversight and investors who want to put their money into real estate instead of the stock market have contributed to the ideal operating environment for predatory lenders.”
-Jay MacDonald, MSN Money
Choosing a mortgage broker based on a classified ad or a recommendation from someone you don’t know is foolish. At the very least, find a mortgage broker in a qualified business directory and prepare a list of questions you’d like ask.
Optimally, you want to get referred to a mortgage broker by someone who you know and trust. This could be friends, family or another professional, perhaps a real estate agent. It is important to maintain accountability so that you, the mortgage broker, and the person who referred you are all fully vested in the quality of the service and the referral. This is a “satisfaction guaranteed” referral system.
In many cases, it’s all too easy for a trusting homeowner anxious to leverage a home’s value or lock up a low rate to fall prey to less-than-upfront lenders. Whether you’re a first-time buyer or looking to refinance your home, you need to find the right person.
You can find hundreds of blogs citing examples of good networking practices, but at the risk of sounding negative, most avoid the topic of bad networkers. We thought a “G” rated movie would be the perfect vehicle to sneek past the status quo and engage a topic we all deal with now and then; bad networkers.
Below are some bad networkers you already know.
Bashful
Yeah, we all thought bashful was cute in the movie but in this article he’s a real drain on your referral marketing strategy. Bashful is not an active networker. Sure he’s a nice enough guy, if you get him alone for lunch, but the last time he sent you a referral Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was in theaters. Bashful might make a better friend than a referral partner. Even if they are nice, there’s no room for freeloaders in your referral network.
Doc
Doc’s smart. He knows all the buzz words, he’s bought all the e-books, he has a Facebook friend list that rivals the population of China and every referral author on speed dial. He’s already Tweeted about this blog and we haven’t even finished it. Yeah, he sent you a referral just yesterday… unfortunately 50,000 of his Twitter followers got the same referral too. You don’t get points for being intoreferral marketing, you get points for doingreferral marketing. Tell Doc to go write a referral marketing book and find someone else who’s ready to play ball.
Dopey
Dopey is the opposite of Doc, he just doesn’t get it. You’ve tried to explain it 600 ways but he just doesn’t get how referral networking works. He blew $5000 last month trying to generate sales leads through a pyramid scheme. He doesn’t accept your invitations to exchange referrals, hasn’t followed up with any of the leads you’ve sent him, and probably wouldn’t think to mention you if there was a prospect standing in front of him with a megaphone, begging for the services you provide. While this guy is still looking for the “on switch” to his referral system; ditch him!
Grumpy
Grumpy claims to have a boat-load of referrals but he’s just not going to send any until he gets one from you. He’s still playing a chess game from 1983; he refuses to go first. Referral marketing isn’t poker and you don’t need to call his bluff; it’s time to call someone else.
Happy
Happy couldn’t be more different than grumpy. He views referral marketing as a holy path to nirvana. He gives self-help seminars on “referral marketing and your inner child”. He thinks that tracking referrals is wrong because he teaches that anyone who expects their professional relationships to be balanced must be evil. You’re not making sandwiches, so lose the fluff. There are more worthy charitable causes than deadbeat referral partners. It’s time to let the rubber meet the road. Let this guy “conceptualize” revenue as he gets smaller in your rear view mirror.
Sleepy
Sleepy’s referral was timely… last month. You once sent him a client in need of pediatrics but unfortunately by the time Sleepy followed up, the client needed geriatrics. Besides, Sleepy gets Grumpy if you interrupt his siesta. It’s time to kick Sleepy off the couch and tell him to go home.
Sneezy
Sneezy is a good sport but his reputation is a little under the weather. He can put his business card in your pocket from forty feet away but what you’ll really need is a tissue to soak up your client’s tears after they experience the quality of his work. Don’t worry about Sneezy, he just doesn’t see the value in repeat business. It’s time to quarantine this referral relationship.
Do you think Walt could have foreseen the terrible networkers he had created?
Mirror mirror on the wall. Who’s the most referrable of them all?
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!
At a recent networking event I found myself engaged in an exciting conversation about best networking practices. I had briefly touched upon Referral Key’s ability to allow professionals to track their referral relationships for reciprocity. There were several accountants, realtors, amongst others who were intrigued by the idea; they seemed eager to learn about referral tracking.
Shortly after finishing my sentence, a man, who I believe may have been a small business coach, said “We don’t do that here!” Puzzled, I replied, “What is it that you don’t do?” The man seemed a bit unnerved when he followed up, “We don’t keep score, good business networking is about helping others out because you want to, not because you’ll get something in return.”
As seemingly innocent as his interjection was, it didn’t sit right with me. As a whole his philosophy seemed very detrimental to a small business’s growth, as it overlooked the most important premise of referral marketing. Charity is not a substitute for mutually beneficial business practices. In fact, a “don’t expect anything in return” goes against the fundamental rules of good economics. This is why I decided to come up with a short list of important reasons why small business professionals should keep score of every referral they send and receive.
1. Identify your strengths
Who have you been sending new business to? Has all of your new business leads been going to one industry within your network (i.e. graphic designers)? If so, is there a way you can leverage your “design” leads to help out other professionals in your network? Perhaps ask the recipients of your “design” leads to send you customers looking for photography work. You can then pass those leads on to a photographer in your network and further develop trust.
2. Identify your weaknesses
Your colleague with the loudest pitch or the heaviest handshake may not necessarily be your best source of new business. For instance, having two accountants in your network, one of which is your good friend but never sends you business, the other is a bit distant but is always sending you new leads, it would be foolish to constantly send your friend new business and ignore your colleague who always looks out for you.
3. Are you better off than you were last quarter?
The mind is a funny thing. We often think of our own success in a compartmentalized immediacy. When you ask yourself the question, “Professionally, am I better off than I was last year?” don’t let this morning’s coffee spill or successful sales call influence your assessment. Use quantitative data to really get an idea of where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re going.
Not keeping score for the sake of altruism is ultimately a copout… bad business for you and your network.
Seasoned small business blogger and author of “Good Plum” Eliott Kosmicki, says it best in his recent post The Secret to Winning Online, or Anywhere, “It’s not always fair to get down on yourself if you miss a writing appointment or don’t get through as many sales calls as you planned. However, if you have your game plan set - you’ll be able to keep score easier, knowing if you lost a day or won a day.
At the end of a week or month, you’ll have a clear idea of where your weak spots are and can adjust to get better.”
Unfortunately, Webster’s Dictionary hasn’t caught up to the small business world quite yet, but it sure would be nice to have a working definition of a ‘qualified prospect’. In a world saturated with Craigslist postings, friend requests, and e-mail lists: it is important to be able to distinguish between a qualified sales lead and an unqualified sales lead.
One of the easiest ways to differentiate from the two is to pose this simple question: Do I have a clear advantage over any other professional who may be trying to court a particular prospect? You can apply this formula in nearly every referral marketing situation. For example, Tracey, a web designer who is looking for new business pays to post dozens of ads on Craigslist. Jim, a restaurant owner is browsing Craigslist and is possibly interested in creating a relationship with a web designer to help create and maintain his restaurant’s website. Now let’s pose the question: Does Tracey have a distinct advantage over any of her competitors when it comes to Jim’s decision? …The answer is absolutely not!
Tracey’s firm is competing with thousands of other firms, both locally and nationally, who can just as easily post a picture on Craigslist. Jim may do a bit of browsing, but he is likely to become overwhelmed with the hundreds of seemingly identical options. Pursuing unqualified sales prospects forces you to cast your net extremely wide and expend a tremendous amount of effort in the hopes that you’ll entice a stranger to give you a call. To be blunt, when was the last time you hired a service professional based on a Craigslist ad, cold call, or a classified?
Suppose Tracey has a good relationship with her accountant named David. She knows that David works with quite a number of local businesses including restaurants. Tracey calls to touch base with David and also takes the opportunity to remind David that he may have a few clients that could use her design services. Later that afternoon, David is on the phone with one of his clients, Jim who happens to be opening a new restaurant. Through some tactful networking, David discovers that Jim will need to establish a website in the near future. Of course, David will want to send Jim’s contact information to Tracey immediately using Referral Key.
Does Tracey have a distinct advantage over her competitors? …The answer is absolutely yes! There’s accountability all around. Jim trusts David’s advice and David is familiar with the quality of Tracey’s work. Jim is focused on running a successful restaurant. He doesn’t have the time to follow up with dozens of Craigslist responses and he certainly doesn’t have time to play phone-tag with an unqualified web designer. Or worse a web designer based out of his basement in Aruba who hasn’t returned his phone calls in a month since Jim’s last payment.
The bottom line is if Tracey immediately follows up with Jim, she is almost guaranteed to close the sale. Jim is an example of an extremely qualified prospect. This polarizes the clear difference between the effectiveness of a strong business referral network and blanketing Craigslist with your pitch.
The internet is awash with hundreds of articles written by amateur bloggers which promote an ever growing list of social applications as the saving grace of the real estate world. The reason for these blogs? The blogger probably just started becoming familiar with that particular site and wanted to share their enthusiasm. There’s nothing wrong with that however, just because you are a social networker and a real estate blogger, does not mean you should promote your weekend social networking exploits as the winning strategy for every struggling office out there.
Blogs like Newsweek’s, “Can Facebook revive the real-estate market?” really do a disservice to professionals who are unfamiliar with social applications. Social applications are great but what these articles forget to mention is that you’ll probably spend hours, days or even weeks sharing photos, jokes, and links with acquaintances but no studies, professional reviews, or peers would tell you that sharing YouTube Videos, even with other professionals, on Facebook is a great use of your work day.
Let’s face it, real estate professionals are hungry for new business right now. Many markets have dried up, forcing professionals to consider drastic options like getting a second job or relocating. You need actual ROI to buck this economic trend and referral marketing is the way to go. Referral marketing is where the rubber meets the road and while many bloggers may use an off-handed story about how they reconnected with an old buddy on Facebook and generated a new lead, friend requests don’t usually put money in the bank; qualified referrals do. Get your listings in front of potential clients seeking the service you provide by posting in logical places like an online small business directory. When you’re looking to for a qualified professional, like a seasoned real estate agent to sell your home, do you go to MySpace? No, so why would anyone else! Instead of sharing dismal stories of the market with other agents on their profile page, get your head in the game and generate some referrals first.
Tax season is upon us and most Americans are trying to avoid procrastinating this year. At this moment, there are thousands of potential clients seeking qualified accountants for this year’s tax season. Where do these potential clients find their accountants? How do you get in front of them?
How about print ads?
Traditional forms of advertising may occasionally be an option but remember, the results are unpredictable. This economy doesn’t lend itself to costly advertising campaigns; besides, most of your clients are online anyways.
What about search engines?
Gone are the days of “build a website and they will come”. Even a larger firm is likely to be competing with every other entity that uses “accounting” in their name or description, this will likely place your firm hundreds, if not thousands of places down in the Google search results. Considering most people never even see page two of the results, small to medium sized firms aren’t likely to generate much, if any of their new business directly from a search engine placement.
The Solution:
A directory of qualified professionals is exactly where many people will begin their search. This is great news for your firm because unlike search engine results or paid advertising, a small business directory is unbiased to the size of your wallet or even the size of your firm. The key to attracting clients in a directory lies in describing your business in a way that fits the needs of the clients who are browsing the directory.
Remember, not all directories are created equal. If the directory you are considering posting to is full of advertisements and doesn’t look very organized, it’s likely that potential clients will be thinking the same thing. Some directories ask you to pay in order to list your business. You may want to be skeptical of this transaction, as anyone can create a website and charge a fee to be listed on that site. The directory should look professional and have traffic. Of course, we’d suggest the Referral Key directory. Not only is it free but there are plenty of ways you can differentiate yourself from your competition right in your listing; your old referral software can’t say the same.
Watch this tutorial to learn how to fully take advantage of the Referral Key Business Directory:
Successful Realtors are always hungry for new qualified sales leads. Ask any Realtor and they will tell you that securing a few key closings can have a massive impact on their revenue stream. As we had mentioned in a previous blog posting, CPA referrals are special because of the trust clients place in their CPA’s. Realtor referrals are equally as important because of the critical value of each and every sale that’s made. The referrer, buyer, seller and Realtor are all vested in the process.
If you are a Realtor the objective is clear; send plenty of business referralst to your associates if you want to make this quarter a profitable one. If you aren’t a Realtor, you should definitely have at least one in your referral network. Realtors are some of the most social and gracious networkers out there. So, keep your ears perked and your referrals qualified because Realtors will advocate for you if you do right by them. Given the tumultuous economy, right now is the best time to begin building strong referral relationships with choice Realtors. The business directory is an ideal place to begin your search.
Taking out a quarter page ad in your local newspaper is probably not the most cost effective way to promote your small business. This is especially true during tough economic times.
We all have the urge to supplement our business referrals with additional advertising efforts. Too often, small business owners mull over whether to conduct a costly ad campaign or not, but forget to leverage many free opportunities right at their fingertips.
Describing your services in a online business directory is fast, free and very effective. Consumers often search quality B2B directories when seeking a service provider. Why not leverage this traffic?
Simply find a business directory that is up-to-date and organized. Be sure to tag your business appropriately so that the right clients can find you. Potential clients are much more likely to contact you if you’re specific. For example, a personal injury attorney would be better off putting the tags; “personal injury, malpractice, compensation, legal advice” rather than trying to cover all bases with broad tags like this; “lawyer, attorney, legal”.
In our connected society, it’s possible to generate greater visibility through a free business listing than paying for advertising. With a little effort and a little time, today you can list your company on a B2B Directory and promote your firm to thousands of potential clients seeking the services you provide. What do you have to lose?
We all know the sayings; “Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” “To have a good neighbor, be a good neighbor.” “Treat others as you would like to be treated.” While these are nice suggestions, we’re often so busy trying to keep up with our current clients (or actively seeking new ones), that we don’t feel we have the time to search for sales leads for our colleagues.
However, we all know that sending a qualified referral to an associate is an extremely effective way to obtain qualified sales leads for yourself. Your associate is likely to be extremely appreciative of your effort, especially in the current economic situation, and should reciprocate fairly soon with an equally qualified sales lead for you. But what if he or she doesn’t reciprocate? You may be so busy that you never even realize that your sales lead was unrequited. Or perhaps you become bitter towards your colleague after having wasted precious time to find him or her a qualified sales lead. In either case, your efforts were for naught. And as a service professional or small business owner, you simply don’t have time to waste on un-reciprocated referrals.
Time is money, and in these difficult times, neither can be spared. That’s why it is imperative to use a referral system to help you keep track of your professional relationships. Not only is it critical for remembering who you’ve sent referrals to, but also who you’ve received referrals from. Maintaining good relationships with your colleagues is of utmost importance, and if an associate takes time out of their busy day to find a qualified referral for you, it is important that you reciprocate as soon as possible. Set off a year of successful lead generation and lead sharing by using an organized method of keeping track of your referral relationships. Then you’ll be ready to go out and obtain qualified sales leads (for both yourself and your colleagues) without wasting any of your valuable time.
Alex Liviertos, known as “the coach” by his clients, has been helping small business professionals in the Chicago area achieve greater income for nearly 22 years. A Referral Key Gold Key member and business networking guru, Alex understands the importance of developing and managing a strong referral network. To contact Alex you can visit his Referral Key profile or visit his website.
Whoever said, “Build it and they will come” obviously wasn’t a small business owner. One of the biggest barriers to growing your business is taking a passive attitude toward developing referral partnerships with people you trust. You can buy many business networking books and go to many pricey networking seminars and still have nothing to show for it.
Consider taking a few minutes to follow these 4 simple steps and you will have something to show for it.
1. Break the ambiguity of your professional relationships and formally invite colleagues you know and trust to exchange referrals with you. Your colleagues will likely be honored you’ve chosen them as a referral partner.
2. Make the first move. Actively seek opportunities to send your referral partners qualified leads. Think with your referral partner’s best interest in mind and you’ll be amazed at how quickly your partners will return the favor. It’s the old “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”.
3. Track your relationships to ensure your referrals are balanced and mutually beneficial. If you’re sending lots of leads but not getting your fair share, it may be a good idea to reach out to your partners to find ways of ensuring a more reciprocal arrangement.
4. Establish referral promotion campaigns to reward your customers and colleagues for sending you qualified leads. Nothing says thank you like a nice dinner or couple tickets to a ball game.
Guarantee YOUR business a referral tomorrow by sending one today. Visit Referral Key, and the customers will start knocking on your door!
Corporations understand that consumers are more likely to purchase their products when presented with fewer choices. Social psychologists Sheena Iyengar, PhD, and Mark Lepper, PhD, were the first to empirically demonstrate the downside of excessive choice. In a 2000 paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , they showed that when shoppers are given the option of choosing among smaller and larger assortments of jam, they show more interest in the larger assortment. But when it comes time to pick just one, they’re 10 times more likely to make a purchase if they choose among six rather than among 24 flavors of jam.
If fewer choices consistently results in more sales, then why do so many small business professionals insist on offering far too many services in their company’s description? The answer is two fold. First, because we invest so much time and energy into our practices, we’d like to believe that we’re capable of providing the absolute best service, even if the client’s needs are slightly out of our scope of expertise. Secondly, we inherently believe that if we offer more services, more clients will seek us out.
Every industry has its self proclaimed “renaissance person” however, and we are not trying to pick on them, computer professionals tend to have the “I do it all” bug the worst. This approach may work if you are looking to do odd jobs for friends and family but it presents a barrier for customers trying to find a specific solution. For example, if you are browsing the Referral Key Business Directory looking for an experienced web programmer, which profile are you more likely to follow up with?
Kevin Smith: Web Programming - 12 years
Richard Wilson: Computer Networking, Computer System Designs, Computer Repair, Computer Consulting, Graphic Designer, Web Programming, Search Engine Optimization - 12 years
The first professional is much more appealing because if anything, he appears to be dedicated to his craft. It’s the same reasoning that dictates why we probably wouldn’t want to purchase life insurance at a Walmart. Because of our own experiences and limitations, we have developed an unspoken dialog in our mind. We believe that specialization equals quality.
It’s common sense that the more people you’re connected with, the more opportunities they’ll be to exchange business referrals. But because you’re connected to 600 people on Facebook, doesn’t mean that those connections are going to be beneficial to the growth of your small business. When it comes to business networking, it’s imperative to build a trusted network in order to get the most out of your relationships.
Teresa Morrow, Board of Advisors with The WECAI Network agrees that, “Networking is not about how many people you can get on your list (by receiving business cards in record speed) or how many followers you can get on twitter or friends on Facebook. It takes time to build a solid connection and meaningful relationship with another person.”
These meaningful relationships that you develop will quickly turn into a trusted network. Of course numbers can matter while networking, but the point is that you want a large effective network. If you can manage your network and trust that each referral you receive will generate a positive outcome, then your business will prosper.
Don’t call Len Rosen a businessman, blogger, networker, or humanitarian… because he is all of the above. Len’s approach to small business networking encompasses everything from furthering biomedical research technology to capitalizing on new social media tools like Referral Key. Occasionally, it is important to take a step back to understand the full potential of relationship building and the true power of developing your trusted circle of professional relationships. A strong network can be utilized to enact positive results in a variety of endeavors, wherever your career may take you.
We often receive referrals with varying degrees of confidence. A referral is not necessarily a sale but it can be if handled properly. The reality may be that your prospect only has a slight interest in your services or perhaps they may be doing some planning for a service they’ll need in the near future. Therefore, it might be beneficial to contact your trusted associate in your business network who sent you the lead before you contact your prospect to get a better understanding of their needs and concerns.
It’s a good idea to find out as much about your prospect as possible. What stage are they at in the decision making process? Have they used similar services in the past? If they were unsatisfied with previous services, what were the reasons why? Knowing how to approach your prospect and being able to address their concerns before they volunteer them; is a priceless advantage that will make you appear receptive, knowledgeable, and trustworthy. A little insight can go a long way in helping you close the sale.
SummerMash is an event hosted by the networking blog Mashable. Innovative web-based companies go to SummerMash to network, stay informed, and to ensure their customers are receiving the best in new technology.
You may recognize some of this year’s roster but many of the names will be new to you. Not all attendees are small business oriented however; we think there were a few companies you should know about.
Take Stickam for instance. Stickam connects users via streaming video. While YouTube may be dominating the video space, Stickam has taken video one step further by allowing its 2 million users to stay connected via personal streaming video channels. With a little bit of patience and a webcam, you can forgo those costly video-conference fees and keep your organization on the same page. You can watch Stickam in action as they interview Referral Key founder and C.E.O., Lewis Weinstein.
Budding entrepreneurs may want to consider EFactor for help with financing, health insurance or even exchanging advice with seasoned entrepreneurs. The site takes an unorthodox approach to “business as usual” and aims at providing entrepreneurs with some important tools.
Yoono, a messaging/aggregator service allows its users to stay connected to several tools at once. A Firefox browser add-on, Yoono will integrate with your instant messenger, keep an eye on your Facebbook account for you, and even stay up to date with Referral Key on all of your business social networking news; all from a window adjacent to your browser.
The attendees comprised of a diverse group of organizations, all at the top of their industries. However, the common consensus was that professionals who take advantage of these user-focused technologies are experiencing better results than those who insist on “doing it the old way.”
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Many professionals are vested in traditional methods of networking such as meet up groups and business card exchanges. As a small business owner myself, I understand that some professionals may find it intimidating to completely take advantage of emerging technologies. Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with networking with associates you know and trust regardless of the venue, so long as your referral relationships remain reciprocal and fruitful. But for those who are constantly looking for ways to generate new leads and strengthen their existing business network, but who are most comfortable meeting associates over breakfast, utilizing online referral tools in conjunction with your meet up group can be a very rewarding strategy.
It is very easy to begin reinforcing and generating new referral relationships online by leveraging your existing meet up group. You can confidentially invite associates you know and trust from the group to exchange referrals with you. Because it is unlikely that all members in your group will be equal contributors, you should invite only those associates who are willing and able to reciprocate. This strategy will also allow you to effectively exchange referrals anytime the opportunity arises and will keep you fresh in your associates mind regardless of the groups scheduled meetings. Seasoned networkers are probably going to find that they have quite a few relationships which exist outside the group. By managing a strong network of select associates, which exists both within and outside the group, it is also likely that you will become an even more valuable referral partner to your meet up group. As your network grows, so will your revenue. Furthermore, online tracking reports will help analyze your relationships and strategically allocate new leads where they are needed.
When considering digital referral campaigns among other strategies, we realize that this is certainly just the tip of the iceberg. Online tools such as Referral Key provide members with an undeniable advantage. Even power networker and BNI founder Ivan Misner acknowledges this unique advantage, “Over the past few months, I’ve been doing quite a bit of research about online networking. And the more I read (and work on the net), the more I realize that if you’re in business today, you definitely need to be on the net”. Online referral management and meet up groups are analogous to snail mail and email. To unlock their full potential, small business professionals will at least need to become comfortable with utilizing both.
Referral promotion campaigns are about thanking people and reinforcing reciprocal behavior within your business community. Choosing the right premium can make all the difference. While cash incentives are universally appealing, you may want to reward your referrers with a special gift. Gift cards, tickets to events, or even gas cards are just some of the few ways you can say “thank you” while removing the impersonal nature of a monetary reward. Think about choosing gifts that have a high perceived value within your community. Ten dollars is ten dollars, but a ten dollar gift certificate to Starbucks may be a tasty part of your referrers morning commute for a whole week; presenting them more opportunities to reflect on the positive nature of your business relationship.
Tickets to events can generate positive word of mouth dialogue between clients and potential clients too. Let’s say you reward your referrer with a couple tickets to a ball game and he takes a friend. It’s likely your name and services will be mentioned. This increases the chance you’ll be thought of if the friend needs services like you offer. In a nutshell, there are many promotional premiums that work. Consider what your client base will appreciate and plan accordingly. Create a referral promotion campaign today and see positive results tomorrow.
1. Am I confident in my potential partner’s ability to deliver quality services?
2. Will I send this potential partner qualified leads?
3. Will this partner send me leads?
If you answered “yes” to all three questions it would be counter-productive to not solidify a relationship.
To their determent, many shy small business owners can be apprehensive about solidifying potential referral relationships.
Because both you and your potential referral partner do not live in a vacuum the best time to invite a new partner is “now”. Many of the most successful networkers may have several similar professionals within their circle but you want to be the “go to guy”. By making the first move you are saying “My business is healthy”, “I can keep pace with your growing business” and “I am confident in you”.
Naturally, there is an equal and opposite consequence to procrastinating. If you are confident in you and your partner’s ability to be mutually beneficial then invite them today. Track your relationships and you will become very skilled at gauging the early stages of your partnerships.
Like a picture, a referral invitation is worth a thousand words. It is the proverbial hand shake with a limited window of time to be acted upon.
When you post content to the internet in the comfort of your office you may feel as though you are miles away from the delicate “egg toss” that is small business networking. Many of us associate critical business moves with activities such as addressing the concerns of a long-time client or solidifying a strategic alliance with a new business associates. We often go to considerable lengths to maintain tact and decorum when communicating with our referral partners because small pieces of information can say a lot about who we are and the quality of our business. In an age of overwhelming information opinions are formed and reputations are created based on the most minute information.
Amongst many factors reputation often emerges as the most important when developing alliances between small businesses. It is becoming increasingly important to recognize the link between the reputation of your small business and the content you post online. As “googling” prospective partners, clients and businesses becomes second nature to us, we may want to consider our audience even when we post personal content. Many social and business networking sites make it all too easy for potential clients and associates to link those “pictures at your brothers wedding” or “that funny story from the boat” with your business. As wholesome as we may perceive our personal lifestyle to be it is unlikely others will agree with every joke and story on our homepage. Unless you’re a photographer or a fiction writer, keep your online profiles clean, concise, and up to par with your business values. As any great catcher, football coach or poker player will tell you, what you don’t show is just as valuable as what you do.
It’s safe to say that timing is a big part of the networking equation. Like an exciting volley at Wimbledon, knowing when to return the favor is crucial. Yet,you are not going to ace every relationship.
We’ve all made errors before. For instance, an estranged associate sends you a qualified lead during the holiday season. You mean to return the favor however, time slips by and before you know it, it’s mid-January. At this point you are on the fence, wondering if you should reciprocate the favor, given your untimely response. Confront this discomfort head on.
When you neglect a professional relationships you not only lose an associate but you forfeit credibility within their entire circle, so the stakes are higher than they may appear on the surface. The saying “better late than never” holds true in small business networking. While unbalanced networking certainly is undesirable there is undeniable consolation in attempting to rekindle a dormant relationship. It shows initiative, humility and a willingness open up a dialogue; which is the most important step in revitalizing weak connections within your referral network.
The best practice is to avoid these situations all together. Through diligence and awareness you can keep a nice volley going. If you are busy you may want to try using tools that will help you effectively manage a number of relationships. Unlike sports, referral marketing is the only endeavor in which merely participating means winning….for all parties.
A good follow-through is just as important in networking as it is in baseball, tennis, or golf. Follow-through is the bridge between good planning and good results. So bite the bullet and nurture those professional relationships that need attention now.
Many of us are quick to stick within our flock. Looking to exchange referrals with fellow associates within a single industry may be easy but it’s a big mistake many professionals make. It may seem like an attractive strategy but remaining “industry-centric” will ultimately hamper your ability to create referral opportunities.
There is a certain comfort that we share when networking with associates within the same industry. After all, you may serve similar clients, have similar credentials, and can probably relate in a myriad of ways. Unfortunately, this is only half the equation and you can’t expect maximum results. For example, you may know some real estate agents who join networks exclusive to the real estate industry. The first problem is apparent. What is the incentive for other agents to pass up new business? The second problem is that the lack of diversity within your network can make you susceptible to market shifts. The current market epitomizes this dilemma; the real estate industry is in turmoil therefore, the best place to look for a referral is going to be from associates outside your industry.
Try adding complementary associates to your referral network. For example, it may be a good idea for a financial planner to add accountants to his or her network. If the accountant is good at what he does then he is likely to be working with quality clients as well; client’s who are concerned with their finances, take control of their financial future and are willing to pay for quality services. This makes all of the accountant’s clients a possible fit for the financial planner. There are many combinations that work for different reasons. Check your network and see who your trusted associates are exchanging referrals with.
Remember,every professional industry goes through highs and lows, busy seasons and quiet seasons, and slumps and surges. The key is to give and receive referrals when it is appropriate. Furthermore, having a diverse professional network ensures that you are reaching potential client’s whom your direct competitors have not. This idea of diversity is not exclusive to small business networking. Even in nature, the most diverse eco-systems support the most life. The same rules apply in business.
We’ve all heard about them. Many of you may have even been at early morning networking events you just don’t remember because you were asleep.
Isn’t it ironic that in an age of hectic schedules and on-demand everything, some are still braving the cold at as early as 4:00AM to listen to business networking pitches?
Increasingly, research shows that our productive peak can vary greatly between what the Wall Street Journal identifies as the two professionals types; Larks and Owls. According to research psychiatrist Thomas Wehr’s report in the Wall Street Journal “Ironically, the period when we’re most alert and at the highest state of arousal is after we leave work.” 4:00AM is a bit daunting for even the most motivated Lark in us.
But even if you consider yourself a “Lark” you are still trying to exchange referrals with “Owls” and if half the room is in dreamland you can bet your pitch is not going to be the first thing on anyone’s mind at 2pm.
Building a referral network before the sun comes up is less than productive according to entrepreneur Dani Nordin, “For one, the time it takes to actually get ready and head down to a 7am networking event would literally have me up sometime around 4:30-5am, given the long commute into Boston via public transit, and that just didn’t work for me. I’d show up with hair still wet and making a beeline for the coffee and breakfast, and while I did meet a couple of folks, they were almost never folks that I kept in touch with.” Lets face it, we would rather be spending our time and money with our family and friends than gassing up the car or buying a train pass to go listen to a pitch about vacuum cleaner attachments.
Fortunately, technology has enabled us to replace or rework many time consuming activities; conference calls, video conferencing and webinars to name a few. Referral marketing should be no different. Integrating referral management into your work day is a much more time/cost effective solution than extending your work day by three hours and not seeing a return.
Exchanging referrals online keeps you fresh in your associates’ minds. Small business networking is an investment. Rather than leaving your investment to chance you should utilize a tool like Referral Key which delivers regular reports allowing you to evaluate your professional relationships. Those who understand their network best can decide where to focus their attention, fix weaknesses, and ultimately maximize the benefits of business networking.
Does your small business service have a blog? Chances are, you either
1) have one but have trouble keeping it up to date; dreading each update
2) wish you could drive more traffic to it
3) don’t have one but know you should
In the business of referral marketing, you may consider a blog is a neat extra that adds credibility or even nice visuals to your website. In truth, your blog is much more than a nice-to-have when it comes to referrals and generating leads from your business network. Just like your website itself, your blog makes a statement about who you are, the quality of your product, who your customers are, and why they chose you to begin with.
There are thousands of blogs, with new business blogs being started each day. So how can yours stand a chance and serve your business? Simple. By following the rules your small business does – staying within your niche. If you are a Real Estate Agent, don’t blog about the Grammys, even if you think your clients are interested (chances are they’re not coming to your site for that kind of information).
The second thing to remember when worrying about your blog’s traffic is also the prime rule of thumb in referral marketing and the mantra at Referral Key: quality versus quantity.
Here are a few guidelines for keeping your blog relevant to your business network:
1. Offer useful information – While it’s tempting to simply comment on other posts and articles relevant to your industry, your audience is looking for an informed, educated viewpoint on the topic at hand – whether business referrals, tax law, mortgage rates or the latest high performing mutual funds. If you’ve been judicious about building a business network, your audience is a network of varied professionals in related industries, and if the content of your blog helps them look smart in front of colleagues and clients, they’re more likely to return to it frequently – and see you as a valuable resource for their clients.
2. Be informed – Pick a few relevant business blogs, websites or columns to read everyday; there’s no way we can keep up with all of them. Do your homework on who the “gurus” of your industry are and read where they post and comment. Often these sites are the ones everyone defers to, and you need only to read them to stay abreast of current topics of discussion. You’ll also find inspiration for new content topics this way. Be sure to join the conversations and post a comment occasionally, always leaving your blog’s link in the signature.
3. Refrain from the sales pitch – This is probably the most common mistake beginning bloggers make. Nothing turns off a cruising sales lead looking for useful information faster than a hard sales pitch. By gathering knowledge and expertise from your blog, they’re getting the sales pitch from your business in a far more subtle and effective manner. And they’re getting to know you – the first step in a qualified referral.
4. Invite comments and even arguments – When readers are encouraged to participate with dialog and criticism, they’re much more engaged in your site and as a result, in a two-way conversation with you and your business. This is a great way to build relationships and build your business network with qualified professionals, as well as weed out any prospects who clearly aren’t of value.
5. Stay Current – The blogosphere is not a print medium. It moves at lightning speed. If you’re going to discuss a controversial topic, like privacy issues in business and social networking sites (NYT article), post your content the day the news first appears. Many top blogs post hourly. As a small business professional with limited time, you cannot, so be sure to make sure your daily (or weekly) post is as fresh as possible.
6. Stay Brief – Make your point and get out. Top ten lists are great.
7. Invite guests – Invite professionals from your business network to post a comment or discuss a newsworthy topic, particularly if it’s in an area in which you are less informed. This adds value to your site and lets others know your professional network of contacts is solid and diverse.
8. Use visuals only when useful – Don’t use photos unless necessary. If there’s a graph or chart that illustrates your point, great. Your audience is comprised of business professionals who want facts and information and insight.
9. Offer helpful links – Don’t be afraid of offering links to other businesses – even competitors, in some cases. Your blog is not a sales tool; it’s a resource for your customers, a forum for discussion – and its authenticity ensures they remember you. At Referral Key for example, we might invite readers to check out other tools that can help manage the referral process – while subtly reinforcing the points of distinction we feel set us apart.
10. Use your network to build an audience – Marketing your blog starts at home. Use your business network of trusted associates to promote your blog – one post at a time. But don’t send every post to every one of your contacts. Wait until the content is particularly relevant to their field of expertise, invite their comments and feedback, and ask them to pass it along to clients if they found the information of value.
Increasingly, our local software and programs are becoming obsolete. Every year our favorite applications receive new vitalization on the web.
Don’t fret if you never buy another one of those….. what do they call them?….oh yeah CD’s. The migration from software to web apps can be especially beneficial to small business professionals. Web apps present a clear advantage for small businesses and professionals while many of their corporate counter-parts are still fumbling with instillation, synchronization, and hard drive space. According to Business Week, “No longer do small companies have to spring for servers and IT staff just to get the basics. With software services, you don’t install programs on your own computers or server. Instead, you sign up online for software and use it while you’re connected to the Internet.”
Web Apps like Referral Key, Google Apps, and Google Earth offer endless benefits. As a small business owner on the move I need to be able to access information, collaborate and be productive where-ever my travels take me. Just a few years ago you would have had to spend hundreds of dollars on word processors, contact managers, and mapping software not to mention the hard-drive space these programs take up. Want to access your referral network on an airport kiosk?… too bad.
Like many paradigm shifts, its small business professionals that really reap the benefits first. Why not take advantage of free space?
The limitations and billions of dollars associated with data recovery, collaboration, synchronization and network building are being easily over-come by forward thinking professionals looking for practical solutions.
Perhaps sometime in the near future ultra-slim computers will become the norm; computers whose sole function is to get you on the web.
The New York Times recently reported the potential sale of business and social networking site Plaxo.
Plaxo claims about 15 million registered users, and despite that fact that the site is not yet profitable, the asking price is said to be around $100 million.
Plaxo started out as a kind of electronic Rolodex management tool - we all remember receiving multiple uninvited emails asking us to provide our updated contact information. The company changed tack recently and launched Plaxo Pulse, a service that compiles information from competitors MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking sites.
What does this mean for your business to business networking strategy? What sites can you, the small business service professional, rely on for the referral marketing services and tools you need before they change functionality to keep up with their competition? We wonder how many people actually liked and used Plaxo for what it set out to do for them (manage contacts) as opposed to what its mission is now (collect information from other social and business networking sites).
Surely many business professionals used Plaxo as a supplemental tool for their referral marketing strategy – what better way to refresh your new business leads than constantly reminding people of your presence with a friendly contact information update email? Trouble is, without a personal relationship and a “first degree of separation” communication, it started to feel like spam – and frankly, in my opinion, it was. I stopped responding to the requests and they went right into my delete folder, even if they were from people I knew and worked with regularly. It was obvious they were automatically generated and had nothing to do with the professional relationship I shared with the sender. It was also obvious there was no return for dedicating my time to fill out the form.
When Sean Smith wants my updated contact information, including my cell and home numbers, you can bet I’d be more likely to respond if he’s offering something - like a qualified referral – in return.
Why would Plaxo consider MySpace and Facebook rivals in the first place? Certainly their strategy (automatic emails to a user’s database of contacts) was flawed, but did anyone ever really consider them a social or business networking site?
We believe in doing and being one thing – and doing it better than anyone else. If you’re not going to be a huge social networking site with multiple features, applications, and fun stuff then offer something for your users that will actually affect their sales lead ratio and revenue. For us it’s referrals. Nothing else.
Of course, we’re biased, but Referral Key is just one of the sites that we feel remain elegantly simple and true to its mission. Generating, tracking, and rating professional referrals from a personalized business network.
How Referral Networking Will Determine Small Business Success in the New Year
It’s been an interesting year within the small business community. It seems as though every day presents us with more news of the triumphs and follies for small business marketing. Economically and technologically, it’s been a tumultuous ride. We’ve witnessed the “Linked-In and Facebook show,” and we still aren’t sure what that means for generating actual business referrals; we are experiencing a universal disruption in the housing market; and we are amidst a niche networking phenomenon. Call it the New Year, a new financial quarter, or 2008; regardless, one thing is clear: How we strategically position ourselves now within our business referral network will dictate which small businesses thrive and which just tread in the New Year.
With the future of the U.S. economy unstable at best it is likely we will see small businesses spending less. “Faced with slower business at home, Americans would be more inclined to save,” according to the New York Times. As usual, the first cuts are likely to occur on advertising expenditure. According to a new report by Borell Associates, posted in News Factor, “Marketing budgets will accelerate their shift out of traditional advertising formats — both online and offline — and into non-ad activities such as promotions and public relations.” In other words, your personal and professional business referral exchange just got even more important.
Given the unpredictable cost/benefit nature of advertising, it is only logical that experienced professionals are going to want to make more secure investments. Advertising is expensive and contingent on uncontrollable economic factors - not what a small business wants to rely on. Referral marketing is less dependent on economic factors. The small business community is going to have to look toward secure and proven methods of generating new business. Those professionals who stick together and practice regular business to business referral exchange are best apt to weather the storm.
These shifts are not necessarily negative - in fact, it is during times of uncertainty that seasoned professionals maintain a strong track record while others seem to be sent in a tailspin over every pessimistic headline. Recall the dot-com bubble burst of 2000. Only businesses which were able to personalize and build trusted relationships, maintaining a strong and healthy referral network, survived to see Web 2.0. It’s an excellent time to capitalize on the important professional relationships you’ve been nurturing. At this point it would seem 2008 is going to be the year of the hand-shake and not the checkbook.
Referral Key is proud to have participated in the 10th annual MIT Venture Capital Conference and in the Entrepreneur Showcase Event at the MIT Museum on November 29th and 30th.
Referral Key was one of 30 companies selected from an entry field of almost 100 applicants to the Entrepreneur Showcase, and was one of the only startups chosen to represent the business networking and referral category.
The event, organized by the MIT Sloan School of Management and supported by the MIT Entrepreneurship Center with several VC firms, corporations and media outlets serving as corporate sponsors, drew a heavy crowd of venture capital firms, private equity partners, Sloan students, fellow entrepreneurs and press.
The atmosphere was upbeat, and the overall opinion that the current environment for technology based startups generally positive, consistent with t he conference them of “Enabling the Entrepreneur.” “This is much different than the last time,” one attendee was overheard saying, referring to the last internet bubble boom that did not end well for many venture backed startups in the late nineties. According to the MIT student organizers of the two day event, “More than ever, with the plethora of capital available for new businesses and technologies, VCs, angels and mentors are looking for new ways to enable startups.”
Referral Key was front and center in a heavily trafficked area of the Showcase event, and our live video tour and product demonstration served attendees well.
“It was a very competitive field, and we are extremely excited to have been chosen to participate,” said Lewis Weinstein, founder and CEO of Referral Key. “We were able to showcase the product to a wide and influential audience, as well as accomplish some great networking.”
Frank Moss, Director of the MIT Media Lab and an experienced technology industry executive and serial entrepreneur, was on hand for the lunch panel, and Boston Globe “Innovation Economy” columnist Scott Kirsner moderated both the “Media, Technology and the Consumer” panel as well as the closing chat with Head of Special Initiatives at Google, Chris Sacca, whose resistance to PR protocol was refreshing and sometimes surprising.
Referral Key made enough of an impact with the “Sloanies” to be invited to participate in the prestigious MIT Lab series, so watch for an upcoming speaking engagement featuring our CEO Lewis Weinstein.
For more on the conference, please visit: http://www.mitvcconference.com/.
Turkey Day is here and with it, the end-of-the-year crunch. The old adage that “nothing happens and no decisions will be made until first quarter” may be true, but that doesn’t mean your business networking should stop or that the referral well should be allowed to run dry; quite the opposite, in fact.
From the standard Holiday card to lavish gift baskets and memorable office parties, charity work and business New Year’s resolutions, there’s never a better opportunity than the holidays to increase your visibility and market your services to your existing business network to generate referrals. Holiday reminders of the above kind are a great way to generate new referrals in an otherwise slow time of year, and the holiday season is the ultimate excuse to send festive, friendly “nudges” to your circle of trust.
But all too often, we send standard holiday cards to thank customers, colleagues and
associates for their business, thinking this will strengthen professional relationships. Many of these greetings get lost in the shuffle and possibly tossed in the waste basket because they are impersonal, predictable and insincere. Admit it; you’ve tossed a few into the circular file yourself. So here’s an idea for the referral network that never sleeps: What better way to demonstrate to your professional network that you really value them than by rewarding them for the good services they provide with a hand picked referral from your client list?
Whether you use Referral Key to do this or not, it’s a smart move and relatively easy to pull off. Start by asking your clients now what their needs are likely to be in 2008. Let them know the extent of your professional business network and how it may benefit their future needs. Include their information in a holiday greeting to a trusted associate and you’ve killed several birds with one stone: Your holiday card will surely be remembered, and your relationship as well as the potential for reciprocity is strengthened with that contact. In addition, your client is well served and likely grateful for the resource.
There’s really no better time than the New Year to get off on the right foot with professionals you know and trust to help each other grow your businesses.
Facebook ads are here whether you like it or not. On Nov. 6, 2007 CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the new plan entitled Beacon. “Facebook Ads represent a completely new way of advertising online,” Zuckerberg said (Facebook). It is clear that Facebook is going to turn some heads with this revenue model but what is unclear is how successful it will be – either for advertisers, Facebook, or most importantly, users.
Facebook has always founded its success and differentiated itself from its big brother, MySpace, by maintaining a clean ad-free interface. Facebook has been garnering a notably more mature member base, and presumably with that, more business professionals interested in building an online business referral network – this may be due in part to their lack of ads and clutter. But perhaps business professionals looking to use large social networks like Facebook for business connections will think twice before inadvertently sending a potential customer lead a subtle product endorsement that has nothing to do with their business. According to mashable.com, “Now both MySpace and Facebook are offering ad networks, and frankly, the implementation of MySpace’s may be more effective (Mashable Article).
Now that Facebook is switching gears they can expect advertising revenues but at what price? The ad system is going to work a lot like its already popular wall postings. Currently users write comments on their friend’s walls (profiles) to communicate. With the new ad system, if one of your friends comments about a brand or product, a picture of that friend endorsing the product may show up on your page. Even more notable is that the system will track your visits to third party websites using cookies. Don’t be surprised if your picture ends up next to a Pepsi bottle on all of your friend’s Facebook pages. Of course there are undoubtedly going to be privacy issues. Will we see a drop in average user age as a result? Will LinkedIn remain as the only mature social networking site? Once again we see a reason for niche networks as the answer to building an effective online referral marketing system using existing personal connections.
Privacy advocates and attorneys alike are already in a lather about the controversial new plan. John Gartner explains, “Facebook’s new SocialAds may be illegal according to a New York attorney. The law prohibits use of someone’s image with written consent, which could derail SocialAds” (Marketing Shift). Not exactly the best system for business networking professionals to adopt.
Privacy issues aside, this could be an effective and personal way for companies to make connections with consumers. But how will this affect Facebook’s end user experience? One view is that Facebook is already somewhat cluttered without Beacon and that the full circle marketing is downright absurd. According to Nick Carr of Techcrunch, “It’s a nifty system: First you get your users to entrust their personal data to you, and then you not only sell that data to advertisers but you get the users to be the vector for the ads. And what do the users get in return? An animated Sprite Sips character to interact with” (TechCrunch).
Facebook has done quite well, so I believe they may have a trick or two to make this work. But as it stands I see a serious brand conflict and more importantly there is minimal benefit to their users. Carr points out rightly that “Beacon is essentially a biased market mechanism. That is, advertisers have control - but connected consumers (despite Facebook’s hype) don’t” (TechCrunch). With a plethora of alternatives its hard to believe users – especially business professionals looking to grow their business referral network, will put up with too much clutter before they jump ship for a more relevant niche site.
I worked for many years in entertainment marketing and advertising, and one thing about that industry that never fails to amuse is ubiquitous “buzzword du jour.” A catchphrase or single word which harkens a revolution in the ways of doing business.
For a while in the late 90’s and early 2000’s our word was “synergy.” This is why Time Warner bought Turner Broadcasting and AOL. Hardware, meet software, meet content. Now, everybody work together, despite the crippling layoffs. By 2002 the word was “convergence,” which was really just an updating of the word synergy but with new media and technology applications. There was even a joke at a major movie studio that one executive managed to get promoted by walking around the lot, constantly repeating the word, “convergence!” in all his meetings. Then a few years ago the holy mantra in advertising and marketing of all kinds was “integration,” which later gave way to “360 degree” marketing. Meaning, all the parts work together in a complimentary fashion for the best results. No one element stands alone. The TV commercial drives you to the website, which drives you to the store, which drives you to a contest, etc.
And though it may be a passé buzzword, this is the obligatory approach to your business referral network: Integrate.
As a business service professional, naturally you should be using all your resources to generate new client leads – face to face networking; organized, professional social events; online communities and social and business networks; professional organizations; friendly alumni; current colleagues and clients and of course, friends and family. And naturally, some are more useful than others in your referral marketing strategy.
But how many of us make these elements work in an integrated fashion? Are all your contacts that could potentially be referral sources categorized as such? Is the contact data easily accessible and stored in one place? When you meet a new colleague in a related field, do you immediately invite that person to exchange referrals? How do you track the communication? How many of these individuals can you send qualified leads to? And how will you monitor (again, in one place) of which contacts turn out to be valid referral sources and which just want another friend in an online community or a new career opportunity through your Uncle Ned?
Of course, we think Referral Key provides one stop shopping to all these issues. But even if you’re not a member, use our principles to guide and refine your business networking. Integrate all the pieces so they work together. Make it a goal to be constantly expanding your professional “circle of trust” using every available resource available to you. Classify all contacts, and then let them work for you. And the ones that don’t, well, you can dis-integrate them.
During the Triassic period, simple creatures began to populate the net. Websites grew message boards and forums and the first signs of Social Networking began to appear. These invertebrate sites eventually gave way to the Jurassic period, characterized by large reptiles like “Live Journal” and “Friendster.” Their ability to share images allowed them to rule until the giants of the Cretaceous period emerged - Facebook, the colossal MySpace and the long-necked Linked-In dominated the web, clearing tree tops and eating all the vegetation …
So where are we now? Smaller, intelligent mammals with specialized features and practical applications are beginning to appear. These are the niche sites of the future. Tools like Zolve, Lawlinks and Referral Key don’t offer entertainment tie-ins, trendy applications or an astronomical membership pool but what they do offer is….well… a purpose.
We are at least half a decade into the Social Networking phenomenon. As the market becomes fully saturated and users themselves have amassed large amounts of “friends” and exhausted the initial flare, we are all asking, now what? This is the same question posed in Monica Hesse’s Washington Post article, “An Unmanageable Circle of Friends” (Washington Post “An Unmanageable Circle of Friends).
We are constantly bombarded with stories about social networking; tales of staggering membership and rumors of buy-outs and payouts are relentless. As bloggers beat buzzwords into the ground, I wonder if perhaps we have over looked the most basic element of networking… the purpose.
According to Hesse’s article, “Columbia University Sociologist Duncan J. Watts says sites like (Facebook) are failing us because they do not do the thing that social networks are designed to do, namely: network.”
“What is our purpose?” and “What value do we offer?” are difficult questions these sites must now answer. Sites like Linked-In will be quick to defend their positions as professional networking sites, but as of late Facebook and MySpace seem to be heading in a similar direction, with users’ average age steadily climbing (Mashable Article).
As the giants tussle, many professionals are looking for clarity. Naturally, the most driven of us are figuring out ways to utilize networking to evolve their professional goals and see some tangible returns.
Zolve is a tool which exclusively focuses on the real estate industry; it maintains a clearly defined goal of connecting real estate professionals to one another for the purpose of exchanging business. LawLinks is a place for attorneys to pass on referrals. Lawlinks maintains a strict screening which ensures the effectiveness of the site. With a stripped down interface, Referral Key facilitates referral exchange and management between many connected industries, allowing complimentary businesses to benefit from one referral network.
What is so interesting about these tools is that they all share a purpose beyond socializing or job hunting. They are attempting to validate our investment be it time or money with a real business return - ultimately, revenue. Will these niche sites become the social networking sites of tomorrow?
“The focus is shifting to niche community networking sites,” says Sam Sethi of TechCrunch UK. Many users who have claimed territory on the large networking sites may be critical of a move toward niche sites. It is natural to want to defend your network of 5,000 “friends”. They may see the smaller “circle of trust” as negligible and may find the more rigorous process of building a smaller, more precise network more challenging than clicking “add friend.”
But what many of these loyalists may not know is that the decision makers of the larger sites, particularly Facebook, MySpace, and Linked-In, don’t see the future of networking being tied into large sites - the long term shift is going to be toward the niche site. Check out the coverage in PC Magazine (The Future of Social Networking).
The question is, “Are professionals going to work to find the niche sites that work for them, or are they going to wait around for the larger sites to adapt to their business needs?”
This week the band Radiohead made music industry history by making their new album available exclusively by download (http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/10/09/radiohead-reveal-in-rainbows-download-details-we-anxiously-salivate-into-our-keyboards/).
No middle man in the form of a big record company, just the band selling their music directly to their fans online. Bold move. The boldest part of it, however? Fans get to decide what they want to pay for the album. A colossal kick in the pants to the recording industry, sure, but the band is taking a risk because they know three things:
1) They know they have an outstanding product
2) They know who their customers are
3) They understand the power of their customers’ trusted networks
And why should your small business operate any differently? You may not be a rock star, but if you have been in business long enough to be profitable and enjoy a healthy client base, chances are you have a great product – your service. Your customers know this, and so do your valued professionals who operate in your circle. For Radiohead that circle is composed of diehard fans, music journalists, critics, industry executives and other artists. For you, if you’re an accountant, it may be tax lawyers, financial planners, mortgage brokers, industry analysts, professional associations and trade journals.
The network doesn’t have to be huge, either, for the band or for you. (Okay, maybe Radiohead’s referral network is a bit larger than yours). It is far more important to have the right people in your business network than the most. People who know you and your work through personal experience. These are the people who can and will send you qualified leads. It’s about quality, not quantity.
Choose your business referral network carefully. Nothing less than your professional reputation is at stake.
Radiohead understands this. They know their fans well enough to know that it’s not about the number of people who download the album for free. It’s about the quality network of loyal fans who will return again and again to support the band and the music, paying for CDs, attending concerts, and subscribing to email lists and newsletters.
May we all be so confident in our product, and may we all have such faith in our referral network.
Welcome to the Referral Key blog. We’re just launching, and we welcome comments from users and all professionals interested in business networking and referral marketing, particularly for small business.
We’re watching all things involving social networking and business, particularly generating quality leads through a business referral network. We’d love to hear from you.
For anyone who hasn’t seen it, J. Nicholas Hoover has a great cover story about social networking and the business world in the current issue of Information Week (“Social Experiment” 9/24/07). What I found interesting is that while many companies feel compelled to restrict workers’ access to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace,(yes, the IT police are watching you watch that Britney Spears’ news clip your friend forwarded to your MySpace page), others are forming groups on these sites or creating their own internal social networks for business purposes.
Hoover points out that while 48% of companies responding to a survey use social networks for viral marketing, recruting, peer networking and emergency communications, there’s still the persistent notion that many employers use sites like LinkedIn for job searches. I must admit, when I joined LinkedIn last year, that’s what I had in mind. (Disclosure: I no longer work for that company).
According to the article, Matt Beveridge of Motorola calls LinkedIn the “next-generation Monster.com.” Whoa.
Now, hang on, before you flame me for bashing LinkedIn, (or “closed” networks like Visible Path or SelectMinds) let me just pose the question: do you find social/business networking sites useful to your sales teams? What does your company and your employees use them for? Are the business relationships you maintain on these sites generating leads for your company or other kinds of valuable connections?
These are the kinds of questions we are asking ourselves in order to build the best tool possible for pure referrals on our site - a different kind of business network that’s less social and more sales. We hope, anyway. Time will tell.
We look forward to exploring this exciting new world with you. Now stop cruising business networking blogs and get back to work.
Simply type a message in the text box, click the orange POST button, and your message will immediately appear in the Brief queue of all of your colleagues.
If you'd like to send a Brief to just one of your colleagues you can send a Private Brief. Just type ‘@’ as the first character in the text box, choose your recipient, and type your message.
Find past Briefs by choosing briefs in the top search bar and typing a search-term.
You can also attach a file such as a picture or document to your Brief by clicking Attach File and selecting the file from your computer.
Sync Briefs with Facebook: Click the radio button next to the Facebook icon (Under the Brief box) to have your Brief also posted to Facebook.
Sync Briefs with Twitter: Click the radio button next to the Twitter icon (Under the Brief box) to have the first 140 characters of your Brief also posted to Twitter.
The Sent tab displays the referrals you've sent to others and recent comments. Simply return to the sent tab and click “View Referrals” to see all comments and respond.
At a recent networking event I found myself engaged in an exciting conversation about best networking practices. I had briefly touched upon Referral Key’s ability to allow professionals to track their referral relationships for reciprocity. There were several accountants, realtors, amongst others who were intrigued by the idea; they seemed eager to learn about referral tracking.
Successful Realtors are always hungry for new qualified sales leads. Ask any Realtor and they will tell you that securing a few key closings can have a massive impact on their revenue stream. As we had mentioned in a previous blog posting, CPA referrals are special because of the trust clients place in their CPA’s. Realtor referrals are equally as important because of the critical value of each and every sale that’s made. The referrer, buyer, seller and Realtor are all vested in the process.
Indicates your referral relationship is balanced,
Indicates an imbalance.