As a business owner, developing contacts is an
important part of securing your audience and customer base. While a wide online
network is crucial to succeeding in your e-enterprise, you’ll need to ask
yourself whether you should tap into everyone you come across to create a huge
grid of contacts, or utilize small business solutions to add only a small but
high quality number of individuals to your network.
Let me tell you a little secret: the bigger your network is, the weaker
your networking power. Is that even possible? Yes, it is. A quality
network of a small number of people will win hands down over a huge network of
individuals you will have less time to communicate with.
Let’s face it, it’s extremely important to be
able to communicate regularly with your network, respond to their messages, and
make the most of those connections. With quantity, you will be hard pressed
trying to keep contact, and you’ll waste precious time attempting to become a
virtual switchboard to a huge network instead of growing your business
exponentially.
Instead of quantity, focus on quality. Don’t
instruct your remote contractor to go for the greatest number of contacts on
social media sites. It’ll be akin to hitting “accept” to every friend request
in your Facebook account. And who needs 5,000 Facebook friends?
The most important thing is to target key influencers
for your network. Which people, groups, or companies influence your target
market the most in terms of brand preference, public perception or purchases? Source
out key influencers in your niche, and then invite them into your network, your
access to them will help you to take advantage of their clout to swing your
target market’s attention your way.
Set up a criteria. Don’t establish a network of robots,
automated accounts, or spammers. Instead, go for interesting key influencers
who have something to offer you, your business, and your growing client base.
You won’t regret choosing quality over quantity.
Do you use a similar strategy for building your network?
