Social Media Meeting of the Minds in Hampton Roads

The most recent meeting of the Hampton Roads Internet and Technology Meetup was a roundtable discussion at New American Mortgage in Virginia Beach. Because there has been so much interest in Social Media and internet technology, some Hampton Roads Social Media and IT experts gathered to discuss the direction of the HRITM and expanding the knowledge of social media in our area.

The group was founded with the principle of professionals helping professionals make sense of the emerging popularity of social media in a professional environment and it is now read to take social media in Hampton Roads to another level.

The group’s founder Naoma Doriguzzi, expressed her desire to continue to bring relevant and useful information to the MeetUp. Some of the topics discussed were: Blogging for Business, Branding, Website Development, Forums, and Link Building among many other things. That being said, there is something brewing on the horizon. Social Media fans, be on the lookout for great new things! Hope to see you at the next MeetUp

Using the Power of Friend Suggestions

I am notorious for giving friend suggestions. Because of that, I often get feedback from my friends asking who these people are that I suggest to them. I love the suggest a friend to option because it allows me to do two things:

1. Connect people that know each other but are not already connected online.

2. Introduce people who I think may have something in common or who could be a good strategic connection. This is also known as a referral in face to face networking.

For those of us who use social media to build relationships and expand our sphere of relationships, referrals are key. Suggesting new friends allows networkers to do just that.

Facebook has the ‘Suggest Friends for ‘ feature that can be found on the far left, below all the application boxes (see picture). This is a cool feature that allows you to suggest up to 2o friends to someone. This tool is excellent for your friends who are new to Facebook. Suggesting friends to help people grow their network is something that most people appreciate, and often, they return the favor by suggesting people they know that they think may be good connections for you.

Twitter has a fun weekly tradition called #FollowFriday.

Tweeters use Follow Friday to share the people they follow most with their Followers. It’s a way of saying, “this person has good content, follow them”!

These tools are great ways to make and share connections and virtually every social media outlet has a similar feature. Use them to your advantage, and take friend suggestions as a real opportunity to start a new relationship.

The Best Way to Warm the Cold Call

Before we had phones, people wrote letters to potential prospects and followed up with a phone call. The letter served as a friendly introduction that once received, allowed the reader to get acquainted with the salesperson. Eventually, the phone replaced the letter completely and cold calling was born.

The power of using social media outlets to grow your business has created a euphoric feeling among those who have longed for an escape from a life of cold calling. Inbound marketing has provided a perfect method for businesses to improve their level of exposure, but it hasn’t completely eliminated the need for a phone.

Social networking profiles, blogs and other forms of social media are the new way for customers and businesses to passively get acquainted. Once the connection is made, the cold call is instantly warm, even its a person you’ve never met face to face!

Social Media: The Letter Reborn.

Trifecta: Using the Power of Three to Grow Your Business

Are you using social media to grow your business? I get a lot of questions from business owners and other busy professionals about how to develop strategies for business growth using social media. My goal has always been try to simplify the social networking equation, and through my calculations I have determined that social media can be simply describe down to a three step process that when implemented properly can explode your business online and in person.

Having a well developed social media profile on a website like LinkedIn or Facebook is the first step toward growing your online presence. Before you can attempt to share a single product or service online, you must first be able to sell yourself (branding if you will). Branding yourself as a person first and not a sales robot instantly creates a unimposing medium for your friends and potential customers to become aware of who you are and hopefully what you do.

Blogging is simply a medium for relevant material. And what is relevant is relative to the viewer. First you have to find out what is relevant to your target audience, then you use your blog to convert that material into a format that is attractive to them. The more relevant material you provide, the more your expertise becomes apparent and your popularity grows.

Finally, you need the website you probably already have. What you don’t know is that unless you have something and/or someone pointing to your website, you’re probably wasting valuable time and money that you put into it. Blogging and social media outlets do the pointing for you. On the surface, they give people a reason to want to know more about you. Beneath, they are a free way to lead the google spiders right to your website.

The key is constantly having your social media trifecta pointing at something of relevance. Your blogs and profiles should always be pointing at your website and vice versa. Constantly be looking for relevant links, events, and other info you can share with your target audience. When they see value in what you have to share, they will also see value in and want to do business with you.

Twitter For Beginners

What is Twitter and Why Do People Care What I am Doing?

Twitter has many uses for both personal and business. It is a micro-blog that you can use to interact with customer, broadcast news and blogs and easily communicate with friends and family.

At this meetup we will learn
-Why Twitter is Useful
-Networking with Twitter
-Twitter Tips

We will have @parnellk63, @sonnygill, @naomadoriguzzi who will assist you with ALL your twitter FAQ’s. With a combined 10,048 followers and 18,688 tweets(updates) as of 3/13/09 they have shown they have definitely learned how to use twitter effectively.

Afterwards you will be able to ask them your questions on making it successful tool for your business in our open Q&A.

Hampton Roads Internet Marketing and Technology Group

Hampton Roads Internet Marketing and Technology Meetup

If you are in the Hampton Roads area ( Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Hampton, Newport News, Williamsburg) we would love to have you join our new group that was started in February 2009.  The main focus of The Hampton Roads Internet Marketing and Technology Meetup is to bring together the locals in the area to learn, network and assist with building our businesses online and through technology.

There is so much out there online that I know we can bring more awareness to the area and learn from each other!

Join to get information on the latest meetups – they fill up fast! Our next one is scheduled for April 2, 2009 at 6:30pm on Twitter for Beginners.  And although it is already full we will also be live streaming the event and then later posting the link for those that can’t make it.