Social Media – Some of Us Love it
There are several ways to use or engage with social media to support your business. The most common way is to create a Facebook Page and post relevant regular content, typical of a start-up business, you might even pay someone to help you.
Another less expensive but more time intensive way is to contribute and get involved personally within your local community and business specific groups. Social media has evolved to be less about posting and more about interaction. People prefer to trust real life opinions and testimonials from other local people! They don’t want you to tell them how great you and your business are; they prefer to hear the opinion of others who have used your services.
Social Community or Tribe
If you can create a community or tribe of people who support you online, this can amplify over time and really pay dividends. We can relate it to Givers Gain® in BNI; when we help prop up others and their businesses online within our social networks, they tend to show up and help us in return.
You can even help celebrate other people and their businesses easily from the comfort of your own home or office. You can turn up for them without physically turning up! This can be very important in times where we are not allowed or able to leave our homes during a global pandemic.
Social Media and BNI
Social Media can be a powerful tool to connect and promote your fellow BNI Chapter members
Easy ways to get involved:
• Like the National BNI New Zealand Facebook Page
• Like your BNI Chapter Facebook Page
• Join your BNI Chapter Facebook Group
• Send friend requests or Invitations to connect with the members of your BNI Chapter
• Send connection invitations through LinkedIn
• Follow your fellow members businesses on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and anywhere else you can!
More advanced social media activities:
• Ask questions and share information within your BNI Chapter’s Facebook Group.
• Each week when you attend your BNI meeting – “Check In” on Facebook with an interesting photo and tell people what you are doing to spark their interest in your BNI chapter.
• When you do a 1-2-1 at another members business, you can check in and have your personal network visit with you.
When you see a member posting about something relating to their business:
• Like their post so they know you are engaged and watching.
• Add a relevant or helpful comment OR add a testimonial for them.
• Ask a quality question so that they can answer you and provide more information through conversation.
• If you feel comfortable, share their post to your own network with personal recommendation or message for them.
• When you see someone asking for a service offered by one of your fellow members you can recommend them, post their company name, phone number and email. Include details on how they helped you or a client. And, if someone else from your chapter beats you to it… join them, the more comments and recommendations shown help increase their credibility.
Challenge
See how much more involved and interactive you can be during 2021 with your fellow BNI Members, their businesses, and other local businesspeople in your community. Build a strong social network or tribe of followers, collaborators, and contributors and see where they take you. The more you get involved the more interesting and fruitful the ride can be. Good luck – have fun along the way 😊
