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Building Contacts with Social Media

August 12, 2010 By 33 Comments

Whether you want to grow your business or find freelance work, building contacts using social media is key. The task is daunting with so much chatter and activity on social media websites, but it can be done. Keep in mind that others want to do the same thing, so you are competing for the attention of key contacts in your industry. Don’t let that fact stop you from trying though. Knowing how to stand out from the crowd will help you establish and maintain contacts with the people who can open doors for you.

Go Where They Are

Many of the contacts you’re looking for are using social media. To them, it’s a way to build their company brand, recruit new hires or indirectly sell products and services. The first step is to go where they are. Your contacts aren’t everywhere. Some concentrate on Facebook and Twitter, while others may like LinkedIn or YouTube. Make a list of all your contacts and next to their names, write down the social media channels that they’re active on.

Develop Your Plan to Engage

Once you know where they are, you have to develop a plan to engage them. Your plan has to adapt to the type of social media activity your contacts enjoy and the social media channel used. For example, if one of your contacts is a gabber, and loves engaging in conversation on Twitter, then your strategy should be to join and shine in as many conversations with them as possible.  You want to be subtle at the same time, but so interesting that your contact can’t resist responding to you and engaging you in further conversation. If your contact is into video marketing, and little to no comments are posted giving feedback to posted videos, then you be the one to do it. They’ll appreciate the feedback, and they will respond to questions you have about the video. You can then leverage the exchange to build a relationship.

Some people have landed television contracts, appeared as guests on radio programs and landed a job using social media by taking the time to engage on social media channels. You can too.

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  • http://www.pinbud.com Lucian

    Very good comment, but I think that a reader must be aware that when he wants to engage somebody who follows 300+ persons is very hard to get noticed. And at least on Twitter, a lot of users are following a lot of people and this transforms everything in a vuvuzela buzz. In such cases and depending on social circumstances, maybe the older way is the better: pick up the phone and make a call to setup an appointment :)

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  • http://www.ipraxa.com/ john@seo

    Your strategy sound good!. But it is a time consuming process. Patience is key and it depends on how well you build relation with your contacts and building online reputation is vital for creating a major impact.

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  • http://www.mymnyp.com/ Jovit @ MN Yellow Pages

    What’s good about social media is that it is free. You don’t have to pay advertisement fees just to promote yourself or your product. You just need to have good social skills and of course, patience.

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  • http://www.wdarrellwalters.com Darrell

    I have a friend that uses Facebook advertising exclusively and has grown his contact list in his field significantly because of it. Also, Twitter gives you the opportunity to group categories now so that you won’t have to deal with 3000+ people competing. You can limit the few that you want to hear from at a period of time.

    Darrell, Peachtree City mortgages

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  • http://www.fivemovingquotes.com Michael

    Lucian is right in his assessment about Twitter and engaging a user who follows over 300+ users. The best avenue to explore in respect to engaging followers and garnering more visibility is the regularity of your updates. Facebook is particularly helpful for promotional events. LinkedIn is one area I’ve only briefly touched on, I’ll definitely have to give that social media a more thorough visit.

    Great advice.

    Michael, Five Moving Quotes

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  • http://www.unique-seo-services.com freelance seo

    social media is an excellent marketing tool for business development, product branding and customer care activities. Before moving on social media networks, have to create marketing strategy for successive promotions. Its slow pace but spread the message among audiences like viral and get a good response quickly.

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  • http://vinfotech.com Web 2.0 Development

    Nice Post… Today Social media helps a lot in building contacts with clients and potential contacts.. Many thanks for this..

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  • http://www.pixelwebstudio.co.uk Graphic Design Edinburgh

    Very nice post. I agree with most of commentators, that this strategy requires lots of time, engagement and patience. However, I wouldn’t rely exclusively on social media, because sometimes it brings desired effects, sometimes it doesn’t.

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    social media or marketing strategy is not just about creating content. It’s also about leveraging your staff’s social markers and making your staff visible on the web..Social media helps a lot in building contacts with clients and potential contacts..

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    Hey if you will aim that you have to get 1000 visitors per day then it means you will get 100 traffic daily so I request you all that make your aim. So that you can achieve your targeted traffic.

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  • http://freefacebookguides.com Kris

    Finding a “gabber” and conversing with them is a great idea. I’ve tried to engage my followers but have not thought of that. thx

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    Nice Post… Today Social media helps a lot in building contacts with clients and potential contacts.. Many thanks for this..

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    Interesting article. Thanks to sharing.

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    Excellent post. Social networking sites are changing the way we do business, that’s why we need to go with the flow. It made our lives easier and we can expand our business worldwide. Thanks FB. LOL

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    Social media is an excellent marketing tool for business development, product branding and customer care activities, it helps a lot in building contacts with clients and potential contacts

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  • http://www.rjdinternational.com/ Internet Marketing Magazine

    I love social media, too bad it takes way too much time to develop a social presence. Linkedin is kind of annoying though. If you list your email you will get a lot of head hunters contacting you all the time.

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    Very Very Nice Post… Really Today Social media helps a lot in building contacts with clients and potential contacts.. And Many thanks for this Blog..

    Thanks agian

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    Great post! With the direction today’s society is headed, we are all going to need to be better adapt at building our online Rolodex!

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    social media is working well it should used posively

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    Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention, generates online conversations, and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. The message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it is coming from a trusted source, as opposed to the brand or company itself.

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    Making contacts through social media is a great way to build your phone book and add valuable resources to get feedback from real people!

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