21st century business is about understanding open, random and supportive business practices and future-proofing your business against the next generation as they move from Social Networking to Social Business Networking. It's about sharing of friends and information, collaboration, and strategic partnerships. Nick and I think of it like this: Know me. Like me. Follow me.
There are new rules for this new economy and it is vital for all businesses to understand the new business game that is increasingly playing out on-line.
Know me: Business is entering a new era of the "network" or "linked" economy where the more connections added, the more powerful and far-reaching the network and the more it can influence the on-line world. In this new style of economy, small efforts can lead to surprisingly large results as they are amplified through the network. Social media allows individuals to harness the power of networks by tapping into shared-interest communities on-line and leveraging business exposure and business expertise of others through these many different connections. Those who ignore valuable information do so to the benefit of their competitors. Networks encourage and support the successful to be more successful and business can grow exponentially as a result.
Know Me - Social Media - Collecting and sharing knowledge. Becoming known and visible - The backbone of your on-line efforts will be your blog. Also: FriendFeed, Twitter, and Google Reader and contributing to forums.
Like me: In the network economy, business is becoming progressively up close and personal, which is to the advantage of the small business or individual trader, as large corporations and institutions cannot deliver such a personal customer interface. Social media engagement dictates the journey of "know me, like me, follow me" through delivering consistent and authentic value in all a company's social media output. This leads to trust, which in turn leads to increased business transactions. Once a business has built a community or tribe of followers who have chosen to receive messages, there is a fully engaged audience receptive to buying products and services. Additionally, there will be increased business transactions between the members of that community, which benefits the "tribe", so new people join and the value within the network and the benefits of being part of the network increase exponentially as a result.
Like Me - Social Networking Collecting and sharing people. Being liked and advocated. Ecademy, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.
Follow me: With few exceptions, nature reacts in real time. With few exceptions, business must increasingly react in real time, or lose the advantage. Social media allows businesses to engage in transmissions, often in real time, which makes them more meaningful and relevant to the community. More people are communicating via social networks than by email! In business, everything starts with a conversation. Social media provides the tools and platforms to start those conversations, and then build deeper and meaningful business relationships as a result of that sustained and consistent interaction. Best of all, most of these tools are free to use giving you an infinite return on the investment of little more than your time.
Follow Me - Social Transactions - having friends and followers who you work with and like in some capacity, sharing time, people, knowledge and friendship. Ecademy clubs, LinkedIn clubs, Twitter replies and direct messaging, forum exchanges.
Business and the way people communicate is changing at a faster pace than ever before in history. Things are not the same as two years ago, let alone two weeks ago. We are living in an exponential world that is based on the law of increasing returns. And best of all, the web tools to engage with this new way of doing business are FREE.
Watch this incredibly thought provoking video to get a better understanding:
Some applications of this in property: Finding tenants (using free sites like Gumtree and linking from Twitter). Marketing (make a video tour of your property and upload it to YouTube. Link from your ad on Gumtree or from Twitter). Finding distressed sellers or leads (Forums) Creating awareness and visiblity of yourself/business (forums, Twitter, blogs) Marketing property events (Facebook, forums, Twitter etc) Lifelong learning (google reader, Twitter, forums, etc.) Creating your own forum (focal point for your business)
Who represents change in your industry? Who continues to talk about strategies that are completely out of date?
What are you doing to be part of this brave new world? How could you benefit from the "network" and the law of increasing returns?
How are you going to "release" yourself or your business on-line so that people can follow you?
Some members of Property Tribes are already on this journey, transitioning from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. (e.g. transitioning from downloading to up-loading/self publication). What could you learn by following them, and how could following them increase your knowledge, your network, and therefore your success?
That is why tribes are so important. None of us is as smart as all of us.
On a beautiful sunny morning, what better time to start thinking about Summer holidays?
What comes to mind when you think of the British seaside holiday? Candy floss, crazy golf and ballroom dancing? Cream teas, milkshakes, and fish and chips? Sandcastles, buckets and spades, and paddling? Not to mention the miles of beautiful and unspoiled coast of this island nation - from sweeping sandy beaches to craggy cliffs. Wherever you are in England, you are never more than 73 miles from the sea! It's ingrained in our genetic make-up and culture!
We went to an ecademy event in London last Thursday, and got massive value from it, so thought I would write a brief report*.
*Please note, I have no affiliate links or commission payments for new members to ecademy - its free to join anyway. I am just sharing in the spirit of reciprocity.
There were approx. 200 business owners there. The mood was very bouyant and positive with everyone I spoke to. The general opinion was that "this is what we have been waiting for" in terms of opportunity. WIth looming mass unemployment and the demise of those with a "serf" mentality (seeking a pay cheque at the end of each month), now is the time for small businesses and entrepreneurs to flourish.
Ecademy founder, Penny Power, gave a very inspiring speech about how business is changing, and moving on-line. She talked about how businesses and individuals will be judged in future on their "contribution currency" - in other words, how much value they add to other people's businesses, and their track record of doing so. The internet is making everything far more transparent.
On one hand, black hat tactics, scams, deceit and misdirection are far easier than ever to imagine and to scale. There are certainly people quietly banking millions as they lie and cheat their way forwards.
On the other hand, there's far bigger growth associated with transparency. When your Facebook profile shows years of real connections and outreach and help for your friends, it's a lot more likely you'll get that great job.
When your customer service policies delight rather than enrage, word of mouth more than pays your costs. When past investors blog about how successful and ethical you were, it's a lot easier to attract new investors.
The Net enlarges the public sphere and shrinks the private one. And black hats require the private sphere to exist and thrive. More light = more success for the ethical players.
In a competitive world, then, one with increasing light, the way to win is not to shave more corners or hide more behavior, because you're going against the grain, fighting the tide of increasing light. In fact, the opposite is true. Individuals and organizations that can compete on generosity and fairness repeatedly defeat those that only do it grudgingly.
Business networking can help increase your on-line profile and visibility, and therefore create trust.
Flickr: badgerproductions
LinkedIn: nick tadd
Pownce: nick tadd
Skype: badgerproductions
