Have you ever joined a social networking site and immediately noticed that you were immediately bombarded with business opportunities and no one was interested in what you offered? But when you joined, you thought a social networking site was a great place to find people for your business. After all, that is your purpose for joining - right? Right. Well, it is a way to find targeted people as well as a place to socialize. Thus, building quality relationships is crucial to your success.

Here are a few tips that will enhance your social networking experience.

Things to do when customizing your profile:

1. When building your profile, post your picture. It makes your site more personable and inviting. People relate to you better and people do business with those they know, like & trust. And, it is easier to trust someone who you feel is open and not trying to hide something.

2. Although you want to share a little about yourself, keep your profile simple (uncluttered) and short. If it's too cluttered or too long most people won't stay long enough to find the important information. Besides, you can always point them to your blog or website where they can find out more about you.

3. When customizing your profile, offer some type of free service that will benefit them. In other words, your site should not be just about advertising your product. If people don't know you, it's not likely they will buy from you anyway just because they visited your profile. Aside from than, they are probably not looking for a business, they are like you, looking for people to join them in business.

So, in what ever way you can, be of assistance to your visitor. Provide them something of quality that they will find useful.

Things to do to build relationships:

1. If you're new to a community or network, people can easily find you and the traffic will come. Many will sign your guest book or make comments on your profile. When they do, be sure to visit them and reciprocate, thank them for visiting or make some other comment.

2. After you've been a member a while and the visitors stop, you need to do something to get traffic. You do this by making comments on other people's sites, whether it's someone new to the community or new to a network you've joined. Read their profile to find a common interest and add your comment or sign their guestbook based upon that. Don't post a canned comment, show genuine interest.

This will do two things: 1) bring them to your profile and 2) bring their visitors to your profile. This is cross-trafficking. That is another reason you want to comment when someone visits you.

3. If you've made friends and know their birthdays, be sure to extend birthday greetings. They would surely appreciate you for that.

But remember, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, leave an advertisment on someone's guestbook. That is netiquette 101. Your signature file is not the place for that. Use your signature file in emails or on blog/forum posts. You can, however, link to someone or something of interest or humorous (just remember to be professional). For instance, my friend & mentor, Art Jonak has a link to the world's largest swimming pool as a place to visit when you have the time & money to do so.

4. Send private messages and/or friend's requests. If sending a private message, ask a question that will elicit a response so you can keep the communication going. But, DON'T SPAM (forgive me for shouting). People hate it -- don't you? Your objective at the social sites is to build relationships. If you have your own network, you can invite them to join your network.

If you join social networking sites for advertisement purposes only, you have little to no chance of succeeding and you probably won't stick around. But, when you build those quality relationships, your business will grow although it won't happen overnight. Things change in people's lives so it's all about timing. You never know when someone is ready for what you have to offer.

You will notice from these tips social networking is "work" but well worth it. You will have to be an active user of the site. To be active, join a few networks and participate in a few of the forums. Just be careful not to let it consume all your time as that can easily happen. Devote a couple hours per day to this activity (if you can) and you will be well on your way to building your empire if you stick with it long enough to allow the slight edge principle kick in. The slight edge principle is doing the seemingly small things that are easy to do (but just as easy not to do) consistently over time.

These are the same techniques I am successfully using to build relationships and my business. They will also work for you. I have met some really great friends and some of them have become life-long business partners.

So, Happy Social Networking and be empowered to prosper!

Irma White
A Mentor with a Servant's Heart

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