International Business

There are a lot of different ways that business owners can build social equity online. I want to share with you some of the best ways to build social equity online.

Utilize social sites like Facebook, twitter, Squidoo, Hubpages, and Dropjack to not only meet business owners and aficionados in your industry, but also to display your own brand, ideas, and products. To be effective, find out what your competition is doing by following what they are promoting or writing about in places like EzineArticles.com and Wikipedia.

There are hundreds of social media and social media marketing sites that can help you connect with virtually every industry.

Garrett Pierson’s “Building Social Equity” will give you all the information you need to not only view what others in your arena are doing, or planning to do, but it will also teach you how to share with the rest of the world what you are doing and planning to do. A Facebook fan page, for example, can create a ton of positive social awareness. Have a campaign that is entertaining to your demographics and you will be successful.

Remember, in social media marketing, it is more about building loyal owner/consumer relationship that want to buy what you are selling because they know you and feel comfortable with you, than it is for you to use a social media site to try to sell them something. Use pages on your own website for selling your products and services!

Once you understand how to build social equity, through Garrett’s compact yet comprehensive guide to understanding and utilizing social media sites for industry awareness and to promote your ideology and mission, you will have online consumers anxiously clicking on the link that will take them to your website.

Remember, if you are a business owner, one of the best ways to build social equity is to utilize social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Squidoo, and social media marketing sites like Meetup and LinkedIn. This is accomplished by learning what others in your field know, do, and plan. It is also about making a name for yourself by sharing your thoughts with the online world. Be patient, make friends. The sales will come naturally after the level of trust between the consumer and the business owner is sufficiently high.

Whether you are just starting to build your network or if you’ve been connecting with people in your industry for several years, you could probably benefit from a mentor to help you improve and expand your business networking.

A mentor is someone you trust who is wiser and more experienced in an area of interest to you. They also can be someone who is influential and willing to support you. This is a perfect relationship for someone who is serious about their networking. The very definition of mentoring requires you to engage in the basics of networking by seeking out, meeting, and asking for staying connected in the relationship. It’s a bit ironic that if you are just starting out in networking, you may not have the self-confidence or the range of connections that will help you find a mentor. That is a subject for an entire article on its own, but here’s a hint: join your local chamber of commerce.

Finding a mentor can be as simple as attending networking events and looking for people who attend a wide variety of events and who seem to know a lot of people. Ask for a coffee meeting for the purpose of talking about their networking strategy. You’ll know you’ve found the right person when they are enthusiastic about talking on the subject.

I suggest outright asking them if they would be willing to mentor you in networking. Very few people are ever asked to do that. It’s incredibly flattering to be respected and appreciated for your knowledge on a topic. Their only hesitation might be the time involved. Let them know very specifically what you are asking for. I recommend one or two coffee meetings per month at the most and perhaps a follow-up email or phone call per week. Reassure them that you will be very respectful of their time. They are mentoring, not completely training you.

You should also attend one or two of the same networking events as your mentor. That way you can watch them “in action.” They should also be willing to introduce you to some of their contacts (but not as their “mentee” – that sounds funny!).

At some point, the student may become the master. As you develop your own contacts and learn about different networking opportunities, be sure to share them with your mentor. They’ve given you their best advice with perhaps no thought of the return to them, so be sure to give back to them as much as possible.