Free Ways for Entrepreneurs to Network

In browsing through the internet today, I stumbled across a great resource for discovering groups of people with common interest who meet, yes, in the real world. While social networking is becoming more and more popular, meeting with someone face-to-face still ranks extremely high, if not appearing on the highest rung on the successful business ladder.

I've complied a short list of best resources for entrepreneurs to network (in no particular order):

1. MEETUP.COM: Meetup Groups meet face-to-face to pursue hobbies, network, get support, make friends, find playgroups or even change the world. What's interesting here is that while you can still meet and chat in a virtual world, the true power here lies with the ability to meet with the people you connect with in a real-world setting. So chances are while you've plugged your services online, you're way ahead of the game when meeting with potential clients at a later date. There's already that sense of familiarity... And yes, very often these group meetings are free.
   
2. LINKEDIN.COM: LinkedIn has been around for several years and has begun porting several features from the more common social community websites. The advantage of LinkedIn is that it's geared to drive more "professional" connections as opposed to social or friendship liaisons. LinkedIn also has a Q&A feature which lets you position yourself as an "expert" in your field depending on the number of questions you answer from the public and of course the quality of your answer. The trick is to always leave a link to your website as part of your signature. The disadvantage of LinkedIn is its lack of a portfolio feature, so if you're in a creative field, it difficult to directly expose your work.
   
3. FACEBOOK.COM: The most popular kid in school, Facebook provides a means of uploading and displaying our portfolio within a dedicated company group to which many of our contacts have willingly joined. As a result of our continued perserverance and belief in social marketing (and quite frankly, one of the best "free" forms of networking available to us), we've managed to connect with people that helped us secure projects with clients we would not have normally had the opportunity to work for -- case in point, SoftImage and Bell Canada.
   
4. BLOGGING: Red Dream Studios has a company blog, yes. It's used to expose what's going on at our company and showcase new designs as they are released, but to also educate about design and web practices, and how to use social media marketing to expose your company digitally throughout cyberspace. I think the real power of blogging isn't in the blog per se, but connecting it through various portals that index and scour blogs for relevant content such as Digg, Technorati, and StumbleUpon. By building communities who are "fans" of what you blog about, you inherently increase your relevance in the online world, and therefore that of your company's offerings.
   
5. BEHANCE.NET: Behance is portfolio/networking site for creatives. While there are others out there, this is one of the more ingenious ones. Not only can you expose your creative portfolio here, but it's also a warehouse of tips, tricks, links, and lets you collaborate on projects with other creative gurus around the world.
   
6. YOUR OWN WEBSITE: I hesitated about putting this one in because you typically have to pay a little for the server space to run a website, but it's of course a primary way to get your business known to the public. In short, if you're not on the web in this respect, there's very little hope that your business will succeed.
   
7. CLASSIFIED ADS: I find this a last resort to soliciting business because it's a little altruistic in my opinion. The most obvious choice here is to post a free ad on Craigslist in trying to promote your service offering even though it's a more ommon practice to ask for something on Craigslist.

While this is by no means an exhaustive list, it's a few good ones to get you started. If you have any success stories you'd like to share, please feel free to comment.

Visit my Meetup Profile here.
Visit my LinkedIn Profile here.
Visit my Facebook Group here.
Visit my Behance.net Profile here.

Gabbing 'bout Social Media Marketing

Yesterday morning, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Ernesta Rossi, partner with Advantis Communications Inc., a marketing and PR company based in Markham, Ontario. We connected because I had answered a question of hers on the social networking site, LinkedIn, of which I've been a member for several years now -- and have only recently discovered a hidden networking power behind it, the Answers feature.

LinkedIn has typically been a resource for executives and business people to connect and network. For example, I recently have been connecting to former colleagues in order to keep them updated on my goings-on, particularly the fact that I'm now running my company, Red Dream Studios as a full-time venture.

Ernesta, and her company, are conducting a presentation this week on whether or not companies were using social media marketing tools to advance their businesses. She spotted the answer to a question that was posed to over 1 million LinkedIn professionals, to which I answered the following:

"As a small company, with a limited/non-existant budget for traditional, mainstream advertising, my company, Red Dream Studios, is using social media marketing as one of its primary ways of presenting its services, portfolio, messaging, and securing new clients. We've been relying principaly on LinkedIn and Facebook (and of course our own blog).

While LinkedIn provides us with exposure to the executives, Facebook provides a means of uploading and displaying our portfolio within a dedicated company group to which many of our contacts have willingly joined. As a result of our continued perserverance and belief in social marketing (and quite frankly, one of the best "free" forms of networking available to us), we've managed to connect with people that helped us secure projects with clients we would not have normally had the opportunity to work for -- case in point, SoftImage and Bell Canada.

Moreover, we've encouraged many of our clients (who are they themselves entrepreneurs) to use social marketing for their businesses. Since many of the media they expose on these sites has been created by us, we've been able to begin a sort of viral networking, exposing our works to way beyond traffic that visits our portfolio website, or to our clients directly. So in effect, our clients become virtual sales champions for our company and has resulted in propogated business."

Ernesta decided to contact me directly and we had a wonderful chat. During her presentation, she will be repeating much of what I've told her and will of course be referencing Red Dream Studios by name (another example of virtual networking). And what's even more exciting is that while we were talking, she happened to be perusing the Red Dream Studios website and noticed that I offer audio production and voiceover services. She then proceeded to tell me that her company is going to be offering some podcasting services and would need both audio production and voiceover services.

A very odd coincidence, but once again, a prime example of how social media marketing can result in connections with new clients and projects without direct solicitation or mainstream advertising.

Face it -- you're addicated to Facebook

Ok, you've heard the same story many times before:

1. Your wife or friend tries to convince you to join Facebook.com.
2. Your wife or friend was convinced to join by one of her friends.
3. You, your wife, or your friend were all reluctant to join another blog, myspace, or other service dedicated to cluttering up the internet.
4. You, your wife, or your friend, all reluctantly agree to start your own profile.
5. You, your wife, or your friend are now highly addicted to Facebook.
6. You, your wife, or your friend are now all in competition to see who can tally up the most friends possible -- whether or not you've actually spoken to the person face-to-face in over 10 years is irrelevant, it's still a notch on your Friends list.

I have to admit, I was truly uninterested in Facebook. However, once my wife convinced me to join, I was hooked. For me however, there is always an alterior motive.

Blogging is a well known marketing tool to help promote you and your business, or whatever other fiction you want to publish all over the internet. Facebook is another such useful marketing tool, particularly since it involves direct one-to-one conversations with people you wouldn't normally speak with, or haven't spoken to in a long time. The other benefit is that these friends also belong to networks of people who you may have one met, or might be interested in meeting if they are in a position to need your services.

Imagine that... Facebook lets you network with networks of people who you may have never had a chance to chat with. Imagine the potential source of clientele that such a service now exposes you to. Well, as President of Red Dream Studios, I will not shy away from exposing my face on the internet, and hope that the good word spreads...

To see my Facebook profile, visit http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=619347463&hiq=caminsky%2Cneal