The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success, and two key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Some key aspects of building a business are: raising capital, marketing, and recruitment of talent. Another key piece is networking which will allow you find partners in addition to finding customers. The following contributed discusses the importance of building networks and the post is thus entitled, Building A Business? It’s All About Making Connections.
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The more you look into it, the more it becomes apparent that everything we do in life is dependent on a community. Nowhere is that more true than when you’re trying to launch your own business. Be it academic networks or entrepreneurial ones, the connections we are able to make are a major factor in determining our success. We go through life forming new communities. We need to find others who connect with what we are writing or selling. People who will share what we have to say with their own networks via social media or word of mouth. Communities function through the building of relationships and the exchange of ideas, and if you’re trying to get a company off the ground, then having the opportunity and the ability to form those relationships is absolutely vital. Forming a quality connection is about finding the common ground, having a shared vision or set of ideas. Once you have this, you’ll have an audience of brand advocates that can support, challenge and improve what you do.
Developing An Audience-Centric Content Strategy
But how do you find this community and connect with them in the right way? You have to begin by putting yourself out there – taking a few risks, showing what you’re all about and laying out your stall – literally and metaphorically! Find your voice and see who responds to it. It all starts with creating some quality content introducing your brand and it’s products or services. Work with the best web developers or Video Production Companies to refine your messages and positioning and make content which truly reflects who you are and what you’re aiming to do. This is your chance to show the world what your intentions are, so make it the best you can.
Establish A Feedback Loop
Once you’re out there with some content, put in place mechanisms to ensure you’re getting an accurate picture of the reactions people have. Use an audience discovery tool such as Mention to set up alerts around phrases and keywords relevant to your business. Topics you care about will guide you to your audience. They can be geographically related, related to a particular industry or even just a be a quirky subject that you have a particular interest in. Monitoring these topics will allow you to discover potential community members and further expand your networks of people and relevant interests. You can also use social listening to understand what people are saying about your business, what they love that you do, where you could improve and even ideas for future development.
Join In The Discussion
Reaching out on topics of interest or customer support issues can quickly gain you a reputation and a following, but it does take a bit of work to get off the ground initially. The key is to have a great CRM system which allows you to manage all your data centrally and connect with other services such as social media scheduling software, customer support tickets and email. Use this source to gather a fuller picture of who you are talking to using a tool like Riffle and then make those valuable connections that can really take your business to the next level.
