For most there is a clear distinction between social sites such as
Facebook and the business alternatives. However, some still have
reservations about many of these sites in terms of business benefits
and believe that they have a social bias, putting former colleagues in
touch with one another or helping people improve their career
prospects.
But there's no doubt that in the current climate many of these
networking sites will look again at their key objectives and focus much
more on promoting businesses ahead of individuals. For sole traders and
small companies the opportunity to meet new customers and gain more
competitive quotes from a wider supplier base is absolutely critical -
and that's where online business networking comes in.
Many business owners generate sales through word of mouth and believe
there is nothing better than face-to-face meetings. But realistically
few of us have the time to do this and therefore have increasingly
started to use online networking as a substitute. It still gives you
the chance to present your business, meet lots of other business people
and build relationships.
In many ways it is the relationship building issue that people still
question - can you really develop trusted business relationships over
the internet? I believe you can. Most of us already do a substantial
portion of our business development work via email and other internet
technologies and therefore these online business communities simply
take it to the next level.
Also, opportunities to meet the decision makers within your target
market are probably fairly limited, but online this isn't a problem and
you can be highly focused in your interaction - not least because there are niche communities for
just about everything you could imagine. You can search for and locate
people in a particular industry, role or company, which is impossible
to do in face-to-face and even one-on-one email and telephone
interactions.
Also, online networking does give you an increased reach. In person, or
via email, there is a practical limit to how many people you can
connect with. But in an online community you can get your message out
to a much wider audience.
One of the challenges for many is that they have to sign up to a range
of sites to enjoy maximum benefits because most are either for business
networking or alternatively aimed at tendering, such as Supply2Gov. And
on the tender front not all sites cover both the private and public
sectors. The British Chambers of Commerce research highlighted the fact
that people wanted a site that covered both categories (networking and
tendering), which was the impetus behind our desire to build the first
combined site. We're obviously excited about the launch of the
Business Network Online (BNO), which we feel will provide a safe
platform for people to buy and sell their products and services from as
well as develop new contacts.
Business networking online is here to stay - those that embrace it
fully will benefit in terms of building their company's profile and
driving sales. Ultimately it allows you to reach more people with less
effort, to identify and connect with the right people more quickly and
to reduce travel time and expense. It really does make sense to
consider online networking - research the sites, read the various
blogs, talk to companies that already use an online network and then
sign up to the site that you feel will work best for you.
For more information visit www.britishchambers.org.uk
