I've been thinking a lot lately about the importance of networking, and what impact leveraging your small business networks has on your business.
Darren Rowse @ Problogger.net put together a great post (and nice graphic) detailing what makes up his social media network at Problogger, which looked something like this:
Darren put together this idea based on some work done by Chris Brogan, as detailed in this presentation by Chris, which starts frames the idea of "Hubs and Outposts" as they relate to web presence and social media. The idea being that we all should have a "hub" or home base in the virtual world surrounded by outpost which act as our virtual networks/outlets.
This got me thinking that what Darren was sharing, and the concepts Chris developed, were only one half of the equation for most small business owners. I began to think of our networks more as interconnected webs with infinite possibility to make contacts and connections to further our business, split between two halves - the Virtual Social Network and the Physical Social Network.
My graphic looks something like this (I know, Darren's is much prettier!)
Notice how elements of one network overlap with the other. For example, your customers may be on Facebook, or Twitter even if you don't have a presence there.
As small business owners our job is to learn about how these networks interconnect and overlap, and then put a plan in place to best leverage those networks. Not only should we have Hubs and Outpost in our online communities, but in our "real world" communities as well.
If you have a brick and mortar storefront, why aren't you on Twitter, or Facebook? Your customers are! If you run an online business why haven't you partnered with the local Chamber of Commerce or Networking groups in your area? They go online!
As small business owners we should have two hubs. One resides in a Virtual Social Network and the other in a Physical Social Network, with both hubs being surrounded by numerous interconnected outposts.
The lines have not only gotten blurred between Virtual networks and Physical networks they have been obliterated! By overlooking either side of the Social Networking equation you are overlooking one of the most important elements to your businesses success.
What do you think? Is your business effectively operating in Virtual and Physical Social Networks?
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- Seth Godin on Social Networking and how to do it Right
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I enjoyed this post.
Now add dimensions for your Competitors, your Suppliers, Innovators in the field that you need to monitor and you see why one might feel stretched.
Perhaps the lines which connect me in a relationship are Twitter or Facebook, not the destination. So the original network would not show a connecting line from my Business to Twitter, but that Twitter is a connecting line from my business or site to my key supplier for example. The social media sites are NOT the objective. They are one type of conduit to the objective of better communications with my customers, suppliers, competitors, etc.
@Bruce
I think you’re following the concept I’m trying to get across. In and of itself the social media outlets may not be the destination for your business, but they play a role in the overall network reach of your organization. So while your business may not have a direct line to twitter, it has a dotted line relationship through your customers, or others in you physical networking world.
As for being stretched, yeah…you need some parameters on how far out you want to go with your networking or you will drive yourself crazy trying to keep up with it all.
Matt