Networking Is Alot Like War
When I look at networking, I always have to compare it to war. Not that you have to go out and get business cards and phone numbers by gunpoint or anything. But in the modern war, you have to use your brain matched up with tricky tactics in order to get somewhere on occasion.
Back in my music business days, I took to guerrilla marketing tactics in order to land my contacts. Contacts that I have to this very day should I ever wish to get back into the entertainment industry. My contacts include various celebrities, music producers, record label ceos, film directors, a&r reps, and the list goes on.
In less time since I got into the web entrepreneur industry, I have landed even more contacts that are vital to my online success. I did it in less time because I already had that networking experience. So how did I do it you ask?
Social Networking is KEY
With the invention of social networks came the innovation of guerrilla networking. I have used the “narrowing down” tools of MySpace to add to my network significantly in just days. An example would be in the music industry. You can narrow down your people search by income, work industry, location, etc. If I knew a music producer was in Los Angeles and I knew his income was over $250,000 then I had a great bit of information to go by. I could then add that person, and take part in commenting on his page. I can gradually insert myself into his life through interacting on that social network.
With Facebook, you can search for people who work for a specific company. Each social network has it’s own tools to make your life easier when it comes to networking.
Go To Where They Flock
When a website gets regular users, they tend to get those users in great amounts. Sites like Yahoo! Groups for example get a great number of active users. Take advantage of the many possible target groups and their owner’s marketing efforts to build those groups.
Yahoo Groups allows various ways of promoting yourself, even if it isn’t intended for that purpose. If you offer a related service to that group, and that group has open link add abilities, then add your resource to their links page.
Utilize the Yahoo Groups “post” feature and take part in those messages. A bunch of users who sign up for groups allow email updates. Because of this, those people will get sent new messages in a digest on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. There are many websites out there besides Yahoo! Groups. You just have to find them. Networking is not about just being active on a single site. It is about using many, and adding up that traffic into one big traffic cloud. The same concept applies to making money blogging. You wouldn’t rely on direct ad sales alone. You want to throw some affiliate offers, and subscription services into the mix.
People LOVE Free
I like to open up Microsoft Word, add a few pages of links to free resources, and links back to my blog and social network profiles. I then convert it into a PDF file and uploading it as a torrent, as well as distributing it in other ways online. I may even add it to a zip file containing other files the person was looking for.
Some software companies allow you to redistribute their free trial software as is, as long as you don’t include serial numbers or keygens because that’s illegal. I can take that software, include my PDF, and distribute it as a torrent. People think they are downloading illegal software and end up with a free trial and my PDF file. It’s kind of funny.
Networking is about being creative. In the war out in Iraq, they don’t just force themselves into territories with guns and grenades. They network with locals by using soldiers that appear to be local. They find out where the big hideouts are where the big boys are taking refuge. Once they have that information, they can go in with full force without the enemy knowing that they are on their way. The same rules apply to networking. You have to be sneaky and slick to get where you want to be. Successful networking means not getting caught being sneaky. That means that you don’t just go to blogs and post non-relevant topics in order to get backlinks.
Are you a guerrilla?
Tagged with: guerrilla marketing • guerrilla networking • social networking
Filed under: Internet Marketing • List Building • Marketing
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Twitter: stanmyoung
says:
Hey Brandon
Excellent post, just a new person to the blogging scene you have provided me with some great tips on how to be successful in the blogging war. 255 blogs thats a lot of writting. You are obviously a serious blogger what has been the most successful way to get traffic to your site and how successful have you been converting this into sales? Looking forward to reading your e-book blogging for income. This will probably answer my questions. Thanks for the great idea’s
Stan Young´s last [type] ..I wish there were No Problems!
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
says:
Thank you Stan. Converting the traffic into sales gets easier with time and after you have build your subscriber list. At first, sales were nearly impossible. But after a few months and a lot of marketing, it is more common-place.
I certainly agree to this post. Networking can also be compare to a war. In this kind of media people are in the mode of sharing idea and tips. Exchanging advices is commonly encountered in this kind of media.
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
says:
I hear that. That’s the kind of coordination that helps make blogs successful these days.
Thank you for this great article. I’d compare networking to softer form of war – chess. You have to use your brain to beat your competition and even one wrong move may cost you a lot…
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
says:
You don’t always have to beat the competition though. You can work together and team up to help each other.
Of course you are right. Cooperation is very important and brings benefits to both sides. But sometimes there is only one winner, like in chess.
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
says:
That’s true. In reality, everyone wants to be the one to benefit the most. People evolved to understand that they sometimes have to work together to get there though. Some people do now however, and they go it alone. Some even make enemies.