Hey Creadivs,

Commerce -> That-a-way

With my networking buzz still going strong I attended the 5th Annual Health & Interest Fair at the Towne Center in Merrillville last week, and it was quite a fun time. I never really realized how much I enjoyed just getting out of the office and meeting new people. In the name of commerce and company visibility that is.

With the goal of handing out some cards and expanding my network I walked into my first ever health fair/ expo thingy. It was a lot of fun. I got to meet [...]]]>

Hey Creadivs,

Commerce -> That-a-way

With my networking buzz still going strong I attended the 5th Annual Health & Interest Fair at the Towne Center in Merrillville last week, and it was quite a fun time. I never really realized how much I enjoyed just getting out of the office and meeting new people. In the name of commerce and company visibility that is.

With the goal of handing out some cards and expanding my network I walked into my first ever health fair/ expo thingy. It was a lot of fun. I got to meet some more amazing people that had some really cool products and strong ties to the medical field. I gained a new potential lead and a really cool opportunity to help a new RFID company do some data collection.

If you don’t believe the adage “it isn’t what you know it is who you know” then you are a ball in high weeds. Social networking gives you an absolute amazing advantage in business. Building your personal brand is a hot topic for me as I read Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk and I am absolutely dumbfounded by the success of this guy. He has made himself a brand by doing what he does best, meeting people.

Now don’t get me wrong you can’t be out there spewing BS all over the place and have success just because you know some people. But if you are overlooking getting out there on Facebook , Twitter, Linked In or even at local conventions you are missing a huge market and a huge opportunity.

I know that I will be attending the Health and Wellness fair annually. What will you be doing to grow yourself?

Social networking tip:

When you get back from your event make sure you take the time to file your business cards away. Organizing them in your binder or entering the info into your outlook contacts folder can take some time, but in the end will leave you better prepared to find and contact that person later on. Also you can leave notes about what they looked like, what they do, how you met them, and what interest you shared that could help create a better network.

Links

Gary Vaynerchuk – The Wine Guy that knows business.
The amazon link in this post is an affiliate link. I am trying to make some money by selling you stuff I like.

Hey Creadivs,

I have recently become quite the busy body on the social networking scene. Building Facebook fan pages, Linkedin connections, and gaining Twitter followers has been my MO for the last couple of weeks.

Why? To gain visibility in local, national, and international markets.

My primary focus is gaining visibility, meeting people, and making contacts within NWI. So I have been searching local #hashtags on Twitter, and connecting with current and former employees on Facebook. Two technologies that are ridiculously popular at the moment. But it occurred to me that no matter how many connections [...]]]>

Hey Creadivs,

I have recently become quite the busy body on the social networking scene. Building Facebook fan pages, Linkedin connections, and gaining Twitter followers has been my MO for the last couple of weeks.

Why? To gain visibility in local, national, and international markets.

My primary focus is gaining visibility, meeting people, and making contacts within NWI. So I have been searching local #hashtags on Twitter, and connecting with current and former employees on Facebook. Two technologies that are ridiculously popular at the moment. But it occurred to me that no matter how many connections I made and how well I got to know them online, I needed more. I needed high touch as well as high tech. So it was time to get offline.

Yesterday was the first day that I did that. I attended the Northwest Indiana Business Professionals luncheon at Portillo’s in Merrillville. An event that was absolutely what I was looking for, good food, good contacts, and good advice. I met a handful of great individuals that I was able to speak to, connect with, and even add back to my online community. But the best part was that I could see them, I could shake their hands, and I gained the ability to be able to pick them out of a crowd, something that you just can’t get from twitter.

After lunch Kathy Sipple of My Social Media Coach gave a presentation on the benefits of using online communities the likes of twitter and linked in and even shared a couple of really cool tools with our group.

Yesterday was a major success in my book, and I look forward to joining the NWIBP ( Northwest Indiana Business Professionals ) Group as a full fledged member.

The future of my social networking calendar already has a new event. The 5th Annual Health & Interest Fair in Merrillville set for tomorrow make sure you check it out.

Social networking tip:

Make sure you exchange business cards because unless you have a great memory you aren’t going to remember everyone. When you have a second use the back of the card to write down some notes about that person. Some identifiers, some conversation pieces, or any thing that you feel may be of relevance down the road.

Links Courtesy Of Kathy Sipple:

twtqpon – create and distribute twitter Coupons
socialoomph – social networking tools including scheduled tweets