Biz Tips Blog: Online Marketing, Visibility and Business Blogging Tips

Smart Networking - Interview with Liz Lynch

Every entrepreneur knows that relationships are the key to growth. You can't find the best partners, win over the best clients, or attract the best opportunities without making connections and having conversations. In other words, through networking.

But how do you keep networking from being awkward, overwhelming and a big time sink? Well, my colleague, networking strategist and coach Liz Lynch shows you EXACTLY how to build lasting relationships easily, authentically and productively in her book Smart Networking: Attract a Following In Person and Online. (I'm quoted on page 41 about using blogs as a networking tool!)

She's been speaking all over the country and all over the media, and here are some of the key questions everyone has and wants the answers to:

What's the biggest challenge people have with networking?
The biggest challenge has got to be the word itself. People have so many negative feelings about it-not something they want to do, or worse, have done to them. So they resist getting out there until they really have to and then they give off a scent of desperation that makes networking awkward and uncomfortable for everybody.

What's the premise of Smart Networking and how is it different?
Smart networking is about getting 24/7 results WITHOUT the 24/7 effort, because NO ONE wants to network non-stop. It's about becoming skilled at connecting both in person and online when you need to so that you can build relationships with ANYONE you need to meet, and combining that with key strategies for increasing your visibility so that opportunities find YOU.

LinkedIn Expert Chip Lambert Interview (video)

After a couple years of exchanging emails, I finally got to meet Chip Lambert face to face. Chip is one of the leading experts on how to effectively use LinkedIn, the business to business social networking site.

There's a lot of buzz about using Facebook and Twitter for social networking and building relationships to grow your business. But don't neglect LinkedIn. It's one of the earliest business networking sites and enables you to develop connections with potential referral partners, joint venture partners as well as clients.

Chip Lambert gave a terrific presentation at Increase Sales with Social Media. Here are some user stats he shared about LinkedIn:  30 million professionals, 1.3 million new members/month 750,000 senior execs, average household income is $109K.

If you're on Twitter, follow Chip Lambert. If you're on LinkedIn, make sure you connect with Chip there as well. If we're not connected on LinkedIn yet, then let's connect!

BlogWorld TweetUp on Friday

You probably think I'm obsessed with Twitter based on the number of posts I've written. Maybe I am. It's such a cool tool for creating really amazing relationships with colleagues and customers. They become friends.

And what's better than tweeting the night away? Meeting your Twitter friends F2F (that's face to face - see Mari Smith's great post on Twitter Lingo Demystified for the full scoop). That's what we'll be doing this week in Las Vegas.

On Monday I'm winging my way to Sin City for a week of meetings with our business mentor and then 3 days at Blog World and New Media Expo. There's been lots of tweeting about who's going to be there and @SpiritCoach has coordinated a TweetUp on Friday night.

My tendency is to introversion. Being at home, connecting via the Internet is generally just fine with me.  BUT, over the last couple of years I've come to appreciate how important it is to get out and actually meet the people I know so well online. It can totally transform the connection and relationship. Now, I can hardly wait to get to Vegas and meet all my friends!

Hey, if you're in Vegas for BlogWorld September 19-21 and want to come to the TweetUp, send me a DM and I'll get you the details.

Public Speaking Can Boost Your Business

As business owners, Patsi and I have learned over the past few years that one of the keys to our success has been taking the plunge and speaking at conferences and to niche groups. Speaking has boosted our credibility and extended our ability to reach more people. In a nutshell, speaking has helped us build a successful business.

Last week we were invited to speak at a 3-day seminar coming up in August, about how to using public speaking to build your business. It's not a seminar for public speakers though if you are one you would probably learn a lot; it's actually focused on business owners, entrepreneurs and service professionals who want to, and know they need to, add speaking to their marketing toolkit.

Our friends Arvee Robinson and Lee Pound have come up with an incredible kickoff offer for their Speak Your Way to Wealth seminar in August.

Drinking from the firehose

Saturday was an intense day of injecting information directly into my brain.  While Patsi was at the Mega Speaking Empire event, coincidentally in the same hotel, I spent the day with 25 others in a room with The System creator, Ken McCarthy at the System Intensive.

I started the day with a 7:30 breakfast with Patsi and our colleague Kathleen Gage of Street Smarts Marketing whom I had never met in person.  We jammed a lot of potential joint venture ideas in to an hour before we all moved on to our workshops.

The System Intensive was approximately 8 hours of Ken McCarthy giving the bird's eye view of marketing online and off.  McCarthy comes from a lineage of direct marketers and then transferred that knowledge to online marketing. The day started with an introduction to the direct marketing giants like Maxwell Sackheim, Eugene Schwartz, John Caples, David Ogilvy, and Gary Halbert.