By: Phillip M. Perry
July/August 2010

As the graying members of the energy sector edge closer to retirement, an entire generation of new workers is stepping in to take their place, creating in the interim, a complex and complicated inter-generational workforce. This workforce includes Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964; Generation X’ers who entered the world between 1964 and 1982; and the trickling in each year of Gen Y’ers, born between 1980 and 1995.

Collaborate with current customers, find new ones, expand your business.

If you’re like most businesses you already use the Internet to promote sales. Maybe you have a web site, a message board and an e-newsletter.

But have you taken advantage of the Internet’s fast growing social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn? These web-based communities let people with common interests share information and ideas.

Your customers already use social networks. So should you. “The Internet is in the middle of a seismic shift from being a place for finding information to being the social hub of people’s lives,” says Cat Griffin, a spokesperson for Facebook. “This shift creates new opportunities for business people to build stronger relationships with customers and with each other.”

Rapid growth
There are more than 100 social networking sites, and more are starting up every day. Some are regional or local. Others specialize in specific topics such as hobbies.

You have likely heard of the most popular of the consumer sites: MySpace and Facebook. Your first interest, though, may be LinkedIn. “LinkedIn is more of a business social network, with professionals getting on line to find other business professionals,” explains Kathleen Taylor, author of How to Succeed in Business Using LinkedIn. “With Facebook and MySpace you put in more personal stuff such as your birth date and pictures of your kids or your dog.” (For web site addresses of all these organizations see the sidebar, “Leading Social Network Sites.”)

Connect with professionals
Let’s cover how to use LinkedIn. First, some background: Now five years old, LinkedIn has 27 million users and is growing at some one million new users every month. The average user is 41 years old with an $110,000 income.

“We have over 600,000 small business owners and over three million small business professionals,” says Krista Canfield, public relations manager at LinkedIn. And there is worldwide coverage. “Only half of our members are in the U.S.,” says Canfield. “You get a more global perspective and can even get advice on doing business in another country.”

How to get started? Sign up for your own free account. You won’t need much information beyond your name, city, birth date and e-mail address. As you’ll see below, though, you’ll want to add more information that will help to build a productive network.

Start by searching for your best customers, many of whom already have accounts on social networks. Send an invitation to each to become your friend inside the network. Every time someone says “yes,” your personal network grows.

Then go further: You can easily find more people who share your interests by searching with key words that describe your products and services. (Be sure to add these keywords to your own profile so people can find you when they run their own searches). Introduce yourself to these people by sending them messages. Again, ask them to become your friend inside the network. Search for the keyword CEO to find high net worth individuals. The more quality people you add to your network the more valuable your social networking becomes.

Now you can start using your new network to collaborate with current customers, find new ones, expand your business contacts and get answers to pressing questions. Got a new product you want to announce? Need to find a special employee for a new initiative? Send messages to your network.

Social networks of all kinds provide opportunities for growing your customer base and extending your professional contacts.

“We are a great place to find answers,” says Canfield. “Ask any question which is business or professional related. We have found that some 93 percent of questions get answers in eight or nine hours.” You can also make a question private, and just send it to however many contacts you want. In any case “people sending answers tend to be very detailed because their resumes are attached to what they are saying.”

You can also use LinkedIn to get advice on which vendors to go with. “Suppose you are considering doing business with a certain supplier,” says Canfield. “Is that person someone you can trust? You can find out by searching for that person’s contacts and contacting them.”

“Or suppose you are looking for a certain kind of supplier. You can start by sending a message to everyone in your network — does any one of them know a supplier they can recommend?”

And how about a product? Is that new wireless phone worth its price tag? Post the question in LinkedIn.

And you may find still more uses for this tool once you get started. “We have actually had companies get acquired using LinkedIn,” says Canfield. “They knew their organizations would make a good fit with another, so they did a search on our service to find the right partner.”

Connect with customers
At first blush, Facebook and MySpace might not seem like good tools for your business. But they can be. “These services are great for reaching business people on a more personal level,” says Taylor. “For example, once on Facebook I saw that a certain individual with whom I would love to do work for was celebrating his birthday. I was already linked with him on LinkedIn, so I e-mailed him a ‘Happy Birthday.’ It’s a nice way to get connected.”
Here are some other ways to use the consumer networks:
• Create a fan page for your business

You can create a free page about your business on Facebook. Users can interact and affiliate as a fan of your business in the same way they interact with your personal profile. For more information go to www.new. facebook.com/FacebookPages.
• Send news feeds

Always something new at your business, right? Post news feeds on Facebook to let the world know. A list of your announcements will show up on your business page. (For more information search for “News feeds” on Facebook.)
• Promote your business through ads

So far everything you have done has been without charge. Now consider spending some money: Social networks offer advertising plans to attract more attention to your business.

Bonus tips
Social networks of all kinds provide opportunities for growing your customer base and extending your professional contacts. But spend a little time studying the guidelines of each service to make sure you don’t break the rules concerning spam or other matters.
• Always use good taste. “The biggest thing is to not forget your manners,” says Canfield. “Very often people online don’t remember to use the same rules of etiquette as they do in person.” Put yourself in the other person’s shoes, suggests Canfield. “Before you send an e-mail think how you would respond to that e-mail yourself.”
• Avoid random linking. Think of social networks as high tech, high impact referral systems. “Each connection you make should bring value to both parties,” says Taylor. “The whole idea of building your network is having someone who can say they know who you are. Avoid signing up with strangers. It is uncomfortable to be connected with people you do not know.”
• Watch for new ideas. LinkedIn is always adding new features, adds Taylor. Recently, for example, the service started posting links to articles that users might find useful.

The tool of the future
The bigger your pool of friends the more effective these social networks will be. “Once you get up to 200 people or so you reach a kind of critical mass and you will be amazed at what happens,” says Taylor.
Effectiveness will only increase as these tools become more popular. “Young people today are using these networks more and more,” says Taylor. “As the social networks get more popular they will become as valuable to your business as the telephone in your office.”