By Ken Garen, CPA
Social networking business practices are rapidly changing the way in which accountants work including how they market and grow their business. Connecting your business with other businesses doesn't begin and end with joining the local Chamber of Commerce or through creating a profile and connecting with others on any number of social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook.
Resourceful accountants will start or be the leading charge in building their own professional business network. By doing so, they are perceived as a business leader by the attendees, and thus, are likely to gain more referrals. The accountant who leads their own network controls who attends the meetings, and can effectively screen or exclude potential competitors and include potential partners. Innovative companies seek out up-and-coming social networking business opportunities like these – ones that go beyond social by delivering connections that yield business-building results. Investing time, energy, or resources into a social networking business practice should drive innovation, positively impact profitability and revenue, and be managed for the purpose of directly benefiting all members.
Social networking business practices are emerging as predestined to impact an organization's long-term plans, programs and initiatives - either maturing to broad market use during the next three years, or, they may enable a decidedly strategic advantage for the accountants who leverage these practices in a strategic way as they are emerging. The time to investigate social networking opportunities is now, with the early adopters best positioned to benefit long-term.
Being well versed in which social networking opportunities would directly benefit your business is critical because adoption is necessary and the timeline for adoption, business-critical. As these trends grow and gain momentum, they have the greatest potential to disrupt a practice for those that chose to remain uninvolved and uninformed. Slipping into complacency, choosing to be a late adopter, or missing the opportunities altogether may require a major dollar investment sometime down the road or put a practice at the greatest level of risk of survival.
The Internet is the catalyst that has moved networking beyond the limitations of physical boundaries that previously dictated how and when we connected with others. Today, professionals are connecting daily via the Internet for business and networking purposes - literally from anywhere and at anytime. Our industry is morphing into a more virtual world where most aspects of business that formerly required travel can now happen via the Internet, resulting in less frequent social business interaction. Social networking through the Internet and through new up-and-coming business-to-business networking events allows for that interaction to continue as most are spending less time moving about in the business world on a daily basis.
The Internet has made connecting with others easy. To say that online social networking sites are hugely popular would be an understatement. Sites like Twitter and Facebook are literally busting at the seams with millions of people eager to connect. However, investing your time and resources into a strategically advantageous networking environment is critical to yielding relationships that result in strong bonds that cause new business to happen.
Being strategic about it
Stepping into a business-to-business social networking setting does not have to feel like stepping into a boardroom with very little information on what's about to happen or with whom you’ll be meeting. Whether face-to-face or through online networks and user groups, the key to making business networking advantageous is to efficiently elevate the interaction to a strategic level. This is possible only if the relationship has the potential to directly benefit or positively impact business profitability or productivity for each participant.
The Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis Club and the Lions Club have served as traditional networking platforms for decades. These organizations work well to initially open doors and connect with local business contacts. After the initial contacts have been made members will have to wait for a new member to join the group in order to make any new connections. Networking only through these organizations can limit your scope of “connectivity” to a restricted geographic boundary.
There are dozens of emerging social business networking sites and organizations accountants can become active in. However, many focus on the social aspect, forcing accountants to monitor traffic on the site - much like an air traffic controller - in order to find opportunities to possibly connect with others. Connecting with other like-minded business professionals requires investing your energy into the most strategic organizations. Doing so will increase the probability of quickly building strong network alliances that directly positively impact profitability, productivity, and promote business growth.
Social business-to-business networking in a speed-dating format
Ria Botzler, founder of Checks & Doublechecks (www.checksanddoublechecks.com), a payroll and accounting business, is a true pioneer in the area of developing strategic social business networking in speed-dating format events. In 2005, she founded Strategic Networking as a way to develop new clients for her business, Checks & Doublechecks. In 2008, she changed the name of this strategic networking business to Netnoworking (www.netnoworking.com), which has skyrocketed in popularity and is currently being franchised across the United States.
When Netnoworking members gather for a business-to-business networking event, attendees are constantly rotated through and purposefully selected to allow participants to meet with dozens of other businesses face-to-face. The meetings are beneficial and the networking is strategic. Each participant is guaranteed one-on-one meeting time with other members for a two to three-minute meet-and-greet power session, much like a business-to-business “speed-dating.” Netnoworking is structured to allow members to quickly find common ground, discuss mutually beneficial services, and to generate the introductory contact for what could develop into a resourcing relationship.
Many accounting professionals and business owners may wonder how social networking can be leveraged as a viable marketing tool to grow business or increase firm profitability. When meetings become strategically structured and orchestrated in a way like Netnoworking business-to-business speed dating format, members can align and efficiently capture the competitive advantage through its use.