Networking Campaign

A Networking Campaign is marketing for social networks promoted and practiced by MarcFreedman. It is a form of communications that is and must be personal, genuine, and one-to-one to be effective.

For the average networker it's a simple referral to a small group of friends saying "Hey, Chuck, I found this great new web site called MyLinkWiki that has a vast array of LinkedIn help resources. I highly recommend it."

The challenge is scaling that up for thousands of connections for ActiveNetworkers actively pitching products and services.

The campaign is a go-to-market (or in this case go-to-network) program whereby you proactively create and execute your networking strategy. It should include the following:

• Plan. Rationalize your campaign from start to finish. What is your objective, which connections can you proactively enlist, who are you trying to reach, how do you want to be perceived, what do you expect from your contacts, how will it convert to business?
• Communications. All of your communications, including introduction, followup, and other collaterals should be appropriately crafted to support your campaign.
• Tools. LinkedIn limits updates to 200 connections at a time. You'll need to use your own tools if you're contacting thousands of connections.
• Products. Networking products are similar to marketing and support products you may already have. They can be surveys, blogs, reports, white papers, newsletters, groups, free seminars, etc. It's part of soft-selling. At this point you're giving, not taking. These products incent business contacts to accept your contact. They provide value to the recipient, demonstrate your expertise, and open the door to a personal relationship as the first step in a possible business relationship.