There's Power in Networking!Written by Denise Turney
An Ethiopian proverb states - "When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion." When one considers that small businesses accounted for 53 percent of private workforce and 50 percent of nation's entire private gross domestic product, it becomes clear that small business plays a large role in our nation's economy. Small business owners gain an enormous power when they join ranks. It is for this reason that networking plays an integral role in success of each small business.As 2002 advances, it is imperative that we embraces power of networking. Whether you are a business owner or work for another firm, stepping outside our comfort zone brings promise. Networking is one of leading ways businesses learn about upcoming trade shows, business expos, conferences and cultural events where vendors can reach specific audiences. For example, at www.chistell.com we learned about heavily trafficked events around country through networking channels we are active in. We attended a few of those events as a vendor last year and moved more books at each of these events in one to two days than we moved in a month at our website. Of course, we are planning to network and attend more of these events in 2002! You don't have to be a marketing guru or a world class speaker to network effectively. In fact, two of most important keys to networking are: respect for self and respect for others. I highly recommend that you network strongest in areas closely tied in with products that you market and sell. Not only will you discover what does and does not work in your field, you will also hear about events that pull in your target audience in large numbers.
| | Relationship selling through usenet newsgroupsWritten by Jeff Gilman
90,000 newsgroups on usenet offer something to everyone. Use relationship selling to promote your web site and business. Get noticed on internet for free. News groups, or usenet, is internet equivalent of a bulletin board. It was also one of first internet technologies preceding world wide web by years. There are over 90,000 DIFFERENT NEWSGROUPS covering every subject under sun and this article will tell you how to get connected to millions of people who interact through Usenet daily. Here are a few examples of kinds of groups there are and opportunities you have to market your services: Groups with word health in them alt.health.fasting biz.health christnet.healing.herbs Groups with word business in them alt.business.internal-audit seattle.business us.sc.charleston.business Words with park in them gov.us.topic.nat-resources.parks rec.arts.disney.parks semcog.pub-facilities.parking Groups are set up and maintained by special interests including, but not limited to gov (government), us (local governmental or quasi governmental entities such as a state university or city), biz (business) or alt (for alternative - any thing goes). Some of these groups are deadly serious and aimed at specialized markets. For example, you can read business process reengineering group news for a year without smiling. Some are pure commercial - seattle.business and alt.business.franchise are about commercial transactions only. Some are for making public announcements such as gov.us.ed.announce and comp.windows.x.announce which are internet equivalent of public announcement section of news paper. People with common and specialized interests join these groups to share their stuff. The groups are a meeting place and a place you should go to meet people who need you. Groups are either moderated or unmoderated. A moderated group has a one member who reads everything to determine if it is appropriate to be posted to group's bulletin board. Unmoderated groups allow anyone to post anything. The success of a moderated group depends on quality of moderator. If junk is let in, value of group goes down. The success of unmoderated groups depends on group's community. A serious community will write some very nasty letters to people who post off message subjects to their group. My caution to you is to stay on subject for each group. To my mind there are three key reasons to participate in newsgroups. First, you might learn something about your line of work or about environment in which you function. Business and organizations monitor newsgroups for explicit purpose of learning about their environments. Intel famously watches groups relating to its products and often hears about bugs and issues before they become generally known. They use groups, in part, as an extension of their quality control system. The CIA monitors terrorist groups to get a handle on that famous buzz. I monitor non-profit organization newsgroups because I do a lot of work for non-profits and am a student of their management. We all learn something.
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