So you join the Chamber, a leads group, and a few industry specific groups. And you spend hours each week going to your various groups.

Then you discover online social groups. So you start joining a bunch of online groups - and if you’re like me, you spend an hour or so every morning connecting up with people from your online groups.

But there’s still something beneficial about seeing each other face to face.

A few months ago I went searching through MeetUp and found a few local groups I had an interest in - mainly the podcasting and blogger groups. After connecting online, I attended local meetups to get to know people one to one.

I’ve also joined LinkedIn, and connected up with people from around the globe. I’ve also attended a local LinkedIn connection event, and met many great people here in my local community.

So which is the better way to network - traditional face to face methods, or online?

For me it’s a combination of the two.   I attend local networking groups, and invite them to my online social networking groups. Once they are connected to me online, via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or many of the other sites I’m connected to, then I can stay in touch with daily blog posts and information. Working the two together gives you a lot more connectivity - and more power to gain resources to help you build your business.

What is the true power of a blog?

In the case of Stuff White People Like, they went from concept, to millions of hits, to book release in just a matter of a few months.

Yet many business owners look at examples like this one, and don’t connect how it can impact their businesses in much the same way.

Twenty years ago it was who you knew that mattered most. In order to get your product onto the shelves, you had to know the right people.

Now you just have to know how to get yourself online (hint: a blog is a great place to start), and start connecting.

1. Set up your strategy. What do you want?

2. Establish your strategy. Now that you know what you want, what can you share with others?

3. Keep it up. Have you ever heard the phrase, "90 percent of success is just showing up?" Just keep writing and networking, keeping your strategy in mind.

4. Show up where the leaders are. It’s all about marketing. Adding the content is great - but you also have to show it to those that can connect you.

5. Do it all over again.  When you achieve success, do it again.

Facebook

Twitter

Digg

Wherever you go, you start out by creating a username - one that usually will be seen by cyberspace. Then you start building your profile.

How much detail should you go into? What should you actually include?

My answer is, "use whatever name you’re comfortable with, create your persona, and use it for life (with updates along the way)".

For me, on every profile you find on me, I’ll either be LoriOsterberg or VisionOfSuccess. I’ve used both since the beginning, and continue to do so - depending on the type of site. I’m also leaning more towards my name because that will always be with me, no matter what business I move into. Therefore why not build up my persona with something that will never change?

What about security?

Sure we all need to think about security before we do things. You don’t want to change identity theft or other fraud issues unnecessarily. But if you’re building up your expertise, it’s important that everything links back to you.

Don’t give away private information easily. But your name is who you are - and depending upon your business, it’s also what you are promoting.

Your profile is all about your experience and who you are. It’s important for people to get to know you - whether you do business face to face, or through the Internet and half way around the world. Give only what you’re comfortable with, and what you’re willing to share with prospects. Things might include:

• education
• background
• former positions - qualifications
• interests
• hobbies
• awards
• aspirations

Above all, don’t pretend to be someone else, or set up a false account. A recent case was settled by a British businessman and a former school friend. The former school friend created a Facebook group titled "Has Matthew Firsht lied to you?" and filled the profile with false claims. Matthew filed suit and won. A landmark case for social sites.

I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of that.

1. When your prospective customers call, what’s the first thing they have a question about?

2. When someone makes a purchase, what questions do they have?

3. Do you have products or services that work well together? Cross promote and tell people how to use them together.

4. Who are your clients? When you take on a new client/customer, showcase their business. (Take a look at my Vision Client Family series for ideas.)

5. Who would make a good client for you? Put them into a case study.

6. Educate. Tell people about your services indirectly through a training article.

7. What’s coming up? An in-house training seminar? Specials only for preferred customers?

8. Do you have a new product coming to market? Talk all about it.

9. Who are your employees? Give them a post of their own.

10. Doing anything for charity? Give your readers the details. 

Actually, even if you have a business, sometimes the hardest part is coming up with what to blog about. Is there truly an interest in what you have to offer? How do you "sell" what you do?

The key to blogging is to give people more information on what you do, and a connection that builds you as the expert. If a potential client knows enough to search for solutions to a problem, and you come up with answers, she’ll have more reasons to trust you.

Blogging isn’t about saying the same thing over and over again. Or writing a post one every few weeks - when you have the time or feel like it. It’s about sharing your ideas consistently and relating it to what’s happening in people’s lives.

Let’s say you are a small business accountant.

• You can write about organizational skills throughout the year.
• You can write about tax tips as tax deadlines approach.
• You can write about new laws as they are signed in.
• You can talk about tips

Are you ready to blog?

How do you change that?

There’s a fine line between writing what you want, and writing what others desire.

Think about your own reading patterns for a moment. Chances are you read a variety of things throughout your busy day. Maybe a newspaper to keep up with world events. Magazines and trade publications to stay informed and be educated. And maybe a novel to escape your everyday life.

You have different sources for different types of information.

Your readers are the same way. They look to you for a number of reasons.

• They want to be educated on something they don’t already know.
• They want to be kept informed on a topic of interest.
• They want to be entertained.

Or maybe they want all three. Your readers have to find value in what you offer. And they also have to look forward to reading what you have to say - and how you say it.

Nobody likes the dry professor that rattles on and on about something that is, well, maybe boring. (Like blogging - how many people truly get as excited about blogging as I do?)

But if you add some spunk, some pizzazz once in awhile, it will keep your readers on their toes, wondering what you’ll come up with next.

According to The Luxury Institute’s latest WealthSurvey, "The Wealth and Web 2.0", participation in social networks has dramatically increased to 60 percent in 2008, up from 27 percent in 2007.

According to the report:

• Participation levels of online wealthy consumers in leading social networks are 16% for MySpace, 13% for LinkedIn, and 11% for Facebook.
• The wealthy average membership in 2.8 social networks, with an average of 110 connections.
• They are intolerant of opt-out techniques: 65% say having their personal data given out without permission would cause them to disconnect; 63% have an interest in “do not track” lists. 

Are you trying to reach wealth consumers or business owners? Then blogging is your first step to success.

Create a blog. Link your blog to your profiles on LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook. [and others] And start connecting.

If you’ve been in business or online for any length of time, you may be doing a lot more than your clients know about.

For instance, one of my clients found my VisionOfSuccess.com website through a friend. After viewing several of my ezines, he decided to contact me about producing a website for his business.

When he called me, we chatted about his site. He’s a photographer, and wanted a gallery system to be able to upload his photographs. Because he had only followed me for a couple of months, he wasn’t aware of my photography background. He hadn’t visited my VirtualPhotographyStudio.com site, and didn’t know of all my services specifically for photographers. When I told him about being a professional photographer, he signed up on the spot.

We’ve developed his website, and I’ve also coached him and his business partner for a number of months on building up their wedding business.

Occasionally in your marketing [your ezines, an email, your blog] mention your other businesses and your other services. You never know when you might pick up a new client.

If you don’t, who will?

People like to know who you are, who they will be working with, and what your story is. That’s how we get to know each other. It’s how we build a relationship.

I suggest you develop your profile in a Word document, and save it so you can use it again and again. It’s much easier developing it once and making it a complete resume of who you are.

Also invest in a great photograph - yes, use a professional. This is your image - make sure it represents who you are.

How To Build Your Profile

1. Start with your background. What degrees do you have? What training or certificates? What positions have you had that qualify you to be doing what you’re doing now?

2.  What stories can you share that will build up your expertise? Share stories of how you’ve worked with other clients, helped out in your industry, or developed a name for yourself. Sometimes past experience can be just as powerful as having credentials.

3. Provide natural progression. Develop your profile in a timeline fashion so people can see how you moved from A to B.

4. Develop what you want to share - and what you don’t. Then stick with it. When you move from LinkedIn to Facebook to your Blog to your website, you should be reading a similar profile from place to place. In some places you may develop a more detailed profile, but the overall story should remain the same.

For instance, on LoriOsterberg.com I share a short bio from beginning to end. You get an overview of who I am and why I am where I’m at today. But on my VirtualPhotographyStudio blog, the about us section is written to show more of my photographer side.

Now that you have your details, use them to add to all of your online profiles. People will follow you from one place to another, always seeing you as an authentic business person.

You may be thinking, "I want to have complete control over my image, and put up a site that is perfect."

Online, there is no such thing as perfect. I follow the 80-20 rule when it comes to being online. I get my new site/profile/page/salesletter etc to the 80 percent mark, and put it online and test it. Does it get signups? Are people buying what I’m offering? If not, I tweak it. And it works the other way too - even if they are signing up and buying, I still tweak it.

You may be thinking, "My advertising in the yellow pages and trade publication has always worked; I’ll stick with that."

Have you really been tracking where your clients come from? Keep a tracking sheet by your phone and your computer. Every time a client or prospect emails you or phones you, ask where they found you. I’m willing to bet you’ll find more and more people are finding you from online sources. (It is good to keep your name in many places - just track that you really are getting your money’s worth from expensive advertising sources.)

You may be thinking, "I just don’t have the time to spend getting connections online.

Too bad. Let me ask you a question. How long are you planning on being in business? Let’s say your goal is to retire 10 years from now. That means you must keep marketing for the next 10 years to sustain your lifestyle.

If you buy into a one year contract with a magazine, you’ll spend four or five figures over the course of that one year period. And then what? The magazine disappears, doing you no good. You either buy another year, or find another way to gain clients.

But let’s say you spend one hour creating a profile on a place like LinkedIn. LinkedIn is free (you can upgrade, but that’s another article) so any information you put out there today will still be there a year from now, two years from now, etc.

Now let’s say you move over to Facebook and create a profile there. Another hour of time. Another free resource. And the opportunity to connect with people for the next 10 years.

Of course you can’t just spend one hour putting up a profile and expecting it to work for 10 years. You have to add content, share your knowledge, and take the time to work the system. But you can get more than enough business by working this systems.

You just have to do it.