How to Meet People Not Collect Numbers

August 3rd,2011

Can you meet people online that turn into customers?

The answer is yes,but it takes more than clicking “accept”to build a social business network. That’s building numbers. It takes good old fashioned relationship building to build a network.

Taking A Lesson From The Past

Today I’m taking a page from Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends and Influence People. Although the book was written in 1936,like Napoleon Hill’s teachings,they are still relevant today. In some cases even more relevant because of social media.

In Carnegie’s book he outlines 6 principles in the section “Six Ways to Make People Like You”that directly apply to effectively meeting people online and building a social media network or social business network.

Principle #1:Become genuinely interested in other people.
Principle #2:Smile
Principle #3: Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
Principle #4: Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
Principle #5:Talk in terms of the other person’s interest.
Principle #6: Make the other person feel important –and do it sincerely.

Don’t Recreate The Wheel

You do not have to recreate the wheel when you enter the field of social networking. Sure you may have to learn a little social network site navigation,but let’s take some lessons from masters who have been teaching us how to build relationships for nearly a decade.