If you attend as many conventions, conferences and networking events as I do, you know the drill when it comes to being strategic and trying to make the most of the event for your business. Identify key contacts and companies you want to meet and connect with at the conference. Have your elevator pitch ready to go. Figure out which sessions are worth attending and which ones you should skip.
But, if you’re active on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, OPEN Forum or other social media networks, there’s so much more you can do. In fact, you can turbo-charge your networking efforts at conferences and other business events, greatly enhancing what every business owner needs: a well-developed support network of potential fellow business owners, customers, mentors, partners, financiers and advisers. As Black Enterprise Founder and Chairman Earl G. Graves Sr. says, “Never forget that business is personal. The businessperson who builds the strongest relationships wins.”
Brent Leary, founder and partner of CRM Essentials in Atlanta and co-author of Barack Obama’s Social Media Lessons for Business, is even more to the point: “Use social media networking to facilitate more effective and productive face-to-face networking.” With that in mind, here are some things you can do to use social media to tweak your conference preparation and strategy.
Don’t just look up speakers on the online conference agenda in advance of the event; find and follow them on Twitter. Searching for their names on Twitter is fine, but to be sure you’re following the right person, check their website or blog for a direct link to their Twitter profile.
Before I attend a conference, I create a Twitter list of speakers on the agenda so I can keep track of what they’re sharing in advance of the event. As an example, here’s my Twitter list of speakers for the 2011Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference, slated for May 22-25 in Atlanta: http://twitter.com/#!/AlfredEdmondJr/ec2011-speakers. You can also identify and create a similar group of speakers who are on Facebook. These will be useful resources prior to, during and long after you’ve returned from the conference.
Don’t be shy about letting speakers and others in your social networks know that you’ll be attending the conference. It could be especially beneficial to let your most important networking targets (no more than three to five people or companies) know that you’d like to meet them at the event. This could even spark some pre-conference discussion and sharing via social media, giving you a head start on networking before you even set foot in the convention center. It will also help you to discern who really has an active and engaged social media presence and who’s just faking the funk, hiding behind an intern, or, worse (gasp!), an auto response.
For key contacts and connections, set up Google Alerts to be updated on the latest news about them. This will also help you to be on-topic with your icebreakers when you meet them face-to-face at the event.
During the conference, write down and save any questionsthat you didn’t get to ask or follow up on during the Q&A sessions that traditionally follow each panel. That way, you won’t need to join the crowd bum-rushing the stage to get at the speakers when the sessions end. You can just ask your questions via the social media connections you established on Twitter, Facebook, etc., prior to the convention, creating a natural reason to follow up and strengthen your relationships with key contacts.
After the conference or event, reach out to new key contacts on LinkedIn. However, do not send requests to connect unless you actually met and engaged with that person during the conference. (I’m more liberal about connecting on Facebook , Twitter and other social media sites, but I do not add people I’ve never met to my LinkedIn network.) If the person offered you his or her business card when you spoke, it’s probably okay to ask for a LinkedIn connection.
Whatever you do, follow up. Once you’ve added these new connections to your social media networks, don’t just promote yourself; go out of your way to share useful information and to be supportive of their messages and initiatives. They will likely reciprocate, and be more receptive to networking with you offline—which can only mean good things for your business.
These are just some of the ways that I use social media to build and strengthen my business network and enhance the productivity and enjoyment of business and professional conferences. Do you have social media strategies that help you make the most of industry conventions and other networking events? I’d like to try them! Please share them in the comment section below.
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