Is social media taking over from traditional networking?

Business trends come and go, but some change the landscape of the way business is done so significantly that they become integrated to such an extent that whole business systems could not exist without them.  A simple example is email.  My business partner and I are geographically separated by Sydney; she is in Melbourne and I am in Brisbane.  We work as a team and in a sense, as if our desks were beside each other in the one office.  How do we do this; email and other technologies such as Skype.   Without these things our business relationship would never have been forged. 
Today we are turning to even newer technologies to do what we do; blogging of course and Facebook and Twitter are also part of our toolbox.  We use these mediums to connect with others who share our passions, share information and market our products and services.

Our core business, The Australian Academy of Wedding and Event Planning has also taken its course online and launched Australia’s first event training virtual academy where students from around Australia and the world can chat to each other and their tutors online.  We have our own Twitter Page and Facebook Group and we also run live online webinars. Social networking enables us to reach more customers and give them the type of service we could traditionally have only offered customers located in close geographical proximity to us.

Two years ago I was working with a marketing coach to help me define my own business goals.  It was a fast paced, brain-storming session that was invaluable to me.  One of the things my coach said to me was that I had to ‘…network like a demon’.  In other words I had to get out there and let as many people know about me and my business as I possibly could.  Networking was something I was very familiar with at that time, in fact I attended at least four networking meetings a month, but as the ‘event organiser’, not to promote my business.

Following this session I took on the advice of my coach and started promoting myself at networking events.  However increasingly I have begun to question the value of these types of events to my business and I find I attend very few of these events now, although I am constantly receiving invites to them.  Instead I devote more time to speaking one on one with customers and leads who have found me via our websites and our blogging activities. 

Relationship building and education will never go out of fashion, but today, there are so many other, more immediate ways to connect with others and find information, that the idea of standing around in a room with a bunch of other business people who may or may not be a potential customer, to hear someone speak about something that may or may not have relevance to what you do, seems positively ancient. 

With this in mind I contacted my coach again to ask her if her advice would still be the same today.  Her answer was a swift yes and no!  Explaining her answer she advised that whilst traditional, face to face networking still had a place in developing business relationships, the priority for business today should be to take their networking activities online.  

Whilst the trend for business to have a Facebook page, be Twittering and blogging is new it is expected that within just a few years it will be the number one networking tool used in business and if your business does not have a social networking presence yet; you are already behind. 

There are a lot of statistics out there about the phenomena that is ‘social networking’ but consider these few; it took 4 years for the Internet to reach 50 million users, Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months and social networking is now the number 1 online activity.  80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices; which means instant communication (how many people do you know who already have an IPhone or other type of Smart Phone?).  Imagine what this could mean for you when promoting your business.  Generation Y and X now consider email to be passé, imagine what they think of breakfast at the local RSL as a way to build relationships with customers.

Jim Stewart, founder of SEO firm Stewart Media, also expects to see business people moving away from traditional face to face networking towards online networking and even the growth of sites dedicated to the practice.

Speaking to Patrick Stafford of www.smartcompany.com.au Stewart said; “Social networking is the online form of business networking. When you go to a networking event, you don’t go there to sell stuff, you go to meet people and build brands and products in the hope you’re going to make connections. The same occurs with social networking. It’s along the lines of thinking that this is a business network you’re getting involved in, therefore you should contribute so in the longer term it’s going to improve your business.”

Furthermore social networking allows for a much more targeted marketing campaign for your business.  Facebook Australia’s regional sales vice president Paul Borrud says social networking advertising will become more reliant on customisable search results, allowing businesses to target specific demographics for a product or service (www.smartcompany.com.au).

Currently I am a member of two professional associations and I am on the distribution list of large networking group.  Over the last month I have contacted all of these organisations and posed the question; “What is it of benefit to me and my business of being a member of your organisation and attending your events.”

To date I am yet to receive a response or acknowledgement to my email from any of these groups but they continue to flood my inbox with information. 

So what is the future of the professional association and the traditional networking group as social networking moves from being a trend to being a smart way to do business? Let us know what you think by posting a comment here.