It’s said, it’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know. Your involvement in social media easily allows you to open the channels to reach out and connect to those individuals who may become an impact on the success of your business. With that said, how do you go about the strategy of connecting with these individuals?

Identify

Identify who it might be that you would like to include in your circle? Maybe you don’t have a specific name of an influential person. Use the internet to do the research. Simply putting in keywords to search. The search will identify those individuals who you may want to connect with.

Next Step – LinkedIn

Go to LinkedIn and search. If you have the name of the individual you would like to link to, do a search of their name. Don’t have specific name? That’s ok. Keywords will once again find those individuals who you might want to reach out to. What I like about LinkedIn is that when you do the search, it will identify the level of how you and that person may already be linked. Should there be a link of some sorts. It’s time to go to work.

Influencers

Ask those who are at the top level of your connection to introduce you to this person. This is what inspired me to write this article. Recently, I was at a networking event with a variety of people from all walks of life and leading in different directions in their careers. Throughout the event, there would be opportunities to meet people and have a variety of conversations. Following the meeting, I received emails from three different individuals who asked me to connect them with a certain individual at the event. I could have easily connected them through email but instead I chose to connect them through LinkedIn and Facebook, respectively. Why? Each of these social media platforms provide a way to learn more about the individual. By using the social media platform, I provided them with even more opportunity to learn about the person they want to connect to.

What if there isn’t an influencer you can ask to be a connector?

Simply follow this person directly. When following, it will ask you to correspond with them. The initial correspondence should be short and focused on what’s beneficial for them to include you into their level/circle.

Continue to build your relationship by joining groups on LinkedIn which they happen to be involved in. When they have birthdays and business anniversaries recognize those. By the way, speaking of groups on LinkedIn, I understand they are planning to make some changes with their groups bringing the experience of being involved in groups within your dashboard making it easier to be involved. Stay tuned to this column for more details as they develop.

Interlace Communications, with owner Alyse Mitten, provides small to midsize businesses with marketing solutions for their business through social media marketing, email marketing, and print marketing. Alyse understands the need to network to build your business. With involvement in local Chamber of Commerce, networking organizations, SCORE, and local nonprofit organizations, the involvement with these organizations provides her with the opportunity to work with influencers within those organizations and become a connector. Join her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/alysemitten/ or on Alignable at https://www.alignable.com/shoemakersville-pa/interlace-communications