Last week I talked about Social Marketing for small business owners and the need to get involved.   While there can be many benefits to adding social marketing to your marketing plan, Social Marketing and other forms of marketing should not be used as an excuse not to prospect face-to-face. I’ve seen several examples of business owners who can increase their business if they would only get out of the office and meet other prospects or just network with other business owners.

People do business with people they know is an old adage but its true.  Before you give money to someone to provide you with products or services you must trust them.  How can people trust you if all they know about you is your LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook profile.

People get to know you by you getting out of your office and meeting people at business events, tradeshows in your industry, chamber of commerce events or even joining groups on Meetup that interest you and where you may find prospects.

And even then you go the extra step so people will want to get to know you and your business.  Our company is active in every business organization that we’re a part of.  We don’t just pay our fees/dues and take out and ad every now and then, we’re active in committees, and even sponsor some organization’s events.  We do this because it allows other members to see what we do and it allow people get to know us.

How does that equate into sales.  Last week Friday I attended an all day event with an organization we belong to.  It was a train ride from New York to New Brunswick and lunch at Delta’s restaurant in New Brunswick.  I have to give Delta’s FIVE Stars; their food was excellent it was like having Thanksgiving dinner.  Sorry thinking about the experience made me digress.  We have been so active in this organization in the 2 years we’ve been members that I was able to sit at the bar all afternoon and still make appointments to close business deals.  The event cost $100.00 to attend and ROI will be 30 times more than the cost to attend.

I was only able to do this because I have spent a considerable amount of time and resources getting to know people in the organization and letting people get to know and trust us as a company.

In a different example, a company was on a committee with us and provided great marketing material for the organization.  However, no one from the company ever came to the committee meetings. So while the other companies on the committee were admiring this great work, they couldn’t put a face to the company because no one from the company ever bothered to show up.  Just attending that one meeting when the marketing material was delivered could have led to additional sales from other businesses present at the meeting.

Points to remember:

1. People do business with people they know
2. Social Marketing is not an excuse or solution to face-to-face marketing
3. Don’t just join, get involved. Those who give - GAIN!
4. Don’t just join committees, attend the meetings and contribute

Chris Brogan writes an excellent business Blog and this week he states “That We Can Do Our Job Without Twitter.”  Read his Blog post and join in on the conversation.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!