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Formal Networking Groups

Guest post by: Terri Levine

Article Overview: There are all kinds of online and offline networking groups, many of which are beneficial for different types of individuals and businesses, but when you really mean business there are a couple that stand out and are worthy of joining.

Formal Networking Groups

There are many kinds of formal networking groups. Two of the most popular are Business Network International and LeTip. There are also women entrepreneur groups, small business groups, and many other local networking groups. The purpose of a networking group is to give referrals to one another and to help each other grow your businesses by being a sales force for one another. These groups are often referred to as leads groups.

By determining your target market, this will help you decide what kind of a leads group you may want to join. If you work with entrepreneurs, sales people, or small business owners, a leads group such as my Business Network International chapter would be perfect for you. Most of the people in the group are sales professionals, small business owners or entrepreneurs. Therefore, if you have a service or product that they can use, not only will they be a referral for you, but they will then know other small business owners, entrepreneurs, and sales professionals to refer to you. Your purpose in a leads group is reciprocity. Be prepared to use the services of the people in the group who are going to support your business and to refer to the members of the group.

I believe these networking groups are absolutely worth investigating and am very delighted to be a part of Business Network International. If there's not a chapter near you of one of these groups, think about starting a chapter of one of the formal groups or even starting your own. What about taking the members of your strategic alliance and starting your own networking group? Be creative. The goal here is to form alliances with people who you meet with on a regular basis for one purpose and one purpose only and that is to exchange referrals. These people are your sales force and you will be a member of their sales team as well. The best way to get ahead is by helping those in your strategic alliance or networking group get ahead.

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Article Tags: business, entrepreneur, network, networking, networking groups



Related Forum Posts
Re: On Which Social Media Sites Are You Most Active? - It's great to hear how you're using it Bill - the strength of Groups is discussion so for anybody who wants to primarily use it for discussions you should look at Groups. The limit I believe is 5,000 members. If you want to do anything other than discussions then you definitely want to set up a Page. Good luck everyone!
Re: Make Friends...Literally BUILD them! - I agree! Networking is definitely the key word here. What does everyone feel about the different Networking platforms out there? Twitter Facebook LinkedIn what are some others?
Mastermind Group - Is this the same as Evan's Mastermind Groups?
Marketing 2012 - I am interested in what works for you in 2012, Social Networking, Search Engine traffic, Blogs, Articles, Forums, what? This is a quote from a 2009 Topic "Twitter, Social Networking, What is your Method? From my experience, social networking traffic (Twitter included) also converts at a far lower rate than search engine traffic. Evan Is this still true, or do you use something that gives us better returns and conversions
Mastermind Groups - Hi Guys I just wondered whats the 'Mastermind Groups' section about on the forum?


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