Building Social Capital With Social Media For Entrepreneurs

Building Social Capital with Social Media: 10 Ways to Overcome the Recession By Gideon F. For-mukwai XtraMile Emergency Solutions • May 4, 2009 URL: www.1xtramile.com • email: gideon.mukwai@gmail.com • Tel: 775 225 2755 1

Building Social Capital with Social Media: 10 Ways to Overcome the Recession Tip 1 Assess, Deepen and Widen Your Niche Look before you leap. Take time to analyze your niche before using using social media to build social capital. This will enable you to make good choices in penetrating your niche with the help of new media. Ask yourself, who really needs my services or products? Where can I find that person in the new media landscape? Is he on LinkedIn, or Facebook? Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... Tip 2 Inform your Spouse Your success with social media will partly depend on the support you get from your spouse because social media takes a great deal of time in building relationships. This entails transparency and understanding if you are in a relationship. It is important to let your spouse why you are on Facebook, else, trouble for you. Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... URL: www.1xtramile.com • email: gideon.mukwai@gmail.com • Tel: 775 225 2755 2

Tip 3 Find a Collaborator With social media, you can reach out and connect with people who do a similar business like you or share your views. More importantly, find a collaborator with whom you can exchange ideas especially on the trials and tribulations of using social media to build and sustain strong relationships. Look for vertical integration, not horizontal collaboration because of inherent conflict and competition in horizontal relationships. Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... Tip 4 Sow Countless Seeds Sow seeds in all fertile grounds. By sowing as many seeds as possible, you have the best possible returns. This will in turn spur you to find new frontiers. Consider using a tool that you are already familiar with and subsequently go farther. Go from Facebook to Wiki etc or start a blog to showcase your skills, experi- ence and understanding of issues facing potential employers. Remember Crowdsourcing can transform your business overnight because you are taping into the power of the market. Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... URL: www.1xtramile.com • email: gideon.mukwai@gmail.com • Tel: 775 225 2755 3

Tip 5 Celebrate Minor Victories With Your True Supporters Celebrate minor victories, but insist on major breakthroughs. Learning a new tool or technology takes a patience and persistence. As often as possible, share your breakthroughs and frustrations with your your friends and associates. For instance, after uploading your photos to flickr, call all your friends and inform them to check them out and give comments about your recent vacation, or wedding, new baby etc. People love photos, so are customers and associates. Videos are also incredible gems for getting the word out. Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... Tip 6 Find a Tech-Savvy Friend The backbone of using social media is technical support. Within your current network of friends and friends of friends, it is likely that there are some tech-savvy people who will be keen to help you out. They can provide to you with incredible technical support that will help you grow. Making friends with Genera- tion Y can have huge pay offs. If you don’t have Gen Y, look for geek. Every family has one. Start a blog today- Wordpress is a better platform. Why? It is your fresh window to the world! Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... URL: www.1xtramile.com • email: gideon.mukwai@gmail.com • Tel: 775 225 2755 4

Tip 7 Ask “Dumb” Questions. Before the planting season begins, ask yourself, what are some the challenges that I will face on this farm. Based on your expectations, develop FAQ-type questions that will clarify your doubts about concepts and issues that need to be addressed in the course of the ‘farming season’. Ask help from Digital Natives. Remember to buy for them a gadget that they like. Build trust first... Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... Tip 8 Invest Time in Branding Social media is not a get-rich quick scheme. It is like farming. It takes time a while for the crops ie (relationships) to grow and it takes even longer start harvesting crops. If you could add only one person a day to your network, how many will you have in a year? You can self-produce videos to sell your services. Use either Youtube, Vimeo or Blip.tv for distribution. If you can create a viral video, you will be famous, and the advertisers will come knocking on your door. Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... URL: www.1xtramile.com • email: gideon.mukwai@gmail.com • Tel: 775 225 2755 5

Tip 9 Building Rock Solid Networks As you go about building your network, think of existing communities and clusters that you need to reach. With a careful analysis of what each potential customer cares about, you can make a pitch or get introduced into that customer ‘s network. Check out Meetup.com and bookmarking sites for common interest groups. Also check out Omgili.com to find out what consumers think about your competition, so that you can strategize how to beat them. Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... Tip 10 Benchmark Others The grass is always greener on the other side. The best way to find out, is to check it out. With social media, one of the best ways to grow is to observe what others are doing to increase their traffic, stickiness, visibility and brands. As you observe, ask questions and take note of new ideas you need to implement in your own arena. Check out what is buzzing on Yahoo Buzz, what are the trends and try to adapt to them as you hit the road every single day. Perhaps, you customize a product or service in this area. Use twitter to generate some traffic, get a following, and along the way, you can develop a cult following for your products or services. Ideas for implementation: ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... URL: www.1xtramile.com • email: gideon.mukwai@gmail.com • Tel: 775 225 2755 6

Building Social Capital with Social Media: How to Beat your Competitors in the Job Market Presented by: Gideon F. For-mukwai, CEM Author & New Media Facilitator Originally from Cameroon, Central Africa, Gideon F. Mukwai, is the author of “Facing Adversity with Audacity: Thriving in Odds, Obstacles and Opportunities”, published in 2008. He was a previously a fire officer with the Singapore Civil Defence Force. He served as commander of first responders and subsequently as a senior instructor in charge of training of police, navy, narcotics and civil defence officers. In 2003, he founded XtraMile Solutions, with no clients, no contacts and no cash. Five years later, Xtra- Mile had trained over 8,000 personnel from fields like safety, banking, petrochemicals, hospitality and property management. He has delivered training programs in countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Africa and recently in US and Canada. \" Today, Gideon is a graduate fellow at the Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno where he studies new media and journalism. In his spare time, he speaks at conferences around US. He is active with the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and the National Speakers Associa- tion, (NSA). \" Gideon considers himself a life-long learner, thinker and climber. In his spare time, He enjoys writing and presenting poetry, storytelling and learning the intricacies of different cultures and customs. URL: www.1xtramile.com • email: gideon.mukwai@gmail.com • Tel: 775 225 2755 7

Building Social Capital With Social Media For Entrepreneurs

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