Last week I had an interesting conversation with one of my “Naturally Social” clients who presented me with a question around not being able to afford having someone in his organisation spending time on social networks because business was a bit quiet and they needed to be chasing sales.

This, I guess, is no different to cutting the advertising budget when the budget tightens due to a lack of sales when in all actuality that’s the time when advertising should be cranking.

Likewise in this scenario, although I could definitely empathise, when Social Networking is not seen as a means to directly generate sales. But let me offer another possible use of social media to do just that. Find sales…

One of the fantastic things about the Social Media sphere is that its full of real people saying real things about their real needs. It’s not really all that different from being out and about in your own Social Environment, walking into shops, going to events where you don’t know people, participating in sports and so on. They all present opportunities for the business networking orientated person to take advantage of. But of course just as in real life where you probably wouldn’t walk up to a stranger and harp on at them about how they should use your service, the same practice should be followed online. Offer some advice, ask some questions and gently advertise your service.

In Social Media its all there for you and you have two distinct advantages over your traditional networking efforts;1:/ You don’t have to travel & 2:/ You are not geographically restricted.

You can look for people who may be dissatisfied with their current product or service i.e. #MyISPSucks or are having problems #MyBloodyComputer or may simply be looking for advice #HowDoIDoThis. This can be through Twitter, Blog Searches, Forums etc…

You can introduce yourself to people, answer questions, offer some trusted advice or point someone in the right direction. This all helps build relationships with those you engage with which ultimately leads to trust.