Networking Groups, my view point (October 2012 update)

I am an advocate of face to face Networking as those of you who follows me on Twitter (@Safety_Matters) will know. Over the last two years, I have reviewed critically all of the Networking Groups that I am a member of. The upshot of this review is that it is clear that some Groups are more active and more effective than others. I'm not merely griping about lead generation, but I'm criticising the ethos of some of these groups.

An obvious point coming out of the review is that attending Networking Groups costs both time and money. These are commodities that all businesses need to keep under review and to control. The money (in most cases) is not a great deal. The time, however, is a resource that is increasingly subject to many demands.  I now ask a lot of the Networking Groups that I associate with and challenge them to be more than a group of people meeting up.

Following my review, I have now left two Networking Groups altogether and I have reduced by attendance at another (by using a reliable substitute from within my business). I joined an active and vibrant Group that operates differently: they meet twice a month rather than on a weekly basis and they provide tea & coffee, but not breakfast. This does help to control both the cost and the time commitment for attendance. AS I said, this new group is the most active and vibrant group that I have ever been a member of. The reason for this, I think, is focus: on the Members and on Outcomes. This group has risen to the real challenge facing many Networking Groups: getting work through the group, not just for the members. The group has secured a significant contrcat to provide the services of all members to another (business) Group on a retained basis. I hope to talk more about the mechanisms of that when it is not so sensitive a subject.

This group has also set some ambitious targets for all members: pairing members up and requiring them to get five business opportunities for their partner before the end of this year. Not an easy task.

Social media marketing cannot, for me, fully replace face to face Networking, but it does give some positive results and is becoming increasingly important to my business. I'm encouraging others within my business to take up and embrace the world Twitter. As you can guess, this is being met with different views. Jamie embraces the concept, Richard struggles with it and Hagrid can't even touch computers (a Hogwarts thing!). My time investment in Twitter is not excessive: I use a lot of (otherwise) dead time, such as waiting for clients, waiting for the train, travelling by train, etc. Writing blog posts can be both rewarding and therapeutic. Rewarding in that it helps to crystallise some thoughts and therapeutic in that it allows me to channel some frustrations into (hopefully meaningful) words. I can then spread my thoughts and my musings by the use of (you guessed it!): Twitter.

I'm making a conscious effort to make more use of LinkedIn and would be pleased to hear from other as to how effective it is (or can be).

Like many things (including the provision of health and safety services), the true costs of Networking Groups should be monitored and scrutinised regularly. If it is not working for your business, look for other things that are.

Please visit my Health and Safety Website

Please follow me on Twitter: @Safety_Matters

Safety Matters meets the world of Marketing

How do you want to be found?
I don't mean this in a deep, dark or sinister way but more in a Marketing sort of a way.

How do you want prospects (or potential new clients) to find you and your company. In my case, it's as a Health and Safety professional (or consultant) in Loughborough, Leicestershire or in the East Midlands. I am looking for people who are looking for a health and safety consultant to help them with health and safety, fire safety or other risk assessments needs, etc. I am also looking for, people who are looking for ongoing health and safety advice. I have written this down to help me to clarify me thoughts on these matters rather than to provide any other reader with words of wisdom.

So, have decided what I want, the next thing is to think how to go about find these people. Who are they? Where will they look? How will they find me?

Who?
Owners and managers of businesses, or directors of larger businesses.

Where will they look?
The web. Google. Search engines. In their post (real and email).

How will they find me?
Well, my intention is that they will find me by tripping over me (and my company, LRB Consulting) because I am continually cropping up in their post (real or electronic) and in their web search. On of the purposes of this blog is to help to crystallise some of my thoughts. I need to improve my chances of been found by those who are looking for health and safety advice, guidance and consultancy.

I'm looking forward to spending more time doing health and safety work, including fire safety risk assessments for new clients in the East Midlands. If this is what happens, then it will be because of marketing focus.

Newsletters
I've always steered clear of writing Newsletters, despite the fact that I create a lot of content through various pieces of work. Recently, I have put aside my reservations and "gone for it". If you would like to look at my first foray into Newletters, please look at this. This Newsletter deals with the changes in January to the levels of fines for Health & Safety Offences and provides various cases where things have gone wrong.

My second Newsletter (produced in April) deals mainly with fire safety. While I'm quite pleased with the products, it does create the next problem - where do we go from here? Are there any areas that you would like to see covered? Please let me have your comments and feedback.

Slips, trips and falls may be worth a go - the HSE campaign is still running and it is still a major cause of injury. Importantly, it is also something that can be improved on with very little cost - although effort is required. There are some useful (and free) tools available from the HSE website.

Social Networking and when not to Twitter

Like many people, I find that twitter is both amusing and (slightly) addictive. It seems that social networking is in need of external moderation as one of the Tweets (better than twits) that I came across declared a time when one should not do it: http://bit.ly/KEdvW

A few examples of other times it is (or may be) inadvisable to twitter are:

• During an appraisal or annual review
• When climbing a ladder (probably not long before this features in risk assessments and method statements)
• When driving (I'm sure people do it!)
• After a row
• After drinking (too much)
• When you don't want to look like a geek
• In the swimming pool
• In the bath (sadly) http://www.austriantimes.at/index.php?id=14023
• & many more
  

All that said - twitter is still fun