Other than having a passion for ONO Tea, we are also creating a community where our friends/clients are learning fun and innovative ways to incorporate tea into their lives. To achieve a loyal customer base, we have found that networking is a huge part of our success. Whether it is by word of mouth locally or our online community such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, we have made great friendships and connections. On a business level, networking is crucial because it allows you to personally connect with customers and business partners without using advertisements or resumes. Here are a few good tips on how to diversify your networking:
- Have networks with every lifestyle and community.
- Do not restrict yourself to networks exclusively for people from similar backgrounds or in a similar line of business.
- Widen your network as much as possible.
People just don’t want to be sold, they want to believe in what they are buying and what it stands for, as consumers today are more concerned with real world opinions of a product. With that said, it is important to make sure that our brand is “touchable” and not intimidating. Word of mouth is and always will be the best form of advertising. With the viral type nature that social networking brings, it has become an important asset to any company.
We would love to connect with all our friends and clients on a personal level. If it was up to us, we would talk with each and every customer that had an interest in our company. As it is nearly impossible to talk with everyone personally, the best way is to address this is in a common location such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.
We use Facebook and MySpace to show our customers that we are real people and that we use our own products everyday. Twitter is a new medium that we are exploring and we have only recently been posting updates to our websites. Our blog teaches our customers about how they can use teas for methods other than drinking. Ultimately they all work together to help market our brand.
Remember, networking has a lot of moving pieces. You must approach people, be approachable, follow up and keep your word. It takes time to make contacts, but once you've made them, they are invaluable.