Business Web 2.0

Wow - what a day. Lehman Brothers gone and apparent financial chaos. At least by the time of writing we know that a lot of shoring up has been done by many of the global institutions; maybe the worst is over but who knows.

So what does the crunch do to all of those small and medium businesses out there? Does it present issue or opportunity?

To my mind, any downturn in global big business presents a gap which can potentially be filled on a macro and local level by the vast numbers of entrepreneurs the world over. Sure, the money doesn't flow so quickly to enable expansion; but the one thing that all small businesses have is their contact network and the massive power of the referral or endorsement.

Referral marketing is nothing new but what it does do in times when trust is short is to present the opportunity to deal with people you know and people who you trust also know. Do business with your extended circle and there is already a degree of protection you can buy into with little risk albeit no small effort.

There are some wonderful networking organisations out there to help with this, the likes of Business Referral Exchange, BNI and all the various 'business over breakfast' gang fall into this space BUT don't forget the immense opportunity presented by the burgeoning world of online business networking. I'm not necessarily talking about online social networks; I hope I won't surprise you by saying that at present 'traditional' social networks (amazing how quickly an environment becomes traditional!) don't really 'work' for generating true business....but there are those who do.

At WeCanDo.BIZ we watch the market closely and we know that there is plenty of business happening through one online business network at the very least (perhaps it may seem churlish to suggest that might be us!)

We are currently forging relationships with face-to-face networking organisations and will be announcing some exciting developments in the near future.

We are also working very closely with industry leaders in areas which tie in closely with both our corporate ethos and with our wish to add real value to our members. I am very happy to publicly endorse Nikki Pilkington, the SEO guru (www.nikkipilkington.com) who has made her latest work '299 Steps to Website Heaven' available to our members a full two weeks before publication!

So to sum up; keep networking, gather client endorsements and publish them where it matters, work every circle you have and grab the opportunity. Nothing new there....but in reality there rarely is...just hard work!

And last but not least; something I tell people on every sales course I ever run, 'don't be afraid to ask for the business' because the very worst someone can say is no (and anyone who has ever sold LOVES an objection!)

Let's see what the next few months brings in the world of credit crunch opportunity!

Cheers

Chris Butler
COO
WeCanDo.BIZ

The other day I was doing some of my usual 'networky' stuff; casting around to see what is happening in the world of bringing people together to do business.

I flicked over to ecademy and was invited to join one of their clubs. I am a member of a few of them but this interested me. It was something along the lines of a club to help shape the future of the site. All very interesting until I saw the 'rules' page....right at thetop is this:

Do not sell or advertise goods or services unless the club is specifically stated to be for "Business"

Now, I find it a little odd that a business network doesn't want its members to sell stuff unless specifically invited. If you have read any of my other stuff, you will know I am an active member of ecademy, doesn't mean I have to like everything I see though.

So what do I want then? I don't want to be told that I can't sell on a business network and I sure as hell do want to be able to buy (but I also want to be able to politely refuse to buy from people who bug me :) )

I would love you to agree with what I say, but not half so much as I'd like you to disagree; that way we can get some dialogue going and maybe improve what we can offer you at www.wecando.biz

Chris

I actually regard the above statement as a little redundant.

Social networking as a non-technological concept has been present in business since the first cave man wandered over to his mate Ugg's cave and said something like 'Hi, shall we hunt some big hairy foodie stuff together and flog it to the lot in the next valley?'

Facetious maybe but a fair supposition. Social networking just 'is' and in a business context it is essential.

With regard to the recent explosion in technologically driven social networking for business I genuinely believe there is some confusion. I am however happy to concede that this confusion exists in my own mind. I am always happy to listen and learn so please help me out.

There are many sites out there, some of which you can argue are purely about networking socially. Facebook, Bebo, MySpace etc. There are also some amazingly good sites aimed at the business user (and note my careful differentiation) LinkedIn and Ecademy spring easily to mind. The former has huge presence and mass membership but seems to be heavily used as a recruitment arena primarily. The latter has a smaller membership but a hugely focussed group of people endeavouring to help one another; in fact, as I write, there is a poll going on Ecademy designed to determine whether Ecademy member are looking to develop their business (knowledge, resources, ideas) or to develop sales (look for customers). My confusion with this deepens as I was always of the opinion that to develop your business you have to sell stuff. The other stuff is essential of course, you can't sell when you don't have some knowledge, resources and ideas but you can't sell if you don't, well, sell.

I have read a bunch of comments following the blog containing the poll and there is a good deal along the lines of (obviously not a direct quote) 'Dear me, sell to my fellow members? That would be awful!'

My question would be, if you are using a business related social network, why not sell stuff? The answer which seems obvious to me is that if you do, then you risk annoying a lot of people who are not there to buy anything, they are there to sell but may be being too polite to ask!

Please don't misunderstand me, Ecademy is a tremendous concept, I am a member and have been for a long time. It does some great work. What it doesn't seem to be though is a forum for people to go to to buy and sell things. Not a criticism in any way.

So, how do you sell stuff? The obvious answer is to do all your normal marketing things and not forget the internet. Do your website well, us search engine optimisation and Google and whatever else to drive people to your site. All well and good but if you are selling bathrooms in London, you will be competing with hundreds or thousands of others doing just what you are doing and you will be swapping page rankings as fast as you can pay your SEO people to keep you at the top of the searches.

So far, I suppose, all well and good. People who want to talk about doing business without actually doing any are well catered for. People who want to find other people either just to talk to or to find to fill jobs in their talent base are equally well catered for.

People who want to go to a search engine and plough through a gazillion entries to find a new bath tap; well we know they are well catered for and we know how to 'trick' the search engines so they always find us (until your competitors get a little bet at trickery than you that is!)

So what is missing, well for me, it has been the ability to go to 'somewhere' and say 'What I really, really need right now is.....some bright shiny new bath taps' and I haven't been able to do that.

The whole concept of Web 2.0 with its inherent creativity, sharing, social networks, blogs and so forth haven't given me any way to shout, 'Hey world, I need some stuff' and get some people I know who are good at selling stuff to come to me.

I guess that's why we launched WeCanDo.BIZ!