October 23, 2008
How my wife used social networking to accomplish real world goals (and so can you)
by Mark J. Reeves
My wife stays at home with our 18 month-old son. It’s not an easy job. One can understandably go a little crazy spending every day, one on one, with someone demanding entertainment non-stop. There has to be a plan to get out of the house most days. Two close friends have children. One’s a full year older than ours and mom works in Boston the latter half of the week. The other is a newborn, one year younger. With different ages, weekday schedules and nap schedules, the network just wasn’t big enough.
There are pre-established networks around. You get in touch and you get matched up with other moms near you with similar schedules. My wife was a bit wary, though, of setting up a playdate with a bunch of moms she didn’t know.
Enter Facebook
With a number of high school friends on Facebook who have had children in the past couple years as well, I suggested to my wife that she look for a function on the site to create a group, that she could administer, and arrange playdates among friends.
It’s been a great success.
Every week someone posts a message letting the group know when they’re up for a playdate and a suggestion of where to get together. New moms outside my wife’s immediate circle come into the group, and everyone’s acquainted through an existing friend. My wife’s not even a part of every playdate, conflicting schedules do still pose an issue, but on a weekly basis she and the other moms find themselves with new options and opportunities to get together, with an easy tool at hand to get the word out.
Are you putting these tools to use?
Granted, this is a small-scale success story, but the point is: Are you using social networking tools to get the word out and bring people together around your brand? Are you using sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, or MySpace? Is your profile branded to match your business? Does your profile clearly link back to your web site? If you arrange sessions or events are you broadcasting them to your network? Are you registering them on Upcoming.org?
What’s important here is to identify a goal (more playdate options) and tap into the network you know (immediate friends on Facebook) to gain access to their network and get the word out. You stand to get more people involved in your business’s growth, gain free advertising (your friends spreading the word to their friends) and perhaps generate some buzz that will boost your message to higher prominence.