In the 90′s I started a small business, which went from $350,000 in sales to $1,360,000 over an eight year period. The most successful form of marketing? Networking. To be specific, networking with contractors. I joined the local Home Builders Association, and faithfully attended every golf tournament (that was easy!) participated on committees, and generally got to know every decent contractor in the valley.

My competitors probably didn’t realize they didn’t have a chance. Often, my connections were so solid that the only reason contractors got other bids was because their customer required it, or they wanted to make sure my prices were OK. But at the end of the day, I got the jobs because the contractors knew me, and had some level of confidence in the product and service I would provide.

I sold that business and my path eventually lead to online marketing, which was often a matter of sending high quantities of e-mail, or generating tons of SEO traffic, or creating a great PPC campaign. The marketer sat at the computer and basically blasted as many messages, in as many ways as possible.

But today, all that’s changed, and Social Marketing rules the day. Basically, marketing has come full circle, people buy from the person they know like, and trust, and they resent the “spammy” marketer that just blasts out a bunch of marketing messages.

But there’s a major difference between networking online and networking locally. In my 90′s business, I was limited to building relationships with people in my local area. Today, I can network with people all over the globe through Facebook, Twitter, my blog, etc.

The key now is to learn how to make social connections: as many as you can, as fast as you can, in as many places as possible.

The moral of the story? Networking isn’t dead, it’s more important than ever. But it will be ruled by those who understand and embrace social media in the right way.

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