Are you losing your time on Linkedin like John?

Have you tried networking for your Business? Can You measure the business outcomes of your networking effort? Is it worth the time, the stress, the uncertainty, the investment you devoted to it?

John is a management and marketing consultant in New York. For years he was a top networker on LinkedIn.com. Being that LinkedIn was THE professional networking site, John thought that he was doing pretty well by having over 4,000 working business relationships. He met a lot of interesting people and did what he could to drive sales.

Then, on November 11, 2009, John’s friend Susan invited him to come along with her to a leads group gathering. Susan owned a large cleaning company in New York City and had insisted John check out the world of leads groups, which she claimed had changed her business approach forever. As soon as John arrived and caught a glimpse of the members passing around leads and sharing insider information, he was shocked. He couldn’t believe he had been missing out so many opportunities all this time.

Susan explained to John that the economic downturn had completely changed the way that people approach networking. Most realized they needed to “cut the fat” out of their business models, which meant doing away with pricey ad campaigns and meaningless memberships in professional organizations.

Most of us can no longer afford to waste our precious time and resources on tactics that just don’t work. The recent popularity of leads groups is the natural result of other organizations’ inability to provide members with results. These are trying times, but they also tend to bring out the most effective and efficient business strategies. And now that John knows where the money is at, he’s going straight for it.

Recent studies and testimonials on business networking are revealing that 92 to 98% of professionals and business people on social or professional networking websites and clubs obtain No business impact from the time and money they invest in networking, and are unable to measure any impact they assert.

John Veitch a Top networker on Rize, LinkedIn, Facebook,  put this way :

“I’ve always had high hopes that people might use the Internet to achieve useful things in their lives.

Mostly that’s failed to happen.

In recent years with the introduction of social networking opportunities I’ve seen that most people fail to understand how online social networks work. The success rate on Ryze is somewhere between 8% and 2% depending on your viewpoint. On LinkedIn the success rate is even lower. None of the many social network sites available are any different. There are millions of registered people, a few spectacular stars, a tiny cohort of regular users and many uncommitted users, creating a massive long tail of people who don’t get it.

There are huge numbers of people who have joined professional networks, but far too many sit isolated and inactive”

Sure, it’s Not because networking doesn’t work, Networking does work  But only for The few who understand what networking is about.  Get first insight from our previous post  “Why most of people waste time in networking?”

John observations are right.

Many websites have tried to help the unskilled networkers, but our survey found out that close to 90% of people on professional networking websites get No value for the time and eventually the money they  spent in these networks.

On these traditional networks, the reason for linking two people is weak.  Most networks are built on a casual business acquaintance – maybe you worked in the same company. Those networks are fine for who-knows-who, but when it comes to marketing your company to:

• Receive faster, more enthusiastic and more qualified responses to your promotions
• Turn more prospects into loyal paying clients,
• Switching from chasing customers to having customers come to you,

They’re useless.

The problem with current networks is that they don’t create enough “business transactions” for the majority of their users. The number of transaction is too low, discouraging the majority of users and even worse, there’s no way to measure the value (ROI) of the transactions that occur.

We need to go beyond networking as we know it.

“Real networking is the one that bring you business, profitable referrals, and help you grow your business in a supportive community.”

Leads group are the most successful marketing effort for your dollar that you can find anywhere.

Linkcrafter has made things much more easier with online leads groups.

With Online leads group, members and managers of leads group don’t even have to leave the comfort of their own home or office to take part in rewarding professional relationships. It’s easier than ever to keep in contact with leads and ensure that groups stay focused and motivated.

Linkcrafter sits on the nose of this revolution. In less than 3 months, Linkcrafter became the #1 leads groups and referral networks utility in the USA and in Europe, managing more than 30.000 leads groups in the US and around the world.