U.S., MID-ATLANTIC: Networking...Enhanced!

By Bruce Newman, U.S. Mid-Atlantic Bureau Chief

(New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington DC)

The power of networking can be greatly enhanced when combined with other forms of communication and woven into an effective business strategy. This point was confirmed during my recent conversation with David Gussin of 516Ads.com, an extremely positive and enthusiastic networker. David has combined networking and advertising to build a vibrant and rapidly growing advertising community network on Long Island. In this wide-ranging interview, he discussed how networking enhances advertising and how everyone benefits.

David, can you describe what you do?

We’re building an advertising community network - an incredible combination that incorporates three key elements: community, networking and Internet advertising. On the community side, it’s about “goodness” and speaking up. On the networking and advertising side, it’s about igniting business. This is a model that can be used in towns and counties throughout the country. It doesn’t work with just the computer alone. Business owners literally need to come together and interact with each other and we help facilitate these interactions.

Why?

There needs to be “warmth”. You can only do so much from a computer. Computers are an important part but they are only one part - networking is the other. You need to maintain a balance between the two. Besides communicating electronically, you must also speak with people on the phone and interact during events. Finding common ground greatly furthers relationship building. All of that helps maintain and enhance relationships.

Google generates huge revenue from its advertising. But imagine if it sponsored and promoted networking events? That would be amazing. It would provide a low-cost method of getting and igniting business.

Google makes much of its money through advertising revenue. Why would it care about networking?

Because advertising has changed. The days of just placing an ad are over. It’s expensive and ineffective. What if Google got people together, provided them with tools and gave them a means of communicating with each other? Now, you have a powerful advertising networking process.

A new search engine, YELP, does this. Yelp does the views and promotes its own networking night in New York City. It also gets high search engine rankings.

So, is what you do actually networking or advertising? How do you define networking?

I define networking as bringing people together. One of the best things you can do when you send out e-mails is to tell people about networking events. You are informing them about something they might find helpful. Including two or three tips in the e-mails greatly enhances the value. Good, positive, quality information about your company plus tidbits of information – that’s what people want.

Most people almost automatically press delete for emails. Try to never waste their time and give them quality information. If you want your email to be opened over and over again, mix information with it – something useful to your audience. Quality content is king.

I’ve always had a knack for saying a lot with very little, making things easy to remember. I own many websites with a 777____.com domain name. Why? Because it’s easy to remember. For example, 777clean.com and 777repairs.com. You know what they do just from their domain name – and you can remember it.

How often do you send out emails?

I send out an email every 2-3 days. I wait until I get enough quality information before I send it. When you send good news to the community, you get back more than you send. Give business excellent tools to promote themselves and spread goodness with it.

I define goodness as helping someone. An example of this is a walk for breast cancer. Goodness takes place all the time. People just need to be aware of it. And, it’s a win win situation. You’re helping business and spreading helping community causes.

Do you attend most of the events you list in your emails?

I try to attend as many events as possible. Speaking to people directly, encouraging people to speak with other people forms the basis for powerful relationship building. It is frequently because of these meetings that I find out about new events to publicize and what various businesses offer and require.

How long have you been doing this?

We started 516Ads.com July 20, 2007 with nothing but a logo on the site. We now have over 100 happy clients and thousands of people who open our emails and attend events. I’d have to say our advertising career started as a teenager. That’s when I created the now world famous Everything Bagel – TheEverythingBagel.com.

However, the accomplishment I’m most proud of is the LEARN program developed for the New York City public schools and has been used around the world. LEARN - Let’s End All Racism Now is about inspiring the future with an opposite to racism. Now that’s an advertising, marketing promotion program worth working on.

That’s quite an accomplishment. How effective has it been?

We’re talking racism here, so there’s lots of work to be done on this one. I’m not naïve, racism will always exist but I’m 100% certain that we could and should spread an opposite to it. It’s not always easy, but when you combine many of the key elements together: networking, advertising, events, goodness speaking up and constant communications, you can accomplish some pretty amazing results.

Is there anything else you wish to add?

People who network all need to hear the word: blog. A blog is one of the best ways to run your site efficiently and provide information. One reason for this is that it’s easy to update and modify without requiring web expertise. Also, search engines are more sensitive to changes. Email with a picture or logo can be copied and pasted directly onto the blog.

People should blog more. A good blog is an incredible tool. If necessary, you should pay someone to put something interesting for you on the blog every second week. Emails and newsletters that are just sent as email have a shelf life of one day. Then it’s over. Conversely, being on a blog provides a permanent foundation of articles for readers to reference and for search engines to pick up.

One of the things that attracted my attention to you was that you have a complete template for combining advertising and networking for any demographic area. Aren’t you afraid that people will just steal it?

No, I’ve never worried about that. We do many inventive activities to successfully combine networking and advertising and I’m always looking for new ones.

David Gussin can be reached at david@516ads.com


Do you have any major event announcements you would like to promote through The National Networker? If so, please notify me via email at bnewman@prodinst.com.


Bruce Newman, a consultant guru is the mid-Atlantic editor for The National Networker and the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC. Finding consultants can be a very time consuming job and once you find one, how do you know how good they are? At The Productivity Institute, we do the work for you - at no cost to you! We find and constantly rate our consultants to ensure that their work remains outstanding. Sign up for our free newsletter and blog.


___________________________________________________________

Posted to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER. To subscribe for your free newsletter, go to www.TheNationalNetworker.com. For the complete National Networker Relationship Capital Toolkit and a free, continuous RSS feed (available either by traditional RSS or by direct email), go to: http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com. You are also invited to click our buttons:


Forward/Share This Article With Colleagues And Social Media:

U.S., MID-ATLANTIC: Networking...Enhanced!