Engaging in offline networking is all about starting conversations, sharing information and developing relationships.

Meanwhile, social media marketing is about engaging in conversations, sharing information and collaboration – in other words, electronic networking.

They serve very similar functions and they commonly collide.

Many social media groups self organize offline networking events or ‘meet ups’ to encourage members to get to know/develop better relationships with those they interact with.

Meet ups offer you an opportunity to combine offline and online marketing communications

Think about offline meet ups as an opportunity to:

• Gain attention from audiences  you may want to influence
• Demonstrate why your knowledge/experience may be of value to them
• Cultivate perceived credibility for you, your ideas and your business

Consider approaching those who create meet ups and offering to speak to attendees about topics/issues that group cares about. By doing this you will offer value to:

• Meet up organizers, and
• Those who come to offline networking events

Both will be delighted, as you will make the meet up more relevant and useful.

Integrate your offline and online marketing efforts to create a multiplier effect.

There is extensive research that confirms the cumulative impact of integrating marketing communication efforts across many marketing communication tools will consistently out perform ad hoc communications. And this multiplier effect really matters in online marketing – in fact, it’s the main selling point for social media marketing.

But, a focus on online presence won’t be enough…

As Krishna De noted in a recent article, “few of us have businesses that are completely virtual”. And if we fail to integrate our online and offline communications; we face the prospect of poorer results.

And in an era of reducing attention spans and jumping from one sound bite to another, if you can command the attention of your target audiences for 15 or 30 minutes instead of seconds – just think about the possibilities for your credibility.

However, there’s a caveat…

Do not use speeches to sell your products at networking events.  You will lose the credibility that you crave.

Focus instead on sharing value; treating speeches you give at networking events as a means of starting conversations.

Over to you

What do you think? Share your experiences.