Build Your Own Social Network

Today’s Feature Social Network: Ning

Ning, a social media site, is quietly changing the face of social networking. While it has been around since 2004, Fast Company recently featured Ning co-founder and CEO Gina Bianchini on their cover and in April of this year there was speculation that Ning’s value was then approximately half a billion dollars (not that this is unusual in the world of a $1 billion YouTube purchase). Ning sites are extremely easy to navigate and they look and function very much like a lot of social networking sites that are open to the general public. There are existing Ning groups for every conceivable interest and Ning is continuing to build momentum.

You may be asking, “Why is a discussion about creating a “personal” social network important or even relevant to lawyers or lawyerpreneurs?” Well … creating or joining a Ning community around a topic that is of interest to your industry or that relates to your subject matter expertise is simply another great way that social networks can be used to build community, your professional brand and showcase your expertise … all resulting in increased business opportunities.

Ning is a powerful tool because it allows you to develop a network (Ning supplies all that you need … except the contacts) instead of just hooking into more “general” communities like Facebook and LinkedIn.

Ning is also extremely easy to use! For example, if you want to create a special network for colleagues, leaders in your industry or maybe people who are interested in your areas of specality, you would first reserve the name for your community (which will be hosted on the Ning service for F*REE), select the networking tools you want to be available to members (forum, photos, music, events, text, etc) and then select a template design.

This entire process takes less than 5 minutes and allows you to create a really professional interface for your social networking community.   Once you’ve created your community, you are free to invite colleagues, friends and clients to your new “professional” community, start discussions, schedule events and even further customize the look and feel of the website (ifyou so desire) by updating the template with HTML.   It’s just that simple!   If you like the idea of creating your own social community, but have no desire to do the formation legwork (regardless of how easy it is) just let me know in the comment section and I’m happy to make a recommendation.

UpwardAction® SuccessWork:

I have five questions for your consideration.

1.  Do you know where your “ideal clients” spend their time - both online and in-person?’

2.  If yes, are you making valuable contributions in those places?

3.   If you don’t know the answer to question one, how can you find out?

4.   What needs to happen for you to show up in the places that are most powerful for your business development and that supports your authentic-self?

5.   What else needs to happen?

Always - Expect the Best!

Coach T.C.

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