Market Yourself on India Business Network

In order to market yourself, your business, your products or your practice on IBN...here are a few recommendations & best practices:

1. Create a real profile. Go to My Page and edit your profile. Have you uploaded a photograph? Did you answer the five questions sincerely? Is this what you would like the world to see and know about you?

2. Create a new Business Listing (just go to Businesses and add your Business). Do add your business URL and contact information (use the URL button to add a hyperlink). You can also add your business groups under Business Listing.

3. Create a new Discussion on topics relevant to your market and business... make your discussion interesting...do respond to comments right away from members. You can either create a new Discussion after joining a Group of interest, or a new Discussion from the top tab.

4. Create a new Group related to your business trends, and make it worthwhile for members to join your group... joining is the first step. What will you do to keep members interested after they join your group? Or join an existing group. Post current best practices & industry trends to keep your group engaging.

5. Are you hosting an event - local or virtual? If you are, Create an event, and market the event through groups and discussions, and invite members and contacts to join... You can also post an event that you are aware of and is being hosted in your local area.

6. Finally, if you have a product, launch or business announcement to make, Add a news story...Title of the news story is what will lure members to read about it. Make it catchy... and make your news story content a good read.

If you are searching for specific members to interact with, do an advanced member search after going to Members page, and invite them to become your friends...once. Repeated invites to member to become a friend is not a best practice.

Some caveats:
1. Adding repeated comments to a member's wall to make them your friend or get them to join your group is really spamming their wall and their profile...give the member some time to respond to your comment. Also, openly commenting on every member's wall and advertising your products / services / business is also spamming, resulting in being banned from the network.
2. Sending repeated emails to members to join your group, marketing your products / serivces, or asking them to respond to something you want their input on is also spamming... again, give some time for members to respond to your email.
3. Posting fraudulent offers or gimmicks to members is not permitted, and if you are caught doing this (generally, members are good at finding such members), you will be banned from the network. Also spammers who don't learn from past mistakes may ultimately lose their membership on the network.

Marketing and Business Networking go hand in hand. India Business Network is an online network. It takes time and patience to make new friends, business contacts, and create new opportunities...

Are there more ways to market on India Business Network? I'm sure there are, and will look forward to comments from members...

Did India Business Network provide you new opportunities? Did India Business Network help you create new business contacts? Share your comments and experiences...