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Being truly interesting is a area of subjectivity. While some things are interesting to a many people, a few things can be interesting to the masses. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. In fact, individual opinions are what make us unique. When looking to be interesting to a target market, different rules begin to apply. In this example, one only has to be interesting to a chosen few and can narrow down his or her interesting attributes or features.

From a marketing standpoint, we know that once interest is generated, a lot of positive things can happen. Your product or service can be exploited and then sold to interested parties. This is, of course, the objective of most marketing campaigns. When it comes to self marketing, there are only subtle differences- if there are any differences at all.

When you are out networking for business, self marketing is in full effect. You are meeting new contacts and making connections with the objective of leaving a positive brand/image in their minds. When they leave from your presence and go back into their lives, you must ask; what about me or my firm, have they taken with them?

Have you given them a reason to give you a second thought after departing? Have you in any way, stood out from the other hundreds of people that they have met recently? These questions don’t have to be left to a coin toss. Here are a few suggestions to help you generate interest when networking;

First, after the initial introductions are done, you should lead the conversation by asking questions that help you to better understand who you’re talking to. Of course, you don’t want to ask questions that would offend anyone but you can ask questions that cause the person to talk about their immediate needs.

Once a person is talking about their immediate needs and you are listening attentively, this causes rapport to begin to develop. If you’re looking to generate interest, simple rapport is not enough. You must speak to the person as if you are their team member or even fan and want them to succeed. So, speaking supportively to a person you hardly even know does help to generate their interest.

You can also use a similar line of questioning to determine what they do in their spare time outside of work and what they are passionate about.

A brutally simple segway for entering this area of conversation is to simply say, “So what do you do when you’re not working?” Some people may find this question to be intrusive or unprofessional but it’s all in your tone.

When you have an answer to this question, you can begin a simple conversation about it. How interesting will a person find you if they recall having a conversation about their favorite hobby? Chances are, you’ll have been found to be very interesting. Why? Because 95% of the people that they have spoken to never asked those questions.

Try the suggestions given above and put your positive brand into people’s minds. Don’t forget to follow up and keep in touch. If you do, you will find that it will take less effort in setting up meetings or gaining referrals.

Do you want to learn more about business networking? I have just completed my brand new guide for Professional Networking Success:

Build networks; know others who can help your business grow

The business arena today is so competitive that without networks, you have very slim chances of ever making it. People want to get to know each other because they know that knowing people is the only way to create a business. This has been forced largely by the internet – it allows all sorts of people to interact and these interactions will result in different resources and talents being found.

Networks will usually be formed from the small initial group almost virally. If a company with a great product and a catchy marketing messages reaches out to a small group, this group will reach out to others by sharing a link. The link keeps moving on and on, and as it moves on, you find more and more people visiting your website, joining your blog, joining your online club and just keeping it going. These networks are where you will get ideas, where you will source for talent and even new markets.

As all this is happening, your product is selling too. You are getting to know people who either need your product or who know people who do. There is almost no better way for a business to grow, because its low cost and one some level, you can call it low maintenance. All you have to do is stay engaged with your networks for an hour or 2 every day and the results start to trickle in.

If you are going to use social marketing, make sure that you don’t come across as a viral message. Some viral messages get away with it, but not all. It could kill your business if each time someone receives an email about your company, they treat it as spam.

Social Media has gained strong reputation as a fertile soil for many beginners to plow in, and try their hands on making money. Apart from the fact that it is free to join social media sites, beginners find it at home within the environment.

That is so true because ‘social’ here means community.

They find it is easy to spend hours, communicating and interacting with like-minded people, and with this kind of ambiance, making a recommendation and suggestion about something of value added comes naturally. And the message is better accepted too since it comes from friend whom they trust. But more often than not, that trust is easily broken, and many choose to stay away from social media networks because they had to put up with too much ads when all they want to do in the first place is to interact.

Here are a few quick tips for beginners who want to do the right things when using social networking to make money online:

1) Choose the right networks.

Spend some times to do background research to find which networks will likely to give you the best return on effort. There are a few popular networking but which one is likely to harbor the highest number of your targeted crowd? Time spent doing this is all worth it.

2) Create a compelling profile.

In networking, your profile is like your ticket. A good profile could mean high acceptance or frequent rejection. It is wise to come up with a profile that is memorable, easy to relate to and catchy.

3) Listen.

Before starting to recommend people with what you have, it is best to familiarized yourself with the crowd first. Make yourself popular or liked, and start some sort of contribution to the community. Let them know that you are there to offer them something valuable and not just pitching products.

4) Engage.

Once you have a good grasp about the community in whole; their desire, aspiration and dreams, then, and only then, you can start leading them towards your offer. Make sure you this tactfully and with respect. Just pitching an offer straight away would not cut it.

By now, most business owners have been told that they need to not only utilize search engine marketing, but also leverage the power of social networking for their business as well. They’ve been told that establishing a social media presence online for their business will lead to greater brand awareness, more leads and increased profits. But many business owners are still skeptical, mostly because they don’t truly understand how social networking works. Naturally, this leads them to wonder whether or not social networking is really just a waste of time and money. Well, is it?

The answer is yes, and no.

Social networking is a complete waste of time for your business if you don’t have a coordinated social media marketing strategy in place. Why? Because using that strategy to promote your business isn’t like placing an ad in the yellow pages, the newspaper or on the radio where you just sit back and wait for the calls to come in.

In order to achieve a worthwhile return on investment for your time, your campaigns need to be well planned, and most importantly, they need to be consistent. Just like search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns, social networking requires on-going, consistent effort to produce results. Simply creating an account for your business on a platform such as Facebook and making an occasional post, or a tweet on Twitter or video on You Tube isn’t enough.

Now, many business owners will read that statement “on-going, consistent effort” and cringe, because it means more expenses. But this is entirely the wrong attitude to take. Social networking is one of the most cost effective ways to promote a business, period. No other form of advertising allows your business to connect with such a huge audience of targeted prospects. Even if you decide to hire an expert SEO company that specializes in social media to manage your social networking campaigns, the return on investment will far outweigh any expenses, especially when compared to traditional forms of advertising.

There’s a famous saying in business, “Go where the money is” and today the money is in social networking. No matter what your market is, your audience is out there, right now and they are actively engaged on social media sites. That’s where they hang out. So if you want to connect with them, and introduce them to your brand, your products or your services, that’s where you need to be.

In the tough economic climate of today, networking is probably an even more important marketing tool than it has ever been before. The wider your network, the more likely you will have contacts in businesses and organisations that are less affected by the general slow-down in consumer spending. People have always bought “people” people. We all like to know who we are dealing with, what they are like, how they can help us and whether we trust them.

It is therefore very important to be confident in our ability to quickly build relationships, but unfortunately, many people find networking a truly uncomfortable experience. However, our confidence and ultimately our success at networking can be dramatically improved by adopting a few simple techniques.

Here are ten top tips that will help you out when networking face to face:

1) Have your own 30 second advert. When someone asks you ‘so what do you do?’ be prepared with a short answer. Most people will give you one minute to introduce what you do so make it count!

2) Go to the most appropriate event. It may sound obvious, but if you work for an accountancy firm providing tax and audit advice to local businesses, then don’t attend a national meeting of accounting firms. Vice versa, if you want business from large organisations, then don’t attend a local event targeted at SME’s.

3) Set yourself some targets. Think about the meeting before hand. How many people would you like to meet and from which types of organisations? What information do you hope to gain? Remember, preparation and planning will increase your chance of success.

4) Don’t sell – just network. The purpose of networking is to spend time with other people, to get to know them, and to find out some information that can be followed up later on. Save the sales pitch for another time.

5) Stay focussed. Remember you are networking to help to build your business further, so pay attention to the people you meet and to what they say.

6) Don’t act as if you are desperate for business. People generally like to talk to interesting, upbeat and confident people. You certainly won’t attract any new business if you act as though you are desperate.

7) Be interesting. People like to talk with interesting people so do some homework. Plan a couple of topics that you can bring up and that you will enjoy discussing.

Ask plenty of questions. In addition, have a number of conversation ‘openers’ pre-prepared. People love to talk about themselves so ask them what they like to do when they are not at work, what the most amazing place they have ever visited is or simply their favourite pizza topping!

9) Listen, listen and listen again. Pay attention to what people are telling you, and search for problems that you can solve. Follow up with your solution in business time.

10) Don’t forget that others will form an opinion of you from your interactions. Treat everyone you meet with respect and don’t make negative comments about other people or your competition.

In today’s technological times, it is also possible to build a large network of people via your computer. Here are five top tips to help you use the internet successfully for networking purposes:

1. Don’t mix business and pleasure. Be careful about the way you use your business networking sites (for example, LinkedIn) as opposed to the way you use your social networking sites (for example, Facebook). If possible, keep business and pleasure completely separate online – don’t invite professional contacts to link with you on social networking sites, and vice versa. The last thing you really want is your professional contacts to be reading all about how you got a bit tipsy at the weekend, or your poorly dog needing to be taken to the vets!!

2. Take the time to look up old contacts. By adding just one contact to your online network, you will often gain access to hundreds more people who are interested in a similar vein of work, or who have professional skills that may be useful to you. Take the time and trouble to look up people you haven’t contacted in a while, and make use not only of their skills, but also of the skills of the people they network with.

3. Be careful how you come across. Remember that the written word does not have the advantage of body language to emphasise its true meaning. Words can easily be misunderstood across a computer screen, so if in doubt, leave it out!

4. Think what your legacy will be. Where as the spoken word is gone the moment it has been said, the written word has a much more lasting legacy. Never type anything out in temper, as it may be difficult to retract it, by which point the damage is already done. Be polite, courteous and professional at all times.

5. Beware of addiction! Networking sites can be incredibly time-consuming. Whilst they are a very important and useful resource, stay aware of how much time you spend using them, and don’t let this become proportionally imbalanced to the amount of work you generate from networking in this way.

Finally, it is vital to follow up those whom you have met for the first time on a face to face basis. Send them a simple ‘It was nice to meet you’ message that is personalised to them. Why should you do this? Well, marketing professionals claim that we need to be exposed to a product or service between 5-6 times before we remember and recognise it, and the same can probably be applied to people!