Our ability to recommend products, suggest services, and refer clients is a powerful economic force. Facebook is in the process of figuring out how to best exploit that economic force on a massive scale, but in the meantime, you can still make a big difference in business with your opinion, especially on behalf of your immediate circle of friends and acquaintances.
Do you know any small business owners? Have you ‘liked’ them on Facebook? That ‘s a nice thing to do, but if you really like these small business owners, you’ll take it a step further. Write a Yelp! review. Or write an endorsement of their services on LinkedIn. If you’ve got a blog, include a link to their web site in your blogroll, or write a brief post about why you like them and link back to them. Make comments on their blog posts, re-tweet their best stuff, and share things you honestly appreciate. You will be doing them a solid. And that kind of karma comes back to you in a big way.
You may think it’s not going to make a difference, but if you are honest and sincere in your endorsements, you may well influence a potential buyer – and until some faceless social media company figures out how to make their money off of your opinion, you’ve still got time to help your peeps to do so first.
Have you ever given your friends or family business by referral? Have you ever had a bad experience doing so? Leave me a note and let me know how it worked out for better (or worse.)
