Social Media: Using Social Media to Build a Business Network

In our conversations with Snack Krackle Pop, , we talked about how the Internet in general and social media in particular could connect people with experts in business. Here's what we learned.
"I’ve been in a group called BNI, Business Network International, for about a year and a half now. And that’s been one really great benefit for me, especially in a smaller community like this, to really help find different business contacts and also different promotions. It’s interesting, one of the things that, you know, we’re finding is that popcorn can be sold in many different avenues. For instance, in this business network group I’m in there’s a caterer in there, you know, and so she’s been recommending us to people for weddings. And that was something that we hadn’t thought of originally but we’ve been doing several small packages as like party favors for weddings. We did a Stanley Cup wedding the other day where we created a special label for their wedding. And they wanted red and gree n popcorn and as you can imagine, colors are very important to brides at weddings, so us having the benefit of creating different colors or flavors really helps in that avenue, of doing something special and different at a wedding.
Steve: Let’s talk about BNI. Explain that a little more to me.
"Business Network International is a group of business people that come together each week and meet. The different thing about this network is that only one vendor is allowed in a group, so you’re only allowed one realtor, you’re only allowed one, you know, car mechanic. Luckily for me there’s not that many popcorn people. I’m the only popcorn person that’s in there. And basically each week we meet and we pass referrals. During that week we learn about each other’s businesses so that we can go out-- and there’s about 30 people in my particular group and there are groups all over the nation, and-- but those 30 people really become sales people for me, you know. They really help me be able to get in to schools that I haven’t been able to get into before because they know the superintendent or they know the PTO person, you know. And that has been a really huge benefit for us.
Steve: So the premise is you help them, they help you.
"Right, exactly. I think to date we’ve passed about $2 million worth of business, and that’s this year. So our year starts April 1 and we’re on, you know, our fiscal year is April to April so since April I think that-- now some of that is real estate and mortgages so it goes up pretty quickly, but it’s just been a huge benefit for me to, you know, be able to get in with different contractors, different vendors, and really find out one of-- that’s one of the people that I met there one day who was another fundraising competitor. It was interesting. He was just visiting and came in and he hooked me up with a new popcorn rep, saved us about $5 a pound on popcorn. So it was a huge benefit for me. I found a whole new rep that I had no idea about and really, really saved us a lot of money, you know, in popcorn, in purchasing popcorn.
"

Bloglites

Retailer Stories

Action Guides

Related Articles

Book Excerpts

Member Comments