2020, among many other things, has been a year of cancellations. Everyone has been affected by it, regardless of industry.

Sales conferences and seminars have had to adapt by going online or postponing. No handshakes, no swapping of business cards, no mingling with potential partners. For many business professionals, there is a huge gap in networking opportunities.

There’s no perfect replacement for these in-person events, but there are several online solutions that can help you adapt to remote networking and lead generation.

Attend Webinars

This might not be a change for some; webinars have become a staple of online lead generation and conversion.

According to Event Manager Blog, “52.6% of event professionals are invested more in event tech than the previous year.”

Whether you’re well acquainted with webinars or not, you’ll need to be for the foreseeable future. Several large conferences have moved to virtual platforms for the time being.

Obviously, online conferences don’t offer the same level of personal interaction as physically being in the same room with other salespeople. But webinars still create a space to learn from and network with industry leaders.

For ideas on webinars to attend, see Divvy’s list of the remaining virtual conferences happening in 2020– most of them are free!

Get Personal

While webinars can’t deliver the same networking capabilities that we’re used to, social media can be a useful stand-in.

Any businessperson worth their salt is already leveraging their social media in order to connect with leads or partnerships. But social media, accessible as it is, can be a difficult medium to forge meaningful relationships.

Sending a generic pitch via direct message or using your timeline as ad space only goes so far. It’s the internet’s equivalent to pinning your business card on every community message board in town.

How much better would it be to meet with leads who fit your target market, and get to know them before trying to sell immediately?

In-person meetings are limited right now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t engage in genuine conversations via social media.

Try approaching your lead with content that relates to them. This is a concept is known as attraction marketing, and it’s been proven to help leads turn into customers.

Going the attraction marketing route means you’re meeting the lead where they’re comfortable instead of forcing them into a purchase decision right off the bat. This makes you seem more likable and friendly– hence attraction marketing.

Producing personalized content isn’t always easy, though. It can be time consuming to find your leads interest, search for content that relates to that interest, and then have to write something to make it personal.

That’s a lot for one lead. To tackle qualified conversations, you need conversation intelligence.

Soundboard streamlines the process of generating qualified conversations by giving you curated content to share and suggested messaging to along with it. It’s what to share and what to say all wrapped up in one.

Even better, Soundboard’s new Chrome Web Store extension makes sharing content even more personalized through AI that scans a lead’s LinkedIn or Facebook profile for their interests, then suggests articles for you to share based on their own social media.

Soundboard or no, social media networking has to be genuine if you want to create meaningful connections that lead to actual business relationships.

Use LinkedIn

Speaking of social media networking, LinkedIn is the platform to use of you’re trying to fill the void of in-person networking.

It’s not enough to have a LinkedIn profile, though. To really take advantage of this site, you have to optimize your profile for maximum reach.

For one, investing in Sales Navigator is a great way for salespeople to boost lead generation and conversion. Even if you don’t use Sales Navigator, your basic LinkedIn profile allows you to craft an attractive profile and optimize your the content you post to the market you’re wanting to serve.

Soundboard’s Chrome and Edge extension works alongside LinkedIn to create better engagement conversations. This tool helps you engage prospects by analyzing their interests, and then suggests content to share with them, without ever leaving LinkedIn.

Besides sales tools, the details make all the difference on LinkedIn. Consider these three quick suggestions to revamp your LinkedIn:

1. Use quality images on posts and your profile (click here to see our post on free image sites).
2. Write relevant articles that appeal to your connections and shared groups
3. Edit your bio to emphasize your company’s mission and solutions as it relates to your target audience

We hope these tips help you navigate the world of online networking. Be sure to look into LinkedIn’s sales solutions to take your networking up a notch, and don’t forget about Soundboard’s FREE extension, which you can download here.