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Marketing a Teambuilding Program Through Social Networks

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As a small business owner, one of my biggest responsibilities is making sure that I am promoting my business to the right people. The goal of course is that this self-promotion will deliver a message that resonates with these people, who will in turn become my clients. Once I have delivered my outstanding service to them, I have no doubt that they will not only continue to work with me, but will be likely to promote me to their own network of friends and business associates. This type of ‘social networking’ should be the goal of every small business.

The greatest challenge I have faced is finding the method that delivers the initial contact with relatively little investment of time or money – the tool that will spread my message to potential clients.

Here are a few of the tools that I currently employ:

  • Facebook – I have a Facebook Page where I post pictures and videos of our wonderful clients.
  • Twitter – Our Twitter account shares links to other resources that we find of interest, in addition to sharing our blog posts, status updates and the occasional humorous anecdote or observation.
  • Blogging – We not only have our own GO-Adventures Blog, but also occasionally write guest blogs for friends and associates.
  • Article Submission – We have recently begun submitting our blog articles to different websites.
  • Online Profiles – In addition to Facebook and Twitter, there are other online profiles that we have tried out, including:

There are undoubtedly hundreds more social networking tools that can help spread the word about our programs, and we’d love to hear from anyone who has had good experience with any of them.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section

ROPES Course Fun with 7-Eleven

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I facilitated a team building ropes course with a group of distributors from 7-Eleven yesterday, and the program was great fun. I never tire of seeing people bonding over a shared experiential training program. Building cohesion, fostering trust, and simply getting to know one another in a novel environment can be so rewarding – sure beats meeting for drinks after work! (although that always seems to be the follow-up event – go figure!)

Here is a short video of a few of the activities – enjoy!

Learn more about our ROPES Challenge team builder.

Build Trust in 20 Minutes or Less

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As a teambuilding facilitator, I am constantly asking my clients, “what are your goals and expectations for your teambuilding experience.”  Almost without fail, the answer is “increased trust between the members of our team.”

Building a foundation of trust has lasting benefit, long beyond the teambuilding experience.  Trust leads to cohesion, cohesion leads to an environment where team members are willing to take a chance with their ideas and suggestions.  Those fresh ideas often lead to innovation, and an environment that supports innovation is more likely to breed success.  It all begins with trust.

Here’s an activity that doesn’t require much in the way of expert facilitation.  I run it with nearly every group whose main focus is building trust.  The activity  is almost always received positively, and often leads to a rapid gain in vulnerability-based trust.

My Favorite Scar -

Find a quiet place for a discussion.  Frame the activity as a trust activity, and one that should be taken relatively seriously.  Ask your group to select and share a story about one of the following topics:

  • Your favorite scar – where is it and how it happened
  • A funny childhood story
  • The coolest thing that ever happened to you
  • The scariest thing that ever happened to you
  • Something people would be surprised to learn about you

This is not meant to be a therapy session, but the activity does give the group an opportunity to share stories that they might not normally share with their fellow team members.

I always hold a short debrief, often asking quite simply, “what is the value of an activity like this?” and then follow with a quick, fun, moving activity.  For many of my corporate groups, this simple trust activity has been one of the highlights of the day.

Hope it works for you!