This is Guest Post by Philip Pelto, the CEO of MyFirestorm a Minnesota Networking organization designed designed for motivated business networking professionals to meet, socialize, and pass referrals.  I asked him to speak on the importance of the personal referral and networking.  With the web’s growth in the marketing world there is still nothing more powerful than a referral.

Let me be the first to say that I love social media and online marketing. I feel it’s a great way to reach a large and targeted audience at a very low cost per impression. That said, I’m pretty old school in my networking approach. I don’t think you can ever totally replace looking someone in the eye and shaking their hand. But I do think you can find a happy medium and both approaches can play nice and get along.

The way we communicate in person is mostly non-verbal. According to communication experts 55% of our communication is based on body language. The way you shake someone’s hand, the way you make eye contact, the way you sit or stand. Another 37% of the way we communicate is through voice inflexion, tone and tempo. Finally, just 8% of our communication is based on the actual words that we say. So why do I bring this up? Well, I think it’s imperative that you actually meet someone in person and get to know them in order to build a meaningful relationship, whether it be business or personal.

It’s a lot easier for someone to refer you business if they know and trust you. Everything we do at MyFirestorm is designed to help start and build those relationships. After you’ve made that initial contact in person I think social media is a great way to stay connected and grow that relationship. I love being able to follow my friends and associates on Twitter and LinkedIn. I also think that any marketing effort online becomes that much more effective when you have an existing relationship. I’m much less likely to delete an email if I know the person that sent it to me. I’m also much more likely to read blogs and status updates from people that I’ve actually met.

So there you have it. Both in person networking and online marketing can join forces to become the dynamic duo that’s going to power your business to that next level and beyond!

Philip brings over 12 years of experience in business and brand building to My Firestorm.  He learned the power of referral networking early on in his business career and has honed his skills and focused them on building MyFirestorm.  To learn more about him and MyFirestorm please visit their site Minneapolis Networking and look through the valuable information on in person networking he has to offer.