4994 Lower Roswell Road; Suite 11, Marietta, GA 30068
678.888.0200 phone, 678.888.0203 fax
www.BNISoutheast.com
Social Media Guide for BNI Chapters
Table of Contents
I. Why Social Media? ..................................................................................................................... 2
II. Facebook Fan Page Basics ...................................................................................................... 3
III. What To Post (Content is King) ............................................................................................... 4
IV. Prospecting ............................................................................................................................. 8
V. Grow Your Fans ..................................................................................................................... 10
VI. Privacy .................................................................................................................................... 11
VII. LinkedIn ................................................................................................................................. 12
VIII. Twitter ................................................................................................................................... 14
IX. YouTube.................................................................................................................................. 14
X. Other Social Media And Resources ...................................................................................... 14
XI. Time Management Tips .......................................................................................................... 15
XII. Getting Started If Your Chapter Does Not Currently Have A Facebook Page ................. 17
XIII. Action Requested If Your Chapter Already Has A Facebook Page ................................. 18
XIV. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 19
XV. Examples ............................................................................................................................... 20
Page 2
I. Why Social Media?
Social media has become an incredibly popular tool to for connecting with family, friends, and business
contacts. We want to help BNI chapters use Facebook and other social media sites to facilitate communication
within the chapter and to also gain visibility with potential visitors.
Social media is changing the way we communicate and especially the way products and services are
promoted and advertised. Love it or hate it, it is here to stay – at least for the immediate future – and your
chapter is missing a huge opportunity if you don’t use the communication vehicles that millions of people are
paying attention to every day.
Social Media Can Exponentially Expand Your Networking
Social media can be a very effective and efficient way to build relationships with people you don’t often have
an opportunity to speak with in person. Consider the person you see once a month or once every few months
at a chamber or other networking event. Maybe you sometimes attend the same events, but you don’t always
have the opportunity to have a meaningful conversation with them. Connecting with them online is a great way
to get to know their interests, hobbies, and/or learn about their business in between face-to-face meetings. By
the same token, they can get to know you and potentially discover common ground that might never surface in
a business conversation.
Here’s a real life example: A BNI member that I see only once or twice a year at training meetings posted a
referral request for her business on Facebook. I connected her with a friend in her same industry that
introduced her to a person she subsequently hired. Had we not been connected on Facebook and had she not
posted her need (yes, for all the world to see), that introduction would never have happened.
Networking Is Networking
Don’t be intimidated by technology! Whether online or in person, the same networking principles apply. Social
media is just another tool for building relationships. It’s a very convenient tool because it can be done in only a
few minutes a day (if you don’t play online games), and from the comfort of your home or office. So keep in
mind Dr. Misner’s advice against “premature solicitation” and just be social. Build relationships. Supplement
your in-person networking. Get to know people and let them get to know you. Look for ways to help others.
Giver’s Gain!®
Invisibility Is Not A Super Power
Not for a networker, anyway! It’s all about visibility, leading to credibility. Social media can keep you “top of
mind” by the simple method of liking and commenting on your contact’s photos and posts. Yes, tell them happy
birthday even though one hundred others have said the same thing! Your fellow BNI members posting
testimonials about you or thanking you for a referral may not have an immediate effect, but it does build your
credibility. When one of your contacts has a need for your service or product, you are more likely to come to
mind.
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II. Facebook Fan Page Basics
PLEASE NOTE: It is the responsibility of every chapter member to interact with your chapter Facebook
page in order to get maximum benefit from this marketing tool!
Prospective visitors are not likely to be impressed if they visit your chapter fan page and the content is old
and/or the only posts are links to educational articles. They will be impressed, however, if your page has lots of
thanks for referrals, testimonials for each other’s businesses, and are an accurate reflection of the fun and
community happening in your chapter.
Whether we create a Facebook page for you or you already have a Facebook page, it is very important that it
is monitored on a daily basis and updated frequently – at least 2 or 3 times per week. We suggest your
chapter have two administrators who can share the responsibility for monitoring for inappropriate content (i.e.
delete spam, inappropriate language) and responding to messages or referral requests.

All chapter members should:

“Like” your chapter’s Facebook page. Please send out a request once your Facebook page is
completed. If you have an existing page and all chapter members are not fans, please send out
a request.

BNI members should “like” the business fan pages of their fellow chapter members.

Members should send a request that their network of friends “Like” your chapter’s Facebook
page. Look for the “share” link. (Currently it is located in a drop-down menu to the right of your
fan page profile photo. We can’t guarantee it won’t be moved next week.)

Please ask your chapter to “Like” the BNI Southeast Facebook page. Our page is at
www.facebook.com/bnisoutheast. We frequently post links to inspirational articles that you are
more than welcome to “share” on your chapter Facebook page and we LOVE for you to “like” or
comment on our links!

For members that do not have a Facebook account, please consider creating a Facebook account
specifically for networking purposes, as it can greatly impact chapter communication and promotion.

If you have reservations regarding privacy, please check out Facebook Help information on privacy
settings and using “Lists” to help keep your business and personal lives separate. Facebook has very
helpful, easy to read info and goes into much more detail than we can within this guide. See the Privacy
section later in this guide for a link to this subject in Facebook Help.
Even if you are using privacy settings, please heed this warning: If you don’t want the world to know,
don’t put it on Facebook.

Page Admins can choose to “pin” a post to the top so that it stays in prominence at the top of your
timeline for 7 days. This is great for important announcements, such as an upcoming visitor day event
or networking mixer.

Page Admins can choose to highlight a post, photo or video so that it is expanded and will get more
notice.
See the Examples Section for info on how to pin or highlight a post, photo or video.
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III. What To Post On Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter
The following are some ideas for what can be posted on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter by ANY member of
your chapter, not just page administrators. These ideas can be used both for your chapter fan page and for
your personal profiles.
A. Status Updates/Tweets

The upcoming 10 minute presenter and what kind of connections should be invited because they will
benefit from the presentation. (Secretary/Treasurers, please remember to enter this info into BNI
Connect also to ensure it is displayed on your chapter website.)

Special events info. Your administrator may want to add as an event first, and then you can include a
link to that page in your personal status updates/tweets to invite friends.

Training events. Find the event on the www.BNISoutheast.com calendar and include a link to that page
to facilitate registration.

Member accomplishments and awards (i.e., community or association awards).

Welcome to new members.

Congratulations to renewing members.

Open seats. Example: We have 21 business professionals who are looking for a CPA [or applicable
industry] we can send referrals to. If you know of an excellent CPA in the [city] area, please invite them
to visit one of our weekly meetings at [location, day, time].
If you are not sure which industries you should be targeting, please check with your chapter President
or Director Consultant for help.

Achievements in number of referrals by the chapter for the month, quarter or year AND/Or
achievements by members for the month, quarter or year. Examples: Our chapter passed x number of
referrals during the three previous months! OR Thanks to chapter member John Doe for giving x
number of referrals last month. He was our Notable Networker!

Dollar amount of business generated from referrals by the chapter or by a member. Examples: Our
chapter generated $x in business last year. If you would like help growing your business, come visit
our group on [date, time, location]. OR Chapter member John Doe helped give $x worth of business to
other members last year. Thanks, John for your outstanding participation!

Chapter director consultant visits.

Links to educational articles. (SuccessNet magazine and Dr. Misner’s blog and podcasts are excellent
resources for this.)
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B. Visitor Engagement On Facebook

Encourage visitors to go to your chapter Facebook page and post their comments about their
experience at your meeting. If you do this, your administrators must monitor the page every day for
comments and thank your visitors for their positive feedback.
For negative remarks, please send an email to your chapter President and your chapter Director so
they may address any issues. The comment needs a positive response and apology on your Facebook
page, with follow up to be done as necessary via phone or email. Even if a negative comment has no
basis or merit, the fact that someone felt strongly enough to post it to your page means it needs to be
considered.
On the upside of requesting feedback, you may get some positive, real-life testimonials (even from
visitors who do not join or visit again), and those can build your chapter’s visibility and credibility.

Encourage your visitors to connect with your chapter via Facebook. Let them know that you are still
open to doing business with them even if they decide not to join - provided their competitor doesn’t fill
that seat. Convey that you would appreciate any referrals they might make to your group whether for
business or for other possible members. Position your group as a great resource of well-connected
networkers that can help with any introductions they might need and that you LOVE giving referrals.
Hint: Imagine that your Financial Services Team needs an attorney for estate planning. The candidate who
has visited loved the meeting, but has decided he/she can’t make the weekly commitment. What if your
chapter were to continue an online conversation with this person and create several valuable introductions
or referral connections for them within the next few weeks or months? This might influence their decision
on being able to prioritize a weekly meeting.
Key: After building the relationship and demonstrating value, don’t wait for them to ask for an application.
Take the initiative to invite them again to apply!
Real life example: I recently met a BNI visitor who had subbed for members a number of times. He shared
with me that he had already received enough business from referrals from the group to pay for the cost of
membership. I put an application in his hand and encouraged him to submit it before our next big training
event. All he needed was a little encouragement!
C. Notes Section On Facebook

A note with a link to your chapter’s website page on www.BNISoutheast.com that shows a list of
members. This will assist with visitors who want to know who the existing members are in order to
assess the value of visiting. This can also be done via a custom tab on your fan page.

Educational articles that you want to include the whole article rather than a link to it.

A list of special offers that members are willing to offer if a customer mentions the chapter Facebook
page.
Page 6
D. Photos/Videos On Facebook
Posting photos gives a “face” or a personal touch to your chapter fan page, so please try to post at least a
few photos.

Videos can create greater interest than photos and also impact Search Engine Optimization (the
likelihood of your chapter showing up when someone does an online search). Please make sure your
videos are short, to the point and appropriate. The longer a video is, the less likely a viewer will
continue to the end (unless your content is riveting or extremely entertaining.) We suggest you keep
videos to 2 minutes or less.

Video testimonials for BNI or fellow BNI members are great! We love, love, love testimonials about how
BNI has benefitted your business. Please send links/files for these testimonials to
Melinda@bnisoutheast.com so I can include them on our YouTube channel.

Please do not post anything that would embarrass your members.

Please try to get a group photo of the chapter and post it. Please also send it, along with a few
sentences about your chapter, to Joani@bni.com. Joani Durandette is the Social Media Coordinator
for BNI HQ and she will post it on Dr. Misner’s Facebook page at:
www.facebook.com/IvanMisner.BNIFounder.

Please get the subject’s permission prior to posting. Be aware that some people are sensitive to their
photos being placed out in cyberspace.

The photos should be related to the chapter or its members, whether at the meeting or outside of the
meeting.

Post photos of your Notable Networkers and of incoming Leadership Teams.

Please use tags to show who is in the photo if you can.

Try not to post too many similar pictures, as it can cause clutter. You want to add interest, but too much
of one thing can detract attention.
D. What Not To Post

Do Not Sell. Social media is just that: social. What’s true with in-person networking is true about social
media networking; it’s about farming, not hunting. Build relationships by liking comments, celebrate
successes, include thanks and testimonials, and don’t forget to tell your friends happy birthday ;-)

The exception to the above is that an occasional special offer or discount for your product or service is
acceptable. Just make sure that percentage-wise you are much more social than you are promoting
your business, at least when it comes to your chapter fan page. It’s even better if one of your fellow
members posts your special offer rather than yourself :)

Follow common sense. As we stated above in the photos section, please do not post anything that
would offend or embarrass another. While the chapter page can be a social outlet, it is also a business
outlet. Again, as with in-person networking, religion and politics are probably best left off of the chapter
Page 7
fan page. You are free to express these opinions through your personal status updates to the benefit or detriment - of your networking relationships.

The page administrators have the right to delete posts deemed offensive or out of place, and should
also check daily for inappropriate postings such as spam, and delete them when necessary.
Page 8
IV. Prospecting
A. Find good prospects for your power team or personal contact sphere.

Determine the key seats you’d like to fill. Post on your personal profile for Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter
that you are looking for a recommendation for X (let’s say florist). Who have people had a good
experience or good service from? Keep asking until you have a couple of likely prospects.

Pick one and find out the business owner’s name (let’s say Jane Doe). Then post that you are looking
for an introduction to Jane Doe because you’ve heard she has the best florist shop in town and you’d
like to consider sending her referrals.

You can also post the same questions on your chapter fan page to interact with your chapter members
and visitors.
Hint: Say you were introduced to someone who said they had researched businesses in town and yours
kept popping up as one of the best. They would like to consider sending you referrals. Do you think you’d
be interested in meeting other professionals they do business with and staying afterward to discuss the
possibilities?
B. Make your invitation to visitors irresistible!

When you invite a visitor, ask what kind of connections they would find valuable. (Hint: they will
probably say a type of customer. Try to determine who a good referral partner would be instead.)

Let them know you are going to email your chapter to ask if they have any connections they could invite
and you will also post this request on your chapter Facebook page, just in case there are any past
visitors who might have a good connection. Visitors are much less likely to miss the meeting if they
know you are going to this level of effort and 23 other people are expecting them to show up.

This gives your fellow members a good reason to mine their database and invite someone! It makes
their invitation stronger also. Example: “My friend Mike is bringing a house painter who would like to
meet someone who provides handy man services. I thought of you immediately because you did such a
great job repairing my deck. Would a painter possibly be a good referral partner for you?”

Be sure to email your chapter and send the email to your visitor also, pre-introducing them. Include a
link to the visitor’s website. Post your request for a connection for your visitor on your chapter fan page.

If you get confirmation that a fellow member is inviting the requested connection to your meeting, relay
this info to your visitor.
C. Show your visitors the benefits of your chapter before they arrive.

People don’t really appreciate the value of BNI until they’ve visited a chapter and seen it in action. You
can give them a sneak peek! Invite them to connect to your Facebook page prior to their visit. If all of
your chapter members are active in posting thanks for referrals and testimonials and
introducing/thanking their visitors, what a great way to generate interest before the visitor even arrives.
Page 9

Your chapter Facebook page should give visitors an idea of the amount of business you are generating
and how much fun your BNI family is having helping each other grow.
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V. Grow Your Fans On Facebook

Once you request a custom Facebook name, such as www.facebook.com/BNISoutheast, you can include
your link on your printed materials, such as a chapter business card. (Hint: Your chapter leadership
team has access to BNI marketing collateral via the BNI Branding website.)

Print a sign with your Facebook link and display it on your sign-in table, inviting visitors to connect with
you online. You might want to get a QR code that links to your Facebook page for the sign so that
visitors with a smart phone can scan the code to connect with you. If you do not have a technical
person as a member of your chapter to help you with this, please email Melinda@bnisoutheast.com for
assistance.

A “Like” button and/or activity feed can be used to promote your chapter page on your chapter website
page and member’s business websites.
To do this, an administrator for your chapter fan page will click on “Edit Page,” click on the “Resources”
link on the left, and then click on “Use Social Plugins.” From there the admin can generate the code
needed to add to your chapter website and/or email the code out to members for their websites. If you
do not have a technical/web person as a member of your chapter who can help you with this, please
email Melinda@bnisoutheast.com for assistance.

Remember that we are a word of mouth organization. Ask people you meet to connect with your
chapter via Facebook, especially if they can’t make a meeting. If they see enough interesting activity
they may be motivated to visit sooner.

If you meet someone with an inspiring business story or testimonial about networking, ask him or her to
share it on your chapter Facebook page. “I think the members of my networking group would really
benefit/be inspired by learning what you just told me. Would you mind posting that on our Facebook
page?” Of course, they have to like the page before they can post ;-)

Extremely Important Tip: For your chapter fan page conversations to show up in the news feeds of
your fans, your postings need to be popular, i.e. have comments and “likes”. Chapter members should
get into the habit of “liking” and commenting on anything a fellow member posts. This will also help in
attracting new fans via your witty and sparkling conversations.
Page 11
VI. Privacy On Facebook

Facebook offers a full range of privacy settings that you can customize to suit your needs. Make sure to
take advantage of this if you want to keep personal information away from contacts that are not well
known by you. For details on privacy features/instructions on Facebook visit:
www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy&ref=mb#!/help/?page=419

Lists are a way to organize your contacts on Facebook and to target privacy settings. You can also filter
your news feed page so that you see only the updates from a particular list of people. For information
on how to create lists visit: http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=12074&ref_query=create+a+list

You can choose to share or not share status updates or photo albums with each friend list. However,
please be aware that if one of your friends “likes” or comments on something you post, your post may
be viewed by all of that person’s connections.

Again, the best policy is, if you don’t want the world to know, don’t put it on Facebook.
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VII. LinkedIn
LinkedIn has a more professional image than Facebook and you may find it is used more for business to
business rather than business to consumer. However, LinkedIn is evolving to incorporate some of the social
features of Facebook and Twitter.
A. Connect With Everyone!

Send a LinkedIn connection request to everyone you meet. Yes, everyone! Whether you meet them
at a chamber event, church, the PTA or a garage sale. Most people are comfortable connecting on
LinkedIn, while some reserve Facebook for their personal life only. If you are comfortable with
Facebook and/or Twitter, ask people which they would prefer to connect on.

Connect with every visitor to your chapter whether they are a prospective customer, referral partner,
or whether you’ll likely never speak to them again. You never know when circumstances will change
and a prospective customer will be looking for a connection to “X.” You met “X” at your BNI meeting
or a chamber event and now you can provide that connection, making it more likely to convert that
prospect to a customer or BNI member.
Here’s a real life example: I met a zoologist at church and I literally thought to myself, “I’ll never have a
reason to network with him.” Less than a month later, I met a BNI visitor whose fiancé was a zoologist
looking for a job!
B. LinkedIn Groups

A great strategy is to post educational articles from the BNI Southeast Facebook page, BNI.com or
SuccessNet.com for discussion in the LinkedIn groups you belong to. This creates visibility for you as a
networker.

Commenting on articles/discussions posted by others is also a good way to stay visible or “top of mind”
and build relationships with contacts on LinkedIn.
C. Prospecting

LinkedIn is an excellent tool for searching for connections. You can use it to identify target prospects,
i.e. real estate attorneys in your city. Then look for someone you know who could introduce you to that
person. Or even better, use it to identify potential referral partners who can send you a steady stream of
customers!

Keep in mind that just because someone is connected on LinkedIn to a person you would like to meet,
that doesn’t mean they really know that person well enough to make the introduction.

Get specific in your referral requests! Instead of asking for referrals to a certain category or type of
business, use LinkedIn to find specific people you would like to be introduced to. For example, if you
want introductions to Vice Presidents of Sales, look up people with this title in your area and make a list
Page 13
of specific people at companies with which you would like to work. Ask for introductions in your Sales
Manager Minute!
D. Recommendations

A great way to show Givers Gain® - Post recommendations for your fellow BNI chapter members and
also to any of your connections who have provided great service or with whom you’ve enjoyed working.
If you haven’t experienced their service or product for yourself, give authentic praise for their character,
energy or attitude.

Be authentic and don’t exaggerate. Praise that is over the top will be discounted as insincere.

If you are doing business by the BNI code of ethics and participating fully in your chapter, I promise you
will get recommendations in return without asking. However, it is okay to ask trusted connections for a
recommendation on LinkedIn. In some cases, it might be that your connection does not use LinkedIn
frequently, but if you ask, they would be happy to login and add a recommendation. It’s probably best to
ask in person and then follow up with an email “thank you for agreeing to recommend me on LinkedIn.”
E. LinkedIn Apps
LinkedIn has various apps you can add to your profile to enhance your information and generate
interest.

Reading List By Amazon: Share what you are reading and see what your connections are reading.

Box.net: Share files from your portfolio that showcase your skills or business offerings, case studies,
etc.

Slide Share: Share your presentations related to your industry that are educational. Embed short video
presentations onto your slide so your presentation is “live” and not static.
F. LinkedIn Company Pages

Set up your company profile and add products/services that you offer.

People can “follow” your company, so be sure to post updates and share info that is worth following.
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VIII. Twitter

Twitter lets you create a short message (140 characters long) to update your friends or contacts (called
“followers”) about what is currently going on with your life or business at the moment. It is a tool that
can help you announce a special speaker or an event, without overburdening potential visitors with a
long message.
The idea for Twitter as a business tool is to try and pique people’s curiosity and then provide a link
where they can get more info if they are interested.

Even if you don’t use Twitter personally, because of its popularity, you may want to create an account
and link it to your chapter’s Facebook page. This will allow your Facebook fan page status updates to
automatically be sent as “tweets” through Twitter.

To gain followers, you may want to search on Twitter to find local businesses/business people, and
begin following them. Many times the people you follow will follow you back.

Joani Durandette is the Social Media Coordinator for BNI HQ and if you email/tweet her with a chapter
vacancy or chapter events, she will send out on both her twitterfeed (http://twitter.com/Joani_BNI) and
the BNI twitterfeed (http://twitter.com/BNI_Official_Pg).
IX. YouTube

It’s the #2 most used search engine.

Video impacts Search Engine Optimization (the likelihood of your chapter showing up when someone
does an online search) on websites and social media sites.

It is easy and free to create your own channel to share educational videos related to networking.
People can subscribe so they get notified when you upload a new video.

Film video testimonials for each other and post them on your chapter YouTube channel. Professional
videos are great if you have (or can recruit) a videographer in your chapter. Otherwise, a simple
camcorder or smart phone will suffice as long as there is bright lighting and a quiet location.

You can use the same video as part of a marketing strategy in multiple locations. I.e. chapter website,
Facebook, LinkedIn, member business websites, media presentations.
X. Other Social Media Sites and Resources

There are other social media sites your chapter might want to consider such as Google+, Foursquare
and Pintrest. A major reason for considering Google+ is that it will help your Search Engine Rankings
on Google. We suggest you recruit a social media consultant for your chapter, assuming you don’t have
one already, if you would like to branch out and take advantage of these other avenues.

www.socialmediaexaminer.com/ is a great blog for small snippets of advice concerning a wide variety
of social media sites and topics.
Page 15
XI. Time Management Tips
A. Block/Hide Game Apps.

If you do not want to be sucked in and lose hours at a time, do not play any of the Facebook games. Or
limit your game playing to non-business hours. When you delete a request regarding a game, you can
choose to block that app completely so you do not receive future requests.

You can choose to hide a game app’s updates/requests from your news feed. You will still see your
friend’s personal status updates, just not their game announcements. To do this from your news feed,
click the arrow in the upper right corner of the post. From the drop down menu that appears select the
option to “hide all by ‘game name.’”
B. Consider social media a networking tool.

Schedule time in your calendar each day (or on certain days of the week) for commenting on your news
feed, visiting your chapter Facebook page to check for postings that haven’t shown up in your news
feed, and updating your own status or sharing a great article on LinkedIn, etc. This can be during the
day or evening, according to your preference. Try both and see which works best for you.

Keep a small timer on your desk and set it when you begin your social media interaction. When the
timer buzzes, quit reading and commenting. Trust that you’ll have more opportunities tomorrow :)

My Favorite Facebook Tip: Use Facebook lists to keep track of prospective customers, referral
partners and fellow BNI members. When you look at your news feed, select the list on the left so that
you only see postings by the people on that list. This allows you to concentrate on interacting with these
folks during your designated time and leave catching up with family and friends for another time. It also
ensures you’ll see what these people are posting. Not all of your contact’s postings will automatically
show up in your news feed.
C. Update multiple social media profiles at once.
If you have accounts on multiple social media websites, updating all of them can be time consuming.
However, there are websites that allow you to update all your social networks at once. A couple of the
most popular are Hootsuite.com and Yoono.com

An advantage of Hootsuite is that you can schedule status updates to be posted at a future date and
time.

Yoono lets you add a side window to Firefox or Google Chrome so that you can see updates to your
networks while you are viewing other websites. You can also post status updates or quickly share the
web page you are viewing to multiple profiles at once.
These and other sites have some powerful tools and I can’t possibly go into all of them as part of this
guide. Please investigate them for yourself and choose the one which best fits your needs.

You can also link your profiles. For example, you can link your Facebook to Twitter so that your posts
are automatically tweeted. These instructions vary by site; so search help to find out what is possible and what
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the steps are for setting these up.
Page 17
XII. Getting Started If Your Chapter Does Not Currently Have A Facebook Page

Designate your two Facebook administrators. We recommend the Event Coordinator and Website
Coordinator as ideal to be the primary contacts. However, any person in your chapter that has enthusiasm
or energy for this initiative is welcome to take on the (unofficial) position of Social Media Coordinator.
Hint: Page administrators can choose to post as the chapter fan page or as themselves. This setting is
under “Your Settings” on the left after clicking “Manage” and “Edit Page” on the page Admin Panel.

After you have determined the contacts for your chapter, please email me at Melinda@bnisoutheast.com
with the following information:

Chapter Name.

Meeting Location.

Meeting Time.

Primary and Backup contact e-mails.
We are asking for your chapter info so we can double check our database and make sure our records are
up to date.

BNI Southeast will create your chapter Facebook page and to be added as an administrator, you will need
to connect with me on Facebook. Once we are connected, I will add you as administrators for the page.
You can connect with me at: www.facebook.com/mizschmitty.

Once you are an administrator, your first step is to customize the “About” text box below the profile graphic.
This is where you can add something about your chapter. Is there something that makes your chapter
unique? Do you have a great statistic you can quote? For example, “Our group is growing. We’ve added
6 new members over the past 4 months. Come grow with us!” If you use a statistic, make sure you update
it as needed. You may choose to also include the meeting day/time in this space. These details are
elsewhere on the Info page, but you might want to include it in this more prominent space. To edit: In the
Admin Panel click “Manage”, click “Edit Page”, then Basic Info.

Your first goal is to get 25 people to “Like” your page. Once you reach this level, please send an email to
me at Melinda@bnisoutheast.com and I will request your page name so that it will be easier for you to
direct people to your page, i.e. www.facebook.com/chaptername.
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XIII. Action Requested If Your Chapter Already Has A Facebook Page


We would like Facebook pages for our chapters to follow a standard format and include certain pieces
of information. We think the most efficient way to handle this is for you to allow us to update your
Facebook page, rather than give you a list of things to include or change. To give you an idea, here are
a few things we would like to see:

Customized graphics with the BNI logo and the chapter name.

Custom tab with info about the benefits of BNI. (See Example section.)

Text on the profile that includes stats on the number of referrals/closed business in your
franchise area last year and info about BNI Southeast.

Links to various BNI Southeast and BNI resources.
You should already have a primary contact for your facebook page – whoever created it. Please
designate a backup if you have not already done so and email the following information to me at
Melinda@bnisoutheast.com:

Primary and backup contact e-mails.

Link to your chapter’s Facebook page.

Even if we don’t need to change anything, we would like to keep track of which chapters are using
Facebook and which are not. It will be interesting to see if we can detect a trend of more visitors to
chapters who are using social media!

I will send you a connection request so that you may add me as an administrator. I will make upgrades
if necessary, and let you know when they are complete.
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XIV. Conclusion
We hope this guide helps your chapter use Facebook and other social media websites as tools to attract more
visitors. Simply helping members to stay connected to each other on Facebook is a wonderful benefit, but
using the chapter page to grow your membership and referrals makes this an even more powerful instrument.
Many of the tips shared can be applied to your personal business as well, so we hope you’ll make the most of
this information! If you have a success of any kind to share, we would love for you to post it on our BNI
Southeast Facebook page so we can celebrate with you. We would especially love to hear how social media is
helping your chapter! www.facebook.com/BNISoutheast
If you have any questions or need additional assistance, please contact me at Melinda@bnisoutheast.com.
Help us promote your chapter and grow your membership and referrals.
Contact us to set up your chapter Facebook page today!
Guide created by Melinda Schmiedeknecht, Social Media Consultant, BNI Southeast
If you would like assistance with social media for a BNI chapter not managed by BNI Southeast,
I am available to help you at a very special BNI consulting rate ;-)
I’m also available to help you for your personal business,
if your chapter does not have a member who provides this service.
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Example of BNI Timeline Cover Graphic
Page 21
Example of a custom tab explaining the benefits of BNI
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Example of a custom tab with your Top 10 list
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Example of pin to top
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Example of highlighted post
Page 25
Example of a flyer or email communication to encourage your chapter to use social media to grow!
Are you concerned about finding 40 candidates to
invite to your visitor’s day?
Do you need to find good candidates for your Power
Team or Contact Sphere?
Use LinkedIn and Facebook
(Or other social media)
to find prospects!
1. Search LinkedIn for the type of businesses/positions targeted for your chapter and if you are not connected to
them already, ask someone you are connected to for an introduction to that person. (A phone call is best for
asking for an intro. In most cases, this is will get better results than just sending an email. You may need to
follow up the phone call with an email to confirm/serve as a reminder.)
2. On your personal and business Facebook pages, ask for recommendations for a good [x business] in your area.
Once you have a likely prospect recommended to you, ask the person making the recommendation if they know
the business owner well enough to make an introduction. If they don’t, ask on Facebook and/or search LinkedIn
to find someone who can make an intro for you.
3. What about online member directories for chambers or associations you belong to? You might be able to find
prospects at the local chamber that you haven’t met yet or with whom you don’t have a deep relationship. This
is the perfect opportunity to connect with someone new in the group and leverage that membership
connection!