How does Wed Link differ from just using Instagram and a facebook group?
At first glance we understand that members might make this comparison, however creating and responding to opportunities is just one part of the platform. As with anything in life there's always an alternative, take buying a MAC or a PC for example, no one computer is really much better than the other but you might just prefer one over the other! Wed Link is not an alternative to social media but does offer an alternative way to connect with others, build micro networks and source opportunities.
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Using social media to network and source opportunity is an amazing tool, and we 100% encourage you to do so, but you should not invest ALL your business efforts into any one platform, but use it as part of your marketing mix. Networking should also be done offline, and we encourage you to join networking groups and physically meet other wedding suppliers.
As well as being able to source and share opportunities publicly and in private micro-communities, the Wed Link platform allows members to create localised networking events, and when you are meeting new people you can capture these contacts and smartly organise them for later use. Instagram & Facebook do not have a comparable feature to Wed Link.
There are a number of other issues with using these platforms that are just not useful to wedding suppliers. We find that social media can be noisy, lack transparency and accountability, and has vulnerability issues due to constant tagging spam.
- Social media can be noisy: Micro-communities provide focus and allow you as a business owner to take control of your intentions, ask questions and learn from the people you most trust. Removing yourself from the social noise helps you to focus on your business with less distraction. How often have you heard a business coach say, turn off your phone when you need to focus?
- Your voice is lost among the masses: When searching for opportunities in open Facebook groups your response often goes unnoticed. It's quite normal within these groups that the originator is inundated with so many replys that they have a tough time filtering the good from the bad.
- Transparency and accountability: You post your business in response to an opportunity, great but what happens next? Did the originator even look at your business, or has a referral even passed on your details? Unless you hear back from the originator you don't have any clue as to what happened to your efforts in replying. There is no transparency or accountability. On Wed Link, our system is different, and when you pass on a referral, that person directly receives the full enquiry details.
- Vulnerability: Firstly, we are not claiming that Wed Link is more secure than the social giants. Wed Link follows all security recommendations, however these sites are more prone to attacks due to the large communities of users, making them an ideal target to inject malware to a wide audience. Another issue is random blocking of accounts, we hear all the time that an account has been blocked by the provider for no reason, and you have just lost years of your social media efforts.