Is It Possible To Have Legitimate Business Discussions On A Black Business Network?

[Rhonda Jai]

After reading through many of the discussions and deleting quite a few from our network, I began to wonder is it possible for us to have serious business discussions on our network?

Most of the discussions are simply for promotion. It seems to be a tough lesson for many business owners to understand that there is more to social networking than just promoting your business.

On many other business networks I have noticed there are several legitimate discussions going on. But on the Black Business sites they have a tendency to be overrun by spam and mlm postings. Have we reached a point where Black businesses are limited to only mlm's?

[Shay Olivarria]

Good question. I've wondered about this myself. It seems that many Black business owners are a) too small to have loads of time to use boards b) unable or uninterested in using technology or c) drawn towards get rich quick schemes (i.e. MLM). I spend more time on the non-culture-specific boards because the discussion does tend to be more robust.

Maybe I'm all wrong. Anyone else have a take on it?

PEACE,
Shay Olivarria
President
Bigger Than Your Block

[Norris Coleman- Welcome to, Students Seeking Education by Experiencing Academic America (S.E.A.)]

I tend to agree that there is not enough helping, networking, business advice, to improve our business dealings. I have join groups and there has been no business to business discussions as of yet.

[Rhonda Jai]

Perhaps I should take responsibility for the down fall of our network. Maybe as the network owner if I took the time to pose more legitimate questions to the group then maybe others will catch on. I think when Black Business Owners join our network and see nothing but business ads and promotions they feel that is the only purpose of our network.

Shay, I think you are also right with all of your responses. And it is frustrating, because we as a Black community have so many great business ideas but all that seems to come through are the get rich schemes. Now don't get me wrong I am a member of perhaps the largest non culture specific business network on ning.com and not a day goes by that I don't receive an offer to basically make money without ever lifting a finger. Which again frustrates me.

[Lawrence E. Beasley]

I agree the signal-to-noise ratio tends to be a little less than what I'd like, but it happens in a multitude of forums/organizations; even some of my "professional" organizations are prone to this. Maybe it's just a "catering to the masses" sensibility or a lack of trying to plan to engage people on a professional level.

That said, I think there are avenues to get that engagement and keep the channel clear of the other stuff. Focused topics, regularly scheduled interest forums, and serious attention to those who are really looking for the meat and potatoes tend to work well for my meetings/contacts, though it tends to drop attendance/participation down to a minimum.

Keep up the good work though!

I'll add a discussion item and see what that generates...

Lawrence

[Rhonda Jai]

Thank you Lawrence,

I am more interested in the quality of members and not quantity. I really am going to make more of an effort to help support Black Business Owners who really are wanting to have a successful long lasting business.

Lawrence E. Beasley said:

I agree the signal-to-noise ratio tends to be a little less than what I'd like, but it happens in a multitude of forums/organizations; even some of my "professional" organizations are prone to this. Maybe it's just a "catering to the masses" sensibility or a lack of trying to plan to engage people on a professional level.

That said, I think there are avenues to get that engagement and keep the channel clear of the other stuff. Focused topics, regularly scheduled interest forums, and serious attention to those who are really looking for the meat and potatoes tend to work well for my meetings/contacts, though it tends to drop attendance/participation down to a minimum.

Keep up the good work though!

I'll add a discussion item and see what that generates...

Lawrence