A few years ago, Jonas Rosenberg of Summit Funding and Ken Marsh, owner of P2 Promotional Products were seeking a different kind of networking group.

[blockquote quote="I contribute a great deal of my business growth to connections gained at LINK." source="Ben Anderson, social media consultant at CnctNow" align="right" max_width="300px"]

Both men, who are small business owners and entrepreneurs, depend on referrals from friends and business colleagues to keep their companies thriving, but the traditional networking groups they attended were expensive and time consuming.

So they decided to create their own. LINK, the name they chose for the group, is a free networking group open to all professionals, entrepreneurs and small business owners. There are no attendance requirements and no obligations to pass referrals back and forth. If anything, come for the free coffee and donuts, Marsh said.

“That was the concept,” Marsh said, “We put it out there and invited everyone.”

And people responded. More than 40 people attended the inaugural meeting. And the second drew a crowd of 50. And each meeting the grow seems to grow, Marsh said.

LINK meets at 9 a.m. every other Friday at the Tri-Cities Homebuilders Association on Clearwater Avenue in Kennewick.

The latest meetings have been standing room only, and attendance per meeting is anywhere from 70 to 90 people. Nearly 420 businesses have been represented at LINK meetings.

“Because there are no membership or attendance requirements, people are there because they want to be,” Marsh said. “They are movers and shakers and power players. There is always this excitement, energy and anticipation in the air that energizes the room. You come in feeling great, you leave feeling great. It’s grown from within itself.”

Ben Anderson, social media consultant at CnctNow, has been a regular participant since April of last year and hasn’t missed many meetings. He said his active participation in LINK has been an essential part of his business strategy.

“I contribute a great deal of my business growth to connections gained at LINK,” Anderson said. “LINK is the best business networking group in the Tri-Cities, precisely because it’s not all business. It capitalizes on creating a social atmosphere that ultimately builds trust better than any other means.”

About three months after starting LINK, the group had grown so much, they could no longer afford the out-of-pocket expense of the donuts and coffee. To offset the costs, they adopted the sponsorship model. Each meeting is sponsored by a participating business, which has the opportunity to present on a business-related topic.

“The sponsorship opportunity is a great way to keep the membership free and open to the public,” Anderson said. “It isn’t a great advertising vehicle but is a good way to demonstrate support of the local business community.”

“It has to be value added to businesses,” Marsh said. “Presentations are centered on education and adding knowledge.” The sponsorships are already booked about six months in advance.

Marsh said LINK creates a space for individuals to collaborate and network face-to-face, in addition to their activity on social media. That could mean leaving testimony and reviews on Facebook or other social platforms.

“We feature members on Facebook daily and encourage our members to leave testimony and reviews on that person’s page or profile,” Marsh said. “You are building relationships just by seeing what people are saying and doing online. We use the strength of social collaboration to validate business relationships, making it possible to pass referrals.”

That is probably why selfie sticks abound at LINK. Participants are actively encouraged to publish their experiences in real time on Facebook and other social media platforms. Marsh said it not only increases exposure for the networking group, but also for the individual participants.

About six months ago, leaders of LINK, which stands for Leaders in Networking Knowledge, decided they wanted to create a value-added marketing and advertising product for small business owners and entrepreneurs. After researching to identify exactly what that product would be, they launched LINKUp2Us.

The comprehensive marketing and advertising product includes a consumer-facing referral website; social media, TV, radio; promotional products; print material services; telephone answering service; and even a host of legal and accounting services for liability and asset protection. The charter member price is $595, but after they’ve reached 200 charter members, the price will go up to $895.

“There is no other product or program that is doing this for the entrepreneur and small business owner,” Marsh said.

The program hopes to pool the funds from members to offer cost-effective marketing and advertising products for its members — products that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive for small businesses. TV advertising is a great example, Marsh said.

“The bigger names and people that have the money are the ones who can afford this, but LINKUp2Us will allow us to leverage our numbers and offer this to the small business,” he said.

Through LINKUp2Us, a family of television commercials will air 97 times every month for an entire year on a variety of network news, daytime and primetime shows in both the Tri-Cities and Yakima markets.

The program is slated to go live in September.

To register go to linkup2us.com or to find out more about the next LINK networking meeting, visit the group’s Facebook page.