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Over the weekend, I had a lazy day. Alright, I had a lazy weekend. I opted to not cut the grass or do pretty much anything… Usually, weekends are when I get caught up on cleaning or running around – but not this last one!
Between Call of Duty 5 and random channel flipping, I found a reality TV show marathon that immediately got my attention. It was WGC Ultimate Gamer.
It’s a mashup of every other reality show on the planet and video games, which is cool. I like watching the top Xbox players on the planet tear it up.
During the first couple episodes, people start talking about alliances. They’re joining teams to watch each other’s backs and help each other out. Almost instantaneously, I thought of social media.
The thing people and businesses often forget about social media is it’s about conversation. It’s about relationships. Succeeding with social media isn’t about blatantly promoting your brand or your products. It’s extending a warm hand and watching out for one another.
Oftentimes, products and links play a role in that. They extend the web experience.
Here are three tips for helping you build relationships through social media:
- Comment on everything
Just like with blogs, if something catches and holds your attention – it’s worth a comment. Let the poster know that you enjoyed the post. Retweet it. Digg it. Stumble it.
Content is getting better and better as more people jump into the game. When I started 6 years ago, good content was hard to find. Now, it’s everywhere. Make sure the blogger or creator knows you’re into it!
- Don’t be afraid to direct message or email the person
Some of the best relationships I have ever made through social media or blogging were started with a quick email saying, “Hey I love your work. Keep it up.”
Don’t be spammy and repeatedly thank them for doing a great job (cuz that gets annoying when you’re on the receiving end). Just let the person know it’s appreciated.
- Sign up for products and email newsletters
A lot of bloggers and content creators offer email newsletters and courses, much like the free e-classes we have here. Sign up for them. 99% of the time, the person keeps an eye on who signs up and it’s great to know you have a community following you.
Let them know it’s appreciated!
Let me know what else you have found to be effective in social media! I’m sure our readers would love to hear your thoughts..
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{ 4 comments }
Sweet info! I agree with random spamming. The occasional shout out is okay, but just using social media for your own promotion is a little shallow. Plus think back to your experiences. I'm sure everyone has had mentors or role models in their lives. It is the same way with social media everyone has their favorite blogs or people they tweet about. Why not share the love and give them congrats even better take some of the workload off of them and offer to help write or organize an event.
As hard as it is and as much time as it takes, you have to give what you get in social media. If you only do self promoting, people see that.
I only shout/spam something I think is my best work.
comments and ongoing conversations work well.
I agree Chris! The best thing about social media and blogging is you can transport the conversations off of the original medium and into something more personal like email. Plus, being that bloggers 'put themselves outt there' it really does do wonders when someone reinforces your work!
Yep they do!
For the most part, all my posts go up on Twitter and Facebook because I believe that they're interesting and will help someone out. It might be about social media marketing or building a web server, but that's just the following I've built up over the years.
I don't ever self promote to Digg, Stumble and Reddit though. I leave that to the readers. If they like something that's great, but I don't actively push those sites.. I probably should though.