The People
People are everything on the social web. And theyre not just eyeballs that you can start barraging with ads and offers.
Theyre people you have an opportunity to connect with and build relationships with. If youre not doing this one thing, in my opinion, youre completely wasting your time.
The one thing people care about the most is other people. Not just any people, but the people theyve connected with, built relationships with and have come to trust over time.
NEWSFLASH: This is how A Listers got where they are today, its how they stay where they are and its the only way you can become one. Relationships drive social media; so its not what you know, its who you know that counts. Theres always room at the top you just have to make it!
Everybody who is making a name for themselves in social media are leveraging relationships. Period. In order to be even be noticed by people who matter, its through people youve built relationships with, who introduce you to other people, and so on
It all starts one relationship at a time and this opens doors to many others over time. Each relationship leads to the top of the food chain eventually. You just need to keep building relationships, until one day you find yourself at the top of the food chain
The Platforms
The platforms are in place; youve been hearing and reading tons of information on these like Facebook, Youtube, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest and many many others.
What platform is the best to achieve this?
Wrong question it doesnt really matter. What does matter is to possess the skills that are necessary to build strong relationships with the people on these platforms; if you possess this skill-set you can win the social game on any platform.
Just remember this; the platforms in and of themselves do nothing they simply enable people to connect and build relationships.
I know youve been told that you must find your target audience and they may not be on one platform or another. Im not saying this isnt true to a certain extent; but I am telling you that its almost impossible to not find a group of people or conversations that are relevant to your business or interests.
You can connect with other like-minded people on any of these platforms. Just pick one or more that you feel the most comfortable with and start connecting!
The key is how you approach the medium. If you do it for the express purpose of identifying interesting people to connect and build relationships with, then youre going to be 100 times more productive than most people on the social web because most get started by pitching and selling their wares to anybody that will listen. This is the wrong approach. Lets face it, being labeled a spammer or douchebag is not good for business.
The long term value of social media is the quality of relationships you establish with people who are interested in the same things you are.
The Content
Nobody cares about your content PER SE (if you dont create outstanding content, you need to, or you wont last!) The social web has an ocean of outstanding content readily available to access at anytime RIGHT NOW!
So how do you get eyeballs to your stuff?
People and relationships drive eyeballs and value and traffic on the social web.
Nothing worthwhile happens, except by those folks who have established the right relationships thats what leads to making progress, getting things done and getting paid. Period.
How do you go about attracting the right people to connect with?
Show Us What Youre Made Of - What have you done? What are you doing? Where are you going? What do you stand for? Why should anyone care?
Share You Liberally - Contribute your experience, knowledge, feedback, and opinions for the benefit of teaching and learning from others.
Inspire - Move people with your work, your words and your actions with everything you do.
Lead by example - its far more effective than writing or talking about it.
Be Generous - The biggest investment you can make in social media is your time; the more you give, the more youll earn in return.
Be Helpful The more people you help get what they want, the more people will help you get what you want; one hand washes the other on the social web.
Outreach Always be reaching out to people you find interesting and see if there are synergies or ways that you can compliment or assist each others efforts.
It sounds like a lot and it is. Its called substance. And hard work. Your work must have substance or what you do just wont matter and it will be lost in the noise that is social media.
OK Ive talked way too much in this post. Im interested in hearing your feedback.
How has building quality relationships made a difference in your social media efforts?
For more insights on social media relationships, check out: Defining Social Media Relationships
http://markharai.com/social-media-101-focus-on-this-one-thing-to-maximize-your-social-media-efforts
