Aug 31st
The savviest social networkers understand Karma. By keeping Karma in mind when communicating in your cliques, you will expand the reach of your own content. The concept is VERY basic. Invest your social capital in your clique, and your clique will invest theirs in you. Here are some basic guidelines you can use:
- On Twitter, re-tweet content from your clique often.
- Read the blogs of your clique members and make sure to comment when you have something to add. Help increase the value they add to the community. (Side note: If you are commenting with the intent to only get a link back to your own site, your clique will see through your actions and your relationship will take a hit. Don’t do this. It’s not worth it.)
- On Facebook, if you see content from your clique members in your stream, give it a thumbs up and even make a short comment.
- Do your clique members have videos on Vimeo, Viddler or YouTube? Comment there. Take time to share the links, even if it’s one-to-one in an e-mail exchange.
- Play connector. Help your clique members meet other interesting people offline. Give them opportunities to build more relationships and make the clique bigger.
- Recommend your clique members on LinkedIn, if you have a good basis for the recommendation. ALWAYS be specific.
- Attend your clique members’ offline events and show support for what they are passionate about. Generate good Karma by being present and engaging with them and their attendees.
- Get one-on-one time with members of your cliques as often as possible. Get to know them away from the screen or mobile device.
- Be a cheerleader. Encourage your clique. Support their ideas. Ask questions. Be genuinely interested in what they do and not what they can do for you.
How else do you spread good Karma on the social web?
From personal experience, you do all these things very well. Great tips! I especially agree with the interactive stuff from commenting on blog posts (like i’m doing here), to Re-Tweeting people’s stuff, to being a cheerleader and connecting others.
Great stuff Nate!
Comment by Jacob Stoops — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:31:37 +0000 @ 4:31 pm
Good read Nate. I try to adhere to these steps the only problem is I don’t feel as though I am actually part of any online cliques yet. There are people I follow and admire and for various reasons (yourself, Jon Myers, David Hunegnaw & Leigh Householder to name a few) but I haven’t yet been introduced to enough people offline to feel that I am part of something online. I guess a good term to define me would be a “fringe cliquee” someone who shares interests / experiences with people online but is still in the transitional act of taking those relationships offline and growing them. Does that make sense?
Comment by Jay Schmidt — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:51:26 +0000 @ 4:51 pm
interesting. applying a buddhist concept to mid-western blogging….the wheel turns.
Comment by Opi — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:12:11 +0000 @ 7:12 pm
Thanks for the comments Jacob, Jay and Opi!
Jay – you are already part of a clique. I am betting that you have close contacts and friends offline that are also creating content in online media. Start there by reaching out to those people and helping them spread their content.
Another great way to build deeper relationships across the social web is to disclose deeper information about yourself and your brand. Give of yourself and you will also receive…
Comment by nateriggs — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:26:42 +0000 @ 6:26 am
I try to keep it as simple as possible, but I do find myself wanting to respond to every comment, every blog post, and every update I might have a thought on. Lately, that has put me behind and I’m not getting much accomplished – what is it they say about using SM or doing SM? I feel like I’m all SM all the time, and I need to strike a balance.
The Like button on Facebook has become my friend. I also try to share as much of my friends work as I can on Twitter. I’m still catching up on my comments.
My one goals is to not be a broadcaster. If I see myself with a page of updates with little interaction, I will pull back and try to Listen more and talk less. Chris Brogan put up a five word blog post when he took down his Facebook fan page that I think says it best. “Because it’s not about me.”
That’s sort of my mantra for lack of a better word.
Great post Nate!
Comment by Jim Brochowski — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:24:00 +0000 @ 10:24 am
[...] Think of what that a little effort could do for a media buyer connection? Could you make their job easier by pointing them to a new tool? Would having this information help better position them in their company as someone who brings new ideas to the table? Would sharing it help you build a deeper relationship with them? What could that mean for your own karma? [...]
Pingback by How Columbus-Based DOmedia is Changing the Game for Out of Home Media Buyers | NateRiggs.com — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:03:18 +0000 @ 1:03 pm