March 28, 2024

How to Share the Social Media Love and Exponentially Grow Your Network in Six Steps

So you’re new to the social media realm, but not new to offline networking.

You’re probably looking at social media… excited about the possibilities yet frustrated at the misunderstandings that often come with it when first getting started. If that sounds like you, this post will be a perfect fit. It’s the ideal starting point for social media success. You can use social media to exponentially grow your network, and today that’s what we’re going to focus on.

This blog post will bridge the gap between online and offline networking by dramatizing the daily actions we already perform offline to explain how it “looks” online.

Furthermore, this article help you … especially help you if …

  • You’re new to social media and trying to get it all figured out.
  • It will help you understand the human-side of social media.
  • It will provide more meaning when you perform an action (or have an action acted upon you) in the social media space.
  • It will also help you “break into” communities that you might want to be a part of.

Online networking can be similar to offline networking when you look at it in the way I’m about to explain. For many of you, that will help you “figure this social media thing out” a little quicker.

Enjoy this, and share it. Also, comment if you can think of anything I left out.

Here’s How to Share the Social Media Love and Exponentially Grow Your Network in Six Steps

1. Nod of Acknowledgement

Offline
The nod of acknowledgement is a standard way to let the person know that you see them, without having to resort to using words. The nod of acknowledgement is a wordless conversation.

Online Equivalent
Retweet, Share or Like on Facebook.

Retweeting (Twitter), Liking and/or Sharing (Facebook) or Giving a Thumbs Up (YouTube) for an article or video on a social networking site is considered the head nod. You’re saying, “I liked this, and I have no problem letting everyone else know that.” Often this action goes unnoticed but not unrecognized.

2. Open Hand Wave  

Offline
Saying hello by waving your hand.

Online Equivalent
Repetitious Retweeting, Liking and Sharing on Facebook & Leaving Comments.

If you find or discover a person’s content that you like and share it many times over with commenting, that’s a wave. It’s “Hello, I’m here, and I like your content.” Do this often and consistent, and you will be noticed by the content owner.

3. Eye to Eye 

Offline
Agreeing. Seeing eye to eye. Being on the same level.

Online Equivalent
Still more commenting and more sharing. As you do this more and more, that wave becomes eye contact.

Expect a “thanks.” You’re now “seen.” It’s possible that this reciprocates itself – albeit probably to a lesser degree. Nonetheless, the content owner you’ve made “Eye to Eye contact” with, will certainly take a look at what you are doing. But don’t make that an expectation. Just understand that you’re now on their radar.

4. The Handshake 

Offline
A short ritual in which two people grasp one of each other’s opposite hands, in most cases accompanied by a brief up and down movement of the grasped hands. In many cases to signify an agreement.

Online Equivalent
Now you’re in the groove because you’ve repeatedly done all of the above, and have kept at it for awhile.

The content creator whom you’re Retweeting, Sharing and Liking and Thumbs Upping have seen you around long enough that they have a feel for who you are. They can now “place” where you fit into their community. By now, there should be mutual acknowledgment — comment for comment and share for share.

It’s possible that you’ve exchanged comments on Facebook, or personal Tweets on Twitter or a Thank You via private message. This shows they are following you too. Consider this a welcoming into the community because others in the community will see you too.

NOTE: Keep following all of the steps above and watch how it’s reciprocated for you.

5. The Introduction

Offline
You come together, convene or arrange to meet with the other person and/or a segment of their network.

Online Equivalent
You receive public acknowledgment.

This happens in the form of Retweets, responses back to Tweets and comments at your blog and/or Facebook. This is either a formal or informal introduction with open arms that welcomes you into the entire community and/or network.

6. The Hug 

Offline
A hug is an expression of warmth and friendliness with arms outstretched around the other. Hugs are used as an expression of love, kindness, sympathy, friendliness, greetings and used sometimes to say goodbye.

Online Equivalent
Maintain being “cool.”

Acceptance and trust is now firmly established. Keep it. You’re now friendly and converse online regularly. Your community is mutually supportive and sustaining. Your network is exponentially growing. This is the seed from which joint ventures, masterminds and business deals grow.

Social Media Stats You Can Sink Your Teeth Into

Facebook increased by 100 milion new users. Now at 600+ million and growing. Each month 30 billion pieces of content (links, notes, photos, etc) are shared on Facebook.

Each day 2 billion videos are watched on Youtube. The average Internet user watched 186 online videos per month (USA). Every minute 35 hours of video is uploaded to You Tube.

In 2010, users sent 25 billion tweets and added more than 100 million new users. There’s over 600 million search queries on Twitter each day.

Recently LinkedIn has been in the news. Their CEO said that their gaining one new member every second. We’ve ignored LinkedIn up to this point, but not for long (only so much time in a day right?) 100% of Fortune 500 companies have execuatives using LinkedIn.

People that use their blog for business attract 55% more website visitors than non-bloggers. It’s also, of course, a great way to get your content out there and to talk one on one with your target audience. People that blog have more Twitter followers and Facebook fans. Makes sense, there is a huge synergy between having a blog as a hub and using Facebook and Twitter as spokes.

stats from Pingdom

What’s Your Most Burning Question About Social Networking?

You’ll notice Ann Sieg’s comment (below in the comments area) … I think it’s worth repeating here what she said,

“…network marketers are in the information business. The higher the quality of information the more people will pay attention to us. That’s a daunting task to keep up with. That’s where sharing other people’s information can be tremendously helpful.

Some people may think they have to be the sole information producer. But the reality is readers like different points of view. And you keep your position of authority when you’re given the capability to reflect off someone’s information.”

With that said, let’s be sure to share our thoughts and information in the comments area. Leave your thoughts, questions and knowledge in the comments area so we can all gain a better perspective. Talk to you all in the comments below. Head down there now.

In Ann’s free ebook, The Attraction Marketer’s Manifesto, she offers 133 different ways to create content that attracts interest in the forms of leads and new customers. Click the graphic below to get your copy.

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About Eric Walker


Eric is an 80/20 Marketing staff member and marketing collaborator. He spends his days writing content and copy for a marketing purpose. Eric is an optimist. He believes in a bright future and our ability to build it together. If you have a question, and/or would like to communicate with Eric directly, email Eric@8020MarketingInc.com

Comments

  1. Hi Eric,
    Loved the screen share on how to share articles and information you like on facebook. I really haven’t paid enough attention to the facts you mentioned ie. that you can change the thumbnail and/or change the information. What did you record with, Camtasia? I’m still struggling with the technology but finally figured out how to record :0).
    Great article by the way.
    Going to share it and will change something in it for practice.

  2. Good morning Eric,
    Great comparison between online and offline networking. I now have a visual picture of my virtual online communication. Time to go shake a few more hands.

    Have a great day.
    Ruth

  3. Love the video Eric! I did not know that little tip about choosing the thumbnail. That’s cool. Now I’ll know where to refer people on that tip. It definitely ties in with a recent Facebook status update I posted asking people if they would prefer a motivational training call or a tech training call. Hands down the replies came back for more tech training. I think it’s because it helps put us more in the driver’s seat.

    On the flip side what I really like about your post is reinforcing that network marketers are in the information business. The higher the quality of information the more people will pay attention to us. That’s a daunting task to keep up with. That’s where sharing other people’s information can be tremendously helpful.

    Some people may think they have to be the sole information producer. But the reality is readers like different points of view. And you keep your position of authority when you’re given the capability to reflect off someone’s information. On the order of a book review. People love this kind of information exchange.

    Thanks for sharing these tips Eric. Appreciate all that you do!

    Ann

    • Thank you Ann. I’ve copy-pasted a portion of your comment here above in the actual post because I think it is SO important that we all share our information with one another here in the comments. Thanks for your continued leadership.

  4. Hi Everyone!

    Wonderful correlation between online and offline networking!

    I think it is important to note acouple of things:

    First, after a person becomes “aware” of you on Facebook or another
    social media site, they will often visit your profile.

    Consequently, it is important that you fill your profile out completely.
    Give thought as to the image you would like to project, and how you
    would like to be perceived.

    Second, try to stand out with your comments. Believe me, people
    take your comments to heart. A little sense of humor goes a long
    way, in addition to your more inciteful comments.

    Thanks again,
    Mike

    • That’s GREAT advice Mike. Anyone reading this, BE ABSOLUTELY SURE that you read the comment above this one. Follow to heart the tips Mr. Mike Hutchins is giving above. Thank you sir.

  5. Good advice, my only observation is that all those social sites have failed until now to create a real bond between people, probably because social media more and more are used as an opportunity for strategic selling behavior. It’s not the social contact that counts but the selling of stuff.

    • Jacques,

      You say something interesting… “…all those social sites have failed until now to create a real bond between people…”
      Why do you say “until now?” What has changed?

      You also bring up another great point… You say, “social media more and more are used as an opportunity for strategic selling behavior.”
      I would agree, but I don’t think that is a bad thing if the one who is strategically selling actually gives a damn. Social media is great for “soft selling products and hard selling values.” Ever notice how those who do it well stay focused on one goal. Yet it’s done so gradually w/out overtly injecting their sales pitch into conversations. They simply are talking about trends and things they’re seeing, which is always congruent with what they’re selling.

      Thank you for your insightful and meaningful comment.

  6. Thanks Eric for this great post.

    This one I have to share.

    I am guilty of missing many of these steps with impatience and need to spend more time on the relationship.

    Point taken. Love the correlation between the offline and online relationships.

    • Hey Neil, it’s the ole first date/marriage metaphor. Sometimes you have to court people. One and done is old school and unleveraged. That’s the beauty (and power) of the internet that you can literally be in dozens of places all at once building relationships. I also like to call it a “down list.” You’re spending time building a network of people that could possibly be in your downline or in your list (or both) by contributing value and working your business like a human. Human business works. THANK YOU for your sincere and transparent comment. I think a lot of people experience your sentiments.

  7. Thanks for the great analogy. So how long would you say the process should take to get to the “hug”?

    Also, a tech question. Besides Camtasia, do you have any recommendations for recording Skype Calls? I’ve been using MP3 Skype Recorder, but it’s kind of glitchy.

    Thanks,
    Tim

    • Recording skype calls can be a bit of a pain. Many of the plugins out there are glitchy or resource heavy. If the call is audio only, I normally end up using Camtasia or Audacity to record the call. In Audacity, to make sure I get both sides of the conversation, you need to have a “stereo mix” recording input to make use of which isn’t normally enabled by default. Camtasia has something built in called record system audio that should work out of the box…. However, if you are making a lot of skype calls, neither are convenient. They also don’t work if you want to record the video feeds from the conversation.

      There is a plugin for skype called Pamela that I’ve used in the past for both Video and Audio. I found it to be a little resource heavy for my liking, but it does get he job done. There is a free trial of it to see if it will work for you: http://www.pamela.biz/en/.

      Hope that helps Tim!

  8. Thanks for the tips. I’m new to facebook and do enjoy any new information I receive.
    Thanks again.

    • Much much more coming Gary especially on Social Media (because that’s my thing). Stay plugged into this blog. I recommend subscribing to the blog so that when we publish a new post, it is delivered automatically to your email inbox. See the top right hand corner of this blog to do so.

  9. Hi Eric, I think the way you have personally responded to the comments above sets a great example about how to behave in the online world when someone ‘passes you in the corridor and comments on your latest work offering’!! I love the analogy you use and I also concur with Anne that people are afraid if they share someone elses P.O.V. but in fact it shows confidence in yourself and comradeship with others in your industry; just like giving credit to a colleague in the offline world.

    • Hi Juli,
      Thank you! In the offline world if someone says something to me, I acknowledge them. I’ve been taught that that is the polite thing to do, and since I genuinely love and have faith in humanity, I LIKE talking to people. That’s why I’m in this business :) I bet you’re the same.

      Not only does it show confidence and comradeship with others, but it is a line of demarcation between a mindset of scarcity or abundance.

      Great comments Juli. I hope to see you again here.

  10. Thank you,
    I am new to this Blog idea.
    My question is….”How do I write a Blog to get it out to people to read on the Internet?”
    Thank you for your help
    Keith J Sadler

    • Keith, great question. This can be an entire blog post (or even more than that) in and of itself. I’ll do my best to answer you here in the comments…

      1) Post regularly–
      This is the first step that most people ignore. Our readers won’t be coming to our blog without fresh content to read. We try to update our blog regularly because this helps our readers and it also helps this blog in the search engine rankings.

      2) Commenting on other blogs–
      Commenting on other blogs in your niche is also another good strategy to increase the number of visits to your blog. It is important to have an avatar when commenting, the avatar can either be your image or another image related to your blog. The importance of using an avatar is that it makes you look real and human.

      We’ll have a post coming soon about how to do set up your avatar.

      3) Post at other article sites–
      Article sites are a good way to get traffic to your site. All you have to do is write a good post and then submit it to the top article sites with an anchor text of your choice linking back to your website. For example, if you want to rank for the term “mlm blogger” your anchor text will look like this mlm blogger. Notice that if you click on the link it will take you to our home page. That is exactly how an anchor text looks like.

      4) Guest blogging–
      We haven’t started doing this yet, but we will. It’s called guest blogging. Unlike any other traffic generation strategy, guest blogging helps you get not just ordinary traffic to your blog but valuable traffic because many of the readers on the blog you guest post on will come to have a look on your blog, and if you have good and regularly updated articles they will stay around thereby become be bonded to you, your info, your business, your products or whatever.

      5) Social network sites–
      I recommend Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Just make sure you only share valuable posts and you don’t spam out your links. If you share value, your reputation and credibility will shoot up through the roof. And if you’re consistent about it, your readership will grow.

      Follow these five steps and that will get you going. GREAT QUESTION Keith. Come back again.

  11. Hey Eric,

    Thanks for sharing this informative post…I love the way you connected the dots for a lot of people and the way you compared the equivalent actions in the online and offline world.

    All of this is a PROCESS and not a RACE and if Networkers are consistent with the information they publish and understand the importance of offering value first, they will see much more success.

    You illustrated very clearly how a solid, sustainable relationship can grow just from simply SHARING other people’s valuable content.

    It is a great way to connect and then further develop your online relationships and allow people to get to know, like and trust you!!

    Nice job on the video..it really is easy and EVERYONE can and should be doing this.

    To your continued inspiration,
    Marc

    • Thank you Marc. You’re correct about this all being a process. Sharing other peoples’ content is a great way to break into communities and build and expand your network. Appreciate the comment. Come back again.

  12. Cathy G says:

    Thanks for the FB tip. I didn’t know you could change the thumbnail. Love it!! Keep up the great work.

  13. Hi Eric,

    Great info there thank you.

    I have established a FB page for my new MLM business. The FB page is named Make Money on Fuel. I want to be able to post on my MLM business FB page and share it my friends on my personal page which is Stuart Greer. Can you help with some direction/instructions here??

    My MLM business link is: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Make-Money-on-Fuel/186867931362436
    and my personal FB link is https://www.facebook.com/pages/Make-Money-on-Fuel/186867931362436#!/profile.php?id=677638395

    Regards,

    Stuart

  14. Using parallels to offline networking was very effective! Thanks,

  15. Hi Eric,
    This is a great post for beginners.
    I have been blogging for almost two years and have created 3 Facebook pages. It appears many people do not understand the basics that you have outlined in this article. Once more people get the hang of it, the more interactive social networking will become which will benefit all of us.
    Thanks!
    Helen

  16. Great article, I really liked the way you help people see how an online relationship grows with “tweets and likes”. And how important it is to understand how one can use this to reach out to other quality people we would like to associate with in the social media space.

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