The Baker’s Dozen: 13 Tricks to Expanding Your Online Presence

Networking is the key to success. You must network if you want to climb the ladder, you can learn a lot from other people and it will give you an idea of what direction to follow. Plus if you ever have a question, you’ll find most people are eager to help.
Now more than ever social marketing can make a difference. In no time, a well implemented social media strategy can take your business from problems to profit. Finding not only an untapped customer base, but experts, and competitors, will propel you deep inside the roots of your industry and can open a world of opportunity.

Here are a “Baker’s Dozen Tips” on how to take advantage and grow a positive social presence online:

1) Social Networking – Local blogs & social clubs, create profiles, build your network, and invest time in making connections and meeting the professionals in the market. Introduce yourself and try to create value when you meet new people. Give them a reason to talk and ask questions to get conversation going.

2) Differentiate Yourself – Stand out. Help people, become someone different by being slightly controversial without offending people. Tell something about your life that makes you different and give out info on topics you may know more about than the average internet browser.

3) Be Interesting – Give out facts, share tricks and cool sites. Give a daily tip, joke or quote. Teach people something and keep them coming back for more. I began putting up the “Final Jeopardy” question from the night before and next thing I knew people were begging for it when I missed a day. Eventually I had a following of people answering and putting up their own trivia. Make it fun, and engage the audience.

4) Meet Others Like You – Find people with similar interests, see where they hang out.

5) Talk/Publicize/Broadcast – Make yourself accessible, follow along with the trends and become a part of the conversation. The best part about creating a conversation is that it allows you to get to know other users and it allows them to get to know you.

6) Be a Leader – Be the first, a leader, show your pioneering spirit, and make your own path rather than following the paved road. Look out for press releases and new advances in your networks, try and break news to your listeners/followers.

7) Tell Your Friends – Why not? It couldn’t hurt, spread the word. Tell some friends to follow you and get your siblings to check in and re-tweet your tweets when they can. Family often do not mind helping out and donating some love! Plus they will give you honest feedback on your profiles and content you are providing to the rest of the world.

8) Learn and Absorb – Always learn and absorb your social environment. Observe & Listen. Keep an open ear and do more listening than talking. Keep an open mind, engage in classes and learning, to expand your knowledge base. Eventually you can guide others and teach what you’ve learned.

9) Write and Post Articles/Content – Submit content, find ways to get more eyes on you through submissions. Be sure you place your social networking accounts, somewhere in the article so people can find you and add a “Tweet this” button if its available. You’ll notice that your followers will start retweeting your work which will help drive more traffic to your cause.

10) Learn From Others – Watch the experts, follow the leaders and learn from the best, they must be doing something right. Follow the people who follow the experts in your industry. If you are a Life Coach, follow Tony Robbin’s followers they are a great place to start. Follow people that interest YOU.

11) Don’t Be Afraid – Show off your knowledge, if you are a doctor, flaunt it. Offer help and engage in controversial topics. Have a backbone and stand behind your work and statements, if people are talking about something you are familiar with, don’t be shy give your input. There is nothing wrong with debating others on Twitter.

12) Aggressiveness Can Backfire – Easy now. Stay with me here If you are at a party and you just get introduced to some people by a friend. You cannot jump right into a sales pitch; rather you start up “small talk” and ask about their job, discuss current events. The last thing you want to do is be too aggressive and get into somebody’s face, this will cause people to turn away and can only hurt your image.

13) Daily Habits – Make it a habit, at least 3 times a day you should be putting out some quality content. Consistency is crucial. But remember its quality not quantity.

Let me know about your ideas.