A few days ago, I talked about the importance of the social web. I gave 3 reason why the social web is heavily influencing the internet. Today we’ll talk about a couple principles for using the social web to your advantage.

Get Noticed

This is foundation of the social web. If you don’t get noticed, you’re not really part of the social web. You’re like the student at the high school cafeteria that’s sits alone. To have a social life, that person should leave his table, sit with other students, and interact with them. In the same way, to get noticed, you need to leave your site, visit social web sites (like blogs, forums, and social media sites), and interact with social web users.

Here are some practical ways to get noticed.

  • Blog commenting
  • Interviews
  • Emailing
  • Trackbacks (linking out on your blog)
  • Guest blogging
  • Commenting on social media sites
  • Voting on social media submissions

Be Persistent

The key to getting noticed is persistence.

If you want a blogger to notice you, you can’t comment once a month on his blog. I would comment at least ten times a month. Also, I would make insightful comments rather than short comments like “Great post. I learned a lot.” The same goes with social media users. If you want to get a social media user’s attention, you need to leave many comments a month on his stories.

Stay Motivated By Focusing On The Benefits

In the offline world, it takes time to build an good business relationship. It’s the same in the online world.

To stay motivated, think about the long-term benefits. Think about getting a content-based link from a popular blogger. Think about hitting the Netscape front page multiple times. Think about getting 10,000 uniques through StumbleUpon.

So, what are the benefits to participating in the social web? What are the benefits of building friendships online?

Friends help out friends. As long as you’re not spamming and your content is good quality, I’ve found it’s easy to get links and social media votes from friends. Here are some other benefits.

  • Traffic from bloggers is high quality. It oftentimes converts better than search traffic.
  • Social media sites can send a huge number of visitors. This increases your brand, exposure, and mindshare.
  • Content-based links on blogs give more link juice than other types of links.
  • Online friendships can lead to profitable partnerships.
  • Because they’re connected to other internet users, social web users are more likely to know quality outsourced workers.
  • Online business contacts can give great business advice and marketing tips.

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