If you are a serious blogger, today I’m going to tell you about something that will take your blog to the next level…
The power of networking!
The power of networking and building personal relationships is crucial for any online business. By building solid relationships with other bloggers, you are extending the reach of your blog to hundreds, if not thousands of potential new readers. Networking well is paramount if you want to create a profitable, fulfilling business from your blog.
Networking is all about building connections with other people who will then support you, and you will support them on your blogging journeys, sharing your articles, linking to each other, or simply being there for each other providing support and knowledge.
By growing your network and building maintainable relationships it is one of the most important keys to unlocking the door of blogging success.
Imagine how different things would be right now if you had a group of people that you knew with 100% certainty that you could rely on them to be reading your latest article, leaving a comment, tweeting it, liking it and sharing it. How much more confident would you be every time you open your blog first thing in the morning, praying that you would find a comment. Up to now, I’m sure there have been to many times when you have been disappointed by the lack of comments. Once you are a member of a tribe it won’t happen again. Also you’ll know that your community will be awaiting your arrival, so that you can talk with others about your mission for the day, and find answers to those things that are puzzling you.
Having this supportive network of people who truly care about you will enable you and your blog to grow to unbelievable heights.
After I had been online for two months I was invited to join a facebook group. This one thing led to my most gigantic evolution as a blogger, and taught me about committing, providing value, developing relationships, and being transparent and honest. When I first joined this group I had no idea the power of belonging to a tribe. Yet unbeknown to most of us in this group we had built a tribe. To this day, some 18 months later, I still visit and comment on many of the original bloggers from this group, and they do the same for me. In fact I look at visiting their blogs as one of my top priorities. If it wasn’t for these guys I doubt I’d be where I am today.
So now let me talk to you about a tribe community, where everyone grows together and looks after one another. What is a tribe? Well it’s simply a group of people who get together to promote each other’s’ content online, creating a community where you all genuinely help each other grow one another’s online presence. One for all, and all for one is the motto behind a tribe.
It also happens to be the best online marketing tool to build your brand and maximize your blog for virtually nothing other than team work. A fair price to pay for such a brilliant marketing strategy.
Whether we like it or not, traffic is the lifeblood of any blog. Of course writing quality content is absolutely essential, but you also have to establish your presence and then build your brand in the blogosphere as well as in the world wide web in general. By building a network and working together, you can each help one another achieve your blogging goals.
The importance of building relationships & forming communities is the fundamental principle laying behind blogging tribes. A tribe will follow you, and support you, and in turn, you’ll support them. You’ll help them get where they want to be, and they’ll help you do the same. .
The essence behind a tribe is reciprocity. Merriam-webster.com dictionary defines reciprocity as:
1: the quality or state of being reciprocal : mutual dependence, action, or influence
2: a mutual exchange of privileges; specifically: a recognition by one of two countries or institutions of the validity of licenses or privileges granted by the other
If you help others, they help you in return. You are part of a community of like-minded Bloggers happy to comment and syndicate each other’s content.
The purpose of a tribe is not only to offer support and inspiration but also to share each other’s posts as well as reading each other’s blogs and commenting. To me a tribe where you only syndicate shares to your social network is not a genuine tribe, but a link share group.
The benefits of belonging to a Tribe:
- It’s better to work with others to leverage your time and efforts than to work alone.
- A great way to help you promote your content and reach more people.
- Support of others to help you succeed.
- Receive different perspectives, input and feedback.
- The Sharing of resources and connections
- Engages more people to comment on your posts
- Create real, authentic relationships online
- Learn and share skills and strategies to develop your online presence with efficiency and ease
- Building you lots of links.
What to Do
- Write a Manifesto, a public declaration of the principles and intentions behind the Tribe
- Sharing one another’s blog posts, videos, and other content
- Making comments on each other’s blogs
- Bookmarking and tweeting each other’s posts
- Sharing each other’s links
- Share ideas and information
- Raising each other’s value in the blogging world
Things to ensure:
- Make sure everyone understands the rules.
- Only tribe with people whose blogs you like and admire
- Share equally make sure you are giving back
- Keep producing content
- Actively engage in conversation with your tribe members
So get the ‘social buzz’ moving on your blog. I’m not taking the Michael out of you, I’m just telling you this is the way to lift off your blog by having others promoting you and helping you get more exposure.
We have recently launched our course ‘All The Missing Pieces’ our intentions are to invite everybody that does our course to join our Tribe. Each week they will be placed into a small group of bloggers, and this will be rotated every week. The reason for this is there are advantages to be commenting on different blogs so you are creating yourself more and more links which will be found by Google. They will be asked to comment on one or two other blogs, in their group, each day and then share those blogs through social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, G+, Delicious, Digg, etc… And each day the members of their group will comment on their blog and share their content with friends and followers.
If you find three or four people that you are really on the same page with and like each other you can create an inner ‘mastermind’ group, your own small tribe, as long as you continue to participate in the larger tribe.
Every month we will feature competitions and special events. For example, we may have a blogger showcase week, where we ask each blog to interview another blogger and write this up into an article. We will ensure everyone gets to be interviewed and showcased. Devoting an entire post to someone can be a wonderful way to show your appreciation, while also strengthening the bond you already share with the person being featured.
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” Helen keller
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