Creating Sustainable Relationships with Your Online Audience
Let’s be truthful - you can have many SEO strategies in place and have all kinds of ideas on how to market your content and get links, but if you don’t have the know how in building relationships, you pretty much don’t have anything that will be successful long-term. For any business to be successful, you have to build relationships with your audience and then work hard to maintain those relationships and keep the channels of communication open. If you need a little extra tutoring in this area, read on for our tips in building online relationships.
First off, you should always approach every relationship at 100%, ready to give and not expect anything in return. This isn’t about what people can do for you, it’s what you can do for them.
People love to help others, so don’t be afraid to ask for it. It’s okay that you don’t know everything there is to know under the sun. Be willing to reach out to others and show that you are willing to accept help when it is needed.
If you have received help from someone, show your appreciation. Validate that person in a post and show your gratitude. Giving appreciation will foster your relationships with others and show that you give authority to what they have to say.
Communication is key in any relationship and this is true for any social media communication with your audience. It’s easy for the written word to be taken the wrong way, so take the time to think about the words you write and make sure they are truthful and sincere. Once the written word is online, it doesn’t go away.
In order to build trust and authority with others, be yourself. It’s pretty easy for someone to detect when you aren’t being authentic.
Always create original and sharable content. By providing value, you gain authority, and authority will open the doors for those relationships to thrive and prosper.
Be thankful! If someone does a good turn for you, take the time to say thank you. Have the right intention to be engaging and acknowledge others.
As you work on building your reputation and gaining the trust of your audience, you will soon have genuine relationships that will create opportunities to build even more relationships and the cycle will continue round and round. It may be true that links help build site traffic and can improve your search rankings, but it is as equally important to focus on creating good content, be social, and build relationships. If you do that, the links will come more naturally and you will be amazed at the growing traffic to your site.