Introduction
If you want to establish your online presence and foster connections, it’s not a project where you simply create profiles, add a few friends, and consider it done. It’s comparable to tending a farm. Here are seven specific “tasks” you can perform every day that will benefit your online interests.
- Discover seven valuable tweets in your feed and retweet them.
- Respond thoughtfully to at least five posts (avoid generic “thanks” replies).
- Highlight individuals you admire, showcasing your mindset.
- Follow back at least 10 people (automated tools like SocialToo can help, but it’s a personal preference).
- Engage in polite and meaningful conversations for 10 minutes.
- Check for birthdays on the homepage and consider sending birthday wishes privately via Twitter or email for a more personal touch.
- Respond to any comments on your wall.
- Share a daily status message that is engaging or interesting.
- Comment on at least seven people’s status updates.
- Share at least three intriguing updates you come across.
- If you’re part of groups or fan pages, leave a couple of new comments.
- Accept relevant invitations.
- Add recently received business cards to your LinkedIn network (if you’re expanding your connections).
- Participate in Q&A by providing 2-3 helpful answers.
- Write a genuine recommendation for someone every few days.
- Include relevant slide decks in the Slideshare app or add books to your Amazon bookshelf.
Blogs
- Visit your blog’s comments section and respond to at least five replies.
- If you have spare time, explore the blogs of commenters, read a post or two, and leave a comment.
- Utilize tools like StumbleUpon to promote good work on those sites.
- Occasionally write a post that highlights outstanding work from a blog in your community.
It’s Not Effortless
Maintaining your online presence requires time. Considering the tasks listed above, it easily exceeds an hour of work. However, the value of your presence depends on your goals as an individual or your organization if you’re representing a brand or product.
Given the diminishing returns on advertising spend, we’ve traded dollars for time in many of these scenarios. It’s your decision whether you want to actively manage your online presence or settle for a more minimal approach. What are your thoughts?