building and engaging

The social net abounds with different strategies, methods and tools to help you add Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections, Facebook likes and page impressions. Ultimately however you need to establish a strategy that works for you and the success of that strategy must be based upon the value that your community brings to your business.

To use myself as an example, I'm a great believer in spreading great content as far and wide as possible - my passion for thought leadership was the reason I wanted to build my online community. As a journalist I wanted my articles read by as many people as possible and so through my online profiles I look to share the best content and information I come across on the web- that is part of the value I aim to bring to my online community. The value I gain from my community is connecting with fascinating, like-minded individuals from around the world who choose to share their knowledge with me, so that I can pass it on to you.

In the coming weeks and months, I'll be sharing blogs and links on how to develop your online strategy and the first steps you will need to take to build an online community. If you're interested in hearing more, connect with me using the links alongside of drop me a message via the feedback form.

I've deliberately left the term 'online' off the header because I firmly believe that building engaged communities requires not just a digital marketing strategy but that it is also strengthened by a multi-platform approach.

I have found few things easier or more rewarding in business than converting online connections into long-lasting friendships and business relationships. Building a online community is all the more valuable when you are able to convert that into a room full of potential clients or a business discussion over coffee! The social net may be the easiest place to build communities but engaging your followers and customers through a mixture of in-print, in-person and online adds a multi-dimensional appraoch which will aid you in engaging your community in your products, business and ethos.

Building communities takes time, effort and energy. If you don't like starting conversations with strangers then this will be new and often challenging territory.

I've spent the last couple of years building my community and I'm only a fraction of the way to reaching all those people who can benefit from my knowledge and conversely who can teach me new things that I'd never heard or dreamt of. I want to engage with as many likeminded individuals as possible, who will add value and enrich both me and my community.

I consciously try and avoid using the word 'expert' and instead focus on those who are an 'authority' or 'thought leader' in their fields. I read on average twenty to thirty blogs a day and I share, post and re-tweet the best pearls of wisdom, articles, pictures, video's and infographics so you can learn from myself and others or even so that you can disagree and debate with us.

I am always looking to make valuable connections - thought leadership is about a digital dialogue - so make sure you follow me on the platforms where I can bring you the most value and if you reach out to me and say hello then I'm sure it'll lead to a sharing of knowledge.