This post is the 3rd post of a 4-part series on the how-to’s of niche social networking. Most of the focus will be on young entrepreneurs because my experience has shown that they are the least equipped to benefit from social networking.
See Part 1 – The Profile
Part 2 – Getting Acquainted
Part 3 – Adding Value
OK so now your profile is set-up and you’ve said hi to a few people, joined some groups, and added a point or two to some forum discussions. Now its YOUR turn! Time to truly add value to the network and make a name for yourself. Show people that you have a lot to offer and are someone they should pay attention to.
Now there is no one way to do this. This is where you can get creative. First the simple things to add value…
-Start your own group and organize a tribe around it. Invite people who you think will be interested and run the show! This will get you some attention and show your leadership skills.
-Start discussions in the forums. Take some time to come up with creative topics that will get people interested. Getting a good discussion going is a great way to get noticed as everybody who sees it will see you started it. That’s all you had to do was start it! If it’s interesting the community will take over from there.
-Add videos, pictures and events (these are the options on Under30CEO.com). Take some time to find some interesting stuff. Not only will you get your name in those sections of the network but it will also further develop your profile because it probably tracks things you do.
Now that’s the basics. Let’s get more in depth about what you can do.
Find ways to truly create valuable content! What do I mean by this? Content that can be distributed amongst not only members of your network but that you can distribute outside of the network. Things you can show people in your industry and can help them in some way.
Let’s look at an example of this.
One thing that will be happening on Under30CEO.com is the development of e-books. The entire network will hopefully get involved in creating e-books for young entrepreneurs by young entrepreneurs. There are a million topics for such e-books. Now these books will not only be great for all members of the Under30CEO community but can also be distributed outside the community. This is valuable content. Everyone who contributes to the e-book gets cited so they can also point to it as something they did. The books can then be used by anyone who finds it interesting.
Now ANYONE can also take charge and create an e-book or some kind of valuable content. Going back to the point above about creating a tribe around your group. Well make some kind of content within your group. For example we encourage all C.E.O. chapter to create chapter groups on Under30CEO. Now within these groups someone can take charge and create a chapter specific e-book about the members, their businesses, their goals, or whatever topic they want. Then they could not only show this to everyone in the community on Under30CEO but also show it to their school. Let the other kids at the school see more about the entrepreneurs around them.
And of course it doesn’t have to be school specific or have any other restrictions. If you can put a group together and form a tribe of 5, 10, 50 people you can create something no matter where everyone is from.
Now these are just a couple of ideas. Creating valuable content just takes some creative thinking and a leader or two. But just think of what you would create if you could have a club of a 100 passionate people. Now just make that club virtual. Make content that can be seen by everyone. Now you can extend your reach way beyond what you do in a room on campus or a conference room at work.
If you successfully create this type of content you can always point back to it and show that you organized it. That you organized an e-book that was downloaded 1000times. Or put together a monthly meet-up in your town or city that brought people from surrounding towns that you had never met before.
This type of content is unique to social networking right now. Very few networks do anything of true value. Look at facebook or myspace. What have you done on there that you would point to and say “I created this”. What have those networks done to encourage valuable content creation? The answer is very little. Niche networking is popping up all over the place but many still fail to do anything valuable. That’s what will separate the winners and losers in niche networking. The creation of content is what cutting edge networks are beginning to do and that is what will allow them to succeed.
Leading one of these tribes or simply getting involved with one will help you stand out in this ever crowding cyber world.
Just be creative and take charge. The possibilities are limitless.
Part 4 – Follow-up
