Enhance Your Relationship Building Through the Power of Blogs
 

To make networking work effectively, you need to continuously find ways to build existing and new relationships.


The more creative you are, the greater the possibility will become for you to build lasting relationships.  


Examples of ways to connect include inviting people to meals, starting a newsletter, creating a blog, sending birthday greetings, holding your own events and sending articles.  


There are a number of ways to connect. Have fun with it.

This column will discuss one interesting and more recent phenomenon: blogs. This is a great tool for building relationships. 
 








Extend Your Personal Brand
 


Personal branding is so important for your credibility and longevity in the business world. You want to resonate positively with others so they will remember you.  Make sure you don't get lost in the crowd. You need to spend time branding yourself around a particular area of interest. Examples of subjects include search engine optimization, networking, channel marketing and investing.  Pick a subject you're passionate about and enjoy talking to people about. By doing this, you will become more credible and will find it fun to share your expertise.
 
Blogs are a great way to extend your personal brand. As you likely know, they are essentially an online Web journal of your thoughts. Blogs are public and virtually anyone can read what you write. It can be a powerful way for you to share your knowledge with the world.  Creating a blog was a perfect way for me to extend my brand. I started Networking Insight, which is a place for me to share additional perspectives and observations about networking.
 
Display Your Subject Matter Expertise

 As mentioned above, blogs are a great medium for you to share your subject matter expertise with the world.  Take advantage of this exciting phenomenon. Whether you know it or not, you are a subject matter expert on several topics. You may already be sharing your expertise through articles, speaking or a newsletter.  Once you decide what your subject matter expertise is, you are a good candidate for blogging. Pick one topic for your blog. Focus is a key to success.
 
Take it a step further and pick one aspect of your topic so you will be very focused. For example, if you are a search engine optimization expert, pick one of the major search engines to focus your energy.  By focusing your blog this way, you will set yourself apart and show that you truly are an expert on this topic. Also, you will start to build some new relationships with people who find you on the web. 
 
Participate in Community Building

The blogosphere is an amazing place in which more than 70 million blogs exist. There are endless opportunities for you to connect with others.  It is a very viral community. If someone likes your blog, he or she will let others know about it. In essence, a snowball effect could occur where people continue to reference your blog with others.  Of course, your blog needs to have a good and relevant topic for your intended audience. Once this happens, your blog will start to get noticed in certain communities.
 
For the most part, you need to be proactive and let people know that you exist. One technique is to comment on other blogs, which allows you to provide a link back to yours.  Focus on leaving comments on a few high-traffic blogs every week so you will have a greater chance of getting traffic to your blog. In addition, commenting can be one way to connect with other bloggers.

Another great tool for building relationships with other bloggers is to sign up at MyBlogLog.com, which allows you to create a blog profile. As long as you visit another blog that has signed up for this service, the blogger will know that you have visited his or her blog.  Once you see who has visited your blog, you can then reach out to these people and view their blogs as well. It is similar to LinkedIn. It has had so much success that Yahoo! acquired it in 2006. 
 


Final Thought
Take blogging seriously. It's not going away. Whether they're for business or personal satisfaction, blogs come in all forms.
 
They are a great way to connect with new people and to show the world that you have an expertise. As a result, you will have the opportunity to extend your personal brand.

Jason Jacobsohn

Networking Insight 

A blog about effective relationship building for business and life