CHAPTER 01
Sharing changed the conversation
When I first spent serious time exploring Web 2.0, I tried many things. I wanted to understand what these tools could do for networkers. I was no social-media expert. But I became a great fan.
The exciting part was simple: We could share useful information where people already gathered. We no longer had to pull every person towards a static website.
SHARING became the key word. Valuable content could travel almost at the speed of light to a selected audience interested in receiving it. For networkers, that is an enormous opportunity, provided we use discipline and a good strategy.
There is plenty to get wrong. And plenty to get right. So let us look at why liking, commenting and sharing matter.
CHAPTER 02
Connect with the right sources
Success involves creating value for others. Your uplines, partners, company executives, trainers and industry authors have a lot to offer. Much of it is freely available.
The first question is: Who should you connect with?
Start with your upline. They have a strong interest in your success. If they offer a useful newsletter, subscribe. A well-run profile, connect. A page with valuable material, follow it. A blog, subscribe to it.
The important shift is that you can pull information towards yourself. You do not have to wait for someone to forward every message individually.
Ask where the useful information lives. Then use that access. “My upline does not inform me” is a weak complaint if you know the sources and never follow them.
CHAPTER 03
Access is only half the story
What do you do with the information? Read and move on?
Your response can add value. A comment contributes experience. A question opens up a subject. A discussion helps others understand the idea. Suddenly something comes alive.
My practical advice is:
LIKE what you like. COMMENT when you can contribute. SHARE what is valuable to others.
The purpose is meaningful participation, rather than leaving your name under everything.
Show your downline who to connect with and which sources to follow. Then you do not have to worry constantly about forwarding information to each person. They can follow and participate themselves.
CHAPTER 04
Become part of the community
When I wrote the original article, I had already stopped my own email newsletter. For me, direct exchange through the new networks was the next step. The tools keep changing. The underlying idea remains: People choose what they want to follow.
Our job is to show them how and to share information professionally, authentically and reliably ourselves.
Connect with people who also create value. Become an active member of the community that already exists.
Had somebody told us in 1995 that we would communicate with our teams this way from 2010 onwards, we would hardly have believed it. We were still struggling with repeatedly forwarded faxes covered in thick black lines.
The delivery has changed dramatically. Turning information into a living connection is still our responsibility.
All the best, Sven