Posted on by Frank - Follow me on Twitter

I just got back yesterday from the Affiliate Summit Conference in New York City.  One of the sessions I attended was called Getting Noticed FAST.  I felt this was the most important session I attended all day.  The main reason why is because it taught everyone how to better engage with social networks and why social media is important to get your name out there to build relationships.

During the session, I took some notes that I thought would be helpful for those of you that weren’t there.  These tips I believe won’t only help you, but also were a huge help to me.  I am now able to interact better with the variety of social networks I am apart of.

1. When using Twitter, check out search.twitter.com to find people talking about topics that you are interested in.  This well help you interact with people better because now you will have something in common with them to discuss.  It’s a very useful tool to use, especially if you are just starting to use a social networking site like Twitter.

2. You can share certain updates from Twitter to your Facebook profile when you use the following hashtag (#fb) after your update.  Since you probably have a different following of people on Facebook than Twitter, sharing all of your Twitter updates to Facebook may not be what you want to do.  This hashtag helps determine which of those updates go to Facebook.

EX: I really enjoyed my experience at the Affiliate Summit Conference. #fb

3.  Find related blogs in your niche that talk about the things that interest you.  If you have a blog and you leave comments on blogs that talk about what you do, you may be able to build relationships with these people.  This will bring about more community interaction for you and build your social media presence.

4. Blogger link up is another way to better engage with social media.  Blogroll’s are links that are placed in your sidebar linking off to other blogs you find interesting.  When you add a blog to your blogroll, let that blogger know that you did so.  Don’t ask them though to do the same with yours though.  It’s just not proper for online interaction.  If they like your website and what you talk about as well, they will add you to their blogroll on their own.  Being on a blogroll adds credibility to your site because people trust your opinions.

5.  Search for local meetups at meetup.com. Here you can search topics of what you are interested in and see events that are going on in your area about that topic.  It’s definitely a useful tool and helps bring your social media experience to a new level.  The reason for this is it takes your interaction with people to a face to face setting.  Things are more personal this way and if social media is new to you, people are always willing to help and tell you how they got started.

6.  Use the same profile picture on all of your social media websites.  Why?  This way you are easily recognizable on the internet and people won’t confuse you with someone else.  Having the same picture is another way to build credibility and to make people feel comfortable when talking to you.

7. Attend a conference.  The Affiliate Summit Conference is not a bad way to go. As I mentioned, that’s where these tips I received are coming from.  Any conference setting you go to, people are in one way or another engaged in social media.  It’s how we communicate and build relationships today.  Meeting these people face to face will help you learn about why social media can help not only you as a person, but your business as well.

8. Attend local tweetups.  These are like meetups basically, but are a way for people that are friends on Twitter to meet in person.  Since Twitter is used by almost everyone, these tweetups are great for learning more about your followers in your area.  In my opinion, it’s a great relationship builder to gain more “real life” friends.

9. Use Google Alerts.  This isn’t my top suggestion to build your social media presence, but it will let you know who’s looking you up on Google, or viewing your website.  Everyone wants to know when people are interacting with them and Google Alerts can tell you if someone searches your name or finds your website.  This is something that’s more for you to let you know about your community.

10. This is the most important piece of advice.  Be yourself!  For people to want to interact with you in a social media setting, you have to be yourself.  If you are trying to just sell them something, they aren’t going to want to talk with you.  However, if you are bringing something to the conversation and are really giving your opinions about something than people are more likely to engage in a conversation.

Well, these are the tips I took away from the Affiliate Summit Conference about building your social media presence.  I hope they help you and show that interacting with the community around you isn’t difficult, but it requires your participation.

How is your interaction with social media created meaningful relationships for you?  Have you ever been to a conference before?  If so, what did you learn from yours?

Further reading:

10 Tips For Interacting With Social Networks And Technology

Facebook Connect Increases Participation

The Difference Between Business And Online Social Networks

Top 10 Reasons To Follow Someone Who Follows You On Twitter

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