A couple of years ago, I wrote a very popular post about 100 thoughts on marketing.
To me, the biggest and still unexplored opportunity with social media is that of helping make connections. Here are 100 ways to connect:
- make things happen
- welcome relationships
- suspend judgment
- create experiences
- use multimedia for learners and readers with different styles/preferences
- use your content to elevate others
- be helpful
- show you care
- introduce peers
- tell stories
- help readers rock
- listen and ask questions
- stay humble
- keep learning
- participate fully
- accept
- take responsibility
- resist copying
- liberate your inner fan
- transform your attitude
- challenge your assumptions
- think community
- collaborate freely
- develop opportunity
- stay passionate
- be honest (especially with yourself)
- be willing to change your mind
- provide a platform for others to find people with like interests
- build interactions
- stay curious
- stay offline when you're tired or argumentative
- dream, think, do
- facilitate conversations
- build prototypes
- invent possibilities
- use engagement to accelerate learning
- brag about your fans' products and services
- evangelize your employees
- observe more, judge less
- learn to read the social triggers that make stuff happen
- be more transparent
- choose teaching over winning
- open communication lines
- prefer open understanding
- keep your promises
- go the extra mile for someone else
- laugh more, especially about yourself
- be courageous
- stay with it through thick and thin
- tell stories
- respect privacy
- find a cause
- be original
- celebrate common traits
- want less, do more
- become the person you'd like to be
- stay soft on people, hard on issues
- appreciate small gestures, they are a big deal
- communicate more
- amaze yourself
- recognize talent
- take more walks
- take the high road
- discover and highlight worthy projects
- understand the power of silence
- stay hungry
- thank often and liberally
- be patient
- encourage exploration
- make your writing a work of art
- find mentors
- practice what you preach
- be flexible
- adopt and credit good ideas
- break down elitist walls
- step out of formulas
- reinvent joy
- earn your stripes
- face your responsibilities
- recognize and celebrate differences
- learn to think with your own experience
- invest in building something
- appreciate success is several years in the making
- know your values
- work with others
- make someone's day
- put people first
- read more, react less
- know your limits
- find inspiration
- experiment
- adjust
- be ready to be surprised
- get to know your peers
- inspire and find inspiration
- know you make a difference
- forget the numbers, you count
- let others opt in
- set a good example
- raise your industry, community, readers
The highly connective people, the "power networkers", are not those who mastered the tools, those who make perfect and know all the answers. They're those who elevate others. When you know why you're connecting, you benefit as well.
How do you connect? Has it changed over time?
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This is a Great and Exhaustive List, Valeria! Certainly Brings Home the Idea That It Takes Alot of Work to Connect in a Meaningful Way. To that End, I'd Add One More...
101. Use Music to Share an Idea / Mood / Thought
Narciso Tovar
Big Noise Communications
@narciso17
Posted by: Narciso17 | April 01, 2011 at 12:57 PM
Great article...Eben Pagens "connected" program is an excellent resource as well...one of the most powerful take aways is "being the introducer" that is making connections for others postions you as an authoriy and expert in the social circle, it also unleashes the law of reciprocity while making others curios about what it is you do ... make a greeat introduction for someone next time your in a networking setting, they almost always return the favor!!
Posted by: Dana Haenner | April 01, 2011 at 07:58 PM
Valeria, I love this! No coincidence: it's also a list of things that great leaders do.
Posted by: Annelibby.wordpress.com | April 03, 2011 at 08:25 AM
Glad you enjoyed it. My challenge was to not give the impression it was a casual list. Good addition on music. The more writing I do, the less music I listen to...
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | April 04, 2011 at 07:41 AM
Good tip, and a strategy I have used in the past.
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | April 04, 2011 at 07:43 AM
Looking forward to meeting some of these leaders.
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | April 04, 2011 at 07:44 AM
Thank you for the excellent list Valeria. I'm going to embrace one of these each day... and when i get to the end of the list, i'll just start over, or even better add to the list! There is just no downside.
Posted by: Gaston Sanchez | April 04, 2011 at 11:10 PM