Building your Tribe Online – by Guest Blogger: Heather White

Building your Tribe Online – by Guest Blogger: Heather White 

Now that technology has removed the barriers for connection and distribution, I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to branch out and connect with people all over the world.  I sill believe that whenever possible, take your online relationships offline so as to build a deeper connection, but that doesn’t mean you can’t go to a conference in New York to do so.  Woohoo – why not?

Using Twitter and Facebook as vehicles to drive me to all kinds of cool people doing all kinds of great things is a business development activity I look forward to doing.  Even if your business model is set up to do business with local clientele only, there is still value for YOU, as a person, in having relationships with people outside your current network.

A few benefits to broadening your horizon:

• Get a new perspective or new idea. Spark your creativity and see things differently.
• Open up a whole new market.
• Meet new people, who know other people, who are now gonna know you. Grow your network – yay!
• New opportunities.  Sure, you might make a business contact, but just as likely, you’ll discover a cool course being offered by a great teacher, find out about a new app for your iphone that is killer, find that perfect life coach/business coach you’ve been looking for, get the link to major hotel discounts for your upcoming trip to….?

Here’s how I do this:

• Set aside specific time in my week to do some Internet trolling.
• Make a list of the people that I already know, that I’m super impressed with and that I know I could learn from.
• Jump on their site, Blog, Facebook page, Twitter etc.
• Start researching:
  1. Who do they promote/pimp out/love?
  2. Click through to the new site.
  3. Take a look around, read the bio/about page, find out about the business model, read the blog etc.
  4. Sometimes, depending on what I find, and how much I’m diggin this new person, I’ll follow them on Twitter, like them on Facebook, sign up for their newsletter, bookmark their site, write a comment on their blog, or even drop them a personal note.  If I like what I see, I’m finding a way to get in touch and stay in touch.

If you curious and this idea appeals to you, try it.  I’ve got online pals now in Halifax, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, New York, Washington DC, Florida, Guatemala, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, (probably more I’m forgetting) that I wouldn’t have known without the internet.  Many of us have jammed in person since our online rendezvous and I know they’ll be life long friends.  Broadening your horizon is fun, engaging and I highly recommend it.  Let me know how it goes for you, and if you have any internet connection stories to share?

You can follow Heather on Twitter @heather2020