These characteristics are no secret and they relate to both new social media users as well as previously popular websites seeking to power the exposure that social media gives.
Here are the 7 characteristics of a successful social bookmarking:
Strong Profile Visibility:
A good social media profile is extremely visible in multiple channels. The more people connect your social media profile to existing website the better. Start to boost your visibility by inter-connecting all your social media profiles and web properties like blog, forum etc.
Take this one step more by evangelizing the social media service. First using Stumble upon, drove traffic to my profile. This increased the number of people who befriended me on SU.
Do not rely on unpleasant incentive-based contests to build a viewer; just become a gateway for others into the social media channel and you will develop followers. Guide and help others approve and use the social media service. It is not difficult to do and everyone profit in the end.
Visibility is also dependent on your participation levels. When I first started using Sphinn, I submitted a good deal of stories everyday and always voted new stories faithfully. I deliberated maintained the elevated submission volume because I wanted my avatar to become more well-known to the other Sphinn users.
When you think about visibility, think about it in terms of knowledge recognition as well. You want them to know and recognize it instantly. Broad visibility will give you a lot of opportunity for networking, which helps you beside the way.
Maintaining a Continuous Presence:
The livelier you are on a social media channel, the more likely you are to build a strong status. The amount of time you use on the site is directly balanced to the growth of your brand presence. To be highly active via a social media website, you need to purposefully set aside time to use it everyday.
You must not only be active but regular. Do not use the website for 2 weeks and then disappear for a month. I have seen this happen for Digg users and when they come back after a while, they will find that other users have un-friended them and may find it difficult to get people to notice their submissions.
This applies to all social media profiles. Attention accumulates. Make every effort to build on what you have gained. Just sitting back and slacking off limits you are possible for maximum visibility. When you are entering into social media, the best thing to do is to maintain a continuous presence from the start.
I indulgence social websites like email. I am most active two times a day, morning and night. In between, I use social media sporadically: only when I come across attractive content to share with other users. I have done the same for many months and it has become a routine of some sort.
The first stage of building a profile will always need an investment of your time. Take it from me: it gets easier over time. At the moment, I use considerably less energy and time on all my social media profiles than when I first started.
Seek Win-Win Outcomes Practice Reciprocity
In social news websites, users frequently vote because of the submitter and not the story. This is since they are reciprocating votes given to their individual stories or sites. Psychologists like Robert Cialdini have mentioned that reciprocation is a natural component of human relationships. It is not strange to find it in social media.
But instead of simply trading votes, trade attention and other property. When someone shows interest in your social profile by connecting to or promoting it, keep an eye out for the his or her profile or interests as well. Go beyond mere site-specific functions and think about how you and the other user can join forces in mutually-beneficial ventures.
Reciprocation is not just an automatic game of blind, globular support but a pro-active tactics. Instead of reacting, take the plan doing someone a favor, and ask nothing in return. The understood rule of reciprocation will ensure that it will come back to you. Even if you do not get anything in return, at least you have made a friend.
Effective Conversations are Important Communication:
A good social media profile is always open communication. Request and listen to comment. Learn from the people around you. Make it easy for others to contact you away from the social media channels by provided that your contact information.
Communication also involves some power networking try to interact with other fellow social media users by chatting about the community or other common interests.
When you are communicating, you are learning to other social media users, I almost always learn something new. Even experts require the grapevine.
It is impossible for anyone to know all and something to do with social media, let alone be continuously updated with the latest happenings with each website. Let other social media users be your informant, let them be your teachers.
Communication is an essential part of building dealings and its a good way to make new friends or connections that may benefit you in the prospect. Talking to other people is also fun and it enriches the social media experience. Conversations are a large part of social media
Although I might not be offered on IM every day, I do try to reach out to the people who are most active on the same social media channels. These are the people I like to talk to the most cause they are actively busy as I am. Make a point to attach whenever you have issues to talk about and not only when you need a favor.
Community Support
A good social media user supports the community in several ways. Reports bugs, shares comments about the site and highlights issues about other users. When you see other social media users stressed to broadcast news about the community, help them to increase the word.
A successful social media profile is one that is well included with the group. And that combination is naturally developed when one is passionate or supportive of other users in the community and the site itself. Offer constructive criticisms of these websites and help other users to get heard.
While using Digg, I have noticed a small number of users who constantly shout or promote the stories of other users. They have nothing to increase except that they believe the story deserves to be on the frontpage. These users are unselfish and they care more about the community than their own Digg submission records.
Gaining Attention and Trust
There is one reason why you should provide value before expect income when it comes to social media: value leads to the growth of belief. To build a successful brand through social media, you should first earn belief by providing value through your contribution.
For instance when I started using Digg/Sphinn, I mostly submitted stories from other websites instead of mine. I intentionally minimized the profit I could get from each channel even though both of them welcome the submissions of your own articles.
I am sure you have seen Digg users who submit nothing but their own website all the time. There is nothing wrong with it naturally but this gives one a bad status among other users. If you do it forcefully enough, you will even be labeled a spammer and your site strength be blacklisted by other users or site admins.
What is the problem here? You are not contributing value to the community; you are only trying to pull out benefits. This does not work. If you look like you are constantly trying to your site, you are never going to build a well-liked social media profile.
The sad truth is that if you focus on given that value, other users will belief and follow you or your site more closely. You gain attention and your product grows, which often leads to better benefits in the future in terms of traffic, reputation or connections.
Integrity Demonstration
Make sure that you are increasing a rightful social media profile because many people are keeping their eye on you. There is no point in creating a tough social media presence only to do something brainless to mess up your status.
When I talk about principles, I am mostly referring to individual values, unwritten community rules and each site Terms of Use. Do not do anything that violates each social media website rules. Even if you really want to do something next to the policy, at least make sure you do not get trapped.
These rules are not set in stone and you can do something exterior of recognized norms, even though you should do it in a way which frames yourself in a constructive light.
Apart from self-preservation, principles can also progress your status of your product in social media. Reliability is a much respected characteristic by all, so tailor your behavior to display that. This is particularly important for new products entering social media, since they have no earlier clout to influence.
posted by Horshan
@ 12:14 PM
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