6 ways to grow your social influence

 Free Big Collection of People Silhouettes Vector Graphic

Just  today, I was in the middle of doing my own thing when a friend who was having a challenge needed some tech help.  I thought to myself, "This is just what social networking is all about."  After the experience, I realized that in that one interaction I had build my social influence in several different ways.  I figured I would share with you a few of the ways you can build your social influence.



 1.  Create good content consistently.

In whatever our niche, we need to be searching for the best resources and information.  We need to take what we find and process it, and know the people in our communities well enough to share in a way they can grasp and implement easily.

It really does not matter if we are sharing the same information out there.  We all have different followers with different needs who would much rather learn from us.

2.  Get involved in different communities.

If you feel stagnated, perhaps you need to branch out where new people can learn about you and where you can find fresh ideas to bring back to your network.  Get involved in new communities by sharing your expertise and answering questions.

Find ways to collaborate not compete with other leaders.  Do not wander in and out of different communities at your leisure.  Make yourself available on a regular basis.  Brainstorm together on how different communities can unite to reach common goals.

3.  Introduce the newbies to your network.

It can be pretty intimidating for people trying to break into a new community.  Keep your eyes open, and stand ready to  help break the ice by sharing posts, retweeting, and suggesting others follow. Sometimes it only takes one person to get others to notice the newbie.

4.  Assist with problem solving.

If you are aware of what is going on in your community and others, you will find people who are looking to resolve problems.  Don't be afraid to help or give advice. You might be the best person to help because you have the time or because you had to work your way out of a similar challenge.

This is the best way to grow your influence.  Others will be watching and still more will hear of you from those you assist.

5.  Don't just broadcast.

Even though time is short, be sure to work toward having conversations that can reveal what people are thinking about the things you post.  If your posts are not generating a response of some kind, you cannot really tell if you are being heard or if people are even interested.

Asking questions, taking surveys, or providing a "call-to-action"  are forms of communication.  Ask people to share, +I, or "like."  Just asking people to respond with a yes or no can help you learn more about your community.

6.  Don't just sell.

Many people are afraid to spend time volunteering service.  Some do not want to give anything away free.  If all our efforts are spent selling and none on providing free information or a product now and then, people will lose interest.  My first webinar on creating income opportunities online was given by Jason Alba.  He suggested that we should spend the first year building our networks.  He is an expert on building social media profiles and sharing content.

I first started out by writing my own posts and sharing other people's content on Twitter.  My followers grew to 2000. Many are very generous about sharing.  The relationships I have are strong from putting service first. 

Read More

What in the world is XeeMe?

When much of what you do depends on networking, sometimes you feel like you are all over the  place without a way to successfully  organize, plan, or measure results.  How do you keep generating content and successfully marketing yourself and engaging at the same time?

Does this sound familiar?  The more networks you are on the more difficult the challenge becomes.  I have known for some time that I needed to find a more efficient way.  Just over a week ago while I as on Pinterest, I saw someone pin a XeeMe badge similar to this one:

Source: xeeme.com via Robin Foster: Genealogy & More on Pinterest

Out of pure curiosity, I clicked on it, and I am so glad I did.  XeeMe is a free site where you can organize all your social media presences.  Instead of your followers needing to keep track of all the places you share resources and information, they only need the one simple XeeMe profile link where they can access all your social sites.

You can link probably every known site that you have a membership to on this one XeeMe profile.  You will even discover some very cool emerging sites that will help you grow your social influence.  The reason this community works so well is because you make friends on XeeMe who are not just consumers of information.  They are "super networkers" who will collaborate with you and share your work with their networks.

This is my XeeMe profile:  http://xeeme.com/RobinFoster

All My Social Sites

 I created my own background and categorized all my links to make it easy for my followers to find the topics which interest them the most.  I have met and connected with scores of people this week from across the globe.  I am grateful to each of them for welcoming me and sharing.

After this first week, I have discovered I have become much more aware of what is happening on all my networks, and I am more able to engage in conversations a timely manner.  I keep my profile up and it is easy to click and share and monitor across all platforms.

I have even been able to (of all things, LOL) find more cool places.  I will begin to share some of the new places I enjoy in upcoming posts.  For now, if you have not checked out all my social sites, please visit and poke around a little.  If you like what you see, you can create you own place to:  XeeMe.  If you do, let me know below, and I will introduce you to the friends I have made there.  If you are already on XeeMe, and we have not connected yet, post your profile on the comments below, and I will be "Xee-ing" you!

Read More