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Tuesday 12 July 2011

The Importance of Online Relationships

One of the most important issues with any platform is maintaining healthy relationships. You can establish an online presence with social media and advetise your book there. But unless you make an effort to interact with people and maintain a relationship, you're not going to make as many sales as you would do if you were sociable.

Another author said last week that people will buy you, not your product.

With this in mind I formed a plan.

I started to think of people who interact with me on a regular basis. People on Facebook, LinkedIn, my blog, Twitter, and Goodreads. These are all people who are already reading what I have to say, so they're more likely to respond if I interact with them further.

Whatever I do I musn't ignore these people. I look at them as fans. And why would you want to ignore your fans?

I will always respond to every email they send, and I will always thank them for retweeting information for me. After all, they are helping me to build a bigger platform so the least I can do is thank them. And I will always make the effort to return the favour.

I then started to think of people who I admire in the online community. I thought of ways I can build up a relationship with them, to show them I'm a fan. Retweeting information for them is always a useful thing to do. And I always make an effort to comment on their blogs. If you see an opportunity to do someone a favour and help build their network, they will always respond to you in a positive manner.

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