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29 Comments

How do you grow your connections?

As a person on the internet, how do you connect to people and increase your ACTIVE connections? they could be your assistant or audience in different situations.
Also how you keep them in your circles?

  1. 4

    In addition to Rosie's answer, I'd also suggest blogging.

    Do something interesting and then blog about it. People will reach out to you and want to connect with you, even more so if you end the article with an offer to connect.

    Launching my newsletter has also led to meeting some great people. Similar to conference speaking, it lets people come to you instead of you cold-emailing people.

    1. 1

      Yes, and actually, it's much easier to meet people by making something as people naturally gravitate towards you (if they are interested, of course).

      I use to run conferences and I loved it because I never had to walk up to people to introduce myself, everyone gravitated towards me.

      1. 1

        For me, as an introverted, it's a much better way to meet people

  2. 3

    Engage with people in a human way. Here on IH. On Twitter. Wherever it may be. Get to know people, put the effort in to be genuine and truly interested.

    1. 2

      tbh I'm not a human, I'm a programmer 😁

      1. 1

        Programmers are people too. 😆

  3. 2

    I started a podcast in order to have interesting conversations with interesting people.

    Also... Let's connect. Hit me up.

    1. 1

      I'm thinking about making a series of videos in YouTube.

      1. 2

        I do the same, actually.

        Just published: https://youtu.be/TClqPsi7NoE

        It features 3 of my podcast guest. I sent them emails and @mentioned them on Twitter today.

        That helps keep the relationship active even long after the podcast interview.

    1. 1

      thanks. I will listen to it later!

      1. 1

        thanks for the solution. hope this works!

  4. 2

    In my opinion, the more you stay engaged with your audience, the quicker you build connections. I stay connected with them through posting regular content (it is usally anything ranging from stories about life to talking about my progress with ruttl.com)

    Hope this helps!

    1. 1

      I usually do this 😉

  5. 2

    I've personally created a list of people that I'd like to build a relationship with over time.

    I've set a reminder at lunch each day to proactively engage with every person on Twitter.

    Whether it be simply liking their tweet, adding a comment, or sending them a DM - my goal is to familiarize them with myself.

    Over time, you'll naturally start building genuine relationships with these people as you begin following eachothers journeys.

    The same concept could also apply to sales for a product. Take the time to build a relationship with your customers before you initiate the conversation.

    1. 1

      This is great, for more in-depth connections (vs. a product audience) I've always found the most success with consistent checkins like this.

    2. 1

      what if their tweet likes are more than 1000?! do they see your like or comment?!

      1. 1

        Great question. If there's quite a few likes, a comment is my go-to.

        They might not notice it immediately, but if I do it every day, they'll be bound to recognise sooner or later.

  6. 1

    Keep an eye out for Calls to Action. We independent creators/makers/marketers are aware of designing CTA's (landing pages/products/sites/newsletters) but if you're focused on enhancing your connections, than you need to engage with others through the way they've set it up.

    Respond to questions in newsletters, comment on posts, podcasts, clap/highlight on Medium, etc.

    LinkedIn has a nice infrastructure on adding and engaging through "My Network".

    • You'll see under Manage my network your Connections, scroll through send messages | Teammates | Contacts | Follow: Groups Events, Pages, and Hashtags.

    Personally, I operate newsletters to maintain a connection @ scale but I encourage responses, repost content across mediums, connect and reply to commentors etc.

    1. 1

      Great advice.
      I found IndieHackers more usable than LinkedIn on reading, posting and commenting. I can find better connections here IMO.
      But I also try to be active on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. I hope with the last one, I found good connections and communications.

  7. 1

    Have you thought about smaller remote events where you can actually talk to people; keeping these up regularly with an open invitation to new connections?

    1. 1

      Could you suggest any samples, please?

      1. 2

        Honestly I don't have specific example, but it occurred to me that having "office hours" is something we could all do if we're trying to keep the lines of communication open.

        Like just setting up a 60-minute zoom call once a month where people could drop in to say hello / meet you & each other. Then posting the link as publicly as you'd like. If you wanted to theme / prepare something to talk about, and promote the hours, you might even get attendees from wider audiences.

  8. 1

    Record your Zoom calls and share 1-3 minute segments of the conversation your audience will find interesting. This is a good technique for a few reasons:

    • Easy way to create content - much easier than writing a blog post from scratch
    • Shows your personality, what questions you ask, how you think about things
    • Your "guest" will be likely to share it, gets you face time with a new audience
    • Invites viewers to join into the conversation

    "Zoom calls as content strategy" is what I'm all about. DM me if you want more ideas and resources.

    1. 1

      Interesting, do you have examples of this?

      1. 2

        Here are some examples from EditVideoCalls.com clients -

        A personal trainer shares diet and lifestyle tips from client calls

        A BD director took his informal team happy hour and turned it into a legit weekly show. He's now booking guests that work at Facebook and Oracle.

        A professional speaker shared conversations with friends to promote her 90 day course.

        I've been a professional video producer for over 10 years. I joined IH because professional cameras aren't necessary anymore and I can make more videos and help more people this way.

        I want to help EVERYONE realize that they can create valuable video content from the Zoom calls they're already having - no cameras or scripts required.

        PS - Rosie, you were one of the first videos I made 😄

        1. 1

          Oh, lol, how embarrassing! Haha.

          1. 1

            Not embarrassing at all! Really valuable information delivered in an accessible way.

            The majority of us didn't do video chats before March. The next stage in this evolution is sharing video chats.

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