It is the school holidays, winter in New Zealand, and the teenagers are enjoying movie marathons on these cold wet days. Yesterday we were watching ‘The Internship’ with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. The comment they made when trying to convince a small pizza shop owner to expand his business and move to online marketing resonated with me. “We are not saying to change the quality that you offer, we are just trying to make your neighbourhood bigger.”
That is exactly what we need to do as we develop an online presence. Developing an online presence is about involving ourselves in different communities. We do not change who we are or the ‘quality’ of our presence but we get to know who is in the neighbourhood in a virtual way. We do this by being ourselves, by being authentic and adding value to those around us.
Moving to a new town a few years ago I didn’t know anyone. In order to get to know people I needed to get involved and find out who was in the area. It was in this way that people would in turn get to know me. The easiest way to do this was to become a member of different clubs, to join the local gym and to involve myself in the local events. It was in this way that people got to know me and I got to know different people.
Moving to a new town and getting to know people and expanding the neighbourhood that we live in is exactly what we do as we develop an online presence. We involve ourselves in different communities. We become a member of LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Quora. We find people that we like to hang out with and have similar interests that we have. We allow people to get to know us by being authentic and adding value.
Developing an online presence is all about making our neighbourhood bigger. Certainly when we move to a new town we are apprehensive about joining a club where we do not know anyone or going to an event by ourselves. These feelings are similar to how we feel when we make efforts to join online communities. It is one of the main reasons that I choose to offer workshops on 'building community together online'. It takes the apprehension out of moving into the online neighbourhood. It connects us with people that ‘watch our back’ because sometimes it takes time to develop trust in new communities.
Developing and building an online presence is about building community. It is about making our neighbourhood a little bit bigger. When we do this with others then it is a journey shared.
References
Gossieaux, F., & Moran, E. (2010) The Hyper-Social Organization. New York: McGraw Hill.
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