I have been spending a lot of time lately thinking about giving.  Time, money, life…  There are many ways to give to others and I’ve seen a lot of parallels to that in the blogging world with my site as well.  I have really stepped up the last month or two by looking to put a lot more effort into promoting other bloggers, my subscribers, people who comment on my site and basically everyone I interact with in this digital world.  It’s not that I didn’t do that before, but never as generously or as often.  I put more of my efforts into content and reading others material without always having a lot to add or say.

Shift Your Actions

However, recently I’ve started putting just a few minutes of all my usual reading time, writing and thinking into helping promote others or by commenting on their sites. I’ve looked at offering more help on this site (please just ask if you need any for something…) and I’ve been much more consistent at leaving articles or reviews when I read some great content instead of just rolling on to the next thing in my list.  I can say that this shift in my actions has had a big ripple effect, something I never expected and it’s wonderful to experience it first hand.

Show Appreciation

I’m working to make more of my actions show appreciation for online content, authors, subscribers and others in my digital sphere.  Just one extra minute after reading an article to add a review or comment and it’s increased my interaction with others by many times.  Instead of forgetting what I read or who I read it from, I have a personal interest in the author once giving them feedback and this makes it much easier to remember the content in the first place as well.  I also find that I value it more if I put just a minute into reading an about page or exploring a few extra articles while stopping by someone’s site.

Everyone knows how they feel when they get appreciated so make that shift and show just a little more appreciation to others around you as well.  Take the first step and put it out there.  Here’s why…

Social Media Reciprocation

Well, I’ll call it reciprocation and it applies in more areas in life than just the social media aspect but as a blogger and considering the point of this article, I think the social media reciprocation has the biggest impact.  Sites like StumbleUpon drive a huge amount of traffic to this site and I’ve connected with a lot of like minded people which is why the interest continues to build.  It’s easy to find people with similar interests and there are a lot of people with these same thoughts to show appreciation and help each other out.  If you are willing to go do that first yourself, you will only soon find out that people will return the favor without you even asking.

My traffic and readership have continued to grow and recently increased quite drastically (over 30% per month) due to this small shift in my actions.  It’s payed off, the social media arena has helped to pay that back and I’m happy to that much more communication with other great like minded people.  Here is an excellent guide to getting more from stumbleupon written at Inside Writer.

Influence

So I started this thinking about influence and I know that when you look to do what others value first, you will have more influence on them.  Every time you do something for someone else, whether it seems noticed or not, I think you gain a small piece of influence.  Whether that influence is important at that time or some time well into the future, I don’t think it matters, either way, the influence that is built remains there and was all created by giving first.

So I hope I can have at least some influence here as well and encourage you to please, take one extra minute after reading great articles to add some comment or review the page in your favorite social media.  You’re welcome to do this here but I’d prefer you do it with other articles as I hate to seem like I’m asking for that!  Here are some great articles from my top commenters lately if you need a starting point.  I’d love to hear comments how you’ve experienced this as well or ideas that you do to give first?

Related posts:
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  3. Book Review: How to Win Friends and Influence People
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  5. Protect Your Social Media Profile For YOUR Future


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