Be Human Online

How hard is it really to be human online? If you ran a brick and mortar
business, wouldn't you be personable and friendly to everyone who
visited your store? Why should you be any different with your e-store?

It is so easy to hide behind the internet store front and remain
nameless and faceless. But it isn't prudent.

Take some time to walk out the front door of your e-business
occasionally, too. Remember the green grocer sweeping his store steps?
You should do the same. Visit with people online who are part of your
same community. Communicate through email, networking, even making
phone calls. Get out of your store and into your neighborhood! Be
human online.

It is so easy to not be human when doing e-business. And it costs you
so much business not to be human.

The next time you read an article or observe a discussion online jot
down a note or send an email to the author or the participants or the
subject of the discussion. Tell them why the information was of value
to you, and even venture out to ask them some questions. If you write
articles yourself, ask permission to quote the individual or even do an
interview. Flattery in its most honest form will still take you far!

When you take a human approach to reaching people online, you get huge
results. Very often, these same people who previously seemed so
unattainable will visit your site, make comments, and even ask to
publish or quote you and your content. With, of course, a link back to
your site.

What did you invest in the contact? A few minutes. Twenty tops?

A perfect example is my dear friend Jan Crowell. Jan, who lives
thousands of miles away from me, saw some of my posts on an email list
and took a moment to get in touch with me directly. That was five years
ago! She has been with me through infancy of
http://www.SuccessPromotions.com as well as my youngest child. We have
shared successes, failures, ideas, and a wonderful friendship. All
because she took a moment to make a human contact with me. I'm pleased
to have a wonderful review of a product Jan introduced me to on my web
site. http://www.successpromotions.com/creview.html Jan has probably
earned more sales of this product for me than I have done myself.

Jan has also done the lion's share of the design work for my site. Not
to mention, my logo! She put forth a little effort to get in touch with
me. And got a friend and customer for life. (And I don't know what I
would do without her) By the way, you can email Jan at webby@wt.net

When you become human online, and network accordingly, you create not
only to traffic, but something even more valuable - credibility amongst
people who in turn have important contacts and
credibility with a broad audience.

There is a belief that everyone is connected to everyone else in the
world by no more than six outward circles of personal connections. And
that was BEFORE the internet. I have a personal contact base of people
in over 14 countries. And my client base is wider than that.

So how do you make these personal connections?

Send email. Write letters. Ask permission to do interviews for
articles. Write and tell authors how much and why you enjoyed their
articles. Share your own tidbits of information with people.

I use a customer relationship management software program called
GoldMine (TM). Other similar products include Outlook Express (TM) and
ACT (TM). GoldMine helps me keep track of who I know, who they know,
what people's interests are, how I can be of help to them, and maintains
records of all the historical data of previous contacts with each of
them. So when I get a new customer who has a similar niche market to a
customer from three years ago, I can make electronic introductions and
help two otherwise strangers do joint promotions. Thereby building
further each one's personal contact base.

You can do the same thing. One of my personal favorite tricks is to
print double sided business cards. Team up with someone who caters to
your same niche market but does not directly compete with you. Print
each person's business card on one side of a standard business card.
Print twice as many and each of you carries a stack. Abbraa
Cadaabbraa! You begin helping your friend make personal contacts while
they do the same for you.

It always pays to be human instead of pushy. Don't be overly aggressive
or scary in your contacts. Just friendly and helpful. I always give my
initial contact emails and letters a final reading over and ask myself,
if this were coming from my already pesky little sister, would I be
irritated? If you can pass that test, then you area ready to go.

Are you writing people you don't know, and letting
them know you're out there? Email makes it SO easy.
Just don't "bug" people unnecessarily.

There was a time when only the most aggressive of sales people seemed to
really utilize this human contact networking approach. More and more
people are doing so today. With the growth of online communities, we
are becoming more comfortable with the process. But don't be fooled
into thinking that involvement in a community alone is not networking in
this intensive form. You have to make personal, one on one contacts.
It isn't enough to be known in your group. You must be known by your
group.

Go to Yahoogroups.com and pull up the home page for any email list that
you are already subscribed to. Note how many subscribers there are.
Now compare that number to the number of regular posters. There is
usually a huge difference. Don't just read the emails. Participate!

Remember, the Internet is about community. Some people
take this all so literally and focus like hell on making
the discussion forums on their site active. That's fine,
but there are many ways to build up a community of peers
who can be called upon to do little favors for you. The
endorsement of already respected online authors may well
be more valuable to your site than a little bit of
chatter amongst anonymous participants in your or somebody else's forum.

It is so important that you be on a prospect's mind when they actually
decide to make a purchase. That is why drip and viral marketing are so
popular. That is why so many of us use autoresponders. That is why we
create mailing lists and use them over and over and over again.

Make a point of bumping into more well-placed people at
the "virtual water cooler" via email, and don't be
surprised if many of them find a way to incorporate you
and your site into their plans.

This is not one of those crazy get rich quick schemes. It's
real networking. It is how each of us can build a successful online
business doing whatever it is that we do. As such, this strategy has
real staying power.

Grab your virtual broom and step out your virtual front door. Sweep
some virtual steps and be human online. Make some new virtual friends.