The Art of Following Others on WA
I have noticed in my experience here at WA that some people try to follow as many others as possible, while some individuals seek to make a real connection with others.
What's your process for hitting the "follow" button?
A little background on me, I'm an overachieving competitive person (just against myself), so give me something like a "rank" to increase and, watch out, I'm going to work on increasing it!
One component that I learned was that important to things like rank here at WA was interactions with other as well as growing your network. So I set out to do that, from day one. However, I want to make connections with people, not just increase a network rank number. I'm here to learn from others after all, and that takes authentic communication.
So I made a conscious decision on how I would approach the art of following others here on WA.
- Never just silent follow someone.
- I mean, don't click that follow button without at least putting a few words together to say hello and that you want to connect.
- The "Follow Back".
- Thank the person who has followed you (they didn't have to) and do them the courtesy of following them back. Tell them you are following them back as well.
- When following or following back, make it personal!
- I follow a lot of new people or people who have just opted in for Premium and when I reach out, I always introduce myself as another Newbie (it's authentic and relate able), and then I always offer help.
- Take 30 seconds to look at someone's bio and pick up on something they are passionate about.
- You don't want to make the personal component just about you, people love to be complimented (genuinely). So find something that strikes a cord from their bio and call it out. Maybe it's where they live and you want to travel there, their passion or hobby you admire, their positive attitude, whatever. Make it something they can actively connect to.
As much as I love seeing my rank increase from day to day, it's more about creating and fostering a caring community here. No one is too busy to take 30 seconds to craft a personal "hello" to another.
Think about how you would greet someone who you meet in person. Do the same here!
Remember, you don't know what's going on in their lives and your follow and comment to them may just be the thing that makes their day or gives them the encouragement they need!
Best wishes for everyone's success here!
Christina
Your number one fun,
Allan.
Reply
That's pretty much what I do. I followed a few of the top rankers :-) and I followed some new members - someone said this helps your rank but I did it just to be sociable :-) - and anyone who posts something interesting that I see but you could spend your whole life doing this and how many people can you realistically interact with? Some members have 10K's of Followers.
So I'm a bit more selective now although I always follow back anyone who follows me.
Ian
