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Over the last few days I’ve been trying to engage my follower base (on social networks) to send me links to their blogs. Why? I’m genuinely interested in what they have to say, that’s why I’ve followed them in the first place. In fact, I vet everyone before I accept them…well, not all the time but I do try my best to research people that wish to follow me….

Value & Personality

So, why am I interested in my follower base so much? Why wouldn’t I be? They share lots of great information and provide massive value to me. I’m sure that if they (my followers) have a twitter feed, which only gives me a glimpse at the type of person they are, the blog allows me to see more their personality, added value and opinions. I want to see more than 140 characters of a person; I want to see YOUR character.

Scratch My Back Now (most important)

It should go without saying that this is a two-way street; meaning I’m doing my very best trying to learn from everyone’s content (that I read) and I hope my follower’s are learning from my content. Honestly I’m trying to output meaningful content so you promote me and in turn it inspires you to provide meaningful content for me so I promote you. Honestly I use my follower base, fans and friends, as my influence to get better and add more value to the space overall.

Keyhole Relationship Building

So my point here is that platforms like Twitter are a doorway to learning more about your followers; I’m not saying you HAVE to spend hours reading all of your follower’s content but give some that you engage with often a priority. I’m sure they can tell you information that may spark something in you to be better or get a more in-depth conversation started about something you didn’t know about previously.

Hanging Out with Friends, Digitally.

If you build a personal blog community circle* (via social sites) and pass along or discuss what you find, there’s a grand chance that others will do the same for you with your content then the quality of information being shared, and exchanged, will be that much better. Did I miss something; let’s discuss it, starting now!

Thank you everyone! I enjoy you and your output.

* Please sign up for my newsletter and in the next issue I will show you HOW to build your blog communities using online tools! You can sign up for the newsletter here: http://bit.ly/sMWeI.

Related articles:

• HOW TO: Use Facebook for Professional Networking (mashable.com)