How To Become More Likeable On The Internet

Without trying to skip to the bottom of my post and see what I might have to say, what do you think might be my response to the question how do I become more likeable on the internet? Out of all of the possiblities what do you think is the most important factor to being liked by people online?

Does this really matter? Does it matter if people online like you at all? When you are online you could be anyone that you want to be so why put so much effort into people likeing you when they wont even know who you are? Well lets look at it from a different angle. If I am going to be selling something and I want to give something away for free, I am much more likely to give the item away to someone that I actually like. In the case of blogging; if I am going to link to someones blog I would rather link to my best friends blog instead of someone who I dont even know.

The point here is this. Often times you do not talk to people who you do not like. Sure I know sometimes you have to talk to people you dont like because of work and stuff like that, but Im talking about when you have the choice generally people will choose to avoid people they do not like and only talk to, or spend time with, people whom they do like.

Being likeable has many advantages to it as well.
People will buy from you
People will spread the word (via social media or word of mouth) about you and your content
People will link to your blog on their online media outlets (blogs, facebook, twitter, etc)
People dont stop following you when you say one or two things they do not like.
So what is the post important factor to becoming more likeable online? Here is the answer:

Dont care whether people like you or not.

Not what you were expecting eh? Well I know it sounds like it is exactly the opposite of what you would be thinking, and to say if you want to be likeable, dont care if you are liked by people sounds contradictory but when talking about your online presence it is very important. Here are just a few reasons why:
People will be able to see the real you
You dont only post content that you feel everyone will like

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and it seems that they are always just trying to impress you? You know, the people who always seem to have done something better or bigger no matter what anyone else has done.

I was eating lunch with my wife and some friends the other day and they were telling me a story of how they were shopping for clothes and saw another couple who were doing the same thing. Everytime someone would go in and try on some clothes they would of course come out of the changing room to see what people think. As soon as someone would compliment the new outfit another lady in their group would shout out look at my shoes!. Now I dont know if the shoes in this case were really impressive or not but this is a good example of what I am talking about.

Moments like that dont really make people like you. In fact those moments only make the conversation awkward. If you dont care what people think about you then you wont try to exalt yourself, or them sometimes, and you can avoid that awkward conversation.

Care About and Pay Attention To What Other People Are Saying

We always seem to want to talk about our own achievements and accomplishments. Its part of our human nature. We also like it when others actually pay attention and care about our accomplishments, or even just what is going on in our day to day lives. Having everyone like you is senseless if you have to talk about things that you find boring.

The goal of this blog is to help you to be yourself more when posting online, instead of trying to suck up to the top few in an attempt to gain their approval. If you dont like something then do not pretend to just so that others will like you.

Dont view people as just a number

It doesnt matter if you are new, or if you have been online for many years, this is relevant to you.

If you are new to the online community, or you just now found your niche market and are trying to get your name out there, it is tempting to look at and center your attention on the top guys. For example: if you are wanting to grow your online niche it is tempting to try to get the most sucessful people in your niche to pay attention to you; however you must forget about all of the other people you are in your niche as well. These other people could become one of the famous leaders one day that you are looking up to and they can also help you establish and grow your online business.

If you have been around awhile and already have a large following please dont forget the people that helped you get to where you are now. As I mentioned to those who are new, you can never really know for sure where someone will be in a few months or years. You dont know if you person you just looked over may be able to help you grow, or even their friend may be your next client.

Be Yourself At All Time And Dont Hold Back

This is kind of a off branch of the section on not caring if people like you or not but I think it needs its own section. Online people will hold back for many reasons. Here are a few:
They do not want people to know too much about them.
They do not want others to see who they are (i.e. a picture)
They wouldnt even consider a video because people would see and hear them.

Anyone who has been in the online industry for any amount of time has been here at one time or another. People will often us a pen name when writing online so that people will not know who they truly are.

I was reading something on this not too long ago and I forget who the author was but they asked when does it matter? When does it matter if someone you know finds your blog?

When does it mater if someone leaves a comment on your newest articlle that you posted? Is it when you look at the comment? Is it when they type it? Is it really important what someone thinks about your accent or if you have receeding hairlines?

The people that matter dont mind, and the people that mind dont matter

Being yourself is much easier than trying to be someone you are not.

Work on things that matter

When working on different projects its proven that if people are working on something small then they are morelikely do take up more time. When trying to promote yourself to your online audience it is more important to stay in contact with people instead of just contacting them once or twice and then moving on to the next person.

Whenever Im helping someone that stands out I will help them however possible; however, if they are working on something that is seemingly pointless and not unique then Im more likely not to try to promote that to my followers. I do try to help people get their name out there when they are working on things that are different or that truly matter. I really enjoy it when I am able to help people grow their business when it has an important social impact and helps others.

It may seem kind of harsh but if Im trying to build a niche business then being liked by everyone online is not important because its not going to grow or develop into anything. If you are promoting something that is not going to get you more subscribers, or more business then is it really worth it? Sure you can make a lot of friends which is great, but we are trying to grow a business not just make friends.

The easiest thing you can do to keep the communication open between you and anyone online is to be working on things that matter. Work on something unique and great. Work on something that they will want to read and find out more about.

Understand That You Are Part Of The Larger Picture

One of the most important things that you can take away from this blog is to understand that you are not by yourself in this. There are plenty of others who are looking to grow their subscriber base and increase the traffic to their websites. I am more inclined to help people who have helped me in the past because it indicates that it is not just all about them. It shows that they are interested in me and what I am doing.

Here is some good advice for helping others:
Share their information (aka linking to the blogs)
Comment on blogs that they have posted
Retweet things that they have posted
Never ignore anyone who contacts you, even if you cant help them.

The last one is probably the most effective piece of advice because there are very few people who are doing it. As social media is growing people are starting to share articles on that instead of sharing or linking to them on their own blogs. This is fine but it makes it much harder to get your content out there when there are not as many links pointing to your content. This will cause you to place lower in search engine rankings .

Understanding that you are not the only person who is working in your niche will help you not be the lonely person working in your niche.