3 Ways to Ask for Community Support

Building relationships isn’t an activity solely reserved for business networkers. My god, if it were, none of us would be here without dipping in the company ink.

After years of working in Public Relations and developing great connections, it has become apparent my most trusted relationships are often way more eager to help out than I had predicted. And, I’m sure, the same goes for you.

It takes a lot of work to build relationships - good ones, at least. It takes work to put yourself in a position where you can leverage other people’s work, but that is precisely what you’ll want to do to grow your community.

Many of the people you’ve met along your journey, whether you're just starting out or you’re days away from retirement, have long established their voice in their particular industries. There’s a lot of power in hooking your carriage to their horse when you first launch your new community.

Let me explain.

Real relationships are not transactional. If you send a cold pitch to hard-working entrepreneurs asking if you can leech off of their community, 99.9% of the time, you’ll get exactly what you put into it: nothing.

To effectively leverage your pre-existing relationships with the desire to grow your community, here are 3 Simple Ways to Ask for Community Support:

1. Build a list of influencers/relationships who you want to build or tap into - search your existing networks to determine who else shares some of the same (ideally larger) audience that appears in your community. Then, engage them using your community voice on their social channels (blogs, articles, videos, etc.). Like, share, and comment on their content. Then, once they’re familiar with your flirty behaviour, reach out privately with a ‘sneak peek’ at one of your upcoming blog articles. Ask them for their feedback. If all goes well, not only will they appreciate you considering them an authority on the subject, but better yet, when the article is officially posted, they will be more likely to share it with their larger audience.
2. Guest Articles - now, you’ve connected your community with an influencer who may be even more excited to learn that you are now offering to provide an original article for their site. No money exchanged, just an offer to provide quality content to their community, linking back to yours. Believe it or not, this kind of exchange is often highly agreeable to your contacts. You never know, unless you ask.
3. Participate in Others’ Events - community leaders take great pride in their events, even if they don’t come right out and say so. Therefore, supporting your relationships’ events by being in attendance is not only supportive to your connection, but it also highlights you out in the community mingling with like-minded professionals. It’s the ultimate way to leverage the hard work of your contact, while essentially only having to show up and smile.

This is simply a taste from the schmorgesborg of relationship building activities. However, when you’re first starting out, these three simple ways are essential to grow your community like magic.

Ta-da!

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