Email 2.7 - Why To Be Positive

?? Gurpreet (Preet) Kaur , Nicola Earle , and Chris Miles , thank you very much for discussing the previous edition with me and encouraging me to continue sharing my experience! ????

In Today's Issue

• How to make people seen, heard, and valued in a community.
• Why your LinkedIn profile must look great.
• How smiling and making things easy helps you build human connections.

Let's Talk

When I was thinking about what to share in the Community ROI section about incentives, I had an idea to list at tonne of things I've done personally for community members and what I've heard worked for my amazing community-building colleagues.

But then I decided to share what worked for me as a community member myself and analyze how it may benefit your company.

So let's talk about it!

Community ROI

Following up on the previous newsletter about paying or not paying your community members for their contributions, let's talk more about making people seen, heard, and valued!

And here is what worked personally for me:

Highlighting a person as a most valuable member

A few years ago, I was very active in the?CMX?community - I had so many questions and wanted to give as many answers as possible to others' questions just to help other community builders thrive.

I did it for myself and was very surprised to receive a CMX'er of the Year award, but it made me feel amazing.

Even though I'm not as active now as I used to be, I still have this community in my heart.

How it helps your company: helps you win your clients' hearts and increases brand awareness.

Inviting a person to a product-development sessions

I was a member of a Talkbase community long before it was alive, and it was because I met Klara Losert and wanted to support her in the product-building journey.

And every time Klara invited me to share my thoughts on how I use Talkbase and what I would like to add there, I definitely agreed.

It feels like I'm contributing to making other users' lives easier, and seeing the features that we discussed come to life makes me feel valuable!

How it helps your company: develop great ideas that make your customers happy so they use your product and tell others about it.

Sharing a featured blog post on a company website and social media

That's exactly what Kourosh Ghaffari Ghazi Said did.

When I was starting my community consultant journey, I needed to expose myself to clients.

Definitely, maintaining a personal website and LinkedIn profile is a good thing to do, but when Kourosh reached out to me and proposed to interview me on what community consultants do, I was like: "Sure! Let's do it right away!"

It helped me systematize what I do as a community consultant, get additional exposure to a new audience, and this article is still alive out there, which may bring new clients in the future!

How it helps your company: creates user-generated unique content that improves your SEO and visibility for potential clients.

These super low-hanging fruits can help you build amazing relationships with your community members, and the fun thing is - it's almost free - you only pay with the time of your and your members' lives, but you can get so much value together out of it ??

Mastering Freelancing

LinkedIn is like Tinder but for building professional relationships.

Nowadays, when you apply for a project, almost every recruiter asks for a link to your LI profile, even though everyone says that a photo doesn't matter, it matters!

So to go on an interview date, you must have a nice profile first!

LinkedIn profile is your professional landing page, so here is the bare minimum for you to think about:

1. Add a good photo! No, not from your wedding or a birthday party 10 years ago; please go get a professional photo shoot or at least ask your friend to take a plain photo and make it even better with AI tools.
2. Use a CTA on a background picture! The background picture is a huge part on top of your profile that people see immediately, so add a photo that shows you in action, or let them know what do you do, and how to contact you.
3. Change your headline! Add clear information about what you do, who you work with, and what value you bring to your clients!
4. Update your About section! Do not chatGPT a generic text most people won't read, but, as Vanessa Raath ???????? said: "Don't tell us about what you studied or where you work. Tell us about why you chose to study what you studied. Tell us where your passion lies."
5. List your experiences! Highlight projects you worked on, what you've done there, and your results.

Voilà! Your professional landing page is done! ??

You can definitely use more tricks, such as:

• keywords in your custom profile link,
• list your top skills,
• add services you do,
• highlight important info in the Featured section,
• add a voice message into the Name pronunciation part, etc.

But start with small steps, and build upon it ??

Human Connections

Some time ago, while having conversations with my close friends, they asked:

"Oh, you're having such a hard time, but you're always smiling. How do you do that?"

And I always say that I prefer a smile to tears.

But the main thing is that when I'm in a conversation with a person, I'm genuinely happy to get to know them and learn from them. So, a smile just comes naturally ??

I noticed that when folks see me smiling and positive, they start to smile, too, and feel so much more at ease. This helps us relax and have a fluent conversation!

Also, I love this part from the "Last One Standing" song by Skylar Grey, Eminem, Mozzy, and Polo G:

I make it look easy, Like I made it overnight

I make it look easy, But you don't see the dark side

In every interaction I have with people, I always make things look easy and fun. People have their own problems in life, so why make things harder ??

But I'm not faking it. I always call shit shit.

If I feel sad or things are really hard, I will definitely tell it, but only to close people who hear and listen. And we'll find a solution together and make things positive and easy!

Otherwise, why bother ??

Curiosity Corner

“Complexity should be your excuse for inaction.”

Excerpt from "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August" by Claire North

Upcoming Events

• Between Two Watercoolers Meeting 118 on Friday, July 26th @ 10 am PT (7 pm CET) - to meet new and old friends from the community world

Valuable Materials

• Community Life with Catherine Hackney (Video and Audio) - to get to know Catherine better as a human ??
• Does a Freelancer Need a Ghostwriter? (Video and Audio) - Freelance Thrive conversation with Zsike Peter ????♀?
• How To Prepare For Networking Events as a Freelancer (Video and Audio) - Freelance Sucks conversation with Steve Folland
• Community Podcasts List

In upcoming newsletters, I'll share even more tips and tricks I learned from multiple conversations with experienced community builders and freelancers, so stay tuned ??

P.S. If you've read even a part of this issue and it helped you or sparked some thoughts, I'd love to hear from you - please share any feedback you have right away! ??

P.P.S. I help build communities for startups and fast-growing companies that want to foster trusted customer relationships and grow together! ????

If you'd like me to help you build a community - send me a message, and let's make it happen!