Cindy King's International Business Blog » link exchanges

The Biggest Mistake In International Networking

Cindy King — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:00:49 +0000

Like most bloggers I often get link exchange requests. I usually just delete the ones that look like standard form emails. After all anyone who reads my blog knows how to easily get a link from me. But yesterday I had a request come in through Twitter and the person said something that surprised me. This person said “I always reciprocate”. And this struck me as somehow being negative and I had to think about this for a while before I discovered why.

Free Links To Share Value

You see, I don’t do link exchanges. I give my links freely to people I find have something valuable to add to my blog. Now, although I give links freely, I do have my quirks:

I decide where the link goes and what it looks like. When people ask me to change their links once too often I usually simply delete the link. The drawback of giving lots of links freely is there is not much time for maintenance.
I notice others who network “freely” too. People who give simply because they like what you do. This is natural isn’t it? And it’s natural that I like networking more with these people too.

This lead me to dig deeper to find out what bothered me so much about this statement: “I always reciprocate”. Well, I noticed there was no giving freely, and no giving first. It is surprising the number of people who wait for you to give first before they give anything to you… and these are almost always the people who give less than you do. But this does not bother me. I’ll still put a link through to content I find of value for my own blog readers. So that wasn’t what bothered me with “I always reciprocate”. Then I realized something else.

Networking For International Business Development

I’m totally focused on networking for international business development. And this is where this “you give first before I give you anything” attitude just does not work. Now, I network heavily for my business. I have to. I’m based in France and I like working with English speaking clients. I network to develop my international business. Luckily the time difference works in my favor. The only time I can work with North Americans is from mid-afternoons my time onwards. So before my day comes to I end, I usually spend a good hour or two networking on the phone and by Skype. Of course, I also network through email too. That’s for the direct networking. But I also network extensively on social media, by providing useful information to my followers. This is how I identify the people I want to connect with. I share non-stop because at the same time I actively work on developing my international business networks. Does this work? You bet it does. I’ve met some great professionals all over the world.

Some of them are great sources of referrals for my business
Some will become joint venture partners
Some are just becoming good business peers right now

Give First And Give Freely

These are people I would never have been able to meet without giving first. These are also people I would never have thought of seeking out. My sharing information first an giving links first created the beginning of some very useful dialogues for my business. And you know what, it all starts with the attitude of giving and sharing first. This is what bothered me with the remark “I always reciprocate”. I was interested in connecting with this person much more than a link exchange, but she does not have the right attitude for international business development. You simply need to be someone who shares first, without any expectations of anything in return.

Nurturing Trust In International Networking

This is one of the secrets to successful international networking. You have to be comfortable making the first step. In fact, you have to be very comfortable going down half of the path separating you from your international contacts. Occasionally it feels like I go three quarters of the distance alone. This does not happen often, but it is this willingness to turn and go as far as necessary to greet people in their own comfort zones that creates international business opportunities. The biggest mistake you can make is not giving first. This is a sign you are not really open to doing business with people outside of your own comfort zone. You do not have what it takes to develop an international business. If you have issues about giving your time and effort first then you need to do some personal work and carefully examine the personal baggage you have with regards to this. This is the only path to successful international networking. It is linked to several important factors in building strong international relationships, the most important one being trust. Trust across cultures is difficult to establish. Cross-cultural differences create a minefield of potential trust breakers. And when you do not give first, but sit back and wait, or expect others to give first, this does not create a good environment for reciprocal trust in cross-cultural relationships. Besides, you don’t build a business by sitting back and waiting for someone to give you something to which you can reciprocate. Do you? Start sharing and building your international business networks now. What about you?

How do you go about international business networking?
What do you like most about international business networking?
What are you biggest challenges in international business networking?

Please leave your comments below.

Links And International Social Networking

Cindy King — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:00:08 +0000

International Networking On Social Media

I received a series of “link exchange” requests recently. They came with clear instructions on what I should put on my blog, and where I should put the link… with the confirmation that once I did this the “requester” would put my link up somewhere on his website.

“Link exchanges” are part of having an online presence. They are one of the tactics used to improve SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

But Are Link Exchanges Fair?

The trouble is that we are all at different stages in our online efforts.

Some websites benefit from these link exchanges more than others
Some people have better online strategies than others

In international SEO the different combinations this creates becomes more complex when you consider that:

Some countries advance in SEO tactics more rapidly than others
Different countries may “favor” different SEO tactics over others

The result is that international link exchanges do not always have the same value on either side.

My international SEO is quite easy. I live in France and target English speaking countries. North America in particular. It is therefore very easy to follow standard guidelines. Although international SEO has made progress, it is still not always straight forward.

Search Engine Or People Optimisation

Link exchanges are for search engine optimisation. But I am a person. And today I am fortunate enough not to feel a need for a link frenzy for SEO purposes.

You see, I took the decision right from the start to optimize my blog for people first. It took me a while to sift through the geek talk and to fully understand the value of SEO. But…

As a cross-cultural marketer the decision was easy:

It is easier to write a website optimized for a wide cultural audience than to optimize one website for different countries
SEO in different countries was at varying stages of existance a year and a half ago when I started

Although I do not have any data and have not carried out any tests, my gut tells me that a website optimized for people probably works better across “collective” cultures too.

As a small business owner the decision was easy:

I want an online presence based on “authority content” optimized for the people I want to reach

Of course SEO comes into the content writing and plays an important role behind the scenes too.

I spent two weeks recently reviewing all of my Meta Descriptions, Meta Titles and Meta Tags… to automate my social bookmarking, more on that next week.

But my primary effort is to optimize my content and online presence, to connect with people.

Besides reciprical link requests just for SEO value sounds out of place in some odd way. Is business one big computer game? Or do I want to connect with real people?

In the next post, I will tell you how I get great Google results.

The Value Of Linking

This brings me to the next thing I noticed. Some of these requests come with praises for my blog and tell me how much their audience would appreciate my content.

??? …Value to their audience? …And they are asking me to put up a link first?

This strikes me as a little odd because this is not what I do.

Proactive Linking

You see when I think a link will be:

Useful for my readers, I put it up.
Of no interest to my readers within a broad range of international business topics, I am not going to put it on my blog even if the website has a a great Page Rank or is by a great guru of some sort.

There are a few categories where I will not put up links:

Company pages and sales pages
Multi-level marketers
Any get rich quick schemes
What I call “fast food” business ideas, where people try to sell so-called business models where you earn money without working

Basically, I link to any information I find interesting in developing cross-cultural competence and international skills for business. And there are a wide variety of topics that come under this umbrella.

Link Sharing… Or Social Networking?

When I find something of value to my audience, I share the link in many different ways.

First I tweet it.
If the information is really useful, I also hit the Delicious button. My Delicious bookmarks are a wealth of information for anyone interested in all things cross-cultural and international.
Both the Tweet and the Delicious bookmark are fed into Facebook and FriendFeed updates.
The Tweet then gets into my Cross-Cultural and International Link post the following Sunday.
If the information is evergreen or of key interest, it also goes onto one of my Useful Resource Pages, which also include a series of blogrolls.

The value of linking to others lies first in the value I give my readers.

Value For My Blog Readers

And this value grows the more I link freely to things of interest to my readers.

Have a good look at the Useful Resource Pages, in yellow, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right.

Some of them are becoming fantastic resources for businesses that want to go international and the people who want to improve their international and cross-cultural skills.

Links? Of course they are valuable. But in addition to already having high visibility on Google, my content is on it’s way to being so valuable that the links will come all by themselves.

Finding International Networkers

I regret to say that I do not email the blogger or webmaster to tell him that I just put up a link to his blog or website unless I already know him on Twitter. As a small business owner, I simply do not have time to do that for the quantity of links I share with my readers. And I admit that I do not think to ask for a reciprocal link. The game is elsewhere for me.

Besides I like to sit back and see what others do.

Do they notice the link juice I just gave them?

This is where the fun starts. And this is how I find the most valuable people for me to spend time with online.

When someone notices and acknowledges that I have linked to them I know that they are “awake” online.

If I have linked to them, they have content that interests my readers.
And if they are “awake” they are active online, just like I am.

The next step is to try to hook up by Skype. But I usually roll into more social networking: comments on their blog or website, retweets, stumbles. And again, I see what happens.

Like-minded people will naturally find my content interesting too, and they will also leave a comment, retweet a link and generally include my blog in their social networking activities.

This has been a great way to find like-minded international social networkers. As a small business owner this is where I get lots of value for the time I invest in social networking.

The Extra Value In Social Networking

The “I’ll link to you if you link to me” mentality has limitations. It is not really a great way to open a conversation. For example:

I am already coming up on the first page of Google for lots of things related to my subject area. And if I this was not the case, hiring someone to send out dozens of these link exchange requests does not make sense to me.
During the little time I spend on social networking, I want to spend it wisely for both my blog and my business. And I want to spend it with people I like. There are not enough hours in the day for me to spend time without bringing value to my business. There are hard business choices to make.

But I am always interested in the extra value of real social networking relationships.

In addition to being proactive in providing useful information for my readers, I am more of a social media networker than a link exchanger. This is my door to international business. Social networking for business online is comparable to social networking for business offline. You still need to build the relationships. But it works if you do it consistently over time.

If you have content or a blog post that could interest my readers please DM me @CindyKing on Twitter. If you also retweet my stuff, leave comments or interact with me on social media and it’s not a one-way street, I will gladly continue to share your stuff with my readers.

Why Do People Want “Link Exchanges” In The First Place?

Isn’t this what “link exchanges” are all about? To me, social networking becomes the people optimized form of “link exchanges” which are only there for search engines. Social networking is a people optimized tactic and it does 2 things:

Builds my international business network
Improves my Google results

Of course, most of this is also valid for online businesses with local markets. But my business is an international one. I would love to hear your thoughts on “link exchange” strategies and social networking.

How do you use social media for your business networking?
Does sending links exchange requests help you network online for your business?
What international social networking tactics do you use for your business?

Please start the conversation below.