“I don’t ever want to link to or talk about anything my competitor has written or posted.” “I don’t want to link to any websites where my competitor has any type of presence.” Are you so fearful that your competitor is better than you that you want to limit your own online presence and increase the amount of work you have to do for people to engage with you online? There are very few industries where the competition is so fierce that you have to fight your competitors tooth and nail — even those generally benefit if everyone at least has mutual respect. The same is definitely true online and with social media. Sharing with your competitors and having open discussions is not only necessary online, it also opens doors to a much wider audience (of potential customers).
A Heavy Burden
By never linking or sharing other’s content online, you’re creating a huge burden of content creation on your own shoulders. If you want people to continue to visit your blog or interact with you on social media like Twitter or Facebook, they want something in return (valuable information). That means that in order to stay top of mind, you have to be producing new content pretty much daily. Very few small businesses are able to produce even a tweet every day, let alone more valuable content like a blog post every day.
Echo Chamber
New ideas and innovations are developed not by single people working in a closed room. They’re created when people collaborate and share ideas. Hardly anyone is the absolute expert in their field, and even those that are, don’t have all the answers. By sharing and conversing with competitors online, you opening yourself up to new ideas that can be used to improve your knowledge, products and business.
Missed Introductions
Unless you’re a huge company, people probably won’t seek you out online (except maybe to find your phone number or address after they already know about you). Usually people stumble upon new sources of information because they see a link or mention somewhere online. If you limit yourself to only posting on your own profiles and websites, the chances that someone will find out about you becomes very small. You’re missing opportunities to be introduced to new people (and new customers).
A Web of Generosity
The web itself was founded on the spirit of generosity, free to all with fundamental functionality that allows one website to link to another. If all you do is take online and never share, people will be less likely to want to share your content. Relationships are built on two-way give and take, not on one person doing all the taking. If you’d like people to give you anything (like money for your produces), giving a bit in return (which costs you nothing) seems like a pretty good investment.
But don’t take my word for it… what do you think?
(photo by andrew_mc_d, on Flickr)