You invest in your content. Follow these tips to invest in your audience.

With all of the time and energy you’re spending on creating and promoting great content, it’s easy to forget that your online presence isn’t meant to be a soapbox. It’s a two-way connection.

Street cred and social proof aren’t built on self-promotional blog posts and tweets alone. So how can you go beyond your product or service and build real connections with your audience?

Listen

Actively research what your prospects and customers are saying in other arenas, not just any comments on your blog. Twitter is a great place to start. Follow your followers, as well as your ideal customers (your competitors’ followers) to see what’s on their minds. How can you help them solve these issues, even when the problems aren’t directly related to your product?

Engage

Are you using your social networks properly? Replying only to comments on your own blog or lurking on social networks without participating just won’t cut it. Be part of the community. Ask a provocative question. Comment, like, share. Reward quality content others are sharing with a digital high-five via the +1 button. A little +1 goes a long way. According to Moz, a page’s +1 count has more weight with search engines than Facebook shares and even keywords (more to come on this topic).

Add value

Comment on other blogs in your prospects’ world, but not just to promote your service or offer. Do a little research and add comments that have meaning for the readers outside your product, even if it means serving up content that isn’t yours (always giving credit to the source, of course).

The best way to stay engaged is to be engaging. Build at least an hour or two per week into your schedule to see what’s going on in your prospects’ world but outside of your brand. Use that time to follow the steps above and start seeing some returns on your time investment.

Want to learn more about keeping the conversation going with your audience? Contact me at [email protected].