With the changing trends in the global economy, networking has proven to be as effective as skill acquisition in building a successful career. Even businesses now look for employees with the higher team working ability as compared to the more skilled employees, and even much better; an amalgam of skillfulness and networking ability. Self-improvement through online communities has been the new trend for a while now.

Increasing your connections with people of the same niche has helped many to be more aware and open to opportunities that could help their careers. This is why it is important to discuss the need for participation in online communities, and how it could boost your career even in the midst of the chaos and noise all over the media.

Why Self Improvement through Online Communities

The world is a very busy place at the moment. Social media has been eliminating almost all the possibilities of physical human interaction. Also, it is quite difficult finding a common interest with the people you meet physically every day due to barriers like communication, personality types, and temperaments. But with the rapid changes in the global social settings, it is much easier to find communities and platforms where like-minded people meet and share ideas without fear of being judged. These communities are the hall-mark of social networking in this 21^st century and have proven to be faster and more efficient. This is because all barriers that could impair social interaction; like fear of people’s judgment, fear of being bullied for saying the truth, etc. are taken care of.

Also Read: The Rising Online Apps In Education Industry

Should Interaction Through the Media Replace Human Physical Interaction?

No, it shouldn’t!

Actually, one should hope for and utilize every opportunity that could lead to real human interaction and make it count.

If You are Clueless about where to start from in building your social network, these tips will help you:

1. Specify Your Niche

There are many masters at very specific skills worldwide, so what makes you think anyone will listen to you if you claim to be a know it all? People will easily find people who are tested and trusted in those specific areas to help them with the information they need. This is the same reason why there is a current diversity in the health care profession, and among other well-respected professions. In the past, people use to be masters in various subjects, and they are highly prized for their broad knowledge. The reason is that in those times, only a handful of persons are scholars in any field at all. But now, you can hardly see a term that is not searchable on Google. So if you want your idea to be respected more than others, then you need to keep re-emphasizing it to reach every ear. So be careful while listing all your unrelated skills in a job interview that requires only a few of them.

2. Search For Related Communities Online

This is not a difficult task but requires consistency and patience. The ideal thing is to search for communities with exact or related keywords to your niche and join them. The next step is to observe their activities for at least a week and see how it helps your growth and connection.

Ideally, if the community is good for you, you should find at least one person with who you could grow or who could help you grow within a week of your active participation. If not, it’s best to move on and find other promising communities.

It is advisable not to keep a record of groups that share very different ideals with you, they could be a source of negative energy to you. So leave such groups as soon as you can, or else there is a very necessary reason.

Top social networks to find your community is; Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, LinkedIn, etc. In that order.

3. Grow With Your New Friends and Opportunities Will Keep Coming

Remember that most of these persons are also there for their own personal growth and interest. So you must complement each other, and help one another in your respective goals. From here, you may learn relevant tips on how you can improve yourself. It has worked for me severally.

Using this technique, I got to host my wordpress site for free with all premium and eCommerce features, I got my first backlink to my two websites through guest posting, I got a custom theme designed for this website, many more.

Does It Mean You Should Not Work on Your Skills?

No! Your Skills should be a marker to finding the niche that suits you most, but social networking helps you find people that need your skills. People are naturally selfish and are always looking for something to gain in any relationship. So you must always have something to give out so that in return, you will have something to gain. Before you even think of human capital investment or social networking, you must first reassess yourself and find out your most positive qualities, and skills. These should be your selling point while introducing yourself to your new friends in various online communities. So first start with refining your skills in your niche, and start immediately you feel ready. But always remember that no one is fully ready for anything, just join these communities and start improving yourself already.

Conclusion

Human capital investment has landed many, including me on their dream career pathways. Incorporating your social connections with your relevant skills will help you soar higher in any niche you have chosen. Also, remember to narrow down your specialty as much as possible, it boosts the confidence people have in you.

Finally, you need to step out of your comfort zones to be able to connect properly with people. If you need something, you should always be the one to make the first move.

Good luck!