Last week Jake wrote an awesome post about leveraging relationships for link building and it got me thinking.  Seeing that I am a hermit who lives in front of the computer, how the heck do I build links without those daily “real-life” relationships?  Well, believe it or not, I do actively build links with relationships without meeting people in the flesh and wanted to share some of my tips and tricks for doing this across my social media networks.

The main thing to remember is that if you are helpful and can provide value to someone else, it is basically a virtual handshake and a way to fire up your virtual relationship.  Simple things like a vote, comment, retweet or even just praise can strengthen your relationship.  Here are a few things to do to meet people in Social Media, and turn them into friends (who can help you build links).

Make it Easy for People to Contact You

Put your instant messaging name up on all of your social profiles so that you can connect.  Internal messaging on many social sites is lackluster, and getting someone’s IM name can allow you to get in touch when you need to.  A few tips for messaging would be to create a separate account for your “public IM name” so you won’t overload your personal account with voting/favor requests.  Also, create an account on all of the main messaging platforms.  Many people prefer using Gmail over AIM, or Yahoo! over Gmail, so set it all up and use a service like digsby or pidgin to neatly manage it.

Many times you can instantly help your friends by giving votes which will go a long way when you need a favor.  People who are asking for votes/re-tweets/comments probably have a website that they are promoting – and guess what?  If you have a good relationship, you now have a friend on IM that you can use if you are looking for a link!

Allow People to Easily Find You

So now we see the power of people who are actively promoting social media content, and how targeted they can be for links.  To expand your networks, make it simple for people to find you across all social networks.  Place your Digg profile link in your StumbleUpon profile description, and include your Twitter account in your Digg profile.  The more places where people can find you, the more relationships you are going to build.  Also, having the ability to help people across multiple sites will just add to your cause when asking for a link.

Act Like You Would in Real Life

When a person finds your IM name from a social network, many times they “say hi” by sending you a link in which you should vote on.  This is one of the things that amazes me on a daily basis.  I rarely meet any people who try to get something from me without even saying hello.  When contacting people, you should try to really connect with them.  Say you met someone from StumbleUpon, subscribe to their favorites and let them know when you really liked a story that they found.  Find out where they live, what their name is, see what they like; basically, you should act like a human to them and you will work your way to a real relationship!  The more information you have on someone, the more you can help them, and in turn, the more you can ask from them.

All-in-all, while I might not have as many “real life” relationships as Jake, I have found ways to acquire links while using social media and building my networks.  To me, the biggest benefit of these virtual relationships is that the people you will meet will have a high probability of having a website where they could link to you,  and you can easily help them to start a positive relationship.  So even if you don’t have a wealth of personal connections offline, don’t fret!  These tips should hopefully help you reach your link building goals!

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