Social Media Karma – What Goes Around Comes Around

Written on June 4, 2008 – 1:07 pm | by Shana Albert |

This Featured Guest Post is by James Duthie of Online Marketing Banter

Image by dmax3270

Do onto others as you would do to yourself. It’s a fine philosophy to live by. The laws of karma state that our personal actions & behaviour influence future experiences. In other words, we’re responsible for our own destinies and the ultimate happiness & success we achieve. I can’t think of any other environment in which karma is more relevant than social media…

Free is the new currency of the Internet. Social media is a perfect example. How many people make real money from blogging? Very few. Yet every day millions of bloggers produce content for free distribution. Why? Because they believe in karma. They believe that giving their content away will lead to positive future outcomes, whether they be business or personal.

Social news communities such as Digg and Sphinn are even better examples of karma in action. A selfless attitude is expected within social news communities. Good karma can only be earned by dedicating free time to positive community activities such as:

Submitting content that the community values
Creating relationships with other community members
Contributing to blogs of community members via comments & guest posts
Reading and voting for your friends’ content
Adding meaningful insights to conversations within the community
Asking for nothing in turn for your positive contributions

People who succeed in social media embrace the principles of good karma. They don’t ask for support from the community, but they receive it anyway because of the positive contribution they make.

Newbies in particular need to display the strongest faith in social media karma, because the karmic circle takes time to turn. In my case it has taken months of participation within Sphinn before the good karma returned some personal rewards. But good things come to those who wait…

Social media karma in action

About a month ago I crossed paths with a blogger named Robin Cannon. Robin manages Fog of Eternity, a blog dedicated to web design, social media and online marketing. Like me Robin is fairly new to the game, and is still establishing his blog and audience. I liked Robin’s work and quickly subscribed to his blog. I also began to submit his work to Sphinn and StumbleUpon because his stuff was well written and deserved a broader audience.

According to Robin, it was my social media support that helped give his blog the kick start it needed. A number of my Stumbles helped him generated thousands of visitors a day (who ever knew my Stumbles were so powerful…?). Before long that momentum grew and he was averaging over a thousand visits a week. In fact, in just a couple of weeks he had far surpassed my own traffic levels.

Robin has thanked me a number of times for the social media love I gave him. He didn’t need to. After all, social media submission also shines the limelight on the submitter if it goes hot… But despite that, Robin made me a special offer recently. Noticing that my own blog design was a little uninspired, Robin offered his design skills to help give it a little spark. As someone without an iota of design experience or skill, this offer was like gold to me!

And that, my friends, is the circle of social media karma in action.

Robin never asked me for social media support, but I gave it anyway because his work was great quality. I would never have dreamed of asking Robin to redesign my blog, but he offered anyway out of goodwill.

If you’re not succeeding in social media, perhaps you should take a look at your own behaviour… Are you exuding an aura of good karma…?

Author Bio:

James Duthie is an Australian digital marketing expert. He writes on all things social media, blogging, SEO & digital marketing at his blog - Online Marketing Banter. Subscribe to hear more of his ramblings here.

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16 Responses to “Social Media Karma – What Goes Around Comes Around”
By Ken Jones on Jun 4, 2008 | Reply

Great stuff James. Good to see you building up karma with your guest posts for Dave and Shana as well.
Sphunn here http://sphinn.com/story/50761

BTW Your stumble of my last Friday Link Fest brought me a couple of hundred visits from stumbleupon, but I think they all bounced pretty quickly when they realized that the “porno” you mentioned in your review was actually just the new Kevin Smith trailer
By Dave on Jun 4, 2008 | Reply

Lol… ya know bro, after all the Plurking recently, ‘Karma’ was all over the brain… Nice to C U out and about!

It’s good Karma to help out the lady Shana as well in her time of need as well.

Oh, and a funny thing about Stumble, careful one of the SEO haters don’t give you a bad review or more… quickly kills yer StumblePower…. grumble mumble…

Nice post… like yer ‘man crush’ bwaa ha ha ha ha… Keep on smilin’ mate!

Dave
By James Duthie on Jun 4, 2008 | Reply

@ Ken - Thanks for the Sphinn. Guest posts are certainly one the best ways to build karma, particularly when the host cannot contribute as has been the case for Shana & Dave.

@ Dave - Sounds like you’re a little jealous that you’re not the sole recipient of my man crushes any more… Share the social media love (and crushes) I say.
By sir jorge on Jun 5, 2008 | Reply

great post
By spostareduro on Jun 5, 2008 | Reply

Man, what a great way of wording it James.

Karma. You get what you give, even if it’s not monetarily, its of great value.

The dawning concept of giving. People are starved for it because there is so much taken or requested of us.

I can’t think of a more appropriate person to write this post, a sweeter person to offer the site it’s posted on or cooler people than the ones i call my friends in the commentary so far.

No doubt, you guys totally rock.
By Shana Albert on Jun 5, 2008 | Reply

Thank you James for this totally ROCK’N post. I loved it from the moment you told me the title. I knew it would be a perfect fit for Social Desire. And, you didn’t let me down. Freakin awesome post!!

I am so grateful for all the guest posters that have helped me out and will be helping me out during my time of need. I love you all and once again I am floored by the graciousness of my friends on the net.

@spostareduro - I could not agree with you more.
By phanatic74 on Jun 6, 2008 | Reply

Awesome Post . . . I am new to blogging and if it were not for others helping me through this learning curve I would be lost. I only hope someday to return the favor !!
By Glen Allsopp on Jun 8, 2008 | Reply

Karma is a great way to describe a lot of the actions in social media, the ones that are “swapped” that come to mine include:

- Comments
- Rss suscriptions
- Stumbles
- Votes / submissions on other sites

All around your theme of Karma, good stuff
By Jenn Osborne on Jun 8, 2008 | Reply

Great post James! I am such a believer in Karma. What a great way to describe social media. That’s exactly how it works!

And this is a perfect home for this post as Shana is the ultimate “pay it forward” blogger. I can’t think of anyone who is as giving as Shana.

Good on you mate!
By Mark on Jul 21, 2008 | Reply

Very nice post James, it will be very much helpful for all those who wants to earn money by just sitting at home and it help a lot to take better decision related to there productivity.

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Mark
http://picnicspot.com