In the past link building for businesses was used for appearing in search results. However, social media has changed the face of building online businesses through sources like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. The new link building is now about social visibility, mentions, and building your company’s presence.

Building relationships and then nurturing them is key for business development, because it will earn your company mentions from relevant websites. Focusing less on the technical aspect and more on the targeted traffic (people who will most likely be interested in your product).

Link building to attain social visibility and mentions can be reached in three simple steps.

Step 1. Research
Start with a simple Google search. You will be searching for relevant and local websites that pertain to your industry. Enter descriptive and long-tail keywords. To search further add a site operator (keyword-site:domain.com), this will enable you to discover new sources by discarding the sites you already know about and keeping the new links available.
Facebook is another place to search internally. You can find both relevant websites and start to build relationships.
The web catalog is yet another source where you can find out each website that links to the site that you are examining.
Once you have found your relevant and trustworthy websites begin to assemble a list.

Step 2. Outreach
Now that you have formed a list of websites that are local, trustworthy, and relevant, it is time to get the word out about your business.
Getting the word out begins with your story.
– Your story should be genuine and compelling, in order to let people know that you are passionate about your idea and are not just trying win them over for a favor.
– Don’t hit them full-force with your product spiel. BUILD a relationship with them, because no one is going to write about your online business from a one time encounter.
Another way to outreach is to create accounts on social networks.

Social Mention – this website helps you identify people for outreach by seeing real-time mentions from multiple social sites. All you do is type in your business’ keyword.
Twitter lists -Will gather people around relevant topics and from there you can start a relationship.
Rapportive – will help you find contact information on people who are interested in your business and build relationships with them.

Step 3. Keep Relationships Going
Stay in contact. Nurturing the relationships you have started is very important because this will contribute to your business’ reputation. Leaving someone hanging dry after you have started a relationship will have consequences. By reciprocating what has been done for you will also help build these new relationships.

Throughout these three steps staying organized with your search results, contacts, follow ups, links you are working on, etc. is incredibly important. A simple way to do this is by making an excel sheet to keep track. From there, you are well on your way to connecting with the targeted traffic and building those relationships!

~ Chelsea Jensen, Prospectr Marketing