“Give before you get” is a popular ethic in online communities that helps individuals build great online reputations and helps communities grow strong.

Recently we chanced upon an article with a helpful diagram that suggests practical ways for individuals to participate with other professionals from their industry.  The article is about the education field, yet it’s easy to see how this applies across many fields: http://etale.org/main/2013/03/13/infographic-of-the-online-personal-teaching-network/

Often recruiters will browse someone’s social network profiles to learn more about them.  Twitter, for example, provides insight into what kind of links people share with their colleagues.  Github and StackOverflow are sites which provide a public record of how software developers help others in their field solve software problems.

At QiqoChat, we’re doing something similar; we’re helping people share their “knowledge portfolio” consisting of all the helpful recommendations they’ve given to others in their field.  As more and more people contribute great insights to online communities, we expect that they’ll want to share many of their insights publicly in this way to get noticed, help others, and to strengthen their reputation.