An influencer is someone that a target audience looks to for the latest news, updates and opinions within their industry. An influencer would be a key leader within their topic and have a lot of credibility.
I am going to share what I feel are the three most important steps to become an online influencer.
1. Presence
In order to build your online presence and influence you need to make sure that you are posting/updating your status on your social media profiles on a regular basis.
The more you post and are present, the more people will start to recognise your name and brand and have the opportunity to share your content.
As long as you are NOT broadcasting and constantly spamming people with promotional links, people will share your valuable content and information on a regular basis. This will increase your reach and build your online presence with a wider audience.
Remember only 20% of posts should be promotional, the other 80% should be valuable content and information.
What should you post?
- Have conversations – Talk about trending topics, share opinions, engage in twitter chats, and reply to questions. Show your audience you are a real person behind your social media profiles and that you are not just a one way communication channel.
- Articles – Share the latest news and updates within your industry. Share your own blog posts and trends to show you are keeping up with the news, and show it’s come from you first before anyone else.
- Tips – Share the top ten tips, top ten facts, top ten statistics over a two week period across your social media profiles.
- Promotion – Promote your events, offers, promotions and direct people to your website.
2. Community
Building a community on your social media profiles is vital. Without your community no one would see, share, and listen to your messages.
One of your initial social media goals should be building your online community. Build your twitter followers, Facebook likes and group members, Google + circles and LinkedIn connections. Make sure you are growing your community strategically and building a following within your target market.
By building a following within your target market your social media messages will be more effective and shared.
Once you have built your online community you need to make sure you nurture that community and establish a “know like and trust”.
3. Engage
Once you have updated your social media profiles, and built your online community it is important that you then engage.
Make sure you reply to your target audience if they ask you a question, discuss a topic with them and show your knowledge and expertise by contributing to forums and groups.
Connect with the key centres of influence who your target audience may already be following, and build rapport by sharing and engaging with them. Eventually they will share your content!
Engagement is the key to success when building your online influence, as without engagement you will look like a broadcaster.