It’s not enough to simply have a social media presence. You need influence and reach to make sure your message reaches the optimum number of people. But how do you get those things? With a little time and patience, and these 10 things, you could be on your way to building social media clout.
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1. Find evangelists
One of the best ways to gain influence is to find people who believe in what you do. This takes some networking skill, but the payoff is incredible. I have a great crew of evangelists who retweet nearly every shred of content I create here at Smedio. It’s tough to beat that kind of influence and reach. Find some influential people in your niche and start up a conversation with them. It could lead to you working your way up to their level of influence.
2. Put your time in
You can’t expect to build influence if you tweet once or twice per day or leave your Facebook profile vacant for days on end. You need to make sure you give your social media presence the time it needs to grow into an influential component of your business. My best advice, if you are a business, is to hire someone to do this. Using an intern or piling it on to another person’s job responsibilities is not the way to go. Hire someone who can give your social media the attention it needs.
3. Be active everywhere
Don’t just confine yourself to one social media channel. Facebook and Twitter are definite musts. But be on the lookout for other less popular social media channels you can make a firm mark in. Especially look out for social networks in your niche. In order to gain influence across the board, you need to spread yourself out.
4. Interact with everyone
Social media is not a one-way street, so don’t treat it like one. You need to interact with people, especially those who initiate contact with you first. Don’t ignore anyone ever — even if they’re providing negative feedback. Always respond to every contact as soon as you possibly can. The more you do it, the more you gain a reputation for your interaction skills. And that’s a good thing.
5. Blog your fingers off
If you’re not blogging right now, shame on you. Get on it as soon as possible. If you’re creating your own content, you’re providing value. If you’re providing value, you’ll be retweeted or have your content shared. If that happens, you’re building your influence. I can’t begin to convey to you how important blogging is to building influence and reach. If you’ve been putting it off, please stop and start a blog.
6. Ask for guest posts
Remember that crew of evangelists you formed? Remember my rant on how important blogging is? It’s time to merge those two things together. Chances are, a few of your evangelists have influential blogs of their own. Ask them — politely — if you can provide a guest post. Have an idea of what to write about ahead of time, but most bloggers are very open to guest posts because it means they have one less idea to come up with. Just make sure the blog you’re posting for promotes your content properly.
7. Monitor your influence
It’s tough to gauge your influence on your own. Sure, you can get an idea of it from your interactions, replies to your posts and retweets, but some third-party applications have made judging your clout easy. Some of my favorites are Klout.com, Twitter.Grader.com and Twinfluence.com. Try those sites and see where you stand now. Then, do some work and check back in about a week or so. Your numbers should grow. It’s always easier to grow influence if you know the areas you need to focus on.
8. Monitor conversations
If you’ve read many of my posts, you know I’m a big fan of Twitter search and other conversation monitoring devices. How do you use conversation monitoring to build influence? By interacting with people. Search for your niche and see what people are saying. Then, jump in the conversation where you can. People will begin to notice your interaction skills, and your influence will definitely be affected. But please don’t spam people. That doesn’t help anyone.
9. Follow influential people
It’s important to learn from people who have been in your position before. Find influential people in your niche using a service like WeFollow.com — think of it as the Yellow Pages for Twitter. Watch what they tweet and see how they’ve built up their influence. Always be willing to learn from people who have accomplished the goals you’ve set for yourself. Which leads me to my next point…
10. Never stop learning
You should commit yourself to reading new information about social media daily. You’re here now, so that’s a great start. There are lots of sites and blogs that are committed to new social media methods and practices, and you should never stop trying to soak in as much of that information as you possibly can. Being knowledgeable about social media and its innerworkings can prove to be valuable for building your clout.
What practices do you find are great for building your social media influences?
Quite possibly the best summary of how to build social media brand exposure I've read. 10 top tips every Internet Marketer and every brand should know and follow.
Unfortunately – so many think it is easy so they give up, not realising they were quite possibly so close to getting the ball rolling.
It doesn't happen overnight – it takes years to build a brand online, just like in the 'real world'.
Martin, you're very right about people quitting right before they begin to see results with their branding and social media efforts. Just like in anything in life, consistency with the right practices produces the right results.
Thank you!
Thanks for those useful infos
I think you've just the ART in SMART for me. Occasionally we all need a check-list to use as a stick with which we can smack our own knuckles, to give ourselves a pinch. Consider me pinched.
SMedio ART – that's how I'll remember to use this list.. effectively. Great stuff.
You're welcome Megan! We're glad you liked it.
Really useful article. Thanks
Well constructed! Thanks for that compliment. We appreciate it.
You're welcome! Thanks for the comment.
We're glad you found this one exciting! 😉 Thanks for the compliment.
Wow! Thanks, everyone, for the great comments!
Great information and presented beautifully. I am going to start a blog next week. Have no idea about WHAT, but I'm going to do it anyway. Others who like my writing have asked me to do so, but I haven't been brave enough to do so yet. Thanks for the push in that direction.
I really enjoyed this post – great advice. I will definitely work on getting some more guest posts. I used to do more of this and my traffic was certainly higher then. I do try and engage others in conversation while on social networks and comment on blogs but even that has fallen off due to my work load. I needed to read this, just to get myself motivated again. Thanks again!
Hey Kristina! Thanks for the comment and the kind words. So glad you were able to get some good tips from this post.
This is the second time i have come across this article on Twitter- again, great information!
Well, thanks for stopping by again, Kristina! I'm so glad you find my post so useful. 🙂
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Great post with lots of good advice! The one I struggle with is Facebook… I’m there, but at the moment only “friend” people who are friends in real life. I’m reluctant to open my profile up, but at the same time it seems daft to set up a second profile. Any thoughts on this?
I really face the same problem. I would like to use facebook to, to get out some interessting links, posts what ever. But I don’t want to “spam” my friends or colleagues who I’m friends with at facebook. And if opening up a new profile, who that be as a person or rather as a page?
Maybe it is time to create a professional fb profile? If your family and friends are interested in this they can friends you or alternatively you can create a ‘fan’ page … if you identify yourself as a business
I’m a newbie blogger and this was very helpful. Thank you for the best practices!
people a detailed understanding of what they will receive if they click as a result of.For ExampleYou may generate higher traffic with a digital advertisement that reads “Everything $1.99, Click Here”. Because men and women
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I had been curious about if you ever thought of replacing the layout of your website? Its very well written; I enjoy what you have got to say. But maybe you can add a little more in the way of content so people can connect to it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or two pictures. Maybe you can space it out better?
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After I start your Feed it appears to be to be a ton of nonsense, is the issue on my part?
Heya are using WordPress for your site platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and set up my own. Do you require any coding knowledge to make your own blog? Any help would be really appreciated!
I love your wordpress theme, where did you get a hold of it?
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