5 Simple Tactics for Quickly Boosting Your Social Influence
Becoming a social influencer can take some time. However, there are certain things you can do to speed up your learning curve and make an impact.
I’ve gathered here for you 5 real-life working strategies that are proven to expand your circle of influence in your market.
Try any one of these with some discipline and you’ll speed your way to being seen as a respected, knowledgeable, and influential industry leader in the social media realm.
1. Start a Facebook Group
Starting and managing a Facebook group is pretty popular these days. I noticed because my profile is full of them! However, there are key groups I pay more attention to than others.
What makes some groups different than others? I think the key to delivering excellent social influence through a Facebook group lies in HOW you manage that group.
You need to be active frequently — maybe even daily, even if it is only for a few minutes. Share, like, and respond to comments and posts made by your group members. Set aside one day a week for a 1 or 2 hour question and answer session.
Post lots of video and infographics, because they receive much more engagement than text-based posts. Provide valuable freebies or steep product discounts, and always think about what your market wants as opposed to what you are trying to accomplish.
Here’s an excellent post over at Moz.com that also shares more reasons why you should look into Facebook Groups.
Facebook is still a bustling, active hub of the Internet. One way to tap into all that potential traffic? Building a…moz.com
2. Optimize Your “About Us” Page
There are 2 things you need to know about improving your social influence by optimizing the “About Us” page on your website or blog:
1) Every day more than 200 million people search for someone’s name on Google.
2) On the majority of websites and blogs, small and large, personal and professional, the “About Us” page is the #1 or #2 most viewed.
That is because human beings have grown to be more attracted to, and view as trustworthy, people rather than companies. Make sure your full name and all your social accolades are listed on your’ about us’ page.
Include a lot of content which uses social keywords and phrases. Talk about your achievements from a viewpoint of how they have helped your customers and others in your market.
Don’t just scribble a few lines on this very important page. Add tons of valuable content, and make sure you have an opt-in form so you can grow your email list, and your circle of influence, on this critical web page.
Now you don’t just have to use your Wordpress blog to share your bio online. Also look into using alternative platforms. I have accounts on several free sites to showcase all my best and most active profiles across the internet.
One reason I did this is because early on, as I first started my business and began to develop a presence online, I recognized my name was so common it would be tough to find me.
Instead of finding Tanya Smith — Content Strategist & Coach, people were finding other women with my namesake (with both positive and negative reputations). I wanted my prospective clients to find ME.
So I was determined to increase my personal brand and influence by capturing as much online real estate as I could.
These kinds of pages have been a great resource for doing this.
View Tanya Smith on about.me. About.me makes it easy for you to learn about Tanya Smith's background and interests.about.me
Here are a few more similar services you can evaluate to see which one is right for you:
- brandyourself.com
- branded.me
- flavors.me
- hi.im
- go.appearoo.com
- naymz.com
- itsmyurls.com
Click here to see the List.ly I made with all these brand-building sites. Almost all of them are free to use!
3. Join LinkedIn
LinkedIn has more than 400 million business professionals as its members (as of late 2015). Of all the social networks, this is the most business-oriented.
Be warned though. People don’t play games on LinkedIn — it’s about being professional and often attracts corporate type connections.
Everyone is there to seek and provide value, and make real connections. Once there, optimize your profile to the fullest. Use as many relevant keywords as LinkedIn allows when filling out your profile, and join any targeted LinkedIn groups which apply to your industry.
Even though it’s not the space I “play” in most, I believe having a profile on LinkedIn is critical to you being seen as a professional, even if you position it as more of an online business calling card or digital version of the yellow pages.
If you sell to other businesses, it’s pretty standard that they will look for your profile on LinkedIn.
4. Publish Content Offline
Does this sound counterintuitive to you since we’re talking about social influence? Get past that.
Sharing your content online is easy, quick, and very effective for sharing your message. However, it is important to note that some businesses, entrepreneurs, and small business owners now ignore offline media as a marketing channel, so you need to see this as a chance to stand out!
Newspaper, radio, and local television station managers are often starved for value-rich content. You can provide press releases, reports, social tips, and how-to’s, interviews, and other valuable pieces of content to these and other local media organizations. In the bio area, you will include your link to a website and your most active social profiles.
This can quickly grow your local and social influence, and could lead to a regular weekly or monthly television or radio show, or newspaper column.
I recommend checking out this post over at Duct Tape Marketing for a few tips to try for offline marketing.
With the rise in popularity of online marketing, many proven offline methods are simply forgotten when marketing…www.ducttapemarketing.com
5. Hire Someone Else to Help Do the Hard Work
You may be super busy running your business. If so, you already know there are not enough hours in the day to handle all of your personal and professional obligations, much less considering taking on more.
If you can budget for it, companies like Dynamic Signal, Key Person of Influence, HubSpot, and Influence & Company can handle multiple aspects of content creation, content delivery, and brand marketing for you.
Just be smart about how and where you will spend your marketing dollars. Make realistic decisions about what you can and will do, take action, and you will boost your social influence in no time at all!
Get Even More Help With Social Influence
My next live course is going to be AWESOME and it’s all about Social Influence Made Simple.
By becoming an industry influencer, you’ll see valuable benefits in all areas of your personal and professional life.
People in your market will view you with respect and admiration. They’ll come to you when they need advice or want to learn something new. And, you’ll see a big boost in your sales and business growth as a result.
Sign up here to get updates once the course is open to the public: http://socialinfluencemadesimple.com
I’ll be delivering a webinar talking about how to gain influence by choosing the right social networks for your business too.
Hope to see you there!
Thanks for reading!
~ Tanya
PS. I usually write about shortcuts, tips and tools for content marketing but I’m also fascinated with life in general. Get notified by email of my next posts and training products for lifehacking, content marketing, and more. You’re invited to follow me on Twitter, connect on the blog, and if you are so inclined, subscribe to my Snack Size Marketing podcast on Soundcloud or iTunes.
