How To Get An Influencer To Talk To You

CatCason
The Startup
Published in
3 min readAug 10, 2017

Step 1:

Put yourself in their shoes. They have something everyone wants (including you) a large following, influence, etc. Everyone and their mother is clambering for their attention. So before you do anything, take a step back and think about what it is like to have people asking you to do stuff for them for free allllll day long.

Step 2:

Woo them. Don’t go right in for the kill. Make sure you are actually following them on their channels! Leave, thoughtful comments on their content for 6 to 8 weeks consistently. Warm them up to you. It takes time for them to notice your account.

Step 3:

DM them on on Instagram, don’t email them. Email is dead people and it’s easy to come across so salesly. If they are influencer, I guarantee they are used to chatting all day long on DM. That is the best and most casual place to contact them and start building a relationship.

Step 4:

Don’t ask for anything. Seriously don’t DM them and ask them for a meeting, to post your picture, to tell you what they think about x — just resist the urge. Please. Think back to putting yourself in in their shoes, and people are literally clambering all day long to use them and it’s honestly the last thing they want to hear. I guarantee you if you go in first asking for something you will get shut down — immediately.

Step 5:

Offer them something. That’s right, give instead of take. It can be something easy, a free t-shirt, a genuine comment, or just a friendly hello I really like your content! The bottom line is build rapport, and come across genuinely interested in building a relationship with them.

Step 6:

Don’t expect anything in return. So you gave them some free lip gloss? A t-shirt? You reposted their picture? Wrote and article about them — and they did nothing in the return? LIVE WITH IT. Don’t ask them when they are going post about it for you.

Just don’t, if they didn’t do something to reciprocate it’s probably because they don’t want to, or don’t like your product or service — sorry that’s just the truth. You don’t want to force someone to do something if they don’t genuinely want to.

Step 7:

Watch things blossom. If you follow all these steps and genuinely want to build relationships with people I promise you will and you will reap the rewards in the long-term. Just have a little patience.

You can follow my personal Instagram, or follow me on Twitter. You can find my fine jewelry company Gem Hunt HERE.

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CatCason
The Startup

entrepreneurship, marketing, personal growth, learn more about at www.catherine-ellen.com, follow @catcason, eats diamonds @thegemhunt