Strengthening Your Online Influencer List

If you have been in business for any length of time, even a short length, you must understand how important influencers are to your brand and to your online and in-person interactions. Of course, there are several steps that you need to follow before you even get to the point of putting together a list of influencers; however, once you are at that point, your influencer list should be solid and robust. It may be time to take your list and build on it and make it even stronger.

Where do you find influencers?

The fact is that influencers are all around you. It is not as simple as reaching out and grabbing the ones that will be the best for your business. Oh, it would be great if it were that easy. However, just like it is with anything else in life, it begins with establishing a relationship. You meet the influencer, start to interact with that person, begin to build trust and prove credibility, and you go from there. Once you feel that you have a relatively solid relationship with your influencer, you can appropriately add that person to your list of influencers. Of course, it is probably obvious to you that  you must proceed carefully when it comes to identifying your influencer in the first place.

The person must be a good match for your brand and your business and, hopefully, the influencer will have the same vision that you have when it comes to goals for the your business. [tweetthis]Influencers are essential; they come with respect and credibility built in.[/tweetthis] So, what follows that is the concept that they will attract other people to you and your brand. You will have a chance to form all sorts of meaningful relationships that will hopefully stand the test of time. At this point, you may be wondering exactly how you can connect with the appropriate influencers and build relationships with those influencers that are solid enough to actually add them to your list.

• First things first, scope out the content: Before you can have any hope of building an influencer list, you need to read what they are sharing and figure out if those particular influencers are right for your brand. Realistically, you should read their content for quite a while before you decide if they are right for you and your business. If they are truly influencers, they will have plenty of valuable content, which will undoubtedly resonate with you easily. After you read enough of their content, you will begin to understand exactly what they stand for.

  Once you have done that, you can do more extensive research on that particular topic or topics by reading other people’s content online as well. It is pretty easy to get a handle of that particular thing once you start to get into it. Of course, if you are trying to establish a relationship with that influencer and share him or her with your other online connections, the influencer better be someone whom you are proud to share with your other online connections. The reason that it is so important is because it is your reputation and your credibility on the line and you must do everything possible to protect your reputation.

• After you have gotten a handle on your influencer’s intellectual strengths: Once you have become very well acquainted with your influencer’s thought process and knowledge, the next thing that you will want to do is to follow the influencer on social media. Twitter is a really good choice for that. [tweetthis]You want to follow the influencer and get a sense of how other people feel about that person. [/tweetthis]

  At that point, you can feel free to add the influencer to your Twitter lists so that you get the most out of your Twitter feed. The more profound you make your connection to the influencer, the better you will get to know him or her and the sooner  you can leverage that relationship for your own brand and your business. Before you know it, you will be interacting with the influencer directly. 

• Start establishing your relationship with the influencer: There are some truths that are important for you to understand when it comes to your influencers. First of all, the influencer (because he or she has taken the difficult journey to become the influencer) has a strong list of other connections online.

  You definitely want to have access to your influencer’s online connections. That is a wonderful way to widen your online social circles and to start building a whole bunch of new relationships, which will hopefully be mutually beneficial and rock solid. Of course, the mirror image is also true. You must make a tremendous effort to give as much to  your influencer (and to all of your other treasured online connections) as he or she gives to you. 

Conclusion

Your list of influencers is extremely important and will be very instrumental to your brand’s success. It is important to remember to be as discriminating as you need to be when choosing exactly how to populate your list of influencers. Make sure that you “get to know them” before you ever approach them and begin to interact with them.

However, remember that it is equally important for you to approach the relationship with your influencers in a way that makes them want to be a part of your online world. Also, one of the most important principles for you to keep in mind is that you must prove your credibility and trustworthiness to your influencers so that they will really want to share a relationship with you.

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