10 Simple Steps To Increase Your Digital Influence

What if you could shortcut the time it takes to be known as a thought leader or an expert or get elected to a position of authority and power or chosen for that important job that you want so desperately.

Just imagine when you wrote a book that it immediately sold in the thousands and maybe even appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Social media is sometimes viewed as just another way of communicating… and yes it is… but it is so much more than that if start to scratch its surface and dive in and start to leverage its power to spread your content globally and amplify the results. It can be used as a tool to promote your company and personal brand that can fast track results that can be astounding and the 10 people mentioned in this article I am sure would testify to that.

There was a comment left on a post the other day and it was both expected and surprising.

“Why are cooperation, organization and collective action treated as new methods of achieving results … There’s nothing new to any of these interactions…the only “new” component is the current social networking apparatus (fb, twitter, etc.) and even these aren’t really new…and those are only variations on communications (primarily involving the internet) which we’ve been experimenting with now for more than a generation…but I worry about what we’re giving up for those advantages. I will worry even more if people unthinkingly give credit to social media for the achievements that would have resulted from their interaction without said media….”

Sure there are some problems with any new media with the fear of  the unknown or the concern with its possible diminishing of face to face interaction. The reality is that it increases real interaction both online and offline through reduced friction to keep in touch, be found and spread your knowledge and opinions in your niche.

I have found it facilitates face to face opportunities and intensifies my personal and professional interaction, engagement and collaboration and  it also breaks down barriers to communication by enabling multiple means to communicate and keep in touch that are both efficient and personal.

In fact my blog and my social media channels provide me with my own  multimedia printing press and marketing platform.

I think what excites most social media early innovators and adopters is the ease with which you can promote your ideas and opinions to large audiences without gatekeepers like traditional mass media with its high costs and barriers that prohibit us sharing without getting permission from editors, journalists and power brokers.

The Influencer Project provides some more insights on what tips and actions you can implement to be digitally influential. Here are some thought leaders insights from the Influencer Project and I have added some actions you can implement or start to commence on your digital influence journey.

1. Hang out where your audience hangs out and get to understand them.

Find out what their needs are and the task what they’re trying to accomplish. Ask people questions so you can help them solve their problems - Vanessa Fox of Nine by Blue and author of “Marketing in the Age of Google”.

Action: Build things that really help them. This could be an online video tutorial that show people how to perform a particular task or an eBook that provides guidance and suggesstions for answers for real day to day problems. These could be promoted on Twitter and embedded in Facebook as am update as well as being on your blog or website.

2. Find one specific niche and master that niche.

Become the owner of that niche on the online social media space, so that everyone around you knew that you knew everything about that one specific topic – Lewis Howes at LewisHowes.com (his niche is LinkedIn)

Action: Start doing webinars to promote and educate others how to master the niche you have mastered yourself

3. Invest more time mapping a strategy for not just using social media, but for integrating social media with other tactics online and offline.

Research has shown a powerful synergy between social media and search, email and other tactics like we’ve never seen before. We found that social media integration creates a situation where the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts – Sergio Balegno Research Director at Marketing Sherpa.

Action: Look at creative ways you can integrate social media with traditional and other digital media. This could be by integrating email with social media to drive traffic to your blog or Facebook page.. read more at “10 Ways To Integrate your Email and Social Media“

4. Change from thinking about changing other people’s mind to changing your mind.

Instead of thinking about competing, think about admiring and learning from everybody that you see. Hank Wasiak at AssetBasedThinking.com

Action: Engage with a top blogger or thought leader on their blog or Twitter and then possibly aim to collaborate with them on a Project

5. Get active in other people’s communities:

Mitch Joel President of Twist Image and the author and blogger and podcaster over at Six Pixels of Separation.

Action: Get into peoples comments on blogs. Then mix it up with them on Twitter

6. Build Multi Digital Dimensionality by Listening and Engaging on Multiple Networks.

What I mean by that is by showing as many different sides of yourself or your business as you can. Why? Well, because the more sides of yourself that you show, there’s more opportunities for connections, and there’s more ways in. Everyone sees , hears, views and receives information in many different ways. Both Tamsen McMahon – of BrassTackThinking.com and Justin Levy at New Marketing Labs suggested this tip but have their own take on how this can be done

Action: Publish the same content on multiple networks, Video, Text, Slideshare, Images, Podcasts but consider the networks where you can be most effective and gain the most leverage for your target audience in your niche.

7. Get into other people’s heads and help them with their challenges

Network with other influencers and make sure that everybody is aware of the value that you provide. What you’re looking for is a long-term relationship. Chris Garrett from ChrisG.com.

Action: Connect with people online and then meet with them offline to build a long term relationship that is real and authentic. Don’t be afraid to ask for an interview whether that be via a face to face or an online interview. You can even record the video and then it can be promoted on both of your social networks  (see “Social Media and The CEO- An Interview With Greg Savage the CEO of Aquent“)

8. Make your  professional narrative personal.

When you’re talking about influencing people, especially as an entrepreneur, it’s about your passion, it’s about who you are and what you bring to the table. Connecting the who with the what. Cathy Brooks the founder of Other Than That.

Action: Don’t be afraid to tell people on your blog your story and what brought you to this place it can be the narrative of your journey or even let yourself  be interviewed then place that on your blog or post it on your Facebook page.

9. Have an opinion, be remarkable, be passionate and have a permanent place:

What is it about your industry or about the world in general that you feel passionate enough about to shake things up? If you’re willing to shake up your world, the world is willing to payattention. Todd Defren – principle at SHIFT Communications, and a blogger at PRSquared.

Action: Write an opinion piece, or a blog post or invent something

10. Be a media and publishing company that does 3 things

• Learn to be a story teller
• Understand the pyschology of people as it powers your narrative
• Content has to be quality