Last year I talked about how size matters on LinkedIn and now I want to talk about size on Twitter. Your follower size, that is.
Number of followers and how much it matters is an interesting question that has been argued since the dawn of the first social media platform (officially that might be CompuServe or BBS circa 1980 – the first place online to truly meet and connect).
Many articles will argue that having only 100 followers is fine if they are quality, meaning they are engaged with you, your business, and your posts and services. These 100 will discuss your business with their 100 friends and your reach will be organic and hold strong value for anyone in that circle due to the commitment of those 100 engaged fans.
So the better question is: do numbers still matter if you have engaged fans?
I say yes.
[Tweet “3 reasons your numbers matter even if your followers are engaged.”]
3 reasons your numbers matter even if your followers are engaged
Reason Number One: Level of Influence
There’s a perceived level of influence in the numbers, like it or not. Every time I’m asked to speak or be interviewed, even on a podcast, people want to know how many followers I have. Getting those gigs increases my exposure, which brings me new clients and ultimately brings me new followers as well which starts the cycle all over again. From followers, to prospects, to clients, to more future gigs I now have a lead generating engine that will help me keep my sales pipeline full and always humming.
Reason Number Two: Increase My Pricing
Having a large number of followers gives me great impact, expert status and the most valuable of all – social proof that I know what I am talking about. This social proof of my status allows me to charge more and value my services at a higher price point. So even if I am not getting a direct lead my prices can increase with my number of followers and thus so do my profits. I like knowing that I can keep my revenue stream in the black because of this expert value.
Reason Number Three: Extend My Reach Regardless of Ads and Promotions
Holding webinars to explain what I do, educate when and where I can, and to sell my services is key for my business growth and probably for yours too. Regardless if my fans are engaged or not, the more followers I have the more people my webinar promotion posts (or other launch vehicle) can reach. I don’t need to buy an ad (though I still do at times) to gain some extra views, and the value of number of views is more important than engagement to gain one more webinar sign up. I have often found those that don’t “know” me yet are just as likely to sign up to see what I’m all about as those who already interact and buy.
To recap: One of the best ways to grow your business is to gain the trust of your prospects and one of the best ways to do that is through the proof of numbers.
To be deemed an ‘expert’ and ‘thought leader’ the prevailing statistic on Twitter is 5k-10,000 followers.
I know that sounds like a lot when you feel stuck at maybe 50 or even 200. Check out my post on building your social media system to start gaining followers who are not just friends. It IS possible! I did it and I know you can too.
Do you have a specific question about where to start on your march toward ten thousand? Join me in my LinkedIn Group and I will be glad to answer any questions you have!
Today, I’m going to talk about how to BECOME an influencer.
Pick a platform: Blog, podcast, any place you can share your expertise. Think about what medium you enjoy working in. For some it is writing, for others it is speaking, and for some it is a visual medium with video or photography.
Because the steps to becoming an influencer will take time and consistency it’s important to really nail down your favorite method of connecting and of doing the work. Because I won’t lie, it will take work to make yourself an influencer, but work that is well worth the effort.
[Tweet “It will take work to make yourself an influencer, but work that is well worth the effort.”]
Once you have picked your platform it’s time to get busy!
7 steps to becoming an influencer in any market or platform you choose
First: Share your best stuff. This idea is nothing new, but still needs to be said. Sharing valuable information that actually improves the lives of your tribe will be where you spend the most time, and get the most return. Followers will notice that you offer a great value to them without expecting anything in return. Be consistent and post often. Sharing knowledge with no expectation is paramount to becoming the influencer you wish to be.
Second: Specialize more if you can. Try to niche down into an even smaller division of your market. The reason this has a lot of power is with a very specific and specialized niche you stand a better chance of becoming The Go-To person in that field. And that is a win toward becoming influential!
Third: Be open. It’s time to really get comfortable being out and in the wide “open” internet. Becoming influential means you will have a lot more eyes on you, and that’s a good thing, but I know it can be scary. Work on really staying true to your business Why. Start to shape the conversation around your business niche, and your influence will truly come.
Fourth: Partner with other influencers. Remember those blog posts I wrote about building relationships online and how to start that before you need them? (Check them out here and here) (link) Well here is a great example. Now you have things to say and your favorite platform to say them on. It’s time to partner with another influencer to help get the word out: write a guest post, get an interview, offer to interview them, write an article for their publication, contribute to their comments, offer to talk at seminars and conferences they attend, the list goes on. When you get on their radar you get on their people’s radar and that helps rocket you to the influencing top much faster.
Fifth: Write a book. Yes I know it sounds awfully daunting, but that’s what ghost writers are for! Writing a book is still a huge mark of credibility, even in this day of online everything. People see a book as evidence that you know what you are talking about. You also have the potential of reaching a whole new section of fans and followers.
Sixth: No hiding, get your contact information out there and make it easy to find. Respond back to fan emails, invite and encourage people to call or write, show a willingness to connect in person or on the phone. Quite simply, be available. This can generate a lot of discussion among your fans and the end result is often, loyalty. Which means they will talk about your stuff over and over again. And there is no better influence than that lovely piece of the market called: social proof.
Lucky number seven bonus step: Track what works. Always always always keep track of what is working and what is not. Know your numbers. By numbers I mean followers, comments, clicks, and analytics. Getting help with analytics interpretation is a great idea because this can be a lot to learn. But this information is invaluable in helping you to plan for success by doing more of the actions that work well and less of what doesn’t
What is one action you can take today? Check out the top 10-20 influencers in your niche and see what they are doing.
Ask yourself:
What platform are they on?
How often do they post?
What content are they sharing?
What will it take to be there?
Then come on over and join my LinkedIn group where we can talk influencer strategy all day long! Can’t wait to see you there and at the top of your game.
I do a lot of speaking about LinkedIn. I love to go to conferences and speak with groups who are just ready and willing to see social media change their business. During these breakout sessions I try to make my information “real” by doing some on-the-spot mini profile reviews as I am speaking.
What I find is so interesting!
More than 50% of the time these mini reviews reveal that the LinkedIn profile is missing a summary.
Your summary section IS one of the top reasons that makes LinkedIn so powerful and so helpful for you and your business, whether you are trying to find a job or find clients.
[Tweet “Your summary section IS one of the top reasons that makes LinkedIn so powerful for your business.”]
Your summary section is what makes LinkedIn NOT a boring old resume filled with facts and dates and figures.
Your summary section is where you tell people:
Who you are
Who you help
How you help them
And you tell people all of this in YOUR voice.
It’s a way to be interviewed without being interviewed. It’s a handy way to show your personality along with all of your skills, to bring your uniqueness across the computer screen, which all leads to a 100% stronger connection with your viewers every time.
But the biggest reason the summary section is so powerful?
Every word is searchable by Google. Every word!
We all know what it means to “rank” in a random search. Being able to rank is like free advertising every minute of the day. In short, if you skip out on your LinkedIn summary you are missing out on valuable Google real estate that is just waiting to find you the career or the client of your dreams.
So let’s get crackin’ shall we!
Tips to Make Your Summary Section Shine
Use first person. You want to start the conversation with your audience whether it’s a prospect boss or a prospect customer, and the best way to start the conversation is to be natural, be normal and just be YOU engaged with the reader.
Make sure to use every character allowed. LinkedIn allows a 2000 character count for the summary section. Every time I write one for my clients I try my hardest to hit the mark, 1999 characters if I can. Again, not using this space is like leaving money on the table, so re-write until you can craft those sentences to fit the space!
Use keywords of your business niche, market, client or career. What is your target market? Who are you an expert to? What business niche do you want to stand out in? What company or client do you want to be seen by? Keywords are what Google will focus on, as well as internal LinkedIn searches, so make sure you aren’t just telling the story of that “time in life you overcame failure”. Great story to be sure, but distill it down to one sentence, and make sure the rest is filled with keywords your audience cares to read.
Take a look at my LinkedIn summary here: Look at all the keywords I have (arrows and underlines) as well as the proof that what I do works. Yet my summary still tells a story and I am still having a conversation with my customer.
Save some room for your specialties/skills section. Highlight where you are an expert in now and also where you would like to be an expert in the future! Think of at least 5-10 specialties or skills to add here. Sprinkle in some aspects of your professional character that potential clients or bosses would want to know you possess, especially if they are traits you are solidly known for in your current field. All of this adds to your personality profile and is also a keyword pot of gold.
Here is mine: See how I showcase who my client is (corporate, individual), what I want to do more of (training, speaking, workshops), and what I am really good at (marketing, webinars, LinkedIn, social media design, branding etc).
Your summary is one place you can truly brag about what you do well, and I sincerely hope you do. Your future boss and your future customers NEED to know.
If I had only one piece of advice to give you? I’d say: write your LinkedIn summary section and get it up on your profile TODAY.
As a busy business person I know you are hustling. Hustling aka working hard to connect in any way you can with those future clients and partnerships that will keep your business booming.
And though I talk mostly about connecting online, it’s a fact that I live with too: a lot of great networking is done (and has to be done) IN person.
I’m sure you are connecting with people at:
Chamber of Commerce events
Business meet-ups
Local city events
Regional conferences
And hopefully collecting a pile of business cards at each event.
In fact, even though I’m a social media gal, I love connecting face-to-face whenever I can! (connect with me if you’re ever in New Jersey!)
But there is a strategy to take your in-person networking to online connecting, where it is vastly easier to stay in touch, stay top of mind, and stay relevant in busy lives.
[Tweet “How to take your in-person networking to online connecting to stay in touch.”]
Today I want to share some tips with you on how to stay in touch after an in-person event in order to forge powerful relationships online.
Tips On Staying in Touch with People After Events
First: Make sure you have your LinkedIn URL on your business card. This immediately tells people that you love to connect on LinkedIn. A small addition that frees you up to actually enjoy the event (which makes you 100 times easier to talk to) and leaves the heavy lifting of selling “how great you are at x,y,z” to your professional and polished LinkedIn profile.
Second: Use Evernote (my favorite) to take a photo note of each business card or scan the cards into your computer right away. Type in a quick note as to how you met and possible follow-up potential from your conversation at the event. Do not, I repeat, do not toss these cards into your inbox to do “tomorrow” or later in the week. You will forget valuable information that will have fled your memory after a busy week running your business.
Third: The very next day go through this list and connect with each person who is on LinkedIn. Give them a TAG. You can create specific tags that will jog your memory of how you met such as: Chamber of Commerce. Save that tag to add others to it from the same list of business cards. When you send the connect request make sure your it is personal. Please don’t use the generic LinkedIn connect request form email. While the generic request does serve it’s purpose – you have actually connected with this person in person. So adding a note as to how you met and possibly what you chatted about goes a long way to building trust and forging a potential relationship.
Finally: Go to their profile and add the note about how you met and set a reminder to follow up in a week or a month. You can find this underneath their profile picture in the white box marked Relationship.
Now all of this valuable information is stored on LinkedIn and visible only to you. This is a fantastic way to keep your CRM up to date, organized, and ultimately helpful to you as you forge new business relationships and keep old ones fresh from online to off.
Do you have a question about tags and notes and reminders on LinkedIn? I’d be glad to answer! Join me in my LinkedIn group where I answer questions like this and more. You never have to navigate LinkedIn alone again.
I don’t know about you, but some days I struggle with finding creative, interesting topics to post about on social media. So many platforms yet so little time. So little time in a busy entrepreneur’s life to make an impact let alone to actually decide what you want to talk about that day (or multiple times that day in the case of Twitter).
So to address that frustration, today I want to talk about: 3 Creative ways to find topics to fill your social media posting queue every day.
[Tweet “3 Creative ways to find topics to fill your social media posting queue every day.”]
1. Bookmark Question and Answer Sites
One of my favorites is Quora. It is actually filled with good questions and thoughtful answers that make you think. You can adjust your settings to pick what topic areas you would like to receive their feeds. Make it niche specific if you can and you are ready to rock and roll when an engaging question comes up! Another option is Reddit where everything (and I do mean everything) is discussed.
2. Use RSS feed tools like Feedly
To capture and organize important blogs that a) you like to read and b) carry important information for your business niche. Share valuable information by repurposing others’. You don’t need to know everything nor do you need to post something every day that is unique. Sharing other’s stuff is a great way to get the job done. Feedly has a great feature that allows you to organize all of your important blogs by topic so you know exactly where you need to go AND allows you to post directly to all of your social media platforms that you link. One stop shop bing bang boom – you’re done!
3. Set Google Alerts to put Google to work for you!
With Google Alerts you can monitor the web for interesting content, but it doesn’t stop there. When you set an alert you will be notified of trending topical articles based on your alert subject and headline, as well as questions posted on the web that are niche specific to you. One of the best and quickest ways to be branded an expert is to find these questions and post your expert answers linking to your website driving traffic back to you. Also use this tip to discover new markets, new trends, new emerging niches related to your business that you could jump on, get ahead of, and start expanding your expertise.
When using Google Alerts: (Via Google help)
Try to be as precise as possible. The more precise your search terms are, the more relevant your alerts will be.
Use quotes around a group of words if you are looking for them together. For example, [“White house”].
Use a minus sign (–) in front of words that you want to exclude. For example, [paris -texas].
Use the site: operator to limit your search to specific sites. For example, [congress site:nytimes.com].
Set and create as many alerts as you like. Delete or refine them as you go and as you start to learn what search terms bring you the best results online.
If you use these three ideas in conjunction with your regular posting (linking to your blogs, promotional posts, and foundational content) you can truly create a consistent presence with minimal effort.
We all need to be on social media, we all need to be visible, and we all need to take time to actually run our business. I recognize that because I too am trying to “do-it-all” just like you. I challenge you to pick one of these ideas to implement today. Don’t wait, don’t add it to your to-do list, just do it. You will be glad you took a little time out from your business to streamline your marketing plan and reduce social media headaches today. And in the end that is my eternal hope for you: may social media be headache free and profitable!
Need some help with how to set up Google Alerts? Trying to pick what topics to organize in Feedly? Still not sure how to use Quora or why?
Last week I wrote to you about building relationships on social media before you need them. Sometimes I know it feels like everything I tell you to do and every idea I have for social media marketing is another 5, 15, 30 minutes of time committed to our computers and the online world. It can be tough I know.
Social media, it can cause us to hide behind our computers.
In my post last week I detailed step-by-step instructions on how to build relationships online, because for best success and for profitable social media returns it all boils down to relationships.
And once you have those relationships growing online it’s time to take them OFFLINE.
Meaning, it’s time to create that relationship and connection in the real world.
It’s time to:
Meet them for coffee
Plan a skype date
Get them on the phone
So read along as I map out ideas for you to use the powerful medium of social media to actually meet real people!
[Tweet “How to use the powerful medium of social media to actually meet real people!”]
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of the best places for forge relationships. Take the time to message new connections a few days after you connect. In your message ask how you can help them achieve their business goals. Do your research first, create a template message if you need to and insert the appropriate information. Or keep it simple with a quick, “Hi, I’m so glad we connected. My goal on LinkedIn is to help serve other entrepreneurs and business owners. I’d love to know: how can I help YOU achieve your business goals? Let’s talk!“ Your goal is to get them on the phone, talking and connecting with you in the real world.
Twitter
Start a conversation! Twitter is the most amazing, fast paced, democratic platform we have available to us. Almost anyone is reachable, truly! Share advice, share fun tips, and share your tricks for success. @mention, tag and DM your way to a friendly fun filled convo online. Next funnel them toward connecting on LinkedIn where you can message them as noted above, and ultimately achieve your goal of getting them on the phone.
Facebook
Facebook is really more than just what we have for lunch! Take a few minutes to look around and ask yourself: Who is influential? Who could be my next client? What are they talking about? How can I get in on that conversation? If it’s a local Facebook group – create an event and ask a handful of prospects to connect over coffee. Maybe it’s easier to plan a date and time for a Google hangout where you and a few others chat about business ideas, struggles, and needs. Then, when the time is right and the relationship has been established, you can swoop in and offer your specific solutions.
Instagram
Instagram is a beautiful platform in which to showcase your behind the scenes. This is where you can get real. When you let people know the real you, they will respond. Vulnerability and authenticity is powerful stuff, use it to create a foundation for your business why and connect with others who share the same beliefs. From there it’s 100 times easier to lead the conversation from online to off in whatever venue suits you best.
Today we have the awesome ability to get to know people we would never have met in a million years, and this ability is within everyone’s reach – in fact it is at our fingertips!
That’s the power of social media, and that’s where the profits are hiding.
Have a question about how to go from online to off on another platform? Join my LinkedIn group and ask away! I always respond as fast as I can, and you will have access to all the other business minds in the group for amazingly powerful brainstorming.
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