How To Connect With An Influencer?

So you spot the popular kid at the school across the yard. He knows everybody, he’s on the running team, and he’s the captain of the football team.

Every teacher thinks he’s an all-star and most students want to be him, or be with him, even if they secretly pretend they despise him.

The thing is you know that just by being his friend or by being associated with him in any way; it’s going to boost your visibility and credibility.

Star status by association, all you’ve got to do is incentivize him to allow you into his circle.

Stop! Don’t Make The Same Mistake As Everybody Else.

Everybody’s keen to tell him how great he is and how everything he does is special (I know it’s enough to make you feel sick). So hold back on showing another compliment up his…

See, the thing is, you can feel reassured that one day he’ll probably be unmarried, overweight and alone from being too self-absorbed and obsessed.

You’ll be able to check him out on Facebook and agree to yourself that maybe being the biggest influencer wasn’t such a personal desire at school.

But you’re still here and desperate at this stage in your life to maximize this opportunity to increase your visibility and status.

So What Can You Do To Influence The Influencer?

You challenge them!

Yes, challenge them.

Why? Because they are attention adrenaline junkies, and by challenging them you’ll spark their interest, and motivate them to engage with you.

So How Do We Do It?

Well, you don’t just smack them across the face with the back of your glove and say ‘Sir, I challenge you to a duel!’ Although that sounds like it could be fun.

You propose an opinion or a way of thinking that either is an adaptation of their thinking or that it questions or challenges the way they currently do things.

So just to be clear, you’re not recreating the wheel here, you’re just asking could it be made from a better material, or even suggesting what that may be.

You want to create a race across hurdles that you know the influencer can jump, but they’re just high enough to make them work for it.

You’re setting them a challenge that can make them feel good about themselves without actually going up to them and saying ‘you’re soooo great’ and looking like all the other wannabes.

So What Is the Point of All This?

You get the influencer engaged in meaningful dialogue; they gain a positive experience, feel challenged and can solve a problem.

You, on the other hand, have shown yourself to be unlike the rest. You have shown that you have status and are willing and able to play in the big league.

You’ve also started to get a whole lot of people looking at you to see what you’re going to do next.

This is the beginning of becoming the influencer, yourself!

How Do You Come Up With This Master Plan?

You research! Pick the key influencers in your sector/industry.

These Three Tools That Can Help You Identify Them

1.Followerwonk

Followerwonk^[1] A great tool from Rand Fishkin^[2] that will help you find compare and analyze relevant Twitter accounts.

2. Klout
A free tool that will give you a ‘Klout Score,’ the better the score, the more influential the person. What’s your Klout^[3] score?

3 .Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo^[4] has some limited free features. Otherwise, it is a paid tool, which offers more than just a place to find key influencers.

It can inform you on what’s being shared, what’s trending, back links and some additional extra features.

Here’s three more that can transform your community management and engagement taking it to the next level:

But be prepared for the price tag that comes with them! Only the real marketers need apply…
1. Sprout Social

Social media management tool^[5] created to help businesses grow their social media presence.
Really good brand monitoring, social analytics, reporting capabilities and follower management and best of all you can try it for a month without the need for card details.

2. Synthesio
Synthesio^[6] is a machinery that takes conversations from the social web and converts them into information that can fuel smart, data-driven decision making across your business.

It has user-friendly modules, easy to set up, use and optimize. It’s a great tool for real-time listening, monitoring and reporting. Free trial available.

3. Crimson Hexagon
Social media analytics^[7] platform that helps brands uncover insights from social data that drives strategy.

We’re talking a top product with serious social listening and influencer identification tools.

Really good analytics and monitoring capabilities that are far superior to that of the cheaper options available.

Free trial available.

Whatever you use, it’s important to track what information, ideas, and original content your influencers are sharing; you can then start to build a picture of what they are discussing and of their view point. It’s with this; you can start to build your challenge.

Think About These Three Things!

1.What’s their opinion on specific key industry subjects?

You can then use these opinions and viewpoints to drive the creation and implementation of your challenge.

2.Are they a champion for a specific cause or body?

Not only will this give you additional content and information they’re sharing, but it will also guide you to the things that matter to them.

It will also provide you with additional platforms for you to join, communicate and engage with these key influencers.

3.Where do they spend most of their time online and via which channels do they share original comments and views?

They may have good followings across a variety of social media channels. But where is their voice and where are they sharing their views?

It is important to target them in the place they are most likely to engage and respond to you.

It’s with these three answers that you’ll be able to structure your engagement strategy.

Don’t just think that the bigger the influencer the better the opportunity.

We are now seeing a trend that micro influencers in specialist niche areas with a small hardcore following can be more valuable than the stage talking, Theatre filling, public speakers.

Ultimately you want to achieve a nice mix and maybe just targeting three influencers to start with to test your knowledge and research and to see what level of engagement you get, is a good place to start.

The important thing to remember is that this is not a one shot approach.

It begins with research and then starts with challenges, which will create engagement, which you then need to convert to meaningful dialogue.

Once you have their attention, it’s important to stay engaged and committed to the conversation and to continue to challenge and engage with the influencer and their community.

See More: Influencer Marketing: Top 7 Reasons Why It’s the Future

Remember, This Is Important:

You don’t need to win the challenge; you just need to keep up with the competition.

That will be a big win in itself, and from there forwards you’ll be building your communities and waiting for others to come and challenge you.

Get em, kid! 😉