On July 7, in the late afternoon, I tuned in to The Influencer Project . For the next 60 minutes (actually it was closer to 62 minutes), I listened to 60 online experts tell at least one proven way to increase your influence online. We’re talking real experts like David Meerman Scott , Anne Holland , Brian Solis , Todd Defren and our own Mike Volpe , and all of the unmentioned names are equal in expertise to those I mentioned. While some of the advice was obvious, like create valuable content or get on Facebook , what resonated was that these experts – all of whom have influence online, so they do know what they’re talking about – were passionate about their one or two tips.
As a sponsor for this event , we have permission from ThoughtLead, the program organizers, to offer our community both the audio file and the complete transcript . For those of you who don’t have 62 minutes to spare, I’ve taken the liberty of shortening it even more – to 60 sentences.
This will give you the headlines, but you may want to take the additional time and understand why these experts came up with their practical advice. I cannot remember when I've received this much solid advice in such a short amount of time.
1. Stop talking about your products and services and create valuable content.
2. Increase conversion rates on your landing pages by improving your buttons.
3. Build your thought leadership and digital influence through transparency.
4. Demonstrate commitment and increase your digital influence through consistency.
5. Know where you’re going, then make what you say about the people around you.
6. Follow better people.
7. Align yourself with outstanding strategic partners.
8. Make connections online, then meet the person in the real world, offline.
9. Create content that stands for something: ‘Higher purpose content marketing.’
10. Look under the hood of the shiny new technologies coming out.
11. Believe in ‘social objects’ as the way we socialize and share with others.
12. Avoid ‘incestuous blogging’ and look outside your circle.
13. Start talking to people.
14. Think about your narrative strategy because people connect with stories worth telling.
15. Find people who have your audience but not your products and co-create with them.
16. Establish influence either through complete honesty or absolute fakery - not in between.
17. Give your content roots and give it wings.
18. Try Facebook advertising.
19. Develop your online influence by getting offline and meeting people in real life.
20. Get very, very good at filtering and aggregating content.
21. Be early in the news cycles of any conversation of interest, then make context explicit.
22. Increase visibility through web video; the fastest way to get your message out there.
23. Feel passionate about your content and overcome your fears of reaching out.
24. Defy convention where it’s appropriate.
25. Share good content consistently.
26. Let your passion shine to create meaningful relationships and build deep connections.
27. Learn how to talk more about other people.
28. Get on Facebook, get on Faceboook now, and use it for your business.
29. Make people around you more successful than you are, and share stories from the heart.
30. Talk about what you know because content is always king.
31. Make something worth talking about.
32. Get your self properly interviewed.
33. Repeat your tweets.
34. Get more influence online by moving offline.
35. Really understand your audience, then build things that really help them.
36. Master one niche, own that niche, then use webinar marketing to promote your brand.
37. Think about what gifts and expertise you have that you can leverage to help others.
38. Map a strategy for integrating social media with other tactics.
39. Change from thinking about my influence to our influence.
40. Get active in other people’s communities.
41. Build ‘digital dimensionality’ by showing your many different sides.
42. Listen to the conversations taking place around you, then start to engage.
43. Network with other influencers and make them aware of your consistent value.
44. Think about the authenticity, consistency, and depth of your voice and story
45. Be willing to shake up your world.
46. Learn to be a storyteller, understand the psychology of people, create quality content.
47. Share ideas liberally and get increased accountability from the digital community.
48. Establish your business model before you attempt to become influential online.
49. Be consistent, connect the practical with the profound, and listen for the silence.
50. Find a unique niche you can own, focus on it and become known for that.
51. Find out what social network your customers are using and be there for them.
52. Build a community of readers by figuring out ways to get people talking.
53. Make friends along the way by helping others achieve their goals.
54. Think about social media as strategy to enhance your existing marketing goals.
55. Be systematic in establishing relationships with those on the same business path.
56. Become an advocate for gifted up and comers as they enter social media.
57. Start the media arm of your company that educates, inspires and entertains.
58. Give more than you get and build trust and relationships over time.
59. Take a look at what you have that others can’t do and use it to get where you need to go.
60. Figure out your value, identify influential individuals and connect to them directly.
Would you like to listen to the full details from each speaker? We've set up the archived audio plus a transcipt of the entire event for your enjoyment here .
Christa 8:38 AM on September 08, 2010
I am on complete overload of good online marketing tips. Thanks for the post! I might have to come back and reference this to really absorb it all.
Louise Mason 9:11 AM on September 08, 2010
Some great advice here! There seem to be a lot of tips all relating to content, i'm going to have to read the transcript now to understand the differences between them!
Kallie 9:24 AM on September 08, 2010
Very great information....and many of these tips were new and valuable to me.
Thanks again Hubspot!
Bret Simmons 9:55 AM on September 08, 2010
Too many people and business overlook number 1, but it really is number 1 for a reason. Great list. Bret
Salina 10:15 AM on September 08, 2010
I have been following and using inbound marketing techniques for some time now. I still try to use all the above mentioned points even though I haven't got a physical product or service to sell. However it works amazingly well, and appreciate all the updated list.
Great Post, thanks!
Rebecca 12:48 PM on September 08, 2010
This is an amazing list. It will take some time to re-read it and let it all soak in. Thanks for so much great advice.
Jaap Schuddeboom 2:44 PM on September 08, 2010
What I like a lot is that you make the connection with the 'real world' in a lot of point mentioned.
Life is out there, not behind your pc-screen, but social media are very useful to get in touch with people you'll never meet doing it the old fashioned way and maintaining your network has never been easier...
Regards,
Jaap
Ryan VanDenabeele 4:06 PM on September 08, 2010
Great info. I've heard a lot of positive things come from this 60/60 project.
Coy Davidson 3:11 AM on September 09, 2010
Awesome list. #8 is the big one in my opinion if you want Social Media provide a meaningful return
Dotti Berry 8:28 PM on September 09, 2010
I'm going to download the transcript right and audio right now. This is something to read over...and listen several times a week! This hit home for my daily motto...Ancora Imparo...I'm Still Learning!
frank newmeyer 6:33 AM on September 10, 2010
This is great material, thanks.
I'm self taught and tend to work alone. I feel I my SM proposals and work could do with some polish. Can someone recommend a really good SM course I can do at distance?
I hear Dell run one but it's inhouse.
Jeanne Hopkins 6:49 AM on September 10, 2010
We can absolutely recommend a great self-paced educational program @franknewmeyer! It's called Inbound Marketing University and it is completely free! Go to www.inboundmarketing.com and register for the 16 courses (I'm one of the professors. I teach Landing Pages and CTA best practices.) Then take the certification course and join the almost 2,000 certified Inbound Marketing professionals.
Entrepreneur 7:32 AM on September 10, 2010
This is all great advice for your online reach...
Also, differentiating yourself from the rest is the way to go in accelerating your online influence.
Craig Evans 11:27 AM on September 10, 2010
Lot of repetition and common sense that folks are already doing every day without these so-called "influencers".
Just goes to show, anyone can pretend to be influential when all they are doing is repeating each other's verbiage.
Brenda Thomson 7:07 PM on September 10, 2010
Wow - what an outstanding list. Of course I particularly like #7
@CoachLaura Rubinstein 8:55 PM on September 12, 2010
Truly a robust list of social media marketing strategies for increasing influence... including listening, being authentic, telling stories, giving, educating and I especially like #29... making people around you more successful than you are. I recommend using RT those you want to support on twitter and collaborating with them as great ways to grow their success. After all remember what Zig Ziglar said, "You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want." Wisdom to live by on social media.
David Willcutts 1:02 PM on September 13, 2010
Helpful list. It would be great to have something like this focused on B2B. Obviously many of these apply, but many seem more relevant for B2C
Mike Sullivan 2:13 PM on September 13, 2010
I have been immersed in this subject matter for about four months. It strikes me that my online presence begins to mirror directly the way in which I act and live personally and professionally in an offline environment. The modalities my be different, but the foundations are the same. That may be intuitive to many, but was not at first to me. This article helped crystallize that thinking. Thanks
Jay Palter 1:15 AM on September 14, 2010
Pretty good list - and a thought-provoking one too. But there's lots of repetition. Don't a lot of these 60 boil down to basic social goods? Like:
- Create good content
- Help people
- Be honest
- Listen well
- Network smartly
- Try to get out more
Conversational Agent 2:39 AM on September 14, 2010
Thanks for sharing! They are very useful pointers for us to study and execute.
Laura Christianson 4:46 PM on September 14, 2010
61. Be true to yourself. Too many online marketers try to be someone they're not, or they try to emulate someone "famous." In the process, they lose themselves.
Ron Harper 6:50 PM on September 17, 2010
Trying to do as many as I can. Of course, I'm biased, but I really like #22
Joe Knowz 2:38 AM on September 18, 2010
This is the best collection of online marketing tips I have ever seen. Just capitalizing on half of this list should jump start anyone's online influence.
Mr. Makingusmile 2:34 PM on September 18, 2010
Awesome website. Your site is very informative. You have really good ideas. Thank you
David Klein 4:42 PM on September 18, 2010
Wonderful Advice. While I am doing eccedingly well on the logical side of online blogging (my business), I am in need of help on the technical side of things.
http://davidkleinwit.blogspot.com/
Thanks,
David Klein
Frank Sonnenberg 7:01 AM on September 19, 2010
Awesome list. Very thought-provoking.This is advice that I'll read and re-read. Thanks.
JoshW 12:30 PM on September 29, 2010
I have just printed this list out made it into a to-do list and taped it to my wall. I love this list and will be referencing it daily.
JoshW 12:32 PM on September 29, 2010
I have now printed this off and will be refrencing it daily. I'm going to turn it into a check list of things to do!
I'd also love to mention it on my blog www.pricefallsllc.wordpress.com
thank you again for the list