Have you ever wondered why some people seem to know everyone and always have a stream of clients coming in? It’s because they’ve made themselves an industry influencer.
Industry influencers are a crucial part of any industry. They have sizable followings who trust and respect them as an authority, which in turn creates a steady and predictable flow of leads. Let’s explore how you can become an industry influencer and use your platform to take your business to the next level.
What Is An Industry Influencer?
Relax – industry influencer is NOT the same thing as Instagram model.
Instead, an industry influencer is a person who has developed an influential presence within their chosen field. Influencers are experts in their profession and possess the ability to influence others through social media or word of mouth marketing.
Who Can Be An Industry Influencer?
Just about anyone! As long as you’ve built up an audience that respects your opinion on a certain topic, you can be an industry influencer.
Step 1: Find Your Niche
It’s important to first determine what your niche is, as this will be the foundation of everything you do. Once you’ve decided on a professional niche, find out where they hang out online – are there particular social media sites that connect people in your industry? Find these communities and start sharing content with them.
Step 2: Choose Your Platform(s)
In order to build a large social media following, you need to make it easy for your potential clients to find you. It’s important that the platforms you choose are easy for people in your industry to locate and identify with. If one particular platform is particularly popular among those within your niche, then go all-in on that. However, if there are multiple platforms that your audience frequents, then it’s probably best to diversify. Remember that you can also quickly and easily repurpose content across multiple platforms using scheduling software.
Step 3: Share Value
With a million and one would-be industry influencers out there, how do you get your audience to pay attention to you?
By sharing value.
Stop worrying about how many followers you have and focus instead of creating relevant content that will resonate with them. If what you’re putting out there isn’t something that your audience can benefit from, you’re wasting your time.
The best way to start is by answering common FAQs and talking about the particular challenges your prospective customers are facing. You should provide actionable advice that proves you know what you’re talking about, because this will establish you as a credible and useful resource.
Step 4: Be Consistent
Being an influencer isn’t just about the quality of your content – quantity matters every bit as much. You must be consistent about posting new material on a regular basis. Your content needs time to spread organically through your community – if all of a sudden you disappear for several months, then the momentum that was building will stop.
This is easier said than done, of course! But the more frequently you post, the better chance you have at becoming the go-to authority within your niche.
Step 5: Partner with Non-Competing Influencers and Businesses
As much as you might want to, it’s not possible for one person to be everywhere and do everything. That’s why partnering with complementary businesses is so important – they can help promote your content and vice versa.
You might partner up to create:
- an eBook
- a webinar
- a video series
- a challenge
Of course, it’s important to choose partnerships carefully and work with creators whose values reflect your own. You should also aim for those who serve a similar niche but in a different way, as this will give you the best chance of reaching the right audience and growing your own following.
Step 6: Engage with Your Audience
Social media isn’t just about creating and sharing content – it’s also an opportunity for you to engage with your audience. This is a great way of staying front-of-mind while strengthening the connections between yourself and those in your industry.
You should aim to ask thought provoking questions that get people talking, answer questions people ask you, and respond to comments and messages as often as you can.
Step 7: Be Patient
Remember that there’s no such thing as overnight success, even in the social media world which is so closely associated with instant gratification. It can take ninety days or more for your content to gain traction, so you need to be patient and stick with it. If you keep putting out quality material on a regular basis then eventually things will fall into place.
It’s also vital to remember why you started and put your ego to the side. You’re not doing this to become famous, you’re doing it because you have value to share and you want to make an impact on the world.
Summary
Becoming an industry influencer is all about creating and sharing valuable content on a regular basis, as well as consistently showing up and engaging with your audience. You can’t do this overnight and it will take some time for the momentum to build, but if you consistently work towards becoming an influencer within your industry then those high quality leads should follow.