There are people in the world that are influencers. These influencers are far more noticeable in this digital age of social media because we can actually count the amount of followers they have just by clicking their profile. They do not have to be celebrities (but most celebrities are influencers), they can also be people in communities that bring value to others lives and thus are followed by many. That’s great but what does it mean to me? You can leverage the audience of an influencer to help share your content.

And here is how:

1. Come up with a list of people you feel are influencers in your community (local or not, depends on your target audience).

2. Build relationships with the influencers via email, blog comments are even in person if they are local.

3. Ask for help, not a favor. Once you have a relationship with an influencer they are invested in the relationship and more willing to help out a friend.

4. Make it easy. You are not these peoples top priority. Set up everything so all they need to do is click a button.

5. Monitor the results because once they click their obligation is done and your out of site out of mind.

A great example of this would be when you are making an announcement about your business. Create that list and build the relationships WELL before you are ready to announce. Relationships take time to form. Once you get the thumbs up that the influencer is willing to help, write the blog article, create the social media posts and just ask the influencer to click “share”. That’s it! Well, that’s it for them, and then it is up to you to keep up with the questions or leads.

Be on the lookout of more tangible actions you can take towards growing your brand and capturing your portion of customer mindshare!

Based on the best selling book by Schaefer, Mark (2015-03-11). The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business.