Becoming an influencer is not a quick process, it takes a long time to build up a reputation for being an expert on a particular topic. It can take years of regularly posting about that topic to generate an engaged community. That’s why it’s important not to jeopardize all that hard work by succumbing to one of the common pitfalls of being an influencer.
Below are some best practice guidelines for being an influencer, and some of the common pitfalls to avoid.
Do Specialize
When you’re first starting out it’s important to identify which topics you want to be known for. Pick a few relevant topics that showcase your strengths and specialize in those. This will help you create an audience specifically interested in those topics, so you can tailor your content to suit their preferences.
“Stop Writing about Everything … Find your niche, and then go even more niche.” Joe Pulizzi
Don’t create a niche all of your own
As much as we all would like to create something new that has never been done before, the danger is you will isolate yourself in a topic that no one has ever heard of and hence won’t be interested in.
Use the pre-defined topics that have already been established, rather than trying to create your own topic that no one will be searching for.
Do Engage with your followers and Start Conversations
Actively engaging with your audience is important. Take the time to comment and share your thoughts to keep the conversation going. Be approachable. The more you engage with the community the further you spread your influence.
“Never let yourself get so caught up in social media fame that you become a prima donna, disconnected from reality in your ivory tower. The more approachable you are, the more influential you’ll be.” Neil Patel
Don’t be a passive observer
It’s important to take part and contribute to existing conversations. Don’t just like or retweet to show you agree with something, be sure to offer up your own perspectives on the discussion as well as share any resources you have.
“The main reason why people follow others on social media is because they like the content others produce. If you’re a passive observer, primarily like or retweet to show your approval, don’t share enough of your own perspective, and don’t post regularly, it’ll be very hard to grow your audience.” Stephanie Morillo
Do Consistently Publish Fresh Content
By posting regularly your followers will gain familiarity with you and will begin to trust you more and more. As well as building loyalty and retaining the interest of your followers, posting regularly will also help you attract new followers. It will also help you drive more traffic to your website which will boost your SEO authority and can lead to more enquiries.
Keep your followers updated about what is happening in your industry and with your business. Create a content plan and schedule in regular times for posting new content.
“Publishing fresh content regularly should never be seen as a hassle. When you are constantly interacting, when you are constantly publishing fresh content, it shows to the people that you are active and you are eager to engage.” Amrit Hallan
Don’t leave it too long between posts
If you leave it too long between posts you will miss out on all the benefits that an engaging and steady flow of content produces, such as the opportunity to increase your reach, authority, demand, and brand awareness.
As well as missing out on those opportunities you will likely start losing your current followers as they fail to find a good enough reason to continue to follow you.
“The bottom line is this: the more you post, the more opportunities you have to engage with your fans.” Ryan Erskine
Do use automation
Automation can be a real time-saver, by taking 20 minutes a day to schedule a series of posts, you can maintain consistency in your posting times and have more control over your social media strategy.
There’s a good chance a large proportion of your audience will miss your posts the first time, so having a more robust posting schedule will help increase the visibility and click-throughs of your posts.
Automation can also help you maintain an active presence while you’re out of the office, or too busy focusing on other things.
Automation tools will also provide insights into your social media activity, eliminating the need for you to have to create your own reports. Ad-hoc posts are still important, especially if they are time-sensitive such as at an event, or a post about a breaking news story.
“With proper use of social media automation, you can make your time spent on your social media online marketing as productive and profitable as possible.” Kevan Lee
Don’t overuse automation
Posting too much can actually have a detrimental effect on your average engagement stats. There is evidence to suggest that when people post over a certain threshold, platforms start to hide their posts so as to not clog up people’s feeds. We recommend posting at least 3 times a day on Twitter and between 10-30 times a month on LinkedIn for optimal visibility and engagement.
Although you are automating your posts, you still need to add a human touch. Simply pumping out posts without creating your own message is ineffective and counterproductive.
As well as posting too much, another pitfall is using automation to like, follow, or post comments. This should be avoided, and it can make you look like a spam bot. Interactions are best written manually by you, automating interactions can make you seem less trustworthy.
“When you start to rely so much on automation, it essentially replaces real, person-to-person interaction between you and your audience. You start to lose the human element and just blast out automated messages.” Sudhir Sharma
Do give credit where credit is due
There is a lot of recycling of information happening, this isn’t anything new, content often gets repurposed in different formats. However, if you are taking something to reuse it, you must make sure to credit the original source of the information you want to use.
Not only is it good etiquette to properly credit your sources but it’s also good for engagement to quote and link back to where you found the information. The chances are the person you’ve quoted will be flattered that you included them in your post and will share your post in return.
Don’t steal other people’s ideas
This one is really simple, if you’re copying someone else’s post, or even taking their idea and tweaking it slightly, don’t try and pass it off as your own idea or creation. You must give full credit to the original author.
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