In every industry, there are people known as influencers. Influencers attract all of the attention and opportunities, and they typically make more money. They also focus on improving how many followers they have on social media. The more people who follow them, the more likely they will get paid by companies who want them to advertise their products. Becoming an influencer also has other benefits, such as promoting a new business. We explain during the free webinar training, how becoming an influencer in a particular market can help a new business grow and make more money. Wondering how to become a powerful influencer that brings in a steady income? Check out some tips from the experts below:
Business recommends motivating others, exuding confidence, and continuing to focus on developing your skillset, to name a few ways to become more influential.
Exude confidence.
No matter the risk of success or failure, a leader exudes confidence and courage in situations that others may question. Employees may fear a decision's outcome but willingly support it when they witness confidence in their leader's verbal and nonverbal messages. When you demonstrate confidence in your or others' decisions, it encourages your team members to do the same. When leaders are confident enough to take the helm, employees become encouraged to follow.
Motivate others.
Leaders do not seek recognition. Instead, they offer it up freely. Give credit where it's due, and recognize others' hard work and efforts. Leaders know recognition doesn't just come in the form of occasional rewards, bonuses and promotions, but through the daily identification of accomplishments and tasks that benefit the team and goals at hand. When you convey an attitude of appreciation for workplace accomplishments, employee engagement increases, morale is boosted, and teams are motivated to accomplish difficult tasks.
Continue your development.
Leaders know there is always room for improvement and are never so arrogant as to believe they have mastered any one aspect of influence. Seek feedback from those you trust so you can continually work on your weak areas of management and communication skills. A true leader wants to know how they are perceived and works diligently to earn trust and credibility from those they lead. Seek mentors to guide you and coaches to develop your skills, and continually read up on how to improve.
A couple more ways to show others you care about them is by genuinely caring about your audience, speaking kindly to them, and doing something as simple as smiling. Inc. elaborates more on why these simple tips can go the distance when you’re trying to build your online presence.
Show interest in others
There's no room for self-centeredness or superficiality if your goal is to become influential. Ask people how they are doing and really mean it–listen to what they have to say. Exchange thoughts and ideas. People like to feel acknowledged.
Speak politely
Communicate with people in a way that they understand and feel included in the conversation. Forget about being rude, and avoid the know-it-all syndrome. Use words that build people up and create an impact on them.
Smile
Smiling is a way to make people feel welcome. Let your smile be sincere and appropriate. Pay attention to the people around you: Chances are, they need a smile to lift their mood. A smile is an accessory, like a tie or a necklace–it adds a great touch to your personality.
Tony Robbins puts it perfectly when he states how important it is to have a compelling vision. Your goal should not be self-serving, or people will see right through it. Focus on something you’re passionate about and that others can be passionate about as well.
Exceptional and compelling vision
Small visions have no power to inspire or move people. Small visions will never empower you to use all of your abilities and potential. Instead of influencing others, you’ll be fighting for their attention. If you want to unlock an extraordinary life, you must have big dreams. This is why great leaders always have a vision larger than themselves.
Trying to influence others to support a self-serving goal is a mistake many leaders make. Remember that wielding influence is very powerful and should only be used to influence change for the greater good. If you use it for selfish purposes, those you are trying to influence will sense it.
To really stand out and influence others, your vision needs to capture and grab the hearts, minds and energies of a significant number of people. It must be the vision of how life can be made better for a group of people, customers, a gender, a race or a country. There must be something that makes people want to bring their resources to the table and contribute their energy to achieve that vision. When you have a specific purpose that benefits those around you, others will be drawn in to help you reach your goal and they in turn will influence others to help as well.
Forbes explains what we were discussing above, which is why it’s essential to be passionate about what you are trying to promote. It’s challenging to influence people when you don’t love what you’re trying to influence them to believe in or who to be.
Being a known quantity is beneficial for influencers, since they won’t have to bother with those tiresome “introductions” the rest of us have to go through. Take a look at Bob Egan, Forbes columnist and self-described “mobile industry veteran.” He’s not writing about his Harley or his kids. He’s writing about mobile. He is mobile. And whether you read his column, or connect with him on Twitter, he always embodies mobile business.
As Steve Jobs once said, “People with passion can change the world.” The influencers we know all have passion about their interests. If you read Michael Carney’s articles on pandodaily, you’ll see that his passion for early-stage technology companies ensures that he puts in the time and effort to get to know the companies he writes about, and he happily shares these details with his readers.
They may be talking to you, but know that at least 25% of their brain is somewhere else. Don’t worry, you have their attention – 75% is all anyone can get! Influencers are busy people. Just take Danny Brown for example: he has the #1 marketing blog in the world (as chosen by HubSpot), is the co-author of a recent book on influence marketing, a speaker at TEDx, New Media Expo and more, VP Marketing & Technology at ArCompany, and he has two kids and two dogs to boot! If he wasn’t multitasking, he’d never be able to juggle so many balls at once.
Influential people If they couldn’t persuade you – to like them, to buy their book, to read their blog, to work with them – influencers really wouldn’t have much power. Visit Jay Baer’s website, for instance, and you’ll notice one thing right away: it’s called “Convince & Convert.” Jay’s philosophy is to help businesses use social media to persuade their audience of a core message, and with clients like Wal-Mart and Petco under his belt, it’s clearly working.
Anyone with influence understands the importance of reciprocity. Just like they give and get compliments, influencers live in a world of “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” They’ll happily do favors for those in their network, and they expect those favors to be returned sometime in the future.
If you’re looking to build a business, look no further than the master reciprocator- Ted Rubin. He’ll quickly build a community around your business – just keep some vests at hand.
If you’d like to work on improving your skills as an influencer Entrepreneur recommends attending conferences, retreats, and workshops. You can also look for opportunities to work with organizations and jointly with friends and family members who’ve got your back.
Workshops or retreats are live events focused on teaching a skill or implementing a strategy. Often these range from half-day to multi-day events and tickets can be several hundred to several thousand dollars. Profit can be as high as 70% after the cost of the venue, workshop materials and promotional costs.
Many KPIs have an inner circle of highly-engaged followers who want ongoing access to ideas, discussions or networks that revolve around the prominent individual. These ongoing memberships usually center around an online group with regular video updates. Participants pay anything from $20 per month right up to $2,000 per month for these memberships. They are an excellent source of recurring income for KPIs.
Key People of Influence are often engaged by organizations to work on specific consulting projects. Fees can range from $10,000–$100,000 for these sorts of engagements.
Join us during our next free webinar training where we’ll continue the discussion on how to build your online presence, make more money, and ultimately, become an expert in your field.
Sources: Entrepreneur, Inc., Forbes, Business, Tony Robbins
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