If there’s one thing that’s great about the Internet, it’s that anyone can become successful or famous. You don’t necessarily need money. Rather, the currency that’s used on the Internet is influence. To be more specific, what buys you success online is social media influence. Are people talking about you and your blog or brand on Facebook and Twitter? Does your blog have a cult following of readers who comment on every single post? If not, then you’re lacking influence. Here’s how to grow it:
1. Get involved.
Your influence online does not develop on its own. You have to put yourself out there and make it happen. This means putting in lots of time and effort into promoting your blog or content on the social web. Tweet your articles, comment on other people’s blogs, write guest posts for other blogs, and create a Facebook page for your brand—these are all just a few steps you can take become more engaged with the social web. This, in turn, generates influence.
2. Use tools like Klout.
There’s really no substantive way to improve your online influence if you can’t first measure it, to see what you’re doing wrong and what you can improve. The free online tool Klout measures influence by rating it from a 1 to 100. If your Klout score is closer to 100, then that means that you are highly influential on the Internet—lots of people share your work, and you’re also on the radar of other top influencers. Knowing where you are in the social media influence pecking order is a great way to determine whether you need to revamp your promotional efforts.
3. Create a platform that encourages discussion.
Besides just getting involved, it’s important to try to get others involved with your work. The best way to do that is to spark a heated debate or discussion. And the best way to have your readers start discussion is to create interactive content that begs for participation. For example, write posts that end with questions or that solicit suggestions from your readers. Write content that’s controversial and exciting.
4. Post material with viral potential.
“Going viral” on the Internet is perhaps the easiest way to increase your influence online. And no one really knows what it is that makes some things go viral and others not. We do know, however, that viral content generally shares certain characteristics—it’s controversial, it’s funny, it’s cute, or it’s sensational or creative in some way. Of course, there’s a lot of luck involved, but if you can try to create content that has the potential to go viral, you’ll metastasize the reach of your influence instantly.
Even harder than creating great content or writing an excellent blog is getting it to influence other people. If you put some work into it, you’d be surprised by how influential you can become!
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