Originally appeared on The Story Engine
My part…
Help Their Audience
Sometimes it’s difficult to add value directly to an influencer, especially when you’re just starting out. In the early stages of your business, you probably won’t have a big social media following email list of your own to leverage for building relationships.
Ed Troxell faced this challenge after leaving his career at Apple to stat a business. He started following top online influencers which lead him to Nicole Walters.
He made it a priority to show up to every broadcast Nicole had. He would show up and engage with everyone, not just her. If someone had a question and he knew the answer he would provide it. Soon people in the community started to know his name because he kept showing up and delivered solutions.
People wondered, “Who’s Ed?” And then word would spread – “Oh you don’t know Ed? Your whole life is about to change – check with Ed.”
This lead to a steady growth of followers relationships. People saw that he showed up and provided value – he wasn’t just trying to sell something.
Ed actually used this same strategy with me on a livesteam with Kim Doyal, he was highly engaged and helpful during the whole talk. Which lead to us talking and building a friendship. It’s rare to find people who are willing to help others in your audience, but they are key to building a strong tribe, so be that person!
Share Content
You should be keeping a good pulse on the content and influencers in your niche. If you see something that interests you, find out if there’s someone you want to connect with who may also be interested in that material. You can email it to them or share it with them on social media. Use the content as a conversation starter. Pose a question to the person you want to connect with:
- Is there an idea in the content that you find controversial?
- Are there some ideas that you found lacking?
- Is there anything you would do differently?
These are all good conversation starters and can help you break the ice as you reach out to others in your field.
As you get to know people better, you will discover other interests they have outside of their industry. They may have a passion for skiing, or their favorite book might be Dune. If you come across content that relates to these passions, you’ll have an opportunity to build more of a personal connection and cut through the noise.
Read the entire blog post at The Story Engine