There are at least 200 social media websites. More than 3.063 billion people are using the Internet today. More than 52 percent of them participate on at least two or more social media websites. If you were interested in promoting yourself or your business, then wouldn’t it be wise to reach out to this group?
You could do it yourself. But that would involve a lot of work and some understanding of social media. There is a way to reach out to this group without even getting involved. You can trust an influencer to do it.
An influencer is a person who has a following on the social networks and offers personal recommendations to them.
Why trust one person with your marketing? Well, studies have shown that word of mouth and personal recommendations are the most trusted method to promote to people involved in social networks. In fact, according to Nielsen, a market research group, 92 percent of buyers trust recommendations from people they know and 70 percent trust peer opinions they find online.
There are two types of online influencers – one who has the highest following or one who promotes your brand or product the most often.
If you decide that an influencer is the best way for your business to connect with social network users, then there are two ways to find one –- a manual search or an SMMS search.
A manual search is performed on the networking site. Simply type your products, services, or brand into the search engine box on the site. This method will find anyone who has publicly cited your keywords.
A SMMS (Social Media Management Software) is a tool you can use to automatically find an appropriate influencer.
Your business could get a tremendous boost from using an influencer. It
Helps you:
- Reach a larger audience. Influencers have a large following. Connecting with one provides you with a tool to reach a very big audience.
- Reward loyal customers. Some of the best influencers are you current loyal customers. There is nothing like using a person who is already happy to spread the word about you and your product. You should encourage them to speak up by offering them a free product or discounted service. Amazon has such a program called Amazon moms
- Promote a new product or product feature. Influencers who have been doing promotion for you already know your brand and its products. They are more motivated to try out one of your products or services and then share their experiences with their follows.
An example of a person who has a lot of experience as an influencer is John Rampton. An entrepreneur, investor, and columnist for such publications as Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc., and HuffingtonPost, He has also written articles for Time, All Business Experts, SEJ SearchEngine Journal, and more. Entrepreneur Magazine recently rated him third in a list of the world’s 50 top influencers and he is identified as a top 20 mobile influencer to follow on Twitter.
While working on a construction site to earn money to pay for college Rampton severely broke his legs when a vehicle ran over him and was in rehabilitation for more than 12 months. During that time he learned all the ins and outs of online marketing. “I learned what it takes to sell products online. Since then I have purchased, started, grown and sold several companies online with my latest company quadrupling a seven figure revenue stream in six months,” he wrote.
Some articles he has written or interviewed for and were published include:
- 5 Ways Dreamers Can Become Doers
- 5 Mistakes When Starting An Online Business
- How to Build a Thriving Business: 6 Things Entrepreneurs Do
Find more about Rampton at his website.
