Daily Dose – How to reach influential people

Daily Dose – Social Media Tip of the Day – How to reach influential people

One of the most fantastic pros about social media is that influential people are easier to reach than ever before.

By influential, I don’t mean huge celebrities like Lady Gaga or Oprah Winfrey. I mean influential people in your industry.

You know those people. People with over 20,000 Twitter followers and thousands of Facebook followers (harder to get than Twitter followers).

Through social media, you can catch the attention of these influentials, by @mentioning them on Twitter, posting on their Facebook wall, messaging them on LinkedIn, re-pinning their stuff on Pinterest. It’s these people who you want to engage to get your message out. 

However, you must be authentic. You must actually like the influential person in question and you must care about their content. You must Like them on Facebook, ReTweet their stuff, subscribe to their blog/email newsletter and comment on their blog.

You can’t be a fair weather fan and then ask them for a favor. Doesn’t work; doesn’t reflect well on you.

I suggest contacting 5 influentials each week and asking them to look at your stuff – your blog, your Twitter feed, your SlideShare presentations, your website, whatever it is. Ask them to retweet or share something. THANK THEM profusely if they oblige.

Tip – don’t stalk them, and don’t be fake. Another great thing about social media is that everyone can smell a fake a mile away.

Be yourself, have great stuff to share and to disseminate, find the right people to connect with – and keep on truckin’. You’ll get there.

Do you connect with “influentials” on the interwebs? What strategies do you use? Please post in the Comments section below.