5 Steps to Becoming a Social Influencer

Want to create your own individual executive social brand that will drive influence – both inside and outside of your organization?

Read on.

Here are five steps you can take now.

1. Take Action

The first thing you must do is recognize the importance and benefits of becoming an executive social influencer.

It’s more important now than ever to have a strong professional reputation. A positive and effective brand will help you and your company stand out among the competition.

Developing your individual executive brand will not only enhance you as a thought leader and influencer, but will also make your business the best it can be. Your position gives you the opportunity to spread your ideas and meet your goals.

Your credibility is at stake anytime potential clients, media outlets, stockholders, and colleagues can’t find you online. Even worse, you can look unorganized and hurt your reputation as an executive if your online content isn’t kept up or doesn’t appear conclusive.

Once you come to this realization, the sky is the limit.

Consider your social brand: what do you want to convey to followers? Your brand shapes your reputation and helps you create a positive influence.

Any comments, mentions, and shares are great for SEO on major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. This gives your company more attention and can drive up online sales and more leads.

2. Define Your Personal Brand

After you choose to create your own individual executive brand, you must choose what you want to convey to your audience.

Identify your top strengths as a leader. This will help you determine your selling points.

It’s important to be unique and demonstrate what makes you special.

You can do this easily. Just answer these five questions:

What kind of leader am I?

Where are my strongest skills as a CEO?

How do I stand out among other influencers?

What makes me different?

Where can I position myself as a thought leader?

Identifying your strengths will allow you to define your personal brand and begin developing your role on social media.

It’s extremely important to choose a specific focus for your brand. Too many executives focus on things that are too general to offer any uniqueness.

You must hone in on what you want to communicate to followers to ensure that you transmit the correct message and reputation. The image you create should match your corporate culture and the wants/needs of your audience.

3. Become a Social Advocate

As a leader, you must also advocate for your company. This helps to effectively brand yourself to your business.

Encourage employee involvement to boost yourself and your organization. Use social media as a forum to share company updates, comment, and interact. This stirs traffic and boosts your influence.

What are major social media platforms to use? For example, is online media in your industry highly attentive to LinkedIn or Twitter?

Did you know your LinkedIn footprint is your biggest executive footprint? Develop it and embrace this platform.

Try to design and build a strong position based on your goals. Continually create content and update your profile.

Are you wondering how to make your LinkedIn the best it can be? For starters, have a professional and welcoming headshot. Then work on your profile headline: define your focus area of expertise, sound credible, and remain focused on your industry.

You can use many strategies to create a positive influence. Post about topics that matter to your community and followers. In this digital age, it’s paramount to stay up-to-date with the most popular social media forums.

4. Have a Marketing Plan for Your Brand

A marketing plan defines your goals and ensures you work toward meeting them.

Define what you stand for and stay true to the plan. A marketing plan keeps you on track and saves you from straying in the future.

You will also come across more genuine. Your audience will allocate more trust in your brand when you stay true to your original plan.

Try this:

Have a one-day planning session. Decide whether you want to market your brand online or offline.

Choose who you want your audience to be. This is super important to shape your content for the people that will be viewing it. One idea is to make a “user profile” that defines your target audience. Will you target B2B, B2C or both? What content does this audience most likely consume?

It is equally important to imagine how you will connect with this ideal audience.

Related: Social Media Strategy for Start-up Business Owners

5. Create Content

Blogs

Words of advice for blogging : shoot for a minimum of one blog per week. This keeps followers engaged. They know they can expect the post on a certain day and will look forward to it.

Once you begin blogging it will enhance your brand and create an authentic voice. Try using the LinkedIn Writing Platform.

Videos

If you’re considering posting videos to drive your social influence, consider making a plan. Brainstorm what will engage your audience most and keep them wanting more.

Think about creating a video series with an umbrella topic and videos that fit under this. Always reply to follower comments to raise engagement.

Podcasts

Creating podcasts is another great option. About 48 percent of monthly podcast consumers follow companies or brands on social media .

Podcasts can lead people who don’t already follow you in your direction.

Conclusion

Finally choose how, where, and when you want to become an industry influencer. This will decipher your best method to successfully convey your brand position, passion, and experience to your audience.

Consider the small details – what specific posts, tweets, etc. will you make to grab the attention of your followers.

Even more so, how will you keep your audience wanting more?