by Ben Baker
It’s snowing out.
Most people who are reading this are saying, “yeah, so what. It is the middle of winter, what is the big deal about that?” But what if I gave you some more context? It is snowing, and it is in Vancouver, BC. Again, most people would assume it was winter, in Canada, of course, it was snowing. However, snow, in the City of Vancouver, is a rare occurrence. Happens only a few days per year and in some years, not at all. It is an anomaly, something unique and therefore talked about, people get excited by it, and it stirs up emotions, good and bad.
The same can applies to Influencer Marketing. As it becomes less unique, less rare, it becomes less interesting to those who engage with it. What used to be the domain of the very few, has become ubiquitous and therefore, the information that was once shared only by the few and unique has made its way to the masses. There are now tens of thousands of people, if not millions, who consider themselves influencers. Social media is full of them. Each vying for that elusive audience where they can share their passions and become popular enough that they can either supplement or replace their income by doing so.
The real question is, with more and more people trying to become more and more influential, what makes one person stand out from the rest? What makes them the unique snowflake that people want to engage with, trust and be influenced by them?
Too many people are looking at what everyone else is doing, thinking that if I can be “just like that” I can make it as an influencer marketer too. The problem with this theory is that the influential marketing world is filling up with the “me too” generation. Those have nothing special to add and are just copying what has been done by others before them. How many unboxing videos for an Apple iPhone X does the world need? I just went onto YouTube and stopped counting after one hundred. Some are in foreign languages, some are positive, some are negative, some have hundreds of thousands of views and some less than 2000.
So, if you were to make an unboxing video for an iPhone X how would you become the snowflake? How would you differentiate yourself, so your video becomes the one that everyone watches, trusts and wants to find more videos created by you?
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The number one thing you need to do is to care about your audience and find out what they are interested in that you can provide. That requires building a long-term, two-way relationship with your fan base and actively taking the time and making an effort to find out how you can serve them. It is not just about being funny or cute or controversial; it is about understanding why your audience believes that you are trustworthy and a source that they want to come back to for information time and time again.
You need to be as passionate about the audience you serve as the things that you discuss.
If you are not passionate, if you do not care, if you are just “dialing it in” people will notice. They will go looking for another source of information and somewhere else to place their trust. However, if you are genuine, authentic and take the time and make an effort to find out unique information about the product or service that others do not know, then you are adding value that people want to engage with and share.
Dig deep.
Do the research.
Look for a different angle from everyone else.
Share the good, the bad and the ugly.
Let people know WHY they should care and how this particular product or service will benefit them.
By being different, by demonstrating knowledge that others do not have, and by doing it consistently over time, you will build a loyal following that wants to engage with you and share your information with others. Being
the same as everyone else will never get you noticed and will never allow you to stand apart from the crowd.
Be a snowflake.
Each snowflake is unique to itself. There is not another like it in the entire world. It stands on its own and associated with originality.
Yes, there are seven and a half billion people on this earth. Yes, many have thoughts and ideas that are similar to each other, but it is the way we present those ideas, either make people stand up and take notice or not. Take something as simple as an iPhone X and instead of talking about all of its features, take the time to talk about why this phone is valuable to this specific audience. How do the features of this phone allow certain people to do things that they could not accomplish with another phone? Or how a certain piece of software on the iPhone makes it invaluable to people who do certain things.
Narrow your focus.
By focusing on a very specific thing, in a very specific way and communicating how it benefits a very specific audience, you build a loyal tribe of people. As Seth Godin is fond of saying “people like us, do things like this.” What he means by this is that if you can find a group of people that all care about a certain thing, they attract like-minded people. So, if you can attract a specific audience, those people will build your following for you.
By being narrow in focus, you become an expert in a certain discipline to a specific group. There is nothing wrong with this, in fact, it is beneficial. It separates you from the crowd and lets you focus your attention on people who care about the exact things that you do.
Stop trying to focus on everyone and appease everybody.
First of all, it is impossible to do, and secondly, you are not building an audience that is sustainable or loyal. By appealing to the masses, you are trying to be popular and not influential. Popularity is fleeting, and you are only popular as long as people find you interesting. Being influential means that you are providing value and that has long-term implications. Being influential means that you can introduce new products or services and your audience will continue to listen and share because you have built up credibility and trust. Trust has a long tail; popularity does not!
To sum it all up, your influence is predicated on your ability to be valuable to a specific audience and derived through you understanding as to why you are unique to them and how you provide them with information that they cannot acquire elsewhere.
STOP being a commodity and instead become a brand worth loving.
To Your Success
~Ben Baker
LinkedIn: @yourbrandmarketing
YouTube: @Ben Baker Founder of Your Brand Marketing
Twitter: YourBrandMrktng
Ben Baker is the author of “Powerful Personal Brands: a hands-on guide to understanding yours” and provides workshops, keynotes and consulting on brand and brand strategy. He believes that every brand needs to stop acting like a commodity and instead be a brand worth loving. You can download a free book chapter at www.powerfulpersonalbrands.com and contact him to help you or your organization communicate more effectively at www.YourBrandMarketing.com. You can listen as Ben hosts the www.YourLIVINGBrand.live show on IHEART Radio every Wednesday at 10 am Pacific.
For more than 500 copies, we will include your logo on the cover and waive our speakers fee * to come out and speak to your staff and clientele on the value of
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THIS BOOK IS FOR:
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It is a WORKBOOK with examples and stories and room for you to write down your own thoughts.
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CONTACT
Ben Baker
604 512 7174
Ben@yourbrandmarketing.com
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