Social media influence is not something that you can buy with money. It is also not something that is procured by taking some concrete steps in that direction. Social media influence has a lot to do with how people perceive your brand. You can only offer them pointers to the best face of your business and leave the rest to their conclusions. However, there are some ways that you can apply to step up the influence of your brand among your followers and friends on social media.
Before we outline some of those ways, you have to understand the difference between influence and popularity. You may be a popular brand on social media networks but that does not necessarily make you an influential one. You become an influential brand when people are willing to go that extra yard for you. It is when you ask them to participate in a discussion or debate and they do so. It is only by building up influence that you can promote and sell your products or services on social media networks.
To build up influence, you need to pull up the trust factor. Influence does not work in the absence of trust. People must grow to trust your brand and your content marketing machinery as the authentic source of information. It does not happen overnight but gradually with time. You have to be consistent not just with excellent content and prompt service, but also express a genuine concern for customers’ problems and apprehensions. In the days of intense competition among websites battling it out in the same domain of work, trust and brand loyalty is everything.
An excellent trick to shore up influence is to do something different and unique. You have to carve out an identity for yourself. That identity must be different from anything that the users have known before. You need to work with your online brand managers to figure out that one. Cutting out a new path would also mean embracing emerging technology and trends at all points. You have to evolve with time and also ensure that your brand is keeping up pace. Influence among your social media contacts is likely to come by if you don’t know the tricks of modern online marketing.
