There is a hidden power in social media. It relies on capturing the interest of The Power Of Influencers a small but tight-knit group. These influencers go unnoticed because their interaction scores are misrepresented. One of Klout’s measurements relies on diversity, how many unique people mention you. So, if you have a group of 6 loyal followers then you are going to have a lower Klout score than someone with 1,000 people who rarely talk to them. We often compare sharing in social media to word-of-mouth, but when we recommend something through conversation, we don’t use a bullhorn to spread our message. These ideas mesh with what I have experienced as a blogger. That is an issue with statistics and it can convince us that working with these hidden influencers isn’t worth our time. 
How to Connect With The Power Of Influencers
“Micro-Influencers” is the industry term for these individuals, but they are people like you and me. Bloggers, writers, marketers, moms and dads. They tend to be leaders of small tribes and trusted by them. They have a huge potential to promote our content and help it go viral. Here are some concrete steps to build a support network filled with these micro-influencers.
1. Use Follower Wonk Bio Search
Twitter is the #1 real-time search engine for me. FollowerWonk makes it easy to find people by information in their bio. Put in a few keywords for the niche you are targeting. See what names pop up and their influencer score. Choose people who have about the same influence as you and add them to a Twitter list.
2. Subscribe To Their Blogs
Now that you have a list of potential allies, start following their blogs. Leave comments and feedback as often as you can. Add value to the community. Share their content with your personal network.
3. Email Them
When you are comfortable enough, reach out via email. Send a brief message and tell them what you like about their writing. Give some constructive feedback, a compliment, or a suggestion for a post/series. I try to keep it to a paragraph.
4. Follow The Chain
You will not develop relationships with everyone you follow, but that doesn’t mean your work is over. Look for tribe members. Often the same group will comment on 4 or 5 of the same industry blogs. Add these leads to your list and repeat the above steps. Soon you should have a budding network of influencers who will help promote your content.
Viral Content And Small Numbers
I have always been a big believer in building relationships to create a strong foundation for your online presence. What I have not always understood is how important it was to be friends with bloggers who were at my level. New research is de-bunking the ideas that celebrities have the power when it comes to promotion. Turns out, it is many smaller groups promoting the same things.
You can make your network more powerful by leveraging what we know about the viral nature of content. I cannot put into better words than this post co-authored by Buzzfeed and StumbleUpon.
How Content Is Really Shared: Close Friends, Not ‘Influencers’
Here are a few of the main points made by Jack Krawczyk and Joe Steinberg
- “While influential people may be able to reach a wide audience, their impact is short-lived.”
- “Even the largest stories on Facebook are the product of lots of intimate sharing — not one person sharing and hundreds of thousands of people clicking.”
- “We often compare sharing in social media to word-of-mouth, but when we recommend something through conversation, we don’t use a bullhorn to spread our message.“ These ideas mesh with what I have experienced as a blogger. While it is nice to receive a Tweet from a member of the Twitterati, it has never sent me as much traffic as a tweet from a fellow small time blogger. That is why I endorse Triberr, it leverages the power of small bloggers when they group together.
Do you think that this model works? Or should we only seek traffic from those with the highest Klout scores?
Susan Silver is celebrating her third year as a contract copywriter. She has written for several online publications on the topics of social media, marketing, and pop-culture. She is a weekly contributor to the popular website 12most.com.
Author’s Website http://cirquedumot.com/
Author’s Twitter @susan_silver
Image Credit – Sean Rogers
About Josh Nadeau
Great post! Shows the power in numbers, or as Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit calls it, An Army of Davids.
I keep meaning to check out that book! Putting it on my must read list.
Outstanding insight, Susan. I agree with your suggested steps. And I do think that an engaged 6-100 can benefit you more with their interaction and sharing than a disengaged 10,000. Look at the components of Klout Scoring:
True Reach – your engaged 6+ may have significant reach through their own follower networks
Amplification – these engaged 6+ will consistently interact with you thus implying that you influence them
Network Impact – per your suggestions of finding people of similar interests, who may have similar influence scores, you help each other with your sharing and interaction. And when the water rises as you build awareness…all the boats/tribemates also rise. Therefore, “more influential” people tend to share your content!
Something that I did mention, but as you point out above, is that these small tribes get you on the radar. Someone usually knows someone, and if they like your content they may directly share with the higher ups. It’s just like your career, you got to find your way up the ladder of influence (lol). I think it is more impressive when people can talk about you, instead of you doing all the talking.
Some of the best and largest bloggers got there by listening and communicating with the little followers. If you reach out to those small followers in your list you may find that you create a devoted follower and as they grow they will have more and more people to share you with. So you should always be reaching out to those starting out, you never know they may end up bigger than you.
That is exactly how I feel about it. We underestimate the power of smaller bloggers, but everyone started there once. The only way to build momentum for your blog is to connect.
As usual, good tips. Will have to try out FollowerWonk, Eddie
Go Susan. Great stuff.
Thanks Mario! I think many people overlook just how important it is to find and network with people at a similar level. We can’t always be looking to people at the top to help us along. We need to rely on our blogging neighbors too.
This is so SMART, and again reinforces what I always think: Sales is about relationships on a small scale. Social Media is the same. The Chris Brogan’s of the world are rare, but if you can get 10 Amy Tobins, Susan Silvers etc., you’ll have the same reach to a more diverse group.
Right on. I think it is time to give the little guy a break. Klout came on the scene telling us that we all had influence. Yet, It is still only those with #’s in the the 50 and above that seem to get any perks. If I signed up for the program, I would create a perk that could only be taken by those with a score under 40. I wonder what reaction it would get?
I didn’t know about Follower Wonk, so I learned something new. I am also pro-Triberr, as I’m sure you know. Thanks for this amazing post!
As far as I am aware it is only Follower Wonk that lets you search bios. You can do it with Twitter search I think too, but it is more complicated. They also have some great tools for discovering good people to follow on Twitter. I created a couple YouTube videos about it on my channel.
Very good post Susan. Proud to have you as a Tribe member on Triberr!!
Shucks, thanks for inviting me Sally. I am glad I got over my Triberr fears, Dino and Dan have built a great product that is a real solution to promotion for all bloggers. I am talking about any size. I am thinking of tackling Blog Engage next, which so many people really love.
Susan,
I learned this first hand during a blogging contest I was in. My competitor is not a big blogger but she is a loyal and nice person. When she needed help winning (which she came in 1st BTW) her blogging friends showed up. They came day after day to help her.
There is something to be said about the smaller loyal blogger.
~Allie
Agreed. The worst mistake I ever made was trying to go it alone. Even if you don’t know how to manage Twitter, Facebook, or other alternatives. I highly suggest people join a forum. A place where it is is easy to talk and find people with similar interests. It is how I got my start, and those gals have been supporting me for almost a year now.
Hey Susan! Good post and great points. There is always more power in smaller numbers because they make sharing content so much more meaningful rather than when its done on a wider scale. I am not a triberr user as I should be with my work schedule, but I am trying to make an effort to be more active.
It is so hard to balance things out. Social Media and Online Networking is one of the biggest time sinks of my week. That is why I think you need to have goals that keep you on track. Then it makes everything else easier to mange.