One of the things that I truly love about blogging and social media in general is your ability to create great content, build an audience and become an authority.
And there is a certain pride that comes along with all that hard work…and the recognition that follows when your ship finally comes in.
Now I don’t desire to become an authority so I can lord it over a bunch of people…I like being an authority because I like to teach people how to succeed at things like SEO, web analytics and entrepreneurship.
That’s truly what makes influence so attractive.
But even after all that hard work, you can still lose influence. Things happen in the business world that negatively impacts it.
For instance, you get so busy you can’t maintain your blog, someone takes a shot at you and writes a flaming post or everyone is running to some rising star.
And we’ve all felt it…those times when you are not as popular as you once were…when you are not the “go-to” guy or girl anymore.
You naturally want to change that because losing influence equals losing clients, jobs and money. So what do you do when that happens?
Let me show you:
How do you know you are losing influence online?
The first thing you need to determine is if and how you are losing influence. Just because you feel like you are losing influence doesn’t mean you actually are.
So, there are two ways of measuring influence online…the short term and the long term. Let’s look at the short-term first.
Here are some common ways to measure short-term influence:
- Klout – People either love Klout or hate it. Those who hate it see it as a meaningless way to measure online influence…one that is based on algorithms that can be gamed and don’t reflect real-world influence. Alex Braunstein poured significant time and energy into proving the Klout influence metric is flawed. Rohn Jay Miller encourages you to Delete Your Klout Profile Now! But if you decide to use Klout to determine how to gain influence online then I suggest you read Ben Straley’s Losing Klout: Four Questions About Third-Party Influence. His four questions will help you pinpoint the correct influencers you need to engage if you want to raise your influence online. Even if you hate Klout, it may be hard to ignore. Retailers are starting to use it as a means to reward customers with high Klout scores. The Palms Casino resort in Las Vegas checked the Klout scores of guests at check in, giving upgrades to those with high scores. It now has the highest Klout score among its peers. So, are you losing Klout?
- Social signals – How many followers do you have on the major social sites? How many new followers are you getting every week? How many retweets or likes is your content getting? Then ask this question about people in the same industry…people who you might consider competitors. Compare yourself in each category to gauge whether you are losing or gaining influence. Here are some tools to use:
- PeerIndex, which is a lot like Klout, gives you an overall score based upon three subsets: Authority, Audience and Activity.
- Twitalyzer looks specifically at Twitter and scores you on Engagement, Impact, Reach, Velocity and a few other metrics.
- Crowdbooster also uses Twitter to gauge your online influence by measuring the growth of your followers and who your top retweeters are. And the scatter plot graph is really cool too, it lets you see your most engaging tweets.
Even though it may seem obvious, I should probably point out why I consider the above short term…they can change dramatically in a short period of time. As Seth Godin put it, they twitch.
Besides, as a marketing professional you should be looking at the performance of your social media activities on a daily basis. The following long-term metrics, however, you may need only to look at on a weekly basis:
- Search rankings – If you are an SEO, then you will naturally think about search rankings as a way to measure your online influence. Back in the old days sheer position was a matter of creating quality content. These days, though, search position is affected by social signals, and can be a real-time means to measure your influence online. The more quality posts you can write that get a decent share on the social web…the more influence you have in search. But keep in mind that changes to search position…unless impacted by a recent algorithm update…don’t change dramatically from day to day. It can be weeks or months before you see real change in these positions.
- Blog engagement – Another indicator that you are losing influence deals with your blog engagement. This is where you look at basic metrics like hits, page views, referrer sources, etc. Are they declining? What about comments? Are you getting less? Are you getting less links back to your blog posts? Even take in consideration the number of emails you get in your inbox. Fewer emails could mean that people are no longer looking to you for advice.
- Google Trends – Finally, you could use Google Trends to get a grip on your online influence. In my experience, this is a metric that’s tough to use for individual influence…unless you are a celebrity. Still, it’s helpful to search for long-tail keywords geared around your industry. For example, as an SEO you could search “Penguin recovery tips” to see how you are trending for that keyword.
It’s probably helpful at this point to suggest that you could plug-and-play a handful of different social and search metric tools. Use your favorites.
And once you’ve collected all this data into a spreadsheet…your next step is to consider why you are losing influence.
In some ways it could be that you’re not blogging as frequently because you are doing more speaking engagements. If that was the case, then you could probably just pick back up the pace with the blogging, but is it worth it in terms of what you are gaining from your speaking gigs?
These are all costs you have to weigh. So let’s look at some tactics to getting back your influence.
Write, write and write some more
You can directly influence your online influence by the sheer amount of writing you do. If you write only two days a week, jump that up to five days a week and your influence will go up. Guest blog and your influence will again continue to increase. This increase in writing will also help you cast a wider net for the search engines, of which there are 3 billion on Google everyday:
This will ultimately lead to more visitors and subscribers and influence.
Build a list
If you don’t have one already, then the real magic of generating influence will come from that email subscriber list. See, the more you blog the more traffic you will get…
But that traffic is worthless if you don’t do anything with it. So if you want a way to communicate with your audience…then start building an email newsletter list. This gives those who sign up an exclusive relationship with you. And your conversion rates will be much higher when you market to the email list.
Interact with your readers
One of the most basic ways to build and keep influence is to engage with your readers. Respond to every comment, engage them with posts that ask them for their opinions and pick their brains for insights using tools like Qualaroo:
Also, reward your readers with contests and giveaways that demonstrate how much you appreciate them. And you can really build influence when you create content that they love and want. That is the way to build that engaging community of people who become advocates for you as they share your content on the social web.
Use a variety of media
As the web grows and supports more and more types of media you will have to learn some new skills in order to offer what people want. These days text is not enough to influence people…you now need to know how to use video, audio and photos.
But when should you use which media? Here’s a little guide:
- Text – Keywords still dominate the world of search, so you will still need to provide a substantial amount of copy.
- Video – Some people make video the center of their influence platform (Khan Academy has become famous though his use of video) while most everyone else uses it to complement their other work (SEOmoz does this with their Whiteboard Fridays). Either approach adds to the power of your influence. And by the way, you have to create a transcript of your videos for search engines and the readers who like to skim text. There are great services out there that can make that happen quickly.
- Audio – Audio works great for those people who are natural born speakers. They are very comfortable speaking…can do it on the fly…and thus naturally create some of the best podcasts out there. Check out the Manager Tools podcast to see what I mean. But if you are not that comfortable speaking, you still may want to consider using audio to enhance your content. For example, you could create a monthly podcast where you interview an industry leader or drill down on a certain subject.
Be original
You will only gain an audience as long as you provide original content. But since there is so much competition online it truly is harder than ever to be original.
There is so much great content being produced. How do you compete?
One way is to ride the wave of a trending topic. If you are the first to share content on hot news…then you’ll gain some attention, followers and traction.
You can use Google Trends to follow what’s hot:
Based upon those results you could write an article titled “What the Zombie Apocalypse Can Teach You about Personal Persuasion.” In fact, you could write an article using all of those topics.
Then you could take it a step further and use Google Insights:
Search by category and you’ll get a very targeted set of searches.
Don’t forget that you can’t just create cute content from trending topics that aren’t useful and full of detailed research. You’ll probably lose your core audience…so in order to build your influence and keep it…you have to provide content that your audience cares about. Only then will they listen to what you say.
You also need to follow as many blogs as possible. This will help you to stay current and generate new, fresh ideas.
Remain insanely focused
Those who constantly seem to be at the top of the searches and are always being quoted in this publication or that blog have a little secret…they discipline themselves to focus on one thing and one thing only.
They understand the big picture…and everything they do should serve to go after that big picture. That means that highly-influential people are delegators…and use the best tools to accomplish their tasks in less time.
Here are four I highly recommend to help you stay insanely focused:
- Batchbook – Influential people have a huge contact list. But as it gets bigger it also gets harder and harder to manage…so you need a system. This free, cloud-based tool will help even with your social media contacts.
- MailChimp – Naturally you’ll need a system to stay in touch with all of those contacts. Repeated messages via email grow your influence among your readers. MailChimp can automate that process for you on just about any budget.
- DropBox – A no-brainer for someone who needs to store, share and access all kinds of media from their laptop or phone. Insanely focused influential people love convenience!
- Rescue Time – Like I said, influential people are focused…and keeping track of what you do, where you are wasting time and how long it takes you to do it helps them to keep their razor sharp focus. This tool is a must have!
Stay relentless
This one is the other side of the coin of remaining insanely focused. People who have influence and lose it and build it up again and keep it…never, ever stop!
Sure they will vacation and might even shut off their phones and laptop at the end of the business day…but when they are on…they are on.
Besides, it’s really tough to keep them away from their work.
This is also why influential people are naturally successful people. They hang in there through the ups and downs because they know that success takes a long time.
You also won’t find them straying from their cornerstone content or their schedule. In my own career being relentless is easily one of the top secrets to my success. Are you relentless?
Find a common enemy
Another tactic you can use to build influence is to employ the tactic used by copywriters called “the common enemy.” See, people love it when someone stands up against perceived opponents…and they love to get behind and support them.
The idea behind this concept is to zero in on a bad guy in your industry. Financial newsletters want you to think that bad guy is the government…politicians pick on the other party…and Aaron Walls picks on Google.
He’s not alone, however. There are a lot of people who think that Google is dangerous:
You do need to understand one thing, however. You shouldn’t build your entire platform on finding a common enemy…rather this should be something you refer to on occasion.
In addition, try to avoid attacking particular people…instead focus on companies or institutions. It’s a lot easier to defend.
Twist social media to your benefit
A long time ago blogging was the only thing in town…so you could influence people by simply going around to everyone’s blog and leaving comments like Pete Cashmore of Mashable who left a hundred or more comments on other blogs every day.
But with Twitter, Google+ and Facebook…and rising stars like Pinterest and Tumblr…at your fingertips, social media is really going to be your most powerful tool to getting and keeping influence than leaving comments.
Don’t neglect your commenting strategy. Just adjust it.
Your first step, however, is creating the great content that people can share…then you share other people’s content…and follow and engage the influencers.
It’s a pretty simple formula for spreading your brand across the web and building influence…and it works.
Target your audience
One mistake you want to avoid when building an audience is going for the biggest. It is a lot harder to influence a large audience than it is to influence a smaller audience. Not saying it can’t be done, but it just takes a very long time.
You’re better off focusing on a niche audience.
The problem with trying to go after the biggest audience is that it sacrifices quality for quantity. And in the end that always drives down your conversion rates.
The bottom line is you need to know your audience really well…and then you need to give them what they want.
Be very personal
One of Robert Cialdini principles of influence is being likable. You have to be approachable, honest and authentic. That means you just don’t have to churn out business-like content all the time…you can share personal life experiences that show people you put your pants on in the morning just like everyone else.
I think Chris Brogan does this so well and is certainly a part of his appeal. Just take a look at his “Best Of” page and you’ll see a lot of content from his personal life:
No doubt it feels like he is writing to you…because that is exactly what he is doing! He’s conversational and passionate about what he does…it pours out through everything he creates. Imitate Chris and people will like you…and once you have them liking you…you can influence you.
Stick to your brand
If you jump around with your brand…from your message to your colors to your design…you will confuse people. And confusing people doesn’t inspire a lot of trust in you.
I understand that early in the game you may be tinkering with your message and who you are…but at some point you need to decide and then communicate that brand consistently across all mediums.
I love how Johnny B Truant does this. From his name to his image to his tweets and to his blog posts he communicates his brand.
It’s original, and he’s very consistent with it.
What to do with negative publicity in 4 steps
Finally, let’s deal with bad publicity because no matter how nice of a person you are, you’ll eventually get the flaming blog post, reddit blast or ugly viral tweet…all for the world to see.
What should you do to keep this negative publicity from hurting you? Here’s how I recommend you handle the situation.
- Act fast – Naturally you should be monitoring the social and web world for both positive and negative comments. Responding quickly will help reinforce the positive press and smother the negative press. Don’t let bad press blind slide you. You should not be the last to know. You should be one of the first…and you should respond promptly.
- Don’t absorb the insult – If you’ve done a good job of keeping up your profile and extending your influence, then remember this when a negative comment comes your way: there are a ton of people who really like you. Plus, negative comments usually are generated by people who woke up on the wrong side of the bed…or can be calmed down with a level-headed reply.
- Never delete the comment – Instead, respond directly to the comment. It’s more than likely many people have already seen the negative comment. Deleting it will only make you look like a sore loser. Responding quickly will show the people who are watching that you have nothing to hide.
- Sort out the situation in private – Respond with an “I am grateful for any feedback; no matter how brutal is it. Your opinion is valuable and I’d love to talk to you in private to take care of the situation.” Never turn a customer service situation like that into a public spectacle. Send them a direct message and then try to win them over.
Responding to negative publicity quickly and kindly is one of the best ways to minimize any kind of damage you might suffer. Ignoring it will only hurt you.
Conclusion
Okay, so it probably seems like there is a lot you have to do to rebound during a round of losing influence. Don’t let that discourage you. It happens to everyone…even me! And we all have to do the same thing…we have to get back on our feet and start climbing again.
Many times I’ve fell off the radar so to speak because commitments and new businesses have sucked me away. It’s easy to let that frustrate you, especially if you can’t get back to work on building your influence again…but I always remind myself that there will be a time…I just need to be patient. And if I can do it, so can you!
What tactics would you recommend to someone who is losing influence online?
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Awesome post neil!
The problem is, sometimes brand owners actually do not know that they are loosing influence.
They just hire a social media or pr firm and be happy with their monthly reports.
‘i am never succeed if i am happy with your constant rankings. We need drastic rise in the graph.’
enough said, thanks neil for the tips. Gonna email this post to my friends and clients.
Hi Neil,
Fantastic post! No doubt, online reputation is the key to success.
Even I love how Johnny Traunt handle his online business (I think he is the only one who is quickly recognized by others with his crazy pic)
And yea, I love when someone’s writing directly to me, not to a huge crowd. ‘Coz you can simply grab others attention by writing in the second person.
Yep, he is the one.
@Darshan You are right we have to be ahead every day!!
Thank you Darshan, appreciate you sharing this.
Great Post Neil,
I was waiting for such kind of post from few months..! Traffic Generation through link building is getting vanished and Ultimately now there is a need to make a proper brand with long term vision..!
This post will definitely help me grow further. Thanks a lot
Thanks Mihir,
I am happy you found what you were looking for here.
If you start to loose the influence just remember why did you get it in the first place. Then go back to the main core of the problem and fix it by continuing to do what made you famous and influential in the first place.
thanks for sharing
Exactly, glad you have got it.
Hi Neil,
Nice post! I came across 2 great tools for which help in finding latest trends, influential posts & topics. These can be used for generating ideas for content marketing.
- Topsy Labs (http://topsy.com/)
- Little Bird (http://getlittlebird.com/)
Thanks for sharing Rahul, I will have to check them out.
Hi Neil,
Kudos for having put together some remarkable content of late.
Question for you: Why do your links in your posts not open in a separate window? Is there a SEO reason behind this?
Thanks,
Jeff
WordPress by default creates links that open in the same window.
By default yes – but it gives you the option to check the box so that any link opens in a new window.
So back to my question: Would it not make more sense for you and others in terms of stickiness to have your links open in a new window?
It would. I should start doing that…
Sometimes competitors too can attack on your online reputation which may leads to decrease in influence by pointing out bad points about you and your blog.
hi neil, i want to ask one question about your blog how do you keep up with creating so lengthy content few minutes ago i was reading one of your article “How to Use Rejection to Achieve Your Business Goals ” and this article just came after that. have you hired writers for your blog or you write all by yourself?
I don’t write one after another, I only write two post a week.
Take feedback from your top 10 readers for an idea of turnover.
Good suggestion, that could certainly be beneficial.
I am always glued to Neil’s writing. So impactful and useful.
Thanks Ola, I appreciate it.
Great insight Neil and you are so right about Social media and Blogging: Out of sight is out of mind and one thing which I have noticed, on Social media you can’t rely on automation…
Social media and Blogging is all about Engagement and keeping the connection on and at times it become hard for Bloggers and Solopreneur to keep themselves available on all platform… The hard part is coming back and you have nailed it perfectly in this article…..
Kudos for your great write up!!
Harsh
Thanks Harsh, I am with you automation is never reliable a 100% of the time.
Thank you for this very helpful post. My current blog is less than a year old, and I want to make sure that I keep up the engagement. I definitely need to do more with my list.
No problem, glad you found it helpful.
Hi Neil, great post. I really like the point about being personal. This isn’t something that comes easy for a lot of bloggers, but in my experience, readers like to keep up with people that they’re interested in. And if personal details aren’t getting worked into posts, then there’s a lot less to be interested in.
Yep, when you make a post personal you will find more readers interested in it.
THANKS for another TERRIFIC post, Neil!
I would like to add to the e-mail list subject. I think it is worth stressing that folks should start building that list ASAP and not wait around till they see some compelling reason. I just see too many sites and blogs that don’t build lists when they should.
As an ex., I have had for several years a blog, it is really focused with realistically not more than 600 maximum people who may have interest in reading it at any time. I used to post almost every day because there were reasons to, and with solid traffic (200+ unique visitors each day). But I didn’t put effort to build the list. Then I stopped posting for months, the traffic of course dropped to very low levels. When I started posting again, it is extremely difficult to get that high traffic back without a list. If there were a list (even if outdated), then simply e-mailing a couple posts would have alerted people that the site is back posting again.
Lessons learn: START BUILDING THE LIST NOW!
I see the same with so many blogs and sites. A really common problem.
Yep, good point Olga. Thanks for sharing your personal experience.
Gold tips as always Neil.
Being ‘personal’ and highly active in the social sphere will give you a ‘crazy’ edge. – Oh, and build that list!
Thanks Clint,
That is correct!
Consistency is key in maintaining a powerful influence. I happened to have just read a sort of similar article. When you feel like you have nothing to write about, think that generating ideas should be like a river – fresh input always flows.
Yep, I find I have the ability to create fresh useful content consistently when I read and learn new things on a daily basis.
Great post Neil as always.
Winning and Loosing is the part of the life. Rightly said, One should not get discourage if s/he loose. But we should learn from it and try to do better than it and never lose the hope till we reaches our goals.
This article contains lots of helpful tips.
Thanks for posting.
Great post Neil,
Yes i too agree with the points you had given in negative publicity as in competition you have to suffer with negative impact and have to handle it carefully as it is always your reputation which you have to maintain to grow your business.
Good, I am glad you understand the importance of it.
Wow. Fantastic post Neil. You’ve just given me a whole host of ideas to boost my content count as I too have seen that traffic is very dependent on frequency of blog posts. Brilliant, thanks Neil.
Thanks Lee, I hope these tips work out for you.
Deep piece. Thank you
Appreciate it, thank you for reading.
just another great post, i really love you dedication Neil.
Thank you, it’s my dedication that has gotten me to where I am today.
I find something useful in your every new post, Neil. Thx.
Glad to hear it!
Neil,
What I really like about you and also for which I have an enormous respect for you – well, one of the many things – is that you are honest when it comes to money. That is a very important thing. Unfortunately in internet marketing this is not always the case.
This post is a prime example. For ex., in it you recommend MailChimp. I just checked it out and see that it has a free version, and then even the paid versions are reasonable.
I have been looking into such a product and now I know that I have found exactly what I wanted for my current needs, MailChimp would be ideal for me. Usually, including people who claim to have readers’ best interest in mind, would assertively recommend Aweber and such. – Without being particularly honest about the role the monthly affiliate income that they will be getting from it may play in their recommendation. I am sure Aweber is a great product. But I am also wondering about the motivation of why some internet marketers actively recommend it and not some other product, especially in situations when people are just starting out with building lists or have a very small list and low e-mail volume.
With that said, I do also think that you should get affiliate marketing income and not be shy about it. – You are providing us with all this incredible free value through your blog that surely takes a lot of your precious time.
You deserve to be paid.
I just wanted to point out that I, and I am sure other readers, really appreciate your integrity. Having been reading your blog for some time, I now fully trust whatever you recommend. When you recommend something, not only you are an expert but you also clearly have the readers’s best interest in mind even if there is nothing in it for you.
I am just not a fan of taking affiliate income. I rather focus on my startup and make money from there as I don’t need the affiliate money.
Wow that graph at stay relentless just gave me the strength keep going! Thanks neil
Awesome, keep up the hard work!
Nice, i think i need the “Local Business†theme for my new business site… thanks for sharing this
Not sure what you mean by that.
Thanks for the great article, my traffic has been slumping lately and this has given me some great ideas!
Happy to help, let me know how these tips work out for you.
One of the hard things in marketing is writing. But, every marketer insists on regular writing to keep visitors come again and again. Thanks for the tools to analyze social signal and influence.
Yep, constantly producing new and revenant content is the best way to keep and acquire visitors.
Thx Neil your ideas may help me to increase my visitors
Let me know how they work out for you.
Awesome post Neil. I stumbled upon your blog for the first time today and I was amazed by the wealth of information contained just in this article.
Enjoyed this article and look forward to learning a few more things from you as I read more. Thank you!
Regards,
Kumar
Thanks Kumar,
I appreciate the kind words.
i have learned from you i.e. is Interacting with our readers, you are such a busy person but then also you make out time for replying to our comments.
I do my best, sometimes I get behind though.
thanks for making this post.
It gives me a new insight in how making instagram really works.
great article.
Good, glad to hear it.
Over a half decade long experiace on blogging, i found, quality content always respect by all audience. At the very begning of my blogging i was zero in SEO and unawer the real value of SEO but time and again i improved my ability through online leanring. I used social networking site like Facebook, twitter, Myspace etc. And Social book marking sites like Reddit, Stumbleup, Digg, Digger etc. I got thousand of new visitors on my blog throughFacebook, Twitter, Google Plus etc. I also shared my every story of my blog on social bookmarking sites. It is the cheapest ways to promote brand for small publishers. Thank you Neil Patel ! I have been learning many ideas through your every post. I have been subscribing and reading each post. Your each post is evergreen forever.
Thanks for sharing your personal insight. I am glad you have found this site useful.
Wow, every single time I read this blog I get a bunch of new post ideas! Thanks.
As for reclaiming influence: guest posting (write write write) works because you get your name out there and stay in the public eye.
Yes, as long as the content you put out is valuable and memorable.
Good Post Neil.. What I believe, if we monitor the traffic to our site or blog daily, that I would be more helpful for us to get from when and where we have lost online influence. What is your opinion on this?
I think you are correct.
Awesome article.It gives me a new insight in how making instagram really works.
Great, happy this post was useful to you.
You are the FIRST author I have EVER seen responding to his readers in comments! You are inspiring, young man!
You said “Be very personal”, I find you kind of that, is this the secret everybody is in love with you?
I was browsing through sites and I was suddenly stuck on your site. I continued reading your articles one by one… brilliantly talented! Keep writing, will always be waiting for something from you.
It definitely helps. I have found many benefits to responding to my readers and making them happy is the main one.
Fantastic post Neil. Writing for humans will be the key to long term success. When people give you importance, search engines will give importance as well.
Hello!,,,,,
Hi!,,,,,Great insight Neil and you are so right about Social media and Blogging: Out of sight is out of mind and one thing which I have noticed, on Social media you can’t rely on automation…Thank you so much for sharing,,,,,,,,,,,,