One of my mentees recently asked me, how do you become an influencer? He was indirectly insinuating that I am an influencer. I laughed it off.
To me, to wear an influencer epaulet, you must have more than 10,000 followers/subscribers) across all platforms. At least that is the benchmark stipulated by the movers and shakers online.
Some experts refer to an influencer as a key person of influence. The UK-based guru, Daniel Priestley, wrote a book in 2014 with the title, Key Person of Influence. The book comes complete with a ‘method’ on how to become a KPI (Key Person of Influence). The subtitle: “The five-step method to become one of the most highly valued and highly paid people in your industry.”
According to Priestley, whereas an influencer shines light on him or herself, a key person of influence shines light on others.
Every man and woman you meet online aspires to become an influencer. You have 17 year olds on TikTok and Instagram attracting millions of fans. Why? Ask the platform owners.
With followers, super-admirers, raving fans, and subscribers in millions you become an influencer and a celebrity. Lo behold, you can rake in money through endorsements.
The India-based guru, Deepak Kanakaraju, popularly called Digital Deepak, began his article on how not to become an influencer this way. “Experts” will tell you to build a social media following. They tell you to “optimize” your profile, post frequently, engage with your “followers” and hopefully one day, you can become a big influencer.”
He continued, “No. It doesn’t work like that. The biggest problem with trying to become an influencer on Instagram, YouTube, or any other platform is that your “followers” are not your users.”
Deepak supported his assertion, theory, position or point of view with an elegant “Content Empire Blueprint”. At the heart of the blueprint is “Your Blog”. Everything else feeds into it: your blog, mailing list, tribe, affiliates, courses, other products like books, etc.
Deepaks position goes contrary to what other “Experts” say. So, the question is, how do you become a big online influencer? Should you work tirelessly to build “Your Blog”, or should you leverage social media as other gurus recommend.
It’s very common to meet “Experts” online recommending diametrically different approaches to us newbies. Remember the old sing-song, to the carpenter, everything is a hammer.
Having had tens of “Experts”, including Digital Deepak, as teachers, all I can say is, take every bit of advice you get online with a pinch of salt. “Experts” generally recommend what has worked for them.
Digital Deepak recommends using your blog to build your content empire. Nicolas Cole build his empire with articles on Quora. Brendon Burchard build his empire with online courses. Russell Brunson built his empire with Saas, called click funnels. Alex Hormozi built his empire with is Gym-Launch Formula, and with Leila Hormozi, built Acquisition dot com.
So, as a beginner, how do you build your content empire and become a big influencer with millions of super fans? How do you amass millions of YouTube subscribers and followers on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, X, Pinterest, etc.?
This is my take. Deepak’s “Content Empire Blueprint” may as well work in the long run, however, as the popular saying goes, in the long run we are all dead.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a blueprint, model or framework, every postulation must be taken with a pinch of salt. As people come with different experiences, backgrounds, passions and skills, what works for one person, may not work for another.
On paper, the blueprint looks elegant, but elegance and result are two different things. Yes, Google + (Google Plus) died. Google killed it because it could not compete with Facebook. My Space died. Yahoo! Gave up and transformed into something else. No one hears about Blogger these days.
Not long ago, the Quora guru, Nicolas Cole, advised those who cared to listen never to start their own blogs. His winning blueprint is for everyone to latch on to existing platforms with millions of users already. That way, you will be attracting eyeballs to your content rather than toiling in obscurity on your unknown blog.
Nicolas practiced what he preached, writing on Quora every single day for 365 days throughout 2014. In January 2015 he landed on the front page of Reddit. That’s when he launched his own website, not to write, but to sell his products.
He continued writing on Quora and by the end of 2015 he’d become the King of Quora. In short, he’d become ‘the #1 most-read writer on all of Quora’. His rewards: he was invited to Quora’s Top Writers Conference in New York.
It was not long before Huffington Post, TIME, Fortune, Forbes, Inc., etc. contracted him to write for them. In all, he’d accumulated over 5,000,000 views before he became an international sensation and an influencer.
That’s when he released his book, The Art and Business of Online Writing, which became an instant best seller. Guess who snapped up his book? His readers on Quora, TIME, Huffington Post, Forbes, Fortune, Inc., Business Insider, and others.
Dr. Benjamin Hardy, the author of Personality Isn’t Permanent, wrote a powerful review on the cover of Cole’s book. “My articles have been read by over 100 million people. Cole’s articles have been read more than mine, and I can personally attest this book will teach you everything you need to know to reach millions of people with your writing.”
If Cole had started writing on his blog, there is absolutely no way he would have amassed 5 million views within a decade, talk less three years. But Cole did it in less than three years and is today one of the top voices on writing. I have never visited Cole’s blog but connect with him on Quora and YouTube.
The biggest names out there: Alex Hormozi, Joe Polish, Jay Abraham, Gary Vee, Brendon Burchard, Sam Ovens, Daniel Priestly, Leila Hormozi, Jenna Kutcher, Ali Abdaal, Amy Porterfield, Russell Brunson, Brian Clark, Darren Rowse, Rand Fishkin, Noah Kagan, Neil Patel: all used publicly available platforms to amass followers.
The above experts with little exception all created their platforms (blogs) after they became influencers and celebrities.
Gary Vee converted his family’s wine shop, Shopper’s Discount Liquors into Wine Library online and in 2006 created Wine Library TV, a daily webcast on YouTube covering everything wine.
Tom Martin in his The Invisible Sale wrote about the importance of having a home base, embassies, outposts, and listening posts.
A home base is “Your Blog”. The book’s subtitle: “How to Build a Digitally Powered Marketing and Sales System to Better Prospect, Qualify and Close Leads.”
This is what Tom has in the book’s description on Amazon:
• Discover the “invisible funnel,” where self-educated buyers are making decisions before you know they exist.
• Leverage Funnel Optimized website design to identify your prospects’ key challenges before you ever speak to them.
• Integrate social media, content, and email to optimize the entire prospecting process.
• Make every sales call count with behaviorally targeted email prospecting.
• Leverage Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to efficiently “prospect at scale”.
• Use the science of propinquity to choose “outposts,” strategize social networking, and drive offline campaigns.
• Save money by rightsizing production quality to each marketing requirement.
• Rapidly create keyword-rich text content, and use it widely to promote self-qualification.
• Create webinars and tutorials more easily and painlessly than you ever thought possible media content.
• Learn how to apply Aikido Selling Techniques to close self-educated buyers.
As you can see (highlighted), to get your “Home Base” or “Your Blog” going, you need a heavy dose of social media. Tom talks about integrating social media and leveraging Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to efficiently “prospect at scale.”
There is no way to prospect at scale without social media, whether a particular platform exists for 10 years or 30 years. Your website (home base) comes in after you have established your reputation and fame.
For a beginner who knows nothing about website optimization, script writing and so on, it’s critical to practice in public – using social media. This is what Alex Hormozi call’s paying down ignorance debt. It requires practicing in public until you’re proficient.
If you start with a website as a beginner, you will be toiling for years in obscurity with no hope of redemption. To learn and gain traction, social media is the place to start. Once you become an “expert”, you can create a home base and the sky will be your limit.
At any rate you can create “Your Blog” as a beginner as I did and it will do you no good. You’ll waste thousands on domain renewal, hosting, maintenance, etc. but it will remain a waste pipe for years. The reason is: NO ONE KNOWS YOU EVEN EXIST.
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