Building a successful blog is a lot of work. It’s not easy to get noticed among millions of other bloggers hoping to make it big online.
Gone are the days where publishing great content was enough to generate traffic to your website. Even if you have the best possible website design and the best lead generation software on your website, that alone won’t help you get noticed.
And yet, there are some bloggers who appear to have come out of nowhere and suddenly the whole blogosphere is talking about them, and your entire social media feed is plastered with updates mentioning them.
So how did they do it?
How did they manage to get noticed through the noise?
In this article, we’ll show you how to use the power of personal connection to get noticed and get your blog the attention it deserves.
How to Get Noticed Using the Power of Personal Connection
Many successful bloggers have used the power of personal connection to grow their blogs. It’s not a new concept but it is a rather powerful one.
Once you are able to get on the radar of influential bloggers, several things happen.
You start getting targeted traffic to your site. Other bloggers start engaging with your content via comments and social media shares.
You start to get noticed and people start recognizing the value behind your blog and your work. Finally, your email list starts growing.
And once all of that happens, your success is practically guaranteed.
However, there is a right way and a wrong way to use the power of personal connection.
Where many bloggers fall short is that they immediately start asking for a favor. And that is the wrong way to establish a personal connection.
The right way takes time and effort.
Here are our best tips to help you develop a personal connection with influencers and get noticed through the noise.
Identify the influencers
Before developing a personal connection, you need to identify the right people in your niche. This means you need to identify bloggers within your niche who have already built their audience and established themselves as an authority.
The reason this is important is because their audience trusts them and has come to expect they will only recommend credible sources. And if someone’s favorite blogger recommends another blog as valuable and credible information, chances are pretty good they will check it out themselves.
However, knowing just one or two bloggers who are more successful than you is not enough. The goal is to get noticed by multiple influencers, because the more of them you establish a relationship with, the bigger your audience becomes.
There are several tools that can help you find influencers within your niche. Tools like BuzzSumo, Alltop, and FollowerWonk are great tools to identify people whose content is getting a lot of comments and shares, as well as their social media influence.
Get involved on their blog
Once you’ve identified the influencers, get involved on their blog. Start by reading their blog posts and leave thoughtful comments. Provide value and add to the conversation. However, this doesn’t mean that you always have to agree with them – if they posted something you strongly disagree with, don’t be afraid to state your true opinion in a respectful manner.
Another way to get involved on their blog is by signing up for their email list. This ensures you will get instant notification when their blog posts go live and you can take the opportunity to be the first one to leave a comment.
If they ask a question in their newsletter and ask for feedback, take the opportunity to reply and engage with them via email – it’s a sure way to get noticed.
Follow them on social media
The next step is to follow them on social media and engage with them. This involves sharing their blog posts after you’ve read it and including their social media handle.
Ask them a question, or better yet, answer their questions. Comment on the content they share.
You don’t have to follow them on all social media networks because that might come off as though you are stalking them. Rather, follow them on those social media channels you enjoy using yourself.
If Twitter is one of your preferred networks, it’s extremely easy to connect with others there.
Start by creating a private Twitter list of influencers you’d like to establish a relationship with. Then, every day set aside some time to visit your Twitter list and engage with them.
Go a step further and don’t just share their content – suggest it to your own followers. If you know a follower of yours who is struggling with a problem that the influencer can solve with their post, mention both of them when you share it.
Not only are you helping your follower out, you’re also working towards developing a better personal connection with the influencer.
Provide value
Establishing a personal connection doesn’t happen overnight. Most influential bloggers get blasted with emails from bloggers just like you begging them to share their content on social media or mentioning their blog in their posts.
And most of them, approach those emails with the same attitude: they don’t even know you so why should they do you any favors?
That’s why it’s important to provide value first before asking for a favor.
This doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, it can be as simple as letting them know they have a broken link on their blog, or that their image is missing.
If you take time to get to know them, you’ll soon discover that they often share personal tidbits on social media.
Sending out a tweet involving something they enjoy like letting them know their favorite movie is getting a remake or that their favorite author is doing book signing in their area shows them you pay attention.
Focus on providing value and be sincere about it. People can tell when you are doing something with a hidden agenda even in the online world, so be sure your intentions are clear and genuine.
Reach out
Now that you have their attention, it’s time to go for the ask. By engaging with them on their blog and social media and by providing value you worked towards warming them up and showing them your potential. Once the initial relationship has been established and they are familiar with who you are, it’s a lot easier to get them to share your post with their audience, or publish your guest post on their blog.
Whatever your goal is, be sure that what you are asking for is short, sweet, and to the point. It goes without saying that the piece of content you’d like them to promote is top notch – well-researched, full of valuable information, and created with their audience in mind.
Nurture the connection
The last piece of the puzzle is to nurture the personal connection you’ve established and nurture the relationship. Here are a few ideas on how to develop your connection with the influencer even more.
Thank them for their help
No matter what you asked them to do, be sure to thank them for taking their time and allowing you access to their audience.
Showing appreciation even after they shared your content or published your guest post is a powerful way to stand out from the crowd and show them you weren’t in this just for your sole benefit.
Consider inviting them to have a Skype conversation
Face to face conversation is still the best way to get to know a person. However, in an online world the closest thing you can have to a real conversation is by adding them on Skype.
You don’t have to be aggressive about it, you can casually mention you’d like to chat with them some time on Skype and drop your ID in an email. That way, you are leaving it up to them instead of making them feel pressured.
If they accept your invitation, engage them in a conversation on a more personal level. Ask simple questions about their life and get to really know the person.
Suggest a Joint Venture
If you think you could help the influencer grow their blog even more, suggest collaborating together. This is known as Joint Venture and it has benefits for all parties involved.
This could be something simple as co-authoring a post or doing a webinar together on a particular topic.
Final Thoughts
Building a personal connection with influencers can have a huge impact on the success of your blog and increase the chances of your online visibility. However, bear in mind that establishing a meaningful relationship takes time and doesn’t happen overnight.
Are you ready to put the power of personal connection to work for you? What are your favorite methods for connecting with influencers in your niche?
