How Endorsements From Influencers Can Improve Your Social Influence and Reach

Would you like to get more visibility for your products and services online?
Have you ever wanted to approach high-level influencers, but didn’t know where to start?
Getting recommendations from high-level individuals in your market can be intimidating, especially to new business owners. While building your brand on social media will help bring more awareness, it’s even better to be endorsed by a top influencer.
When we think of endorsements celebrities and sports figures come to mind. While this is a sought-after endeavor, your company can reach out to bloggers, business consultants, journalists, or anyone who has a strong of influence online and can directly affect the buying decisions of your customers.
The best place to begin the process of getting endorsements is with your own network. Create a list of who your business is currently connected with, and then drill down from there. You might be very surprised of who you might already know! This information can be found in your subscriber lists as well as in you social networks, especially on LinkedIn where networking is encouraged.
Next, craft an email or message on social media that is professional, open, and friendly without a sales pitch. These individuals are most likely selling products or services similar to your own, and so you will want to build some form of a relationship with them online such as blog commenting, sharing their articles, interacting on social media, ect. before approaching them. Your request should always include an incentive for their endorsement, and a professional presence online will also increase your chances of a favorable response.
Here are a few ways you can make an endorsement offer more attractive to high-level influencers in your industry:
• Promote their content on your website – Study the company or individual you are interested in working with and include something of their in an article on your website. This could be a new book, video, special presentation, and so on. Whatever their latest achievement is – focus on that. After publishing the post share it with a shout out to them on social media to establish a relationship and spark a conversation. More often than not your business will get a response, and you can build from there. I was pleased to see an endorsement recently from marketing expert, Rebekah Radice, in her recent blog post:

• Ask for their opinion – Another great approach is to ask an influencer for their opinion on a specific topic, which can also be an opportunity to share in an article where a list of industry leaders are included. Post Planner has connected with quite a few different experts in social media in their articles like this one, which showcases their opinions:

• Network online and offline – Make the time to attend special events in your industry throughout the year as well as participating in online seminars and Google Hangouts. Followup is key when participating in these activities, and maintaining communication will not only build relationships with great people, but will garner referrals for your business as well. After a while you can expand your influence by hosting your own webinars, offline seminars, ect.
• Be courteous and thankful – Once your business has made the right connections and they have agreed to endorse you be sure to thank them right away, and offer something of value that they will remember. Chances are they will recommend your company to others when trust is built.
Connecting with the right influencers in your market is a process that is nurtured over time. With patience, good communication, and persistence your business or brand will soon be able to approach these individuals or companies with more confidence because you have established a relationship with them by showing that you are also interested in promoting what they do, a basic law of reciprocity, as defined here on Wikipedia:

“Reciprocity in social psychology refers to responding to a positive action with another positive action, rewarding kind actions. As a social construct, reciprocity means that in response to friendly actions, people are frequently much nicer and much more cooperative than predicted by the self-interest model…”