Influencer Marketing 101: A Rookie's Guide to Forging Relationships with Key Influencers. Non-Fiction Book Proposal

Title. Influencer Marketing 101

Subtitle. A Rookie's Guide to Forging Relationships with Key Influencers: Learn to Swim with the Sharks!

Summary. Influencer marketing and influencer psychology are a relatively new field of knowledge. While other researchers and authors describe the tools and methods of influencer marketing in corporate paradigms, e.g. spreading brand awareness or achieving specific sales objectives, I am focusing on influencer networking and influencer relations management for individuals.

This "rookie's guide" is for new and obscure talents who want to promote themselves by learning "to swim with the sharks" i.e. by exposing themselves to top influencers in their particular field, building relationships with them, and ultimately obtaining some form of endorsement by one or more major achievers or decision-makers.

While keeping in mind that everyone is an influencer, the new influence networker:

• - will learn how to build and operate their influencer network,

------- and how to avoid mistakes and missteps when doing that,

• - will learn about the core differences between the four levels of influence,

------ and about ways to act within each level;

• - will read about the five types of influencer psyche,

------ and will learn how to approach persons belonging to each particular type,

• - will learn how to determine the actual worth, influence-wise, of their influencer network members by applying some social media ratios I specifically devised for this purpose, as well as my patented E.U.F.O.R.I.A. approach (Energy. Utterance. Footprint. Outreach. Resonance. Impression. Awareness),

------- and, in particular, will be disillusioned about some holy cows like the Klout score, but will nevertheless be reassured about their particular if not universal usefulness,

• - will learn how to create content specifically designed and optimized to attract the attention of influencers,

-------- with case studies of sensitive content like humor and sarcasm,

• - will learn how to start interacting with key influencers,

-------- with case studies of stuff that works and stuff that doesn't,

• - will decide whether he/she is ready to invest in a software suite for influencer relations management,

------- with case studies of Traackr and Onalytica,

• - will learn how to act in order to build mutually fruitful and beneficial relationships with key influencers,

--------- with case studies as well, and

• - will learn much more...

-------- ... from research I have done, from facts I have explained, from case studies based on my own experience and practice, and from homework I will be setting every now and then.

Note: For this project, I made up an alter ego, the Metatag Hag, who introduces particular bits of advice in a rather snarky tone in order to lighten up the text and ensure a more enjoyable reading experience. Other reasons for having the author speak in two voices was my intention to create an illusion of dialogue and to counterbalance the seriousness of the topics.

There will also be a pictogram representing the Metatag Hag and introducing her bits of advice.

Demographics: both sexes, age: 21-60+, education: college and higher.

Psychographics: the proverbial "chiropractor who feels he has a novel in him" i.e. talents who feel they have potentially great ideas in their heads but do not want to be lost in a sea of bloggers, Tweeters, social media dwellers, and other "small fish". To continue the line of metaphors, even if the readers see themselves as baby sharks, swimming with the big ones takes some learning and training.

Note: If the readers want to position themselves as key-influencers-in-the-making from the start, and feel they could attract the attention of, and belong with other key influencers due to their talents, this book will come in useful. It will allow the readers to concentrate on honing their skills and building a network of influencers - quickly, efficiently, and without making common or less common mistakes.

It would take years to study archetypal psychology, behaviorism and transactional analysis, to learn to develop behavior tactics function of influencer archetypes, to test influencer platform management software, or to take a course on mathematics applied in economics in order to figure out what the Tweet-to-followee ratio has to do with influencer worth... and to make, rectify, and learn from a bunch of mistakes of their own in lots of dealings with top influencers. The Metatag Hag and I, having studied all of the above and more, will save the readers a lot of legwork with this collection of swimming lessons for baby sharks.

Competitive Analysis.

Influencer: The Power to Change Anything by Al Switzler et al.
Similarity: some psychological concepts taken as basis.
Differences:
- My focus is on contextual rather than personal influence. I also give advice not on becoming a better influencer, but on building relationships with influencers in specific fields where my potential reader wants to become a top achiever.
- While Influencer discusses the individual's power to change the world, I am discussing the individual's power to make their talent noticed by already affirmed talents.
- Influencer is, in some reviewers' opinion, believed to be either a self-help book or a set of theories accompanied by anecdotal case studies. Influencer Marketing 101 is in essence a DIY book with case studies and mistake analysis from my own experience and practice.
- Their set of tools is based on behaviorism and traditional networking. My own tools are rooted in social media marketing, SEO, and archetypal psychology.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Similarities: certain techniques used for relationship-building
- Carnegie is mostly criticized for underestimating assertiveness. Ex.: "Many people will blatantly abuse niceness. The truth is, that in the real world of today, too much kindness is taken as a sign of weakness and those who try to win friends and influence people in the way Carnegie recommends, all too often end up used and abused." While I do not tell my potential readers to turn into complete doormats, I also do not recommend acting boorishly just for the sake of asserting something that is totally irrelevant to the situation. Level 2 influencers - the main target of my potential readers i.e. public personas who interact with large audiences every day - are normally very polite and considerate. So, many of Carnegie's principles, even though considered outdated by some critics, are still applicable in a framework where it is important to present oneself not only as a talent, but as a well-bred and well-spoken person. Moreover, some of Carnegie's principles are as applicable as ever in the context of business communications, to which my recommendations for building influencer-influencee relationships are related in many ways.
Differences:
- Set of tools; social context (see above).
- With this bit of critique contra Carnegie, I happen to agree. "The techniques in this book basically converted this man into a robot. Nobody really knows what kinds of things he's interested in - although at first you think his interests have a lot in common with yours. The man has no sincerity or credibility. When I see him smiling I don't know if he is genuinely happy or just trying to appear pleasant." However, people today are jumping to the other extreme: wearing their hearts on their sleeves, passing unpleasantness for sincerity and adopting unsavory behavioral techniques like calling someone they barely know "bi*ch" in a misguided effort to appear genuine. I am not trying to teach potential readers to be sycophants and flatterers. I just advocate demonstration of respect and affability in your relationships with people who have achieved more than you did in your particular field.

The Influencer: One Hundred Seven Lessons on Being Effective Without Being a Jerk by Nick Wolff

Similarities: case studies from corporate experience.

Differences: just like Influencer by Switzler et al., this is a book discussing steps towards becoming a better influencer in the personal rather than contextual paradigm. In other words, leadership, not influencer marketing.

Networking Is Not Working: Stop Collecting Business Cards and Start Making Meaningful Connections by Derek Coburn

Similarities: pointers and tips on relationship-building vs. traditional networking.

Differences: context. Coburn discusses business-to-business relationships and networking, not particularly influencer-influencee relationship-building.

Estimated length: ~100,000 words
Estimated delivery date: ~ March 1, 2015 (approx. 50% of material is already drafted and/or written)

Table of Contents with Outlines

Intro (see full text below)

Chapter 1. Build your influencer network
Outline:
Case study: Kissinger's translator (language services; the "five handshakes" theory, and how much or how little may the one handshake between me and the President of Israel mean)
Sample: 

Chapter 2. Operate your influencer network
Outline:
Case study: Monetize your mistakes (fiction writing; negotiation-jitsu; self-publishing strategy: pluses and shortcomings; how I self-published a 500-page novel for 1 British pound)
Sample:

Chapter 3. The four levels of the influence pyramid
Outline:
Case study: The mediator genie (language services; how a long-term relationship with a level 2 influencer landed me a contract with the Ministry of Interns of France)
Sample:

Chapter 4. The five types of influencer psyche
Outline:
Case study: The graveyard shift (semiotics; design; key influencer psychology; behavior patterns; how I was mentored by Umberto Eco's apprentice)
Sample:

Chapter 5. Ratios for a rational selection of your influencers
Outline:
Case study: Harry Potter and the Analysis of Influence Worth (social media marketing; estimating influence inside and outside the social media; the ratios I researched and/or invented; how I dissected the Klout Score holy cow)
Sample:

Chapter 6. E.U.F.O.R.I.A. - Energy. Utterance. Footprint. Outreach. Resonance. Impression. Awareness. - my patented approach to influencing and being influenced
Outline:
Case study: how I did my homework with the E.U.F.O.R.I.A. of several of my Twitter follower/followees: Josh Stern and the need for thick hide. Selena Gomez and #MakeAnInfluencerSmile. Michael Hyatt, Elise Stokes, and Thomas G Ray. The Ice Bucket Challenge and the Randomness of Virality. My own E.U.F.O.R.I.A. (social media marketing) 
Sample:

Chapter 6. All hail her Majesty the Content: Sensitive material
Outline:
Case study: Do not forget to hold up a SARCASM card (fiction writing; handling sensitive material; how I had my own hashtag fail on the eve of the Pitch Wars)
Sample:

Chapter 7. All hail her Majesty the Content: SEO optimization
Outline:
Case study: Curing cancer in Korea (SEO; guidelines for writing and optimizing content; how I was contracted to write SEO articles)
Sample:

Chapter 8. All hail her Majesty the Content: Trending
Outline:
Case study: The Hashtag Fail List (social media marketing; Susan Boil's album announcement, McDonald's true stories, etc. How I use memes and #funnystuffontheInternet to prove a point)
Sample:

Chapter 9. The point where you decide to spend or not to spend more money on your influencers
Outline:
Case study: I compare Traackr and Onalytica influencer relations management platforms. You decide.
Outline:

Chapter 10. Start swimming!
Outline:
Build your influencer's profile based on what you had read and on this questionnaire:

Type of influencer psyche?
Level of influence?
Reachability?
Approachability?
Busyness?
Why your ideas may be of interest to him/her?
What can you do for him/her?
What he/she can do for you?

Then:
Prepare your approach strategy
Prepare your interaction strategy
Prepare your offer

Case study: Anastasia swimming in circles around the Query Shark (relationship-building, right steps and missteps, me making a case study out of "courting" a top influencer, the Gob and Jane series, and Chinese classical poetry)

Outro
Outline: conclusion and pitch for Book 2.

Sample chapter:

Intro.

This body of information and advice is not for marketing or SEO specialists who know it all about how to push a product to the first Google search results page. I have written this book for the regular talented person.

No, that is not a typo. Someone once said, "there will be no ordinary people in the twenty-first century. Earth will be home to seven billion talented, special, extraordinary people." Today, this is not a sci-fi writer's dream. This is happening.

So, are you a brilliant mind who wants to spend time working on their skills, not spending a lot of time chasing followers in an ocean of bloggers, Tweeters, and other "small fish"?

Are you in fact a shark star in the making?

You just don't know how to swim with the big Kahunas?

I am reaching out to the regular creative but not quite marketing-savvy mind in Uncle Sam manner. I want YOU to make it! I want YOU to be the hot news!

Important people talking about you among themselves and telling about you to the world - this is the Mount Olympus of the social media era. And this is your goal.

A Word from the Metatag Hag

After all, we all know the second page of Google results is the perfect place to hide something, like evidence to a crime. Seriously, though, if you are an individual vying for public attention, being on the first search results page is as difficult as climbing Everest, let alone Olympus. If you are trying to hide something nasty, don't hope even the 100th Google search results page will help. This is the paradox of our life.

 So don't do nasty things and be careful with every step. This is my advice to everyone - to influencer marketing students in particular.

 Let's suppose you are strictly a man or woman of letters or a starry-eyed Game of Thrones fan. You know little about marketing, less about Jung's archetypes or Berne's games people play, and zilch about mathematics applied in economics, econometrics or statistics. Your talent is to design mega action figures or draw supercool graphic novels, and you don't just want the world to find out about it. You want your special product to become a household name.

Metatag Hag:

For instance, you have a killer TV show idea, you're working on the script, you're enjoying yourself swimming in your little sea of creativity. After all, any writer will tell you that the writing part is the best and easiest part. But don't forget it was the promo of your work that at some point, made you utter all the expletives you knew.

So the usual advice is: be smart, learn from your past mistakes, and dedicate equal amounts of time to both activities - creating and promoting what you create. Its value notwithstanding, you must bear this in mind: the more time you spend promoting yourself, the less time you have left for honing your skills and becoming the brilliant talent other sharks are bound to notice.

For a creative mind striving to reveal its talents to the world, one way is to build a network of relationships that can ultimately bring accreditation and endorsement by top level influencers or KEY influencers.

Influencer marketing and influencer psychology are subjects of growing importance within the greater field of Marketing Management.

Contrary to the common belief, the hot shots are not the only influencers - your neighbor is an influencer, too. Your little sister with her blog and her 5,000+ Facebook friends - even more so. If you're promoting a musical product, your neighborhood's garage band is the first to befriend - trust me, they know all the sites and are following all the people. Don't forget about Grandma and her book club, too!

 The difference is level and impact; horizontal and vertical influence.

Business owners, literary agents with popular blogs, Hollywood producers - those are top level influencers. As the infographic shows, they can give you more reach, but the degree of influence will be lower. 

As for your own influence on them... to them, "unforgettable" is not what it means to the rest of the world.

So don't be afraid to show to mountain-top sitters in what particular way you are unforgettable.

 Metatag Hag: ...but beware gimmicks!

Bottom line: if you want to sing with Justin Bieber, you have to start by impressing your Mom.

 Now, let's take it you have the first two levels covered. Your family, friends, and friends of friends know about your new product. You have a small but devoted fandom who like you and think you are worthy of acclaim.Yet they cannot give you the endorsement that can land you a network of high-profile contacts and eventually a contract.

 We all know the old adage about making one step at a time.

Metatag Hag: To rephrase an old Danube-Carpathian saying, "if you want sausages for the holidays, you should not start fattening your pig on Christmas Eve".

So, if you want your product to be in stores by Christmas, start working on your influencer network now.

 Actually, you should have started in February, but you're not a megacorp and you don't play by their rules. Nor do you have their resources. Luckily, you have all the tools to start promoting your talent at zero expense. Just use your old toys - blogs, pages, Twitter, Pinterest - things you only used for a little blah-blah-show before.

 Metatag Hag: Influencer networking is a key strategy in your battle plan. Every day, we are both influencing and being influenced by someone or something.

You know any friendship can have great intrinsic value. Just imagine what resources you can tap by building a relationship with a powerful person! This is exactly why you need more time to hone your skills - key influencers tend to befriend brilliant people who, for their turn, have the potential of becoming key influencers some day.

This is why you need this book. It will teach you how to build and manage influencer relationships on all levels. You will learn to handle this or that kind of influencer properly - without spending years on studying things Anastasia and I are serving on a silver platter for you.

We will also share lots of details about our mistakes... so your own would be less frequent or grievous.

So, let's learn to swim with the sharks! We will start with Chapter 1: Build your Influencer Network.

Sincerely yours,
Anastasia Stratu and the Metatag Hag

My profile:

Language services specialist - speak five, read and understand three more languages, 16 years in the language services, a career path from translating personal correspondence after school to running my own language services boutique company for over three years.

Professional interests: translation | terminology | interpreting | proofreading | revision | management | consulting | theory and practice of negotiations| semiotics | lexicology | structural linguistics.

Academic interests: Jungian archetypal psychology | behaviorism | transactional analysis.

Field research: social media management and marketing | SEO/SEM | influencer marketing | influencer psychology.

Since March 2014 - SEO writer for NEO Informatics Co.

Education: pre-university lyceum student of modern languages and world literature with strong emphasis on reviewing and critical analysis. International Business Management major and Translations minor. Additional courses and/or training: economic journalism, economic semiotics.

Other: Fiction author. Oxford comma fan.

My platform for marketing the book (TBD):

Social media;
Own influencer network;
Established relationships and contacts, both local and international;
Public speaking.

Influencer Marketing 101. Operate Your Influencer Network. Rules 4-5

Rule 4. In time, invest in a good influencer relations management software suite

For now, after I've done preliminary research before actually trying software products, my personal favorite in terms of influencer relationship management is Traackr. It focuses on nurturing relationships rather than capitalizing on them. All in all, a business tool with a human face. I will dedicate a separate IM 101 chapter to its features, but in terms of impact-measuring tools, let me just say this: Traackr measures reach, relevance, and resonance.

Metatag Hag: Next week, I will get a demo and do a test drive of Traackr's platform. Then, we will discuss it in more detail, but for now, from what I have gotten from their guides and manuals, theirs is a very thorough yet user-friendly approach to influencer relations management. For now, though, if you want to do your homework, follow the link above and download Traackr's free guides and ebooks. To rephrase a well-known school song, there's a lot of interesting stuff worthy of filling your head.


For instance, here is a quote from their Guide to Influencer Marketing:

In this highly social web, information travels like waves. These waves are created by people who generate content and build followings. A subset of these people create stronger waves than others. These wavemakers drive their audiences to believe, buy and care. So, what makes someone a wavemaker? Influence. 

Of course, the analogy seems accurate, but we always have to be careful with analogies. As you know, many things create many different waves. It can be a small stone (but, say, dropped from a high altitude), or it can be a tsunami reaching across oceans.

One should always have different approaches to things different in their nature. That is why my focus is mostly on influencer psychology - we have to understand how small stones work and what kind of butterfly wing's flutter it takes to stir a hurricane.

Re: influencer relations management software suites. There is also Onalytica, but it's way too serious for an individual - it's all about math and stats, brand awareness, sales conversions... it's worth spending money on it if you have a start-up or if you want to revamp your small business.

I'm telling you about all these corporate solutions also to point your attention to the fact that they offer lots of free ebooks and white papers, which is pure informational gold delivered to you on a platter. They also have blogs worth reading.

Metatag Hag: Yeah. You can start reading without wasting time on pawing through huge amounts of information online, 90% of which can be interesting but irrelevant or downright wrong. Or too complicated, but you have me and Anastasia to bring it to you simply.

Rule 5. Watch your presentation

Let us reiterate that the individual approach and the corporate approach have tangencies but are not the same thing. Corporations depend on buyer's decision a lot. You, as a young talent looking to be "adopted" by a corp, must also "sell yourself". But seeing as you're selling your current results AND, to a great extent, your potential/your future ability to create more product with high purchasing power, you must focus more on presenting yourself correctly rather than on pushing your "homemade" product at each and every corner. From the consumer's point of view, people prefer to consume something endorsed by a big name and loyal followers.

Metatag Hag: Of course, you can take a leaf out of Hugh Howie's book and become "the poster boy/girl" of your own niche or go indie, no one is stopping you. But trust me, now that you are still alone, you cannot build a brand. First of all, you need a team for that. Unless you are a web designer, but then, if you are one, you've probably found your niche. And if you are an aspiring songwriter to boot, you probably built your own site. But even if you're King Versatile, you as an individual cannot replace a team, even if you have a small niche brand in mind. 

But if you built a team of enthusiasts who are also the specialists you need, well, kudos and good luck! We'll write Project Management for Rookies for you next.

Be careful to present yourself well to top influencers and on building relationships with various influencers function of their psychology. Trust me, agents and headhunters keep their eyes peeled for hens who can lay golden eggs, so focus on:

- honing your skills,
- enhancing your potential,
- learning from peers and stars,
- improving your demo product,
- and presenting all this in the right light to your network of influencers.

As I said before, review and rethink what you said from time to time, and if you feel it was inappropriate or plain stupid, go back and delete it.

Among other things, focus on posting top quality content on your blog. If you cannot come up with something really interesting every day, post some of your old texts that seem good, quote some classics that have a tangency to what you do. Just keep it buzzing.

Metatag Hag: As for your Twitter account, keep in mind that you never know who may see what you chirrup about. And it's not so difficult to shine on Twitter where
- 80% is advertising;
- 10% are quoted platitudes and banalities no one really cares for, although they're all supposed to make you "learn";
- 9% is other various cr... er, I mean, content;
- 1% are things worth Retweeting and the occasional Keats line.

To be continued...

Thank you!

Anastasia Stratu and The Metatag Hag

Influencer Marketing 101 - Operate Your Influencer Network. Rule 2

Dear reader,

Today, we continue discussing your influencer network, namely, the social media platforms.

Rule 2. Optimize the social media platforms inside your influencer network

As you will grow as an influencer and a public persona, your presence on the social media arena will grow to a hundred social media networks. You will be able to afford a proprietary social media management platform and your own social media coordinator. But while you're still working on building your presence - and on honing your talent, which, if I may add, should take the lion's share of your time - just link your existing four or five accounts together. It will work just fine. You'll only need to hang out in one of them.

For instance, my own Twitter and Facebook accounts are only closed when I write. For the rest of my waking hours, they're on the background of my life, and every time something interesting, witty, or simply worth sharing comes to my mind, I'm there chirruping about it. I'm not much of a photographer - word is my sword. I add the occasional photo or infographic to illustrate my point, but I use free stock images - always mentioning the author, of course. I don't waste my time creating content that is not my specialization.

Metatag Hag: And one more time for the cheap seats in the back! I know it's an old adage, but Tweeting about what you ate and who you met is a) old b) ineffective. People don't care - unless you're Beyoncé. In a later installment of the IM 101, we will talk about types of top influencer psychology, including celebrities whose flow of mundane happenings is treated like gold by their fans, but we're not there yet.

And I can't say it often enough: be relevant to your own positioning. If you're a musician, 90% of your talk should be related to the industry and what you can do for it - in line with the respective trends and accompanied by the relevant hashtags. Etc. Leave the rest for your personal accounts - if, after reading three chapters of IM 101, you still think you have time for those!

Also, if you have an Instagram or Pinterest account, and something curious gets into your field of vision, click on! Just don't do cats/flowers/food/your own beautiful body parts - the nets are so full of it, it's almost bad form. Filter everything you photograph through these four filters:

- interesting;
- unusual;
- funny;
- worth sharing.

Of course, in my book, there is an exception to every rule, including personal comments and observations. If you insist on informing the world that you're going to eat lunch or go for a walk, a) make it funny or witty b) connect it to a trend, a current affair, and a hashtag, and do it smartly, not just for the sake of hashtagging a bunch of random words.

For example, once I saw someone Tweeting about drinking their morning coffee, and I responded with a little interjection poem - on a personal note, yes, I love writing interjection poetry:

A Friday of an Office Shrimp (this is my euphemism for "office rat" because I find the word "rat" offensive)

Yawn-vrumm-gulp-gulp!
Click-click-click!
Click-click-click!
Nom-nom!
Click-click!
Vrumm-yikes-vrumm-vrumm!
Yee-ha-ya-hoo! Umtz-umtz-umtz! Clink!
Ooph-ooph!
Ooph-ooph!
Yea!
Zzzz....

The person did not react, but other people did, so I made it one of my staples. I add the #poetry hashtags, and post it from time to time - with variations, of course... I try never to repeat myself. I even changed the poem for this chapter, although I'm sure you never heard it.

Sometimes people react, even if it's just a smile, sometimes it's just a Tweet in the Wilderness. My advice is to do the same - make people smile, no matter what medium you use to dress up your ideas. Moreover, make influencers smile. People will associate your name with smiling, and that is a very, very good thing.

Metatag Hag: Even if you think we wandered away from our topic of tools, we didn't. Your wittiness and sense of humor must shine through everything you do. They are your tools as well, even if you photograph cats or write a blog about blue orchids.


Incidentally, HootSuite is good for saving templates, that is, old but good messages you may want to recycle some day. I personally rely on my memory, and social media accounts normally contain archives of whatever you say or post. As for memory, which is also an important tool, you can rely on it only to a certain extent.

Metatag Hag: Right. When the numbers of persons and personalities in your network will reach thousands, trust me, you will have more than enough on your mind, if you're serious about promoting your talent.

If you're present in at least top five, it's enough to build your influencer network. Larger presences are needed in the next phases when your fandom must gain momentum... but that's different.

To be continued...

Thank you!

Anastasia Stratu and The Metatag Hag

Influencer Marketing 101 - Operate Your Influencer Network. Rule 1

Dear reader,

Today, the Metatag Hag and I would like to talk about the tools that will help you operate your influencer network on your way to your a mountain top sitter chair. This will not be a list of analytic apps or a rating of software products - you can find a wide array of those online, well-described and explaining what to do with them. I don't think apps will help you be a one-of-a-kind, highly sought-after product creator. They can only help you optimize your work. When I say tools, I mean the things that will help you get the most out of the influencer network you started building.

By the way, don't think influencer network building is a process limited in time. Once you started, you have to dedicate time and efforts to your old and new influencers all the time. And when you have many, this must be part of your daily routine.

Metatag Hag: For instance, I just Followed a gluten-free network. It has a great follower-to-followee ratio, and who knows? Maybe someday, one of those 12 thousand gluten-shy people will buy this book. God works in mysterious ways, while the ways of social networks can be put to your service.

I will mention a few software products, though, as actual parts of your influencer relations' toolbox.

We will be discussing all sorts of instruments in that toolbox, from personal qualities you need to enhance, to impact measurement tools, presentation and reputation-building, the content you create and distribute as you promote yourself, and  many others.

First and foremost, there is:

Rule 1. The personal approach: do not entrust a machine with something you can do by yourself. For instance, Michael Hyatt, a notable public speaker and leadership expert, recommends this:

"Don’t use an auto-responder. I used to use SocialOomph to thank everyone who followed me and provide a link to my “Beginner’s Guide to Twitter.” I thought I was being courteous and helpful. As it turns out, I was being annoying. This is just more clutter in people’s Twitter inbox. Avoid it."

My point exactly. SocialOomph may be good when you, say, have a quirky greeting you send out every morning. It is also more convenient for auto-scheduling messages than HootSuite, but do you really want to annoy people with the same robotic messages, day after day? I personally use it to do a little one-day-per-week shout-out about my new book or article, every two-three hours, but no more than that.

It's particularly annoying when a certain account spews out a pageful of Tweets - granted, one of them is bound to get your attention, but normally, this automatically makes you want to reach for the "Unfollow" button. Who knows what important Tweet they could bury? I Follow two such spewers, so I know how it feels, and the only reason I don't Unfollow them - please don't laugh - is that both accounts are SEO firms. They also follow me, which is important in my case. So I just sigh and switch windows when I see a spew-out.

Metatag Hag: I also get to read a couple of those spew Tweets, but what's the point? I don't have time to follow links to detailed reasons that make brain tumors more common in men. And if I consumed content for needs other than research, I'd Unfollow everything that annoys me. Just like so many of us do, otherwise we'd drown in seas of information useless to us.

(For those of you who need a bit of explaining on SEO: it's search engine optimization. Plainly put, it's an entire industry dedicated to making your site appear on the 1st page of Google results - and having your ads bring more customers, too). As a friend's friend who works at Media Experts says, "I make those annoying little ads you see on Google."

In a word: don't be a robot. Be spontaneous, be original, modify your signature or staple Tweets/posts. Imagine someone, a top influencer maybe,  who's curious enough to click on your Tweets archive and sees a row of identical messages! There are myriads of such wannabes online, who load their Tweets with "please listen to my songs" or "check out my videos" repeated with the insistence and frequency of a woodpecker torturing a tree.

Don't be Woody. Be Tweety - talkative but demure, and so charming people just stop and stare!

 Always answer with personalized messages even when you receive the standard automated "hi, thanks for following, please like my Facebook page".

Metatag Hag: Right, it can annoy the wits out of you. But hey, you ain't wearing no crown yet, so don't be too proud. Haul butt to the respective page and like it even if it kills you! Then respond with something like "I just liked your page, my name on Facebok is, say, Metatag Hag", if it differs from your Twitter name. Then include the link to your own page. Granted, you'll probably never get your favor returned, but at least you won't look like a pushy door-to-door marketer. Again: you're not hunting followers, you're hunting influencers.

And when you respond in a nice and polite manner, complimenting the other as you go, you won't even have to do the asking - the link is an implied invitation to repeat the nice thing you just did for your fellow influencer. 

That's right - fellow. Never forget you are an influencer, too. And re: "probably never return the favor", my own statistics say that four likes render you one "back-like". 

To be continued...

Thank you!

Anastasia Stratu and The Metatag Hag

Influencer Marketing 101. Building your Influencer Network. Part 2

Dear reader,

We continue today with more advice on building your influencer network.

4. Do not rush to start pushing your product immediately.

In your pre-launch phase, just mention it from time to time. Otherwise, you will be no different from a door-to-door salesperson. Talk about related topics intelligently, smartly; quote some classics - a versatile person is always respected.

Be modest and don't dish out "I'm a misunderstood genius" messages. 

It's OK if you use sarcasm and are a bit caustic some times. Do not fear being a sharp but objective critic. Just do not be offensive and do not criticize anyone personally.

A cookie-cutter example on how to be a critic: if you find something is stupid, say "This is done stupidly for reasons I do not know" and not "What you've done is stupid because you're stupid". Learning how to stay polite when you're saying harsh things is great training for a potential public speaker.

Metatag Hag: Show you're worthy of attention. Thus, you will prepare your network for the fact that your product is worthy of attention, too.

5. Let your best influencers help you - learn from their networks.

Find your best influencer - for instance, whom do you want to produce your TV show? If it's a sitcom, is it Chuck Lorre? If it's sci-fi, is it J. Michael Straczynski? Make a list of your top five influencers, then follow everyone relevant from their follower lists. Trust me, you will find treasures there.

5. Follow successful peers.

Befriend those who work in the same field but have already reached more or less wide acclaim. Do not try to save time on building friendships in this level of influencers. Unlike decision-makers, many peers have started where you are starting now, and they still remember the struggle. Their psychology has not yet shifted to celebrity psychology; however:

Metatag Hag: Be deferential and respectful, and act as if your peer friend is already a celebrity. Well, compared to you, they are.

Peers can help you establish contacts in the respective industry, and maybe recommend you to the top influencer who helped them. Do not impose yourself, though; do not ask for favors. Treat people as people, not tools. Wait for an offer to introduce you to someone, but never beg for it. You will lose both the opportunity and the friendship.

6. Find influencers who help rookies.

A notable example in the literary world is Janet Reid, literary agent and owner of FinePrint Literary Management. Her alter ego, the Query Shark, invites every beginner writer to submit their attempts for query letters, and gives constructive critique. Query letters are cover letters with which aspiring authors accompany their submissions to agents and publishers. The service is absolutely free of charge.

Metatag Hag: This is why the Query Shark aka Ms. Reid is in my top five sharks people to respect. She does a huge load of difficult time-consuming work helping both individuals and a major community - without needing to show off a particular evening gown as she does it.

Yes, she is largely demonized, and this graphic short story shows her in a nutshell. Yet most fail to understand the magnitude of the community service this woman provides, except maybe those authors whose success story started with the words "Dear QueryShark". If you find this kind of "villain" in your own industry, follow his or her advice to a T. 

Well, to rephrase Princess Tiana, nothing's going to stop you now, even if you're not almost there. Frankly, you're not even close, but it's a start. You follow 2,000 people whose Tweets are a bonanza of precious information. If they are within a single industry, most of them know each other. If at least one of them will get to notice how talented you really are, you're on the right track.

As you Tweet in turn, always keep in mind that someone important may see your words. And never forget that we don't get a second chance to create a first impression. Even if you Twitted a perfect humbug, take the time to look back on your recent Tweets or posts. Delete it if your "Oh, how could I Tweet this stupid thing!" test renders positive results.

Metatag Hag: And if you chuckle at an old joke you made some time ago, do not hesitate to recycle it!

Next time, we will talk about software tools to help you in your work, like Social Oomph or Traackr.

Sincerely yours,
Anastasia Stratu aka Metatag Hag

Influencer Marketing 101. Building your Influencer Network. Part 1

Dear reader,

Today, we discuss our influencer network. How do we choose correctly those who impress us and people like us on a daily basis?

Step No.1: Build your Influencer Network.

At your early pre-launch stages, start with the the social media hubs. Later, when your product is rolling and you have time and funds to build your post-launch strategies,

- you will develop your influencer relations program,

- you will outline your influencer outreach plan,

- you will plan your real-life interactions with influencers, etc.,

...all according to corp strategies described in this or that Voice of Authority.

But while you're still a Tweeter in the Wilderness, stick to the social media. Plus, a solid SM platform will only do you good later.

I personally prefer Twitter as a faster way to put yourself in the spotlight, but you can apply some of my advice to other social media hot-spots. So here is the rookie's first rule: follow everyone, but do not follow everyone!

Let me explain. At first, you will want to be nice and return the favor to every follower, just like you're probably doing for years in your personal account, and it will be wise to do so. It will give you more Favorites and Retweets. But later, you will discover your feed is full of Tweets totally unrelated to your goal. And you'll start missing out on important messages from your top influencers.

You will need to weed down your initial quota of 2,000 followees to top influencers only. Later, when you grow from a wannabe to a famous boy/girl with your own social media coordinator and a larger follower-to-followee ratio, you can afford to be nice to everyone. Follow your favorite bands, sports teams, and other hobby-related accounts in your personal account, but never from your product's account.

Do not expect to have top influencer followers only! At first, all sorts of influencers will follow you. There is a way to reward your level 3 and 4 influencer followers if you want to show them the respect and appreciation you feel. Every now and then, drop by their feeds, comment on and favorite some stuff you really like. But retweet only things that are connected with you and your own agenda!

Advice on building your influencer network:

1. Pay attention to your chosen followees.

Level 1 influencers - actors, musicians and miscellaneous stars - all have verified accounts marked with a tick mark icon. But don't focus on those too much - their time is very expensive and they spend it accordingly. Of course, their word alone is both an endorsement, a thousand-dollar-worth ad, and a surefire way to get a contract, but how to get that word?

Say, if you write fangy romance, and Stephenie Meyer recommends your book, consider yourself almost in the Twilight zone. But there are tons of paranormal romance on the market. Even if you are published or self-published, you are a mere title lost in the waters of Amazon.com. For a star influencer to spend a considerable amount of time reading and endorsing your book, you have a long way to go. Plus, they don't like creating competition - next time, a reader with money for only one book, may choose your first novel over their tenth one.

Metatag Hag: To resume, that is one mountain top you just cannot jump onto. So focus on your climb of Everest, and when you make it, you will be visible to other mountain-top-sitters, and that's a totally different area of influencer marketing and psychology.

Your main target is Level 2 where the decision-makers dwell.

2. Do not forget the differences AND the similarities between celebrity psychology and businessperson psychology.

As soon as you established a follower-followee relationship with a Level 2 influencer, start studying their work. Visit their sites; comment on their recent achievements. Do not be bland and banal: use tasteful jokes (careful! "funny" sells, but not everyone's sense of humor is like yours), come up with some aphorisms and interesting homemade wisdom.

For example, recently I was Tweeting with @JoshCoffy and in dialogue, came up with the line: "The road to success is a maze, not a straight line". It got Retweeted and Favorited several times, and after that, top influencer after top influencer from the business world started following me. Now, according to @JaysonDeMers, a Seattle-based SEO firm owner, there is little direct rapport determined between social signals and the place of the advertised product in the search result rankings. Yet I personally think this rapport is important. The more top influencers follow you, the more chance you have to Tweet something worthy of their notice. And that is another step towards the endorsement you crave.

3. Do not hesitate to use flattery.

Just make it fine and discreet - top influencers are all smart people who will know how to decode your message the right way. And stop lamenting about being too proud to flatter people! As I say frequently, when you kiss some influencer boot, you don't have to bend down - you have to jump up. Moreover, if your top influencers are from the field you work in, they're bound to have come up with something worthy of admiration, and that deserves mustering up a sincere compliment. When someone like that follows you, and you say you're honored, it's not insincere flattery. The attention of a big fish is truly and objectively an honor for a small fish. 

When a high-profile person follows you, respond with a thank-you note. But not everyone will react positively to that: be prepared to receive all sorts of reactions in response to a polite thank-you note. For example, when I was followed by one @JoshStern, I sent a thank-you note and received back a Tweet that was quite insulting. Like all insults questioning qualities that we believe to be our strengths, it caused intense butthurt (excuse the word, but it's not a mere addition to our urban dictionaries - it is a popular trend, too). After three "bite me" Tweets and a weekend of rest and reflection, I deleted those Tweets and worded a conclusion I want to share with you. Do not be surprised - it coincides with an age-old wisdom.

Metatag Hag: If you want to swim with the sharks, you need a thick hide.

That includes ignoring insults, rejections, and doubts. You are the best, and that must be a universal truth in your inner universe.

You also need to learn to manage your need for validation. But that is the subject for another Metatag Hag note in another article.

One more important thing: do not waste time thinking WHY this or that person said or did this hurtful thing. Trust me, when I say "weekend of reflection", I only indicate the span of time between insult and conclusion. The mere affair took me all of 15 minutes.

We will continue next time with more tips.

Sincerely yours,
Anastasia Stratu aka Metatag Hag

Influencer Marketing 101. Introduction

Dear reader,

Although I normally prefer to skipping the intro and getting to the point, a little explanation is in order.

This body of information and advice is not for SEO/SEM specialists who know it all about how to push a product to the first Google search results page.

I am writing this series of articles for the regular talented person who doesn't know how to make him- or herself noticed. I am reaching out to the regular creative but not quite marketing-savvy mind in Uncle Sam manner. I want YOU to make it! I want YOU to be the hot news!

People talking about you - that Mount Olympus of the social media era - is your goal. After all, we all know the second page of Google results is the perfect place to hide something, like evidence to a crime. Seriously, though, if you are vying for public attention, being on the first page is as difficult as climbing Everest, let alone Olympus. If you are trying to hide something nasty, don't hope even the 100th Google search results page will help. This is the paradox of our life.

So don't do nasty things and be careful with every step. This is my advice to everyone - to influencer marketing students in particular.

Say, you are strictly a man or woman of letters or a starry-eyed Game of Thrones fan, and you know little about marketing, but your talent is to design mega action figures or draw supercool graphic novels. You don't just want the world to find out about it. You want your special product to become a household name.

A Word from the Metatag Hag

For instance, you have a killer TV show idea, you're working on the script, you're enjoying yourself swimming in your little sea of creativity. After all, any writer will tell you that the writing part is the best and easiest part. But don't forget it was the promo that, at some stage or another, has earned from you all the expletives you knew. So be smart, learn from your past mistakes, and dedicate equal amounts of time to both activities - creating and promoting what you create.

Creative minds today may need help in promoting their product or content. One way is through accreditation and endorsement by top influencers.

Influencer marketing and influencer psychology are subjects of growing importance in the field of SMM - Social Media Marketing.

Contrary to the common belief, the hot shots and big Kahunas are not the only influencers - your neighbor is an influencer, too. Your little sister with her blog and her 5,000 Facebook friends - even more so. If you're promoting a musical product, your neighborhood's garage band is the first to befriend - trust me, they know all the sites and are following all the people. Don't forget about Grandma and her book club, too!

The difference is level and impact.

Business owners, top literary agents, Hollywood producers - those are top level influencers. As you can see from the infographic below, they can give you more reach, but the degree of influence will be lower.

Not to mention your own influence on them - to them, "unforgettable" is not what it means to the rest of the world.

Bottom line: if you want to sing with Justin Bieber, you have to start with impressing your Mom.

So don't be afraid to look for ways to be un-for-gettable! Make up a new word, think of a catchy tagline, come up with a hilarious joke...

Metatag Hag: ...but beware gimmicks!

Now, let's take it you have covered the first two levels. Your family, friends, and friends of friends know about your new product.You have a small but devoted fandom who like you and think you are worthy of acclaim. Yet they cannot give you the accreditation that can land you a network of high-profile contacts and eventually a contract.

We all know the old adage about making one step at a time. Rephrasing an old Danube-Carpathian saying, "you cannot start fattening your pig on Christmas Eve". So, if you want your product to be in stores by Christmas, start feeding your social media Babe now.

Actually, you should have started in February, but you're not a big corp and you don't play by their rules. Nor do you have their resources. Luckily, you have all the tools to start promoting your talent at zero expense. Just use your good old toys - blogs, pages, accounts - you only used for a little blah-blah-show before.

Metatag Hag: Influencer marketing is a key strategy in your battle plan. Every day, we are both influencing and being influenced by someone or something.

Next time, we will continue with Step No.1 - Building your Influencer Network.

Sincerely yours,

Anastasia Stratu aka Metatag Hag