How to Become a Social Media Influencer Without Being Glued to Your Phone

You see them each time you go online. Every time you search for a specific hashtag you run across their name. Sometimes you even see their tweets pulled into blog articles on your favorite topics. They’re EVERYWHERE. This person can be called a social media influencer.

Social media influencers seem to always be in the right place at the right time. They must be on their phones constantly to have that type of presence, right? Yes, there are probably quite a few influencers out there who are always staring at a screen, but I can assure you there are others who are not. By having a plan and being strategic about how they spend their time online, they are able to be in the right place at the right time and make their influence even stronger.

The following are a few ways you can be strategic in how you spend your time online in order to build your social media influence.

Get Involved In Trending Topics

You could post consistently throughout the day until your fingers turn black and blue and not see any results if you’re posting about things people don’t care about. A new trick you found for your iPhone 4S? Nobody is going to care. A new hidden feature for the iPhone 7? You can be sure to get at least a few clicks. Timing is key when it comes to the success of your content.

The best way to stay on top of trending topics is to pay attention to the “trending” sections on Facebook and Twitter. Also, never underestimate the power of the good ol' 5 o’clock news. Often times, stories break on the news and then social media follows. Spend a half hour each day watching the news, and start a conversation online about what you’ve learned. It’s likely others will want to talk about it too, so by being one of the firsts in the conversation, others will likely build off of you.

The key to this tip, however, is that it relies strongly on the use of hashtags. If you want people to easily find your posts, you need to make sure you’re using the hashtag that others would be to use if they were looking for your topic. Hashtags are your best friend. Find them. Use them. Love them.

Keep Your Online Presence Centered on One Common Subject

One of the biggest downfalls people encounter when trying to build up their social influence is when they decide to switch topics. Are you going to look to Mark Zuckerberg for his take on the new NFL draft picks? No. Are you going to look to Paula Deen for her thoughts on web design? No. You’re going to look to Mark Zuckerberg for info related to technology, and you’ll look to Paula Deen for cooking related tips. These two examples focus on what they’re known for, and they don’t try to deviate.

Before you start building up your influencer status, write down on a Post-It note what you want to be known for. There should only be one single topic written on this piece of paper. Some examples in the business world could include: marketing, social media marketing, web design, SEO, or sales. The topic can be very specific, or include a few items under its umbrella. Even if the topic includes a few things under its umbrella, such as marketing does, you’ll still be focused enough where people interested in those related topics will want to follow you. 

Take Advantage of Scheduling Tools

This is probably the number one thing people that aren’t in marketing don’t realize. You can schedule out your social posts. Yes, it’s true. And it can save you a heck of a lot of time.

There are a number of tools out there that let you schedule out any number of posts that you want such as Hootsuite, MavSocial, and Buffer. Just write your post, upload a picture or post a link, pick a time, schedule, and let the world think you really are posting every hour.

It may seem like a daunting task at first when you sit down to schedule out your posts. In all transparency it could take you anywhere from 2-4 hours to schedule out a month’s worth of posts. However, these 90+ posts you schedule out likely would take you 5 minutes each if you did them separately and on a whim. Add that up and that’s 7.5 hours each month you’re spending on posting! Scheduling out oscial posts is one big time saver.

Schedule Time into Your Day to Interact 

Because you’re saving such a large amount of time each month by scheduling out your main posts, be sure to reserve a little time each day to actually go in and interact or join in on trending topics. I suggest taking 15 minutes before work, 15 minutes over lunch, and 15 minutes at night to hop online and join in the conversation. These touch points are crucial for building awareness and getting people to follow your page.

The points mentioned above are just a few of many ways you can build your social media influence without always having to be on your phone. If you have tips to add, I'd love for you to share them in the comments below or on social media.