How to Become an Influencer & Generate More Business

It's not good enough to be an expert these days. Sure, having the knowledge, experience and wisdom about your particular industry is important. It gives you credibility, and media news outlets will seek you out for your expertise. To be a 'success minded business owner', become known and touch more lives with your gift it is necessary to become an influencer. The truth is they play off of each other. Become an influencer and you will be sought out as an expert, and vice-versa. This has played out big-time for CEO & Founder of eWomenNetwork who was featured in January as the Personal & Business Transformation Expert on the Emmy award-winning CBS syndicated show, The Doctors.

(Watch highlights from The Doctors watch party in Dallas below!)

Influencers are people with a huge follower base and authority to influence their fans or followers in some way, such as on purchasing decisions or have a large following in a particular niche. Being passionate and authentic about something you believe engages people and builds trust and ultimately followers. That's the key to becoming an an influencer - having a lot of followers. It is a numbers game.

Here are some key points to becoming a great influencer from influence marketing experts Influencive.com. 

• A great influencer is someone who has built a huge follower base organically around his expertise.
• Someone who creates real and trusted stories around brands and makes people believe them.
• A great influencer also inspires and persuades people to take proper actions, from filling a simple lead form to buying a product or service.
• A true influencer is also passionate and confident about what he is doing and how his thoughts are going to impact.
• She is someone who has exceptional networking skills. Connects with people easily and strikes a friendly conversation.

Micro-Influencers

So, for example, some obvious influencers are celebrities, POTUS, industry experts and bloggers. But there is another key influencer that is growing in popularity. They are called, "micro-influencers," and they are being sought out almost more than the big guns with big followers on Twitter, like Taylor Swift (85 million followers), Oprah (45 million followers), Sheryl Sandberg (250 thousand followers) or Melinda Gates (2 million followers). 

Research shows that these days having millions of followers on social media isn't necessarily a good thing. Turns out, Instagram influencers with fewer than 1,000 followers have a "like" rate of about 8 percent, while those with 1,000 to 10,000 followers have a "like" rate of 4 percent. Instagram influencers with 10,000 to 100,000 followers see a 2.4 percent "like" rate, compared to 1.7 percent for those with 1 million to 10 million followers and more. Comment rate follows a similar pattern.

The sweet spot for becoming a micro-influencer is having between 10,000 and 100,000 followers. Some companies and marketers are even paying them to promote their events, products or services their various social media outlets.