In the world of marketing, social media influencers hold a lot of power. They have an army of followers that will share, retweet, and like everything that they post.

Simply put, these are the people within your industry that you wish you were. So as the saying goes: if you can’t beat them, then you’re going to have to join them.

The good news is, they’re always on the lookout for great content to share with their huge amount of followers.

By getting influencers on your side, you’re far more likely to get them to share your content, link back to your site or let you write a guest post on their blog.

But with so many other people out there trying to do the same thing, how do you stand out? Take a look at these steps.

Related Article: How to Approach Social Media Influencers

Find the Right Blogs

The first step is to find blogs that are relevant to your business and the content that you produce. Sure, there are plenty of blogs out there with highly authoritative domains, meaning a link to your site could be golden. But if it’s completely irrelevant, then you’re only wasting your time. Take a look at the platform BuzzSumo. Here you’ll be able to type in relevant keywords to your business, and discover the most influential people that are related to those keywords.

Now you can export your list, follow the blogs that matter to you and create a list of influencers that you can target with your content.

Engage With Them on Social

Following all of your chosen influencers on social is a logical step to take so that they can start to take notice of your brand. But don’t just settle with a follow. Retweet their content, reply to their posts, and when you share their content, make sure you include their handle in the post so that they can see you’re taking an interest in them. The more you make yourself visible to them, the more likely they will be to take an interest in your content.

Related Article: Reach Your Target Audience: A Fool-Proof Guide to Influencer Marketing

Try Commenter Marketing

Another great tactic to get influencers to take notice of who you are is to try commenter marketing. The idea behind this tactic is to comment on the blogs of those influencers that you are trying to attract, in order to prove to them that you have an interest in their content. Make sure that the comment you leave is insightful, and adds to the conversation of the blog post itself.

For example, after reading an Ahrefs blog about the value of guest posting, it left me with a few questions. By asking questions regarding the content, helped gain a good response back from the author something that he’s more likely to remember, rather than a generic comment.

Interview Influencers and Create a Post About It

An interview with an influencer is a win/win situation for you and them. You’re essentially giving them free promotion, and they’re highly likely to share the interview with their followers. The good news is that most influencers are willing to accept interviews. For example, I decided to create a post about 10 top content marketing tips and interviewed Jeff Bullas, Michael Brenner, and Doug Kessler three key influencers in the world of content marketing.

I created the interview and made sure it was highly valuable, emailed each influencer letting them know that the post was live, and included their handle when I posted it on my social platforms. This helped me gain a great response, with all three influencers sharing the post with their followers.

Create Unique Content for Them

There’s nothing more tempting than bespoke content, created specifically for an influencer. Naturally, it takes more time for you to produce, but the rewards will be well worth the effort. Social media influencers have made their name from creating great content, so by offering to do it for them, you’ll actually be doing them a favor. Many bloggers accept guest posts on their site, or you could think about creating a more visual piece such as an infographic or a SlideShare.

Not only will this help you gain more brand exposure, but you’ll gain a valuable link back to your site, which will help improve your visibility across the web.

Related Article: Extend Your Reach: 6 Ideas for an Influencer Marketing Campaign That Works

Takeaway

Getting social media influencers to fall in love with your brand is no easy feat, but the results are most definitely worth the effort. The biggest takeaway here is that you need to build a relationship first before you try and ask them for a favor. Everyone likes to be treated differently. Where one influencer may not mind you sending them content to share, another may see it as obtrusive, so focus on the relationship first.