Try googling Social Media Influencers and you will get a lot of links such as ” 25 Influencers on Instagram “; The Most Social Media influencers of all time”; “Top Social Media Influencers by Industry” and a whole lot more which begs a question to be answered.
Is Popularity the Same as Influence in Social Media
As people come up with creative and sometimes awkward way to be popular. It is obvious that that the race to be relevant on Social Media Space is very much becoming a marathon.
There was once upon a time when it was easy to be popular on Social media.
All you had to do was create a profile or page, post content on that page and not before long, you would have lots of likes and loyal fans; that was the period when Social media was at its infant stage.
Today, Social media has exploded and it becoming difficulty to distinguish between popularity and influence.
A lot of Social media experts agree that Popularity does not equal Influence.
Take Danny Brown in Social Media Marketing Blog. He believes while it is swell to have a large following on Social media, that does not make you an influence. His article does give an indepth knowledge of what it takes to be an influence in Social media.
However, lets be honest! It is a wonderful feeling when you check your Social Channels to see that you have got 10,000 fans on Twitter, 300,000 fans on Facebook, 30,000 fans on Instagram and a lot of shares on Tik Tok.
You feel like you are Oprah Winfrey. You just have to let the whole world know that you are so popular.
A Better Way to Improve Your Influence on Social Media
While it is great that you have got social proof on your side and feel so popular, does this make you influential?
Influence has much more effect than being popular. The best way to be an influence is to make a difference in your Social Media Community.
You will be appreciated by your community when you focus on relationships and help your audience achieve their goals than numbers. Don’t forget that even though you have social profiles, you are dealing with people.
What’s the point of having a contact of 10,000 people when you don’t even know at least 50 of them. It would be better to have a relationship with 200 fans than struggling to know 10,000 of them.
Now I am not discouraging you from having a large number of fans but if you really want to be an influence then your mission has to be focused on helping your audience.
MUST READ: 10 Ways To Make A Difference in Your Social Media Community
Which is your favourite, Popularity or Influence?
If all you think about is what your fans think about you, then you need a rethink of your strategy.
Don’t be under pressure by fame. Whats you should focus on is making an impact rather than dwell on status.
