Yes, I straight jacked Dale Carniege most reference book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, but I switched it up a bit. Today, I want to give you an updated version of how you can make friends on the internet and influence them.
First, I want you to understand it’s not a people person or anything like that. Being witty, charismatic, charming and stuff like that matter. I can stand on that because I am not a people person. I prefer to be lost in my thoughts in my presence watching Netflix or reading a book. So, everything I am about to share with you is very possible.
Be You At All Times
I know that sounds so cliche, but we live in a time where the persona people portray on social media entirely different from who they are online. There are a couple of words people would use to describe me, but one I hear often is transparent. I am very thankful my audience digs me being me, cause lord pretending to be something else would be hard. I remember a time I did that. People will dig you and buy into who you are. I am a woman who is super passionate about several things. That’s the next point. Energy is everything to me and if our vibes don’t work it’s for a reason. There is a blogger and business consultant that I meet five years ago when she was just a blogger. She seemed fake from the start, and we all agreed. Over the years, we have seen her morph into other people to appease a particular crowd. Never really being here just doing what everyone else is doing. You can’t connect with an audience nor influence them if you’re always changing. There is a difference in growth as a person and just switching your life to go with what’s popular.
Be Passionate
Like minds tend to gravitate to each other and want to hang out. I am very passionate about a couple of things such as; Jesus, Starbucks, shoes and small business. These are constant conversation starters for me. When I tend events that tend to be more tech verse fashion, the first thing people talk to me about is my outfit specifically my shoes. When you are passionate about a subject matter, you become a thought leader in that industry. It won’t happen overnight, but people will come to you about it often. On any given day, I receive text messages, emails or a social media message regarding how to find a particular small business owner. This is the main reason; I launched Business Bestie. A place for women business owners to connect with each other.
Actually Engage
Here is the problem that most people don’t realize. They are not social on social media. They will lurk, but won’t actually engage back! If you want to make friends and influence them, you must connect with them. A couple of months ago, I wrote “Stop Lurking and Start Increasing Your Engagement + Exposure” newsletter solely focused on helping people engage. If you, tweet me, leave a comment or email you will get a response. I am where I am because of my audience rocks with me.
Know The Audience
What does your audience need from you? Everyone complains about self-help being a billion dollar industry, but people need the help to fix their lives. I ain’t mad at them. To influence the friends you make you need to know what they need. My audience needs to know a few things such as;
- how to launch the business
- how to grow their business
- how to obtain clients and retain clients
- how to make money when you barely got some
- turning their excuse mindset to a winning mindset
The list can go on and on with the things my audience wants help with. So, I decided to be the person who provides. Recently, I started using Instagram to be more focused on a mindset of a winner. Trust me; I am striving daily for greatness in my life. As I learn things that have an enormous impact on my life I share it with them.
Leverage The Influence
When someone buys into who you are and what you do, they will be influenced not only by words but more of your actions. The life you live is the biggest examples of how to make friends and influence them. Every day, I strive for my steps to be aligned with my words. Some might think that is hard, but if you go back to the first point of always being yourself it’s not. Daily I pray to Jesus I can be more like Him. I have decided what does that look like and how can I portray that to my audience.
How It Works
My audience not only buys my products. Yes, my products and service are excellent and will give you results, but they buy into me. They believe what I am saying because they saw it with their own eyes with my business. My clients have received the benefits of me leveraging my audience. Sharing my client’s pages and products has landed them followers and sales. If you take all these steps and truly do them, you will have an impact. Even better example is I told my followers about Gary V now they are hooked. Mind you Gary has a huge platform, but they never heard of him. My opinion regarding his expertise changed that.
The problem with making friends on the internet then later influencing them is something happens in translation. People feel like they are being sold to or something comes off inauthentic.
