Recently, my institution brought together 60 of the web’s brightest minds to advise about distort for 60 seconds each.
Yep. 60 speakers, 60 minutes total.
Who came to the party?
Well, Copyblogger’s own beloved Brian Clark, and his humorous underlord, Johnny B. Truant, to start.
We also heard from Guy Kawasaki, Gary Vaynerchuk, Robert Scoble, MarketingSherpa’s Anne Holland, MarketingProfs’ Ann Handley, David Meerman Scott, and many others.
We called it The Influencer Project, and billed it as “the shortest marketing conference ever.” The venerable HubSpot was our sponsor. Word got around.
We learned a lot, which we’ll be sharing as a case study later down the road.
But for now, I wanted to share with my fellow Copyblogger enthusiasts and Third Tribe mavens the “one thing” each speaker shared that we at ThoughtLead found unique and essential to building digital domination
Now, without any further ado, here they are, in order of appearance:
#1. David Meerman Scott. “Stop talking about your products and services. People don’t care about products and services; they care about themselves.” -@dmscott
#2. Anne Holland. “Improve the buttons on your landing page. Can you make your button bigger?” -@anneholland55
#3. Mike Volpe. “We share lots of things that most companies would keep internal. By sharing both the good and the bad, you build digital influence.” -@mvolpe
#4. Michael Port. “Consistency. Consistency demonstrates commitment. You’re going to earn trust because you’re consistent.” -@michaelport
#5. Liz Strauss. “Know where you’re going — because who would want to follow you if you don’t know where you’re going?” -@lizstrauss
#6. Robert Scoble. “Follow better people. The better your inbound is, the better your output will be. And your output is what people follow.” -@scobleizer
#7. Carol Roth. “Align yourself with outstanding strategic partners.” -@CarolJSRoth
#8. Scott Porad. “Make connections with people online, and then go and meet them in person in the real world, offline.” -@scottporad
#9. Joe Pulizzi. “Create content that stands for something: what I call Higher Purpose Content Marketing.” -@juntajoe
#10. Laurel Touby. “Each month, on the first day of the month, assign yourself 3 digital trends you’ve been hearing about and do a test drive.” -@laureltouby
#11. Hugh MacLeod. “We use other people’s stuff or other people’s content to socialize. And your stuff’s either a social object or it’s not.” -@gapingvoid
#12. Chris Guillebeau. “Avoid incestuous blogging. Instead of sticking to one niche, think bigger: what social circles are related to yours?” -@chrisguillebeau
#13. Laura Roeder. “Just start talking to people! Don’t worry about what to tweet, just start responding.” -@lkr
#14. Michael Margolis. “People either identify and connect with your story or they don’t. Have a story that’s worth telling.” -@getstoried
#15. Dave Navarro. “Find people who have your audience already and co-create products with them.” -@rockyourday
#16. Loren Feldman. “Either be super-fake and make believe you’re friendly to everybody, or be completely honest.” -@1938media
#17. Ann Handley. “Ground your content in who you are. Don’t be afraid to have a point of view. But also give it wings to soar freely and be shared.” -@marketingprofs
#18. Jim Kukral. “Facebook advertising: you can run ads on profiles of people that work just within certain organizations!” -@jimkukral
#19. Joselin Mane. “As soon as you meet someone, introduce that individual to someone else you know.” -@joselinmane
#20. John Jantsch. “Get very good at filtering and aggregating content. Deliver it to people at the right time, the right size, the right amount.” -@ducttape
#21. Marshall Kirkpatrick. “Be early in the news cycle on any conversation of general interest. Detect early voices out in the wilderness.” -@marshallk
#22. Shama Kabani. “Create [video] content around your area of expertise and then distribute, distribute with gusto!” -@shama
#23. Terry Starbucker. “The only way to build influence is to go out and try and get it yourself, and to overcome that fear of doing so.” -@starbucker
#24. Johnny B. Truant. “Defy convention where it’s appropriate. Only a few people dare to step outside. And people take notice of that.” -@johnnybtruant
#25. Jason Falls. “Share good content consistently. That’s how I’ve done it.” -@jasonfalls
#26. Robbin Phillips. “It is not about digital. It’s about people. It’s about passion conversations, not product conversations.” -@robbinphillips
#27. Yaro Starak. “Learn how to talk more about other people. If you’re looking to influence a certain thought leader, talk about them.” -@yarostarak
#28. Michael Stelzner. “Set up a fan page on Facebook. Make a welcome tab with a video on it, and ask a poll question.” -@mike_stelzner
#29. Erica OGrady. “Make people around you more successful than you are.” -@ericaogrady
#30. Gary Vaynerchuk. “Talk about things you know. The reason Wine Library TV worked was because I knew what I was talking about.” -@garyvee
#31. Nathan Hangen. “Don’t worry about getting attention from other people. Make something worth talking about.” -@nhangen
#32. Danielle LaPorte. “Get yourself properly interviewed. Either hire a writer, or get yourself in front of a camera with a friend.” -@daniellelaporte
#33. Guy Kawasaki. “Repeat your tweets. I repeat them every eight hours.” -@guykawasaki
#34. David Bullock. “Move offline. Sometimes your market is not online. Use another media—television, radio, speaking events.” -@davidbullock
#35. Vanessa Fox. “A lot of people attract [visitors] from search. They’ve missed that big second step: solving their problems.” -@vanessafox
#36. Lewis Howes. “Find one specific niche and master that niche.” -@lewishowes
#37. Valeria Maltoni. “Do a weekly chat on Twitter. I’m a business strategist, so we use the principle of kaizen to help people at #kaizenblog.” -@ConversationAge
#38. Sergio Balegno. “Invest more time mapping a strategy for not just using social media, but for integrating social media with other tactics.” -@sergiobalegno
#39. Hank Wasiak. “Get rid of conventional views of influence. It should be about our influence — from my influence to our influence.” -@hankwasiak
#40. Mitch Joel. “Get active in other people’s communities. Get out of your own head and get into other people’s spaces.” -@mitchjoel
#41. Tamsen McMahon. “Building digital influence is about ‘digital dimensionality.’ Show as many sides of yourself or your business as you can.” -@tamadear
#42. Justin Levy. “Listen to the conversations around you. See how different networks interact, because not every network’s the same.” -@justinlevy
#43. Chris Garrett. “What you’re looking for is a long-term relationship. You don’t want to gain influence and lose influence.” -@chrisgarrett
#44. Cathy Brooks. “Think about the authenticity and consistency of your voice across your entire online and offline presence.” -@cathybrooks
#45. Todd Defren. “To change your world, start by trying to change the world. What is it that you feel passionate enough about to shake things up?” -@tdefren
#46. Brian Clark. “Learn to be a storyteller. Narrative — it’s what makes us human. Big media does it great. You have to as well.” -@copyblogger
#47. Scott Belsky. “Share your ideas liberally. Accountability and letting people know what you’re up to can make all the difference.” -@scottbelsky
#48. Wendy Piersall. “You have to put your business model before pursuing fame. Whatever you do online, make sure that it adds to your bottom line.” -@emom
#49. Mark Silver. “Many people are afraid to speak; if you speak for them, they will be listening.” -@markheartofbiz
#50. Dan Schawbel. “Go further down the long tail and choose a much smaller niche to focus on. Be the personal finance expert for Minnesota.” -@danschawbel
#51. Shashi Bellamkonda. “Find out from your customers which social networks they are using, and be there for them at the moment they need you.” -@shashib
#52. Gretchen Rubin. “Self-expression is the new entertainment. Get people talking. I had success just asking, ‘What’s your comfort food?’” -@gretchenrubin
#53. Muhammad Saleem. “Give as much as you can give. Too often we’re too focused on what we want to accomplish.” -@msaleem
#54. Aaron Kahlow. “Think about social media not as its own strategy, but a strategy to enhance your existing marketing and business goals.” -@aaronkahlow
#55. Alexandra Levit. “Target between five and ten individuals who you admire, whose work you’ve followed, and gradually start getting to know them.” -@alevit
#56. Steve Woodruff. “Identify gifted up-and-comers. By coming alongside them and becoming an advocate, you end up creating an advocate for life.” -@swoodruff
#57. David Siteman Garland. “Start the media arm of your company, whether it’s a special show, or a podcast, or an online magazine.” -@therisetothetop
#58. Amber Naslund. “Online influence is a slow burn. It’s something that’s grown by having quality one-on-one conversations over time.” -@ambercadabra
#59. Julien Smith. “Get someone else to take a look at what you have that you maybe take for granted and gives you an advantage over other people.” -@julien
#60. Brian Solis. “How do you become a thought leader? It starts with *being* a thought leader and then connecting the dots back to you.” -@briansolis
So there you have it: 60 of the most successful digital influencers, all sharing their thoughts on how you can increase your own digital influence.
Of course, each one is tweetable — what’s the point of wisdom if it can’t be shared? (Kudos to Chris Brogan for the original inspiration of “tweetable advice.”)
And if you want to join the conversation on influence, just include #influencer in your tweets. You’ll find a community of people waiting to interact with you.
