There are countless ways to grab the attention of your audience, but keeping them coming back for more is where the real value lies—it’s where you build influence. Mom bloggers are a good example of this. Those who developed the greatest influence did so with good content—and kept their audiences engaged by producing more of it. But just because they were moms and their audiences were moms didn’t make them influential. It was the quality of the content they produced that resonated with a particular audience.
It doesn’t matter what we call ourselves, we can all create our own content and influence hubs by listening, engaging and sharing with those whose voice either echoes our own, or incites us to think differently. Effective content creation does not depend on labels or names—it does depend on understanding your audience.
As human communicators we all have the power to influence someone. Whether we build on that influence is largely a function of how well we listen, and how well we can use what we learn to produce content that means something to people. The nuts and bolts of content creation is often solitary work, but everything else about the process is ripe for conversation and collaboration. You’ll find what you need to reach your goals, as long as you’re willing to listen.
Welcome to the ‘Age of Influence,’ where anyone can build an audience and effect change, advocate brands, build relationships and make a difference.
Advertisers used to talk about ADI, your Area of Dominant Influence. It meant mostly your region of reach for customers. Since the internet, that all changed and ADI became global, except for businesses whose product or service is limited to a particular geographic area. So, might you develop an API or Area of Personal Influence and figure out who, where, how and why, perhaps reversing that order to why, how, where and when. Just a thought inspired by your post. Thanks, Ted.
Thanks for the input and insight Gary, appreciate the read and engagement.