If you’ve ever wondered about microblogging, wanted to know more about it, or wanted to use it to build influence, you’re in the right place.
It’s not really complicated; microblogging simply means creating short form content (or posts) meant to be seen and interacted with by other people.
Meaning if you’re on social media, you’ve been microblogging without knowing it.
You probably use it to make status updates about how you’re feeling, what you’re doing and all sorts.
But there’s a way to take microblogging to a whole new level, and that’s by intentionally using it to become an influence.
By the time you get to the end of this post, you’ll see in seven steps just how you can get to microblogging your way to influence.
1) Choose your idea
The first thing you need if you’re serious about microblogging your way to influence is an idea.
What do you want your microblog to be known for? What theme will show throughout?
You can (and we do recommend this) start off with a general idea and narrow it down later but you need an idea.
You can say you want it to be a mishmash of a bit of everything, but people remember specialists for a reason.
If you had a tumour, an ear infection, or wanted to get your Afro hair braided – would you go to just anyone? There you go!
So, if you’re truly going to be microblogging your way to influence, you may not be able to get there by blogging about anything and everything.
If you’re not sure what blogging ideas might be appropriate for you, can I recommend you get our list of Blogging Ideas? It’s free.
2) Know your angle and audience
Now you’ve settled on a blogging idea, what’s your angle and who’s your audience?
If the general idea you chose is money, that’s actually too broad to focus on no matter how much you know, or want to help people.
So what are you trying to say about money, who would benefit the most from your message about money and why?
People in different situations have different issues with money. Some want to know how to make more, some want to know how to invest, others want to know how to stay out of debt. And so on.
So, what’s your angle? And why should those you’re speaking to, listen to you?
If you’re going to be microblogging your way to influence, you need to realise first and always that it’s not about you; if you’re not providing some sort of insight or solution for your audience in the area you’ve chosen, you might as well be talking to yourself.
And if that’s what you want, that’s OK; just know you won’t be influencing anybody.
But if you’re keen on microblogging your way to influence, you must have your audience in mind. EVERYBODY is NOT your audience.
Knowing your audience also involves knowing what their challenges are (that you can solve with your microblogging), and how to communicate that solution to them.
3) Choose your blogging site
As far as microblogging sites go, the most popular are Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr and LinkedIn.
But the blogging site you choose isn’t about you; it’s about your audience and where they already are.
It’s not about where many microbloggers are – else it’s like you being a dentist and trying to sell dental services to other dentists.
The audience you serve with microblogging should be front and centre. So, if your audience is only or mainly on Pinterest, why are you microblogging on Twitter?
4) Learn the rules
When you’ve chosen the right site for microblogging your way to influence, learn the rules.
No two sites are the same – Pinterest is not Twitter is not LinkedIn.
Image sizes and word count allowed, differ from one site to another.
If you don’t learn the rules, you risk having the very audience you should be serving, not even notice your posts.
Or worse, getting thrown off the site or sued.
Sometimes, you can be within the rules and your account (or ability to post) get suspended or revoked because a malicious person reported you or hacked your account.
Or the government of the country where you reside, can create a law that affects your microblogging.
The loss of control – which is always a worry when you’re in a rented space – is one of the really bad drawbacks of microblogging.
So, if you’re serious about microblogging your way to influence, treat your account as a rented space to build your brand.
People buy (products and ideologies) from brands they know, love and trust. So, if you are going to influence people microblogging, you can’t think of or treat what you do as anything flaky; there needs to be brand-building intentionality in all you release.
5) Create content consistently
The whole point of microblogging is to post and you need to do this consistently. This can mean multiple times a day.
If you’re a news site or a small brand, you cannot afford to post once a week or month.
Purely because your audience would have moved on by then. People’s attention spans are limited, and that’s something you can turn into a positive with microblogging.
Unlike blogging long form content, you don’t have to worry that your audience won’t read it all if you’re microblogging.
But unlike the case with blogging long form content, limited attention spans also means that the audience crave something new and fresh, every so often.
That virtually eliminates creating content to schedule while microblogging, unless you’re running an ad.
Microblogging your way to influence means creating and posting content your audience wants, regularly.
6) Collaborate & promote
When you’ve built some momentum with your microblogging, you might want to collab with other brands that
- share your values
- have access to the audience you want
I suggest to wait till you’ve managed to gain some traction because very few (if any) brands will be eager to collaborations with someone with no track record.
Those who have built their brands already, want to know that collaborating with yours won’t diminish the value of theirs.
But you cannot do it all on your own so you do need to collaborate with others if you’re serious about microblogging your way to influence. And it might be cheaper and less stressful than other forms of self-promo.
7) Monetise
One of the ways to test or even prove your influence when microblogging, is your ability to monetise; ie make money blogging.
It’s not about AdSense, and you don’t need to have a million followers, but are you able to make any money from your activities on a microblogging site?
In some countries, those who have built a brand with microblogging are recruited by politicians to sell them to their audience.
Whether it’s advertising products and people to your audience, giving them an affiliate link to shop with, or selling your own products or services, being able to monetise is one of the things that can happen if you’re truly an influence. And microblogging can be a way to get there because people typically buy from brands they know, like and trust.
Now that you’ve gotten to the end of the post, did you find out anything surprising about how microblogging can make you an influence? Let us know in the comments section below.